Do not know if you have noticed, but we do not play a system with a target man that we can lump long balls up to. Bielsa want a mobile frontman that can move the defenders around, he do not even care if he don’t score goals as long as he creates opportunities for other players to score.
yes i know we do not play this system but there will be times in games where one would come in handy.
Hello all ... Phillips a bit slack with his passing and tracking back in first half, this caused the team to stutter going forward ... with the fluency gone, passing became too lateral and not offensive enough, allowing Rotherham to keep their shape and close down any space ... second half was back to Bielsa Ball with passes zipping forward a lot quicker, and seven players getting deep into Rotherham territory, and suddenly they were chasing shadows ... the build up to Roofe's goal was pure Real Madrid, and the vision from Phillips to put in the final pass was best I've ever seen from him the Cooper "loose pass" should never have caused a problem, but BPF and Berardi both left the ball for each other, allowing the Millers lad to nip in between them ... Berardi was a bit on his heels there, exposing his inability to think quickly and sense danger ... our crazy warrior is excellent at cleaning up players running at him down the flanks, but can get a bit jittery at CB, and I think his real test will come when we play a team that starts with two up front
If you're keeping the ball and controlling possession there isn't the same need to dive into mistimed tackles that get you a yellow card
Evenimg pal, I thought Berardi had a great game, his best this season. Berardi and Peacock Farrell were not expecting him to do that...
Only one I'd consider dropping is Alioski, the least effective player v Rotherham, Saying that I'd probably stick with the same team Matt
Alioski has the weakness that he is not actually good at taking on and beating a man. Faced with a team set up defensively that can be a problem. In some ways he’s more use in away games, or. any game where the opposition come at us as then the situation plays more to his strengths - he tackles back, he runs fast forward when we get the ball, he can exchange passes quickly with players like Sais and Douglas to penetrate the opposition defence, and he can both cross a ball (sometimes) well and can take scoring positions himself. And he can be quick thinking, you don’t see him with the ball at his feet while he thinks ‘now what?’ So I think he can have a better game at Swansea.
A winger who can't dribble pass a defender or get around the back of a defence, he is so one-footed a decent full-back can read his next move, easy meat for a defending team
That’s the problem against a good defence or a team that just pack defence, yes. Inability to dribble means his next step will be to pass. But he has strengths too as I said earlier. Quite a good player for away games in particular. May struggle in the prem next season IMO
How many times did he dribble pass a defender? Scored with a header & delivered a lovely cross for Roofe's wonderful header v the rams He actually had his best game v Derby since Oakwell last November, decent against Stoke too, he needs to play well now especially as the rest of our players don't look like a shower of sh*t anymore! Credit to him for his work rate, I still expect a bit more from Ali to ultimately convince me!
It wasn’t a great pass from cooper, you could say it helped create the indecision, but the indecision made it look worse than it was. Bpf was near the goal line and Berardi was moving out rather than to the ball (full back instincts?). Whichever, bpf did well in the end to make the block. What I will say is this style of play will lead to mistakes, and the ones from the keeper, back 4 and defensive mid will cost goals/chances. Fans need to recognise it’s a cost of the style of play... the very same passing from the back has already lead directly to goals for us, and helped us dominate possession. There will be howlers... important not to get on players backs when they happen. The coach wants to encourage them, fans need to as well... not make them frightened to do it. On a separate note, Reassuring, that after the derby error, bpf has seemed composed... Hasn’t looked to hide, comes for crosses.
There's plenty that said about 8 of this team weren't good enough only weeks ago.Thank god we took no notice with the likes of Roofe,Saiz,Philips etc.
Re alioski, he just doesn’t have the pace to take defenders on but, he has the ability to play the pretty triangles with Saiz, Pablo etc pretty well so I think he suits the style of play. He’s a trier too, which I like. He seemed a passenger for much of last year and I thought his days were numbered and he’s probably the player ‘on watch’ at the moment but he played well against the footballing sides. Let’s see how he goes tonight.
