The only thing I would say - if we do insist on the "get it wide, cross it in" play (which would bemuse me, but still).....then please can we start crossing in low, near post crosses, as that's the run that Manolo tends to make, and tends to be good at (witness his goals in the Carling Cup final amongst others). Crossing high balls in is a **** tactic with these players. Full stop.
I know a lot of places have said 1.88m. If Yoshida is really 1.88m then Hoedt has to be 1.92m! Not trying to start an argument or anything.
As l replied to your post at half time yesterday; l wrote that if we continued playing as we were; we were not going to score. I simply do not see how there was any significant signs of improvement; maybe it me Archers but what l saw yesterday was one team with a game plan that they executed perfectly and it was not us. We were not unlucky; we were incompitent; in the final third and defending the goal.
Crossing high balls in is a **** tactic for these players, even worse we take too many touches and lose it wide anyway. Lemina really looks like he can pick a pass and when fit again am hopeful he can find the ball for direct forward runs. I would swap jwp for tadic too to accomplish this.
Completely ageee LTL, we are seemingly playing tactics which suit a target man, with a forward player who runs the channels. Completely stupid. I like gabbiadini, but the fact that he can't hold the ball up is really hurting us.
Well I suppose you were proved right by the result, but I still don't see it that way. I think we were unlucky. I said the goal would come eventually btw. There was always the chance it woukd be at the wrong end
I agree to a point - but we've failed to score in 10 of our last 13 home games. So bad luck doesn't paint the whole picture.
That might well work away to Liverpool next time out. It wouldn't be a great way to set up at home to Burnley.
But we don't have Lambert or Pelle now and our best choice for a target man would be Long because he has a good leap and likes to throw himself around, but he's obviously nowhere near the level of these two. That's why we shouldn't play long ball. At the moment, not never.
No, bad luck doesn't tell the whole story. But taking yesterday's game in isolation, I think we are all in danger of overeacting massively. This partly because we seem to expect to beat Burnley at home. But what Burnley did to us they also did to Chelsea recently
I recall midway through the 1st half, high hanging cross came over from right & who’s the single player in the zone, marked by 2x defenders .... Tadic! Give him his due, great positioning but what’s the point? He could never score from there with that ball even if he was 6” taller. I found that play very bewildering.
Thanks for the facepalm. Nice touch. MP is in stick or twist mode now, he has to try something out of his comfort zone to get a win. So he is playing boufal which is a risk for him as boufal is more likely to lose the ball because he will actually try and create something. He would rather not play Boufal of that I am sure.
