Honest question though. After that performance and you have what, 3 full day's training before Huddersfield, do you focus on cutting out defensive frailties or trying to score more, given that it's not really feasible to do both to great effect?
Based on the fact that they will likely come for a point and park the bus, I think the latter... they'll probably play 4.5.1 or similar, so its a way around or through that. Cooper mentioned he didnt know that Philo would be risked and that Regan Slater is ahead of schedule and could be back after the International break.
Was watching Newcastle vs Arsenal and was just shocked at how **** Trossard was at corners. He had three in quick succession and not a single one beat the first man.
Honestly..... and some won't like this but LR has had a year now to get us scoring more and cut out defensive frailties. I'd say in the whole defensively we have improved, but you could say not as much as we should (as we've seen with the daft goals we continue to conceded ) and I think it's a fair point to say we haven't improved a great deal on the scoring front. If we are to go from a safe mid table team to a top 6 team then both have to improve much more
It amazes me just how poor some players are tbh. I feel the same though about pros who can't play with both feet
Lokilo and Jaden are our dynamic and pacey players but are they as effective when there's no space to exploit? I agree that if Tufan is anything like his old self then it could be a game made for him and Traore.
Agree to an extent. We need to improve our threat and cut the mistakes out to be genuine top 6. Though the owner has reiterated his expectation this year on the midweek 1904 podcast. He's saying top 10 should be seen as progress. Still think we're a couple of windows away from being real promotion contenders but the expectation from the ownership isn't that this season. He's basically being expected to perform to his budget give or take. And that ain't quite top 6 just yet.
Interesting point. I think generally the priority seems to be getting into the box with ball at feet to either A, get a shooting chance off, or B, draw a foul and win a penalty. We saw it with Christie a lot last season and when he was on point and we'd started to improve it was really working for him but it usually began with some sort of surging run. Philogene does it a lot now and Vaughan did it a bit last season too. The thing is, we notoriously haven't been getting shots off like we should and we don't win that many penalties either. If you pair this approach with what's generally been a slower build up, heading into a ready and organised defence you're really just hoping for one of them to foul us in the box at that point, but most defenders aren't that naive to stick a leg out and you're putting a lot of faith in a ref having the bollocks to give it too. With a slower build up play towards their box, whether you're working a cross or a through ball on the ground it has to be inch perfect to succeed. Either that or you need a striker to create a bit of space for themselves, or you pull it back and have a go from a bit deeper. We've mainly been seeing the latter but they more often than not need to be 'worldies' which is what we've been somewhat relying on. We won't and don't score them every week. We've scored some good goals this season, because we've had to. I don't think we've put that many away that you'd describe as run of the mill. The best quick tempo tap in I can think of off the top of my head is the one versus Leeds, although it didn't go in. I think if we mixed up the play more, we'd score more.
Do you not think there's a fair case to be made that we should have had a few pens? Thought we should have had at 1 at least at WBA. Also think there's an argument that we've created enough opportunities to shoot with the system we play. Just they have either taken an extra touch or not backed themselves. Tactical approach is one thing but decision making is another.
Absolutely, I agree with you. But we've seen how **** the refereeing is in this league and Rosenior has had a few bookings himself. I'd rather we didn't rely on refs having the bollocks to make them calls when we're looking for a penalty because a lot of them will just give it the other way or give nothing at all. I should clarify, I'm not saying we're playing for pens and that's our tactic, I'm just making that assumption based on us seemingly trying to get the ball in the box at feet the way we do. It works well as a counter attacking approach, but we don't often play it up to that end of the pitch quickly enough to do that effectively after beating the press or countering.
I think you nailed it originally. Balls into feet in the box - you do it based on the fact that you probably should win a few pens here and there at least as a by-product of doing so. Honestly think the picture changes massively if we simply take more shots on in promising areas. Sometimes you just need to take a dip in the lucky bag.
I think we're prioritising that approach over crosses etc. I can see the logic in doing it, but I'd also say we need to get the ball there quicker in order to make the most of those opportunities, ie; their defenders need to be on the back foot in order to tempt them to stick a leg out and draw that foul. It also then needs the ref to give it. If the defence is already compact and facing, then it's less likely to happen and we end up playing it around looking for the opening before often overlooking a through ball or hitting one into row Z... Or now and again into the top corner.
I think it's an anticipated by-product of doing so. Though not the sole reason. I think in the championship there are defenders who struggle more with the ball at feet sometimes than nodding them away all day long. Suspect that's a reason too.
Even if we're not playing for headers, low crosses in behind don't seem to be forthcoming either. If we do that enough, at pace with defenders running towards their own goal then we'd at least get a couple of kind ricochets occasionally.
I don't want that to pick up steam as it's just something I'm surmising based on how we get the ball into the box at feet rather than from crosses generally. If I were to rank the priorities based on what we seem to do I'd guess it looked like this... Player runs into the box with the ball: If open, shoot. If blocked seek the easy pass for the easy finish. If there's no pass draw the foul. If no foul is coming work it back out of the box for the longer shot. If the longer shot is blocked, work it wide and get into the box again. Recycle above until goalscoring opportunity is apparent. I think we get it up there too slowly and end up gradually running through those options because the space isn't often available. There's been a massive improvement on that in the last few games though.
At times we've been laboured but others we've played with tempo. We've had a few recently where we've had a man through and not even got a shot off.
Agreed again, the last few games we've played with tempo for sure, and it's paid off. The only reason it didn't vs West Brom was a personnel issue in my opinion. Versus Preston you could tell there was an improvement on getting shots off, it was just those critical moments where wrong decisions were made, but it'll come if we can keep the wide players fit.
It is worth remembering the bulk of the forward line have only had 8-10 games together. Its still relatively early days in the greater scheme of things. You only have to look at Ipswich to see the benefits of stability and incremental improvement over a good couple of years.
