Early Christmas present, a City win ... ya heard it here first !!!! Ruben will have drilled em into a purring tiger ready to pounce, and rip out the throat of the 'mute' Swan. I really need to stay off those painkillers ffs !
I’m just hoping Ruben has us better set up to press/defend. We made Watford look like Barcelona at times as players pressed in ones and twos and sometimes half-heartedly. Swansea are an upgrade in terms of possession and I expect us to drop below 40%. How effectively we press and ultimately how easily they expose our back four will determine the outcome.
Just looked at the Watford stats… Alzate & Slater = 27 successful passes Kayambe & Louza = 107 successful passes
To be fair, Watford was the first time all season we played a recognisable midfield, and they were a brand new partnership, with one having his first start of the season. That said, we massively need a solid no 6 in Jan. Simons is a miss since he's been injured, but he's not by himself the answer to that position either.
Depends on interpretation. There've been loads of times where we've had all the passes and possession but been nowhere near getting a result. Selles seems to be less possession-focused so we'll probably see less of that and more games like the Watford one where our threat in the game far exceeded what you'd think from our passing or possession stats.
You are right, I knew at Boro we had 446 accurate passes but in Selles two games we have had 281 and 236 - in the diabolical performance against Wednesday we had 501. When I saw our central midfielders just making over 10 accurate passes it seemed low. Looking at his Reading teams the mid 200’s was normal. Against Barnsley both teams recorded a similar amount, which I take as neither team playing the ‘tippy tappy’ stuff. #GerItForward
I don’t know if anyone saw the Tottenham v Man Utd game last night, but aside from 2 dodgy keepers, I thought Man Utd’s attacking play is how Selles would like us to go about our business. They were very aggressive in their press and when they got possession they looked to play it forward, quickly but with lots of quality. I was really impressed with how Amorin set them up - if Selles gets us anywhere remotely near that style Acun might actually get his wish of fast-flowing, attacking football.
We’ve had far less possession against Watford and Coventry under Sellés than we did in the games under Dawson and Walter this season and under Rosenior last season. Whether that’s just teething problems as they adjust to a new manager’s style of play or a genuine shift from possession football to a more counter-attacking style remains to be seen. I read Sellés interview for Coaches’ Voice and he seems to want to dominate and control possession. It read to me like his philosophy was a mix of typically Spanish possession-oriented football with the intense pressing and quick forward passes of the Red Bull teams in Germany and Austria, given that he’s a disciple of Ralph Hasenhüttl. We’ve seen a bit of the pressing but not the possession. Against both Watford and Coventry, we never got a grip of nor controlled the game for any length of time and spent most of the game without the ball. They did to us what we have done to many teams under Walter and Rosenior. High counter-pressing works best when you also dominate possession. Players reserve more energy when they have the ball as they’re not sprinting as much as they would be when pressing without it. If you have 60%+ possession, you have more energy to press when you don’t have the ball. If you have 40%- possession, you spend more of the game pressing to win the ball back and players will be absolutely knackered. The other bonus of possession-oriented football is that it frustrates and demoralises your opponent. No football team wants to spend most of the 90 minutes defending whilst the other team knocks the ball around them.
Our possession last 6 Walter Luton 64% Sheff Wed 63% Dawson Middlesbrough 56% Blackburn 59% Selles Watford 42% Coventry 39% You can see the change in style across the 3. We’ll have to see where things settle under Selles.
Sellés himself spoke about the influence Hasenhüttl had on him in interviews in terms of style of play.
Got to find a way to win tomorrow, bouncing one in off Bedias arse again will do , don’t fancy our chances in the 2 home games early new year so have to end the depression somehow . I fancy us to win , based on nothing but law of averages says we have to eventually
Selles could do worse than sitting the squad down and showing them this... ...and point out to some of the overpaid mercenaries that they're standing on the shoulders of giants.
300 Jacks tomorrow...For a 600 mile round trip for a 12.30 ko, four days before Chrimbo, that's a decent turn-out.
Baz's predicted starting XI: Pandur, Giles, Hughes, Jones, Coyle, Slater, Simons, Puerta, Kamara, Longman, Pedro.
the only 2 potentials really are palmer or puerta, but palmers not fit it seems drameh or giles at left back
Not a high scoring team is it , we're going to have to start cutting out stupid mistakes and getting some clean sheets to get points
