I agree about only needing the one holding midfielder Infront of a four. If we went 3 at the back then there could be need for 2 defensive midfielders but that then really does cause issues regarding the wide players, as most coaches prefer full backs to occupy the wide spaces. Our wide players are attacking types in Chair, Dembele, Saito and Smyth. Personally I wouldn't be against 3 at the back as long as we played wingers rather than wing backs. Again it amounts to defending as a 5 and attacking as a 5.
Ah ok, I only asked because Cook seems not to have been so rousingly encouraging towards the other players in recent games and when we got the penalty on Tuesday Field seemed to take charge. Cook is obviously the right choice for captain, but he doesn't seem to have been doing the job recently. There's a confidence issue in the squad in my opinion.
I agree with you about players receiving the ball with their back to goal, happens all the time. Why can’t they open themselves up to give them a chance to receive and play forwards - these are basics. It would also help if the players in midfield made themselves actively available to receive it off the defence. Most of them either seem to hide or just point elsewhere so they don’t get it. On a separate point, I’d like to see us learn how to keep the ball from a throw in.
Feeling sorry for our strikers at the moment. They're getting the flak from a lot of people but they haven't got a bloody chance at the moment. I don't remember us giving the ball to a striker in a good position for a number of games. These players we have are not Ibrihamovic. They can't pull something out of nothing. They need supply, a ball at their feet while they're facing goal.
Strikers want the ball in the box or at least the opportunity to run at a defender, I'm not saying our forwards are amazing but maybe they're role shouldn't just be judged by how they control a ball 8 foot in the air on the half way line. If thats what we want from a forward just stick Dunne up there. Personally I find one up front an awful system. I know football has changed but I wonder how some of the forwards that I grew up watching like Clive Allen, Bradley Allen, Gallen, Penrice would ever get a game now. (Each consistantly scored 10+ a season).
100% agree. So often our lone striker is exactly that, lonely, and spends most of the game chasing no-hope long balls, or receiving the ball with no option other than trying to beat three or four players, having a shot from a very long distance, or passing the ball backwards. I don't understand why we aren't trying to play two up, maybe two big strikers who can work together to hold the ball up, or the classic big/little man combination. Would far rather see that than Celer or Frey have another 90 minutes of solitude.
This is what I've been thinking recently: Our midfield only really exists for when we're out of possession and need to defend. Absolutely NOTHING goes through the middle. I think I've seen one pass from Morgan that went between a couple of opposition players through the middle and actually found someone on the front line. All we do is play out from the keeper and switch from left to right to left to right until a channel down one of the wings has opened up slightly. By that time, opposition is well in shape and behind the ball. That then means there's no space behind their defence for us to slot the ball through and put a striker through onto it. So we either cross into a crowded box, usually full of massive opposition players. Or Chair cuts in and blasts a shot straight into the nearest defender and we lose possession.
Yes, it's abysmal to be fixated on just this one way of playing/attacking. Every team needs to be adaptable and use all members of the team and all areas of the pitch. How we play every game thus far is frustrating, totally ineffective and downright boring.
When Anderson came on and we really started to go at them... I'd like to see that as our main approach. Live and die by the sword. I'd rather see us go out in a blaze of glory than float down into the abyss like a dead leaf. Anderson and Morgan worked really well together.
