I’ve never seen a player hide from the ball like him. He seems to actively go and get himself marked as far away from the ball as he reasonably can whilst we’re in possession.
I agree, I'd spotted it myself. He regularly stands behind one of the opposition players when our CBs/Alzate have the ball, so hes not an option. Looking at FBRef, of our regular starters, he averages 37.2 touches per 90, which is by far the worst of anyone in our CM. Puerta is 50, Alzate is 63. Our defence is all over 70 (except Egan) Pedro is 22
I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve noticed Slater is on the pitch this season. As with last season.
I do think we have been bullied in games, I also think in most games (not all) that we have competed and looked as good as the other team but ended up not scoring and losing the game. I do think the midfield needs to have contributed more goals which as been poor but at that same time good midfielders need players ahead who are going to hold the ball up well and make good runs. For me that has not happened enough. Pedro had a really good spell and the team looked very good especially away from home. He then went off and we have struggled lately both home and away. It’s amazing how one position can affect so many. Joseph however runs his heart out closing teams down but his hold up play he struggles with. Don’t know if he will go back to Pedro on Saturday which I would but if so we are going to have to hope he gets back to his best for us to have any chance.
Re: attacking options, Pedro gets no service so drops into the centre circle to get the ball. Kamara is a left footed right winger who doesn't appear to like to do things that good wingers are generally known for, but likes to run on to a throughball. Joseph puts a shift in, but we need more than that. Honestly, at this point I'd try something crazy. Kamara upfront, with Gelhardt behind. Amrabat and Palmer on the wings trying to feed balls behind the lines for Kamara
I say this every time these graphs come up but, you do have to be cautious with how you interpret them. Just because someone decided to plot two particular stats, out of the hundreds available, onto a graph doesn't necessarily mean that they are valuable or meaningful. In this case, all it seems to say is that our midfielders this season, Slater in particular, haven't received the ball a lot, or passed it forwards very much. The latter is possibly because of the former. As this is a percentage though, somebody else must be receiving the ball a lot to make up for the midfielders not doing. Obviously Walterball specifically required the midfielders not to receive the ball often, so that will be be one key factor in this. Selles with his "vertical" thing maybe also is happy to let the midfielders receive proportionally less of the ball than average.
Slater has missed a **** load of sitters this season and as somebody pointed out the other week, he could have loads of other assists if others could finish.so he seems to be involved a lot where it matters at the business end of the pitch. got to have at least one midfielder doing that, easy to take the safe option and complete your 100% pass rate passing it 3 yards next to you all game. not saying this excuses him not showing for passes in tight areas if thats the case
None of our strikers get any service. Salah or Haaland would struggle to score in this team unless they did it all themselves. We create sod all
Agree with the first paragraph, but second paragraph, please no!! How about doing something crazy like starting with our top scorer? How about either starting with Palmer behind him, who can at least create something, or at least bring him on for 30 mins plus as an impact sub? If Gelhardt starts as a 10, then Kamara and 1 of Joseph or Burstow out wide. Otherwise Gelhardt and Kamara out wide, with Joseph, Burstow, Amrabat, Lincoln as potential 'impact' subs. Kamara has to start going at his defender and creating some fear (and end product).
I did say I'd do something crazy, and it's not as if trying the same thing repeatedly has given us much success. Kamara has had the most shots on target of any of our players, and also has the most goal involvements. He's playing on the wing but doesn't like to run at a man, and as a left footer on the right, he's not going to be as comfortable getting to the byline and crossing. At the very least, I'd try him in the centre alongside Pedro, and put Gelhardt on the wing, but he's also more effective in the middle, and Pedro has barely had a kick since he came back from suspension. Burstow, Palmer and Lincoln have had decent impact off the bench, but have not done the business when starting. Amrabat deserves to start if he's able
Whe you look at our top scorers Pedro being on 6 goals I think it is, it tells you all you need to know, our chance creation levels are shyte and our conversion is prob worse. We just don't have a creative influence who can regularly set up opportunities, and even when they do its so few and far between that our so called forwards.snatch at them. Just aimlessly lumping balls into the box is the definition of madness when we haven't got a powerhouse up front to get on the end of them. Even our set pieces are turgid, we've seen one decent delivery put in over the last month or so and Hughes, who is probably the best header of the ball at the club powered it in. Corners are shocking, put the fkr in the mix and give the likes of Hughes an opportunity to go for it, instead they fanny about with near post shyte that invariably drops onto an opponents head and is cleared. I do t hold.out much hope for the weekend tbh, but time and again we get surprised by this lot who do occasionally turn up, it's this that gives me hope, not much, but the slenderest of hopes that we can actually get something.
To be fair to Alzate he plays as a defensive midfielder. Bit like Seri, who scored 2 in 77 with us. Don't know about the assists though.
It was impressive seeing as we were at the bottom end of the old 4th division playing from a three sided ground which was falling to pieces. Also football as a spectator sport wasn't as popular as it is today due to a number of factors, mainly hooliganism and the Taylor Report. I doubt the figures you quote too, as one who was there, I remember the first home game that Lloyd attended was v Notts County and we got over 8,000 there which was a massive increase in those days and a very good crowd in the circumstances.. Do you also dispute the feel good factor Don Robinson created in a similar way to Acun? Robinson had a massive effect of the club crowd wise, and sold the ground out several times, and it was a ground with a capacity drastically reduced after the Taylor report, meaning it was a virtual ****hole, and football still wasn't exactly flavour of the month with the paying public. I heard today that even Liverpool only had a crowd of 35,000 the last time they won the League title, before the one they won during Covid when everyone played to empty stadiums. I was at the AGM when Pearson took over, he sat on our table for the fund raiser the very same night and told us all his plans for the club, but I can tell you that the gates didn't immediately increase and it was hard work for him at first. Our table gave him and his commercial guy, John Holmes from Leeds Rhinos, plenty of ideas and to his credit he followed up on several of them. One was Roary's Bar' which he opened up in the gymnasium. He went through three managers before he hit it off with Peter Taylor, and when we started to win games and move up the league the crowds came back. At that time Pearson was a breath of fresh air to the club and he was as good for us as we were to him. My point is that, despite all the bump we hear about Hull being a rugby town, etc, over the years the crowds have always flocked back in numbers when then club get it right on the field, no matter who is in charge. Because football is a very sellable commodity and it is very popular around here as it is in the rest of the country. Acun didn't do a lot different to several owners we have had in the past who all came in and recreated the feel good factor. Which shouldn't be too difficult to do. To his credit, or more so the commercial team at City, to keep the crowds we have been getting at home all season, despite the results and awful football is quite remarkable.
