Without Elmo yesterday our chances against Blackpool (7) were approximately a third of those against Leeds (20). Opposition managers have sussed the difference he makes and our own David Beckham is likely to receive more 'special treatment' to neutralise his threat. Warnock had his own tried and tested strategy and it was no surprise when White tried to break Elmo's leg, but others may have more subtle and possibly more successful methods. The point is that Rosenior can't cross, so he isn't a like-for-like swap with Elmo and without chances coming from the right we will be too dependant on Brady.I don't know what the answer is, but I think we need a Plan B and to a lesser extent the same is true with Meyler whose absence against Leicester seemed to reduce our penetration significantly. SB will have recognised these things and he'll have his own solutions but I was wondering whether any of our keyboard generals had any ideas?
A bit difficult comparing Tuesday’s game because of the condition of the pitch it made the slick passing of previous games impossible, plan B should have been to give the ball some air. My opinion is the pitch was deliberately set up to counter our stile of play.
The problem is it countered Blackpool's style of play too. Appleton said after the game that he'd take a new pitch over any January transfer.
I'd say Bruce thought that, which is why he went a bit more direct with Simpson and Prossie in the 2nd half. Not a day to play slick, passing and one-touch football.
When Elmo is out the side the opposition aren't as stretched and we're much easier to defend against, which is more of an issue because it means taking Elmo out is a tactic that can be employed. It's not a problem most of the time when he's playing. If the opposition are doubling or tripling up on Elmo players like Aluko and Koren get more space and provide the plan B. Leicester decided to have Marshall marking Elmo so that Konchesky could provide the cover for when he went past, and that worked quite well so that's where we need to look at resolving that, probably by making more players get forward to pressure the defence itself. (if there's 2 strikers and a midfielder in the middle they can't leave it to 2 centre backs to cover)
Im not quite sure what blackpools style of play was supposed to be yesterday....i thought they were awful! Offered absolutely nothing and if i was a blackpool supporter at that game i would be slightly worried. It almost seemed as if they had no ideas how to counter our system tactically. Not sure that that is the players fault, more so the managers. Admittedly we defended well so maybe just completely neutralised their threat but i just think they completely lacked ideas and if we had been anywhere near our A game going forward we would have won fairly convincingly
I think we already have a plan B, for a lot of the Leeds game we played down the middle, with either Elmo or Brady staying wide to drag someone out with them. Whilst they both put in decent crosses, and draw attention to themselves (being doubled up on etc) it will leave space in the middle for the likes of Koren, Aluko, Quinn, and Meyler to work their magic. It's not like we're a one trick pony and have to rely on crosses to score. The pitch neutralised us yesterday, not Blackpool, that was evident in the half time changes.
This is true however Derby had clearly worked on a system to play against us, Leicester seemed to have the quality to at least create some chances, especially through Knockeart and at least leeds tried to change their system. Blackpool just seemed to come into the game with no ideas whatsoever and just played right into our hands.
Didn't go to Derby but I think Leicester had chances because they're a decent side and the others aren't.
