Both are good on the ball and not very good off it. We need three Zambranos, really. Alzate is the most like him, I'd have him in there for the next game if he's fit enough.
It would help if the midfield actually moved up while we were attacking. You've got Bedia leading the line, then two really wide wingers further back, then a huge ****ing gap, then Mehlem, then another gap, then Slater somewhere on the left hand side, then another gap, then Zambrano. When we're playing out, you rarely see the midfield in our half while our defence has the ball, which makes our play really predictable.
Add Puerta, he was bought as the fail safe for Zambrano's impending/ possible/ hopefully not happening suspension...
My concern with this is that he doesn’t seem to think the way we set up was flawed, merely it was purely down to individual errors. Don’t get me wrong, we have made individual errors that have cost us so far this season. Against Sheffield United we gifted them two goals through individual errors. Today, only really the third goal was an individual error by Hughes. The other goals were due to a complete lack of defensive discipline which points more to how the team sets up as a whole. Even before they scored, they had two really good chances they should’ve scored from were it not for Pandur and it came from them playing through us with just a few passes to be clean through on goal. To me, that’s a consequence of tactics and not individual error. If the defensive line is playing that high and our back four aren’t particularly quick, then all it takes is a ball over the top or a through ball on the ground and one of their forwards is through on goal 1v1 with the keeper. It just reminds me of when Chelsea thumped Spurs last year. Spurs were down to nine men and Postecoglou still had his defensive line (or what was left of it after Romero and Udogie got sent off) in Chelsea’s half haha. At some point, it’s not brave football. It’s just stupid.
Oh yeah, forgot about him. Thing is, he needs a more experienced head next to him and in that midfield that's Alzate or Mehlem, which I I think would still leave us vulnerable.
Thinking about this, if by some miracle Walter did get us promoted, I do genuinely think he (like Postecoglou) would have us playing this way against Man City. You can admire the bravery and faith in his own philosophy and the pundits would praise him for not ‘parking the bus’ against such formidable opponents but it would mean **** all if we got tonked. You don’t get points for having a respectable percent of possession at the Etihad.
Been thinking the same all season. If a decent Championship team can open us up so easily we’d struggle to ‘do a Derby’.
I’ve thought about how we’d play if we got promoted a few times. Maybe it’s best we don’t get promoted
Probably right, but for the benefit of anybody, like me, who didn't see the game? Thought Pedro's goal definitely looked like handball, can see why the ref chalked it off. We lost a game, not the end of the world, 2 weeks now to sort the defence out (ha! ha!) and we'll be up and running again. UTT