Agreed - if Hoadley, I mean Handley ..... sorry, Hanley is fully fit I'd play him along side Godfrey at the back and push Amadou to DM - we need to be a bit more solid defensively and Amadou screening in front of the back four would help that.
I agree, but we should wait and see who survives training this week! We're even running low on keepers now! Bah!
Me too. That midfield pairing is what I anticipated happening from the minute Amadou's arrival was confirmed. Mind you, I was also anticipating a CB pairing of Zimmermann and Godfrey! But applying the principle that wholes can be greater than the sum of their parts, I still view a central defensive threesome of Amadou, Hanley and Godfrey, flanked by Byram and Lewis as likely to work pretty well.
For Farkeball to work we need a mobile DM who can plug any gaps between CBs and also complement Leitner's passing when we have the ball. I agree that Amadou was acquired with just that in mind.
But with three at the back, Kenny M is defensively sound enough in tandem with Leitner for the system to work. I kinda want us to sacrifice our principles a little on away games for 20minutes or so just to ride out any home storm them start playing our clearly risky game. It can't be beyond Farke to figure a way to bypass the top end press and find some possession in the middle of the park. Bush!
Being slightly mischievous here, but is this the slippery slope down to where we ended up with Hughton? I understand your point, but can you get a little bit pregnant? I think we all bought into the way that DF has gone about things and we knew that this would be a tough season, so a tad early to call for any kind of bus methinks.
So we lost at Turf Moor, as a result of Burnley really pressing us and not giving us any opportunity to play our normal game. I haven't seen it mentioned, but their GK was fairly lucky in getting a boot to stop Pukki adding another goal to his total - had that gone in ........ I'd quite like to see us play a bit more defensively for the first 20- 30 minutes away from home, but that's just my opinion.
It's a balancing act for me, if you know that the oppo are going to come at you hell for leather but cant sustain it, see off that time period or at least pick and chose when to go longer. Ultimately if we persist without any alternative strategy, the oppo at this level are pretty much all too good not to see the weakness and take advantage. I'm not advocating a fundamental change to tactics or ethos, more a recognition that to be totally predictable is giving the oppo an easy trap to set. Some variation to get out from the back would keep them guessing and perhaps stretch them, then allowing the passing out from the back. Bah!
Yes, to be more serious I think you have a fair point General, it was like I said a mischievous comment and one that Cromer has added his humour to. All good!
I should also add, the injury situation for me is mitigation for being more pragmatic. Are the guys currently in able to play out and defend to a high enough standard? Will we be more adept when Zimbo returns? Bah!
I think the reverse of your question also needs to be considered General. Are the guys currently in, able to play long to a high enough standard? "Playing long" is all too often a euphemism for booting the ball into opposition possession. I would say our current defensive unit is better equipped to play out from the back than to play long, and our current attacking unit better equipped to receive the ball played out from the back than to receive it when played long. We were widely applauded for how well we played out from the back against Man City. The question is, what specifically if anything did Burnley do effectively that Man City didn't do so well? Or was it rather something about us that meant we were caught cold and unable to start at our normal level? There were a lot of misplaced passes in that early period.
By longer I dont necessarily mean hoof it long, I mean make angles with Buendia, Todd and Steiperman coming deeper to make angles to give a longer pass to avoid the press. Obviously we look for these as a matter of course but I think we need to work harder to make those angles, I'd rather Steiperman was robbed of the ball around halfway with 6 players behind him than one if the CB's giving it away passing to each other, a FB or a DM, Leaving us potentially with only the CBs between the attacker and goal. The more times we keep ball in the back for the higher they can confidently press. Bah!
OK, so we are really on the same page General but, that being so, I think it reinforces my suggestion that we need to focus on, firstly, what if anything Burnley did that Man City didn't do to prevent our playing successfully out from the back or, secondly, were we rather the architects of our own problems, simply falling short of our usual level of efficiency in implementing our style for reasons to do with us rather than them. The point being that we have shown e.g. against Man City (with exactly the same starting eleven), as well as for much of the game at Anfield, that we are actually quite good now at playing out from the back even when teams press us high.
