Coyle is steady away at championship level. Not world beating but rarely lets us down. Scored more goals than Randell also. I'm still yet to see any real end product from Williams, I know he's been in and out through injury, but pace only scares defenders in this league if it's backed up with telling quality. He also seems quite slight for that RWB position if there's a defensive job to do. I'd say this could be an important year for him, either with us or out on loan.
After the game I spoke to my brother, he said something along the lines of "we don't half pass back to the defence a lot". I noticed this against Fenerbahce as well, but I think it's just more the opposition who were a much higher standard. We didn't do it against Malaga and I think the games against Cambridge and P'Boro will give us a better look at what we can do when we're the better team.
Peterborough away was probably the best I saw us play last season so it will be interesting to compare this Saturday, albeit completely different circumstances, friendly versus a relegation six pointer.
Definitely this! The number of occasions that we get in a decent forward position and then ‘check back’ and play along the back line is infuriating. You can even see a simple forward pass to keep the momentum going but the super safe back to a full back or centre back is taken far too often. This may still be the default position of last season that a number of players are trying to get out of their system. Some positive play and moving the ball quickly was in evidence but definitely not enough. I’m hoping that the higher quality of players brought in (and those yet to come) will transform our style of play as we progress through the season.
We switch the play much faster. Defenders seem to move into space for the midfielders to slot it to them so they can drive forward. Albeit I don’t think it’s as effective without a winger combining with them and the full back though. Greaves, KLP, Fleming link up was our most dangerous combo last season
No one wanting the ball in the forward lines apart from Allahyar/Estupinan but that means them coming deep which effectively means they’re likely to come backwards too. When they come deep the wing backs need to push right up so that when they do and pull a centre half with them they can exploit the gaps but the wing backs were way too passive yesterday
Agreed but we did look more exciting to watch than at any time last year....I can't wait...win lose or draw we will get better entertainment for our money..and I don't mind that
I agree this happened when both teams are ‘set’ - but there were a lot of occasions when we won possession with in our own half with Leicester having players committed in advance of the ball - we had options to play forward but kept on checking back to retain possession for possessions sake.
Yep can definitely see that. The lack of midfielder to link the front and back was evident. Seri finished the season I think it was 3rd in number of successful passes into the opposition penalty area. If he’s given more of a free reign providing we have the midfielders around him to allow this he very well could be the answer but Tufan doesn’t provide the legs (yet) to allow him to take the role
That being said you could see a difference in terms of how quickly we were looking to move the ball. I’m hoping that with lesser opposition that this is going to translate into a much more attacking and fast-paced football.
It could also be down to the players getting to know each other’s games and strengths. You can already see that Seri doesn’t mind getting the ball in any situation. Smallwood preferred the ball to bypass him when things got tight.
Jesse Lingard reportedly joining Nottm Forest for £200,000 a week on a 1 year deal. Football becomes more ****ed up by the week.
Yeh seems like our players dont trust each other to be able to take the ball in tight areas, constantly searching for a safe option.
We do it to invite the press and create space in their midfield. Works spectacularly well sometimes as with that Coyle goal vs malaga. Risk is against better players you get done. I wasn't too concerned about that. What I found alarming is that we still struggle to retain posession when it does go forward. We need to be sustaining that further up the pitch now we have more technically accomplished footballers in those positions. Just feel the balance of the team playing the back 5 and 2 deep mids means the forward players are still getting isolated. I know it's Leicester and they specifically press high, a top 6 Prem and silverware/European contenders and we won't be playing anything approaching them this year in the league, but I did hope we might cause them a few problems and stretch them a bit, which we didn't.
I totally get that and think we are just about there player wise to do this successfully. I was more concerned that once we got out, we often checked back in rather than take advantage of a promising position we had often put ourselves in.
A lot of that comes down to forward options though, when most of our players are either level or behind the ball in the 352/532
And that comes down to the manager. If you are asking your players to play a certain way to draw the opposition in but then not have players in advanced positions to make this method effective then you’re cancelling yourself out.
Wondering if the reason for sticking with the 3 CBs is the lack of bite in the centre of midfield? Struggle to see how we sold the club to Seri and Tufan by expecting them to rat about like Smallwood and Honeyman then hit teams quick on the break. You'd think they would want time on the ball in forward areas with us playing more of a posession game in the oppo's half.
Probably one of the most obvious money motivated moves in history. I really dislike the guy and hope he fails miserably along with Forrest
This is what I think it is. It effectively provides security for the lack of it in midfield. And with better attackers this means teams commit less men forward due to the threat of the counter
