Sam Seaman asked Thorup about Sainz in the pre-match press conference on Friday. The clip starts at about 21.50 on the video on the Pink'Un You Tube channel.
The criticism of Sainz is ridiculous and typical of our fanbase’s need for a squad pariah IMO. He’s played almost every minute of each league match and most of the cup match so far and scored two goals. He’s young. Wingers typically don’t play brilliantly every match, they blow hot and cold. He’s got work to do defensively and positionally, as well as in his decision making. But it’s clear to me (and presumably to Thorup given how much game time he has given Sainz) that there’s plenty of quality which will likely come good.
I don't think anyone has criticised Sainz per se' Rob, but like me were saying he did not play particularly well yesterday, especially in his decision making.
Yesterday he kind of stood (sic) out as having particular difficulty coping with the conditions. He completely lost his footing on at least two occasions, collapsing in a heap and surrendering possession; then there was that high profile, shanked cross, which spiralled away into the crowd instead of towards Sargent at the back post and was clearly the result of his standing foot slipping. As Thorup said in his appreciation of Sainz at his pre-match interview, he's a high octane player, and valuable for it; if you play at 100mph you'd expect these sorts of aberrations from time to time.
Sorry GE that wasn’t directed at you or anyone on here, it was the section of fans in the stadium I mean - they are a problem for the team
A few thing I've noticed is the high intensity press is difficult to do for long periods of time & the players seem to fade. For all the tippy tappy football at the back most of our attacks were a punt up field for Sargent or Sainz to chase which a decent keeper can cover pretty easily . Also there seems to be acres of space where players run into on the wings , we seem more drilled to try & deal with the cross rather than the player . It's early days with new players & a new style of play but it looks pretty easy to play against. It might click & we may start winning but I'm not getting too excited yet . Wagner needed to go, we need to sell so massive changes were necessary to stay afloat as the baseball guy isn't going to lose money on his franchise. Not many self funding selling clubs that need to sell their best players & constantly produce academy players good enough to replace the ones they just sold . Southampton did it about 15 years ago but they got gobbled up by a foreign billionaire & the production line dried up .
Against a side pressing high, where the CBs are advanced close to half way, this is a legitimate tactic; our problems with it are almost entirely down to poor execution -- the ball over the top ideally has to be into the half space and such that the keeper is in two minds as to whether he can get there before the marauding forward. It's well within Doyle's capabilities to deliver those balls, McLean and Núñez also, but on Saturday the conditions didn't exactly help.
We are far from unique in this regard; if you allow a turnover high up when on the attack, it's better to have the ball go wide than through the centre. Hence teams almost universally deploy a narrow rest defence, encouraging those balls into the spaces out wide. From an attacking point of view, the advantage is more bodies committed to offence, but of course there has to be a strategy to deal with the counter. Thorup has so far been more adaptable in terms of shape than many expected, and he's had a lot of selection headaches as well. When things have settled down a bit more, maybe we'll see a more settled shape as regards rest defence, i.e. a back line of 3 (CBs plus LB tucked in), with 2 of the midfield trio shielding ahead of them. The important thing then is that the five operate as a unit, moving side to side en bloc depending where the ball is.
I think some leeway has to be made for the conditions last game, it was very very wet. Very hard to control the ball. Maybe an adjustment in tactics of sorts is required for games like that.
I’ve occasionally wondered why football teams don’t really change tactics much for the weather. In rugby it’s key - different style of play for different conditions (eg more kicking or more pick and go), but also down to the basics of a change of stud lengths to ensure better grip in wet weather. Yet when it’s wet footballers often seem to slip over - do they even change their studs?
Yes I have always wondered that about the studs, all I can remember was either Roy Keane or Rooney saying he changed them once to hurt someone, but you should always have a plan B
The impression I get is that choice of footwear is very much left to the player. But in the context of seeking to extract every last ounce of competitive advantage, you'd expect some level of management oversight, even if only briefing with information about the pitch, expected weather conditions etc. Maybe this does happen?
I've seen players change studs during a game, albeit rarely. Unless conditions deteriorate between warmup and kick off, I imagine any decision is made before the game starts.
