Don't think he should start just because he cost a lot. If MP feels he will improve a lot by starting and hence grow into one of our best players then fair enough. However unless this is the case we've got to play our best team my problem is I'm struggling to decide what that is!
We've got a bit of an embarrassment of riches in terms of our attack at the minute which seems to have Poch puzzled. I think we'd usually get away with playing as narrow as we did today because our full backs are so attacking orientated, however Chamber's is too inexperienced to go forward at the right time/the players don't quite trust him offensively yet and Fox doesn't try to get to the byline he prefers to cross from deep. EDIT: I think Isgrove is ready for the bench as well, we're missing a direct winger like punch to make an impact. Currently we've got the same problem as City had last season!
One other thing related to tactics...if you look at the players we've brought in and those we've targeted, one wonders whether we're going to transition from a team that aims to win possession and use it judiciously, to one that aims to win possession and immediately and decisively put it to use. Osvaldo, Rodriguez, Ramirez, and the targets who haven't (yet) come off like Banega/Piatti/Moses are pretty direct...direct dribblers, direct passers or direct runners, or all of the preceding. Their attributes are best-employed at a higher tempo than we have made our habit in the past.
It is strange that despite how strong our attack looks on paper that we barely have barely threatened scoring much for the last 10 or so games (including last season)
This is a good point. It may well have just been good Norwich pressing but we certainly went long more than we usually do today.
We are currently the masters of our own downfall. It's the number of misplaced passes that are letting us down and I'm not talking about the intricate through balls, I'm talking about the simple passing in the build up to an attack. We are creating far too few goalscoring opportunities for a team with such possession statistics and that is because we lose the ball before we get near goal. Lambert, Schneiderlin, Fonte, Wanyama, Chambers (although young) etc. have all been poor with their passing and need to improve.
Redmond did it to the whole defence not just Chambers. To say he isn't ready after one poor game is sad.
I think that's what better players do though tbf. There aren't too many good players who aren't good at high tempo football. And there aren't many teams who aren't good at high tempo football either. I don't watch much italian football but I imagine it is less direct and at a slower tempo but it is true that ramirez is one our more direct players and osvaldo looks like he doesn't **** around either. We are far too slow on the ball and have been so under Adkins and Pochettino. I'm not entirely sure what is lacking, perhaps it is the personnel like you say and we just needed better players in. Once the players are more confident of each others passing and movement i think it will speed up but it isn't enough to play the passes quicker there also needs to be more space opened up or we will just lose possession. This means strikers running the channels, fullbacks overlapping, sometimes 'early' width and general off the ball movement to draw away defenders. On another note Pochettino fancies the long ball tactic: "no other team in these first two weeks of the Premier League has played more long balls than Southampton against Sunderland, apart from, Southampton themselves, against West Brom in their opening fixture; in that game, they attempted 83 long passes. These aren’t long balls pumped up field, they’re Bielsa inspired vertical passes, or “fast transitional passes” which statistically have been recognised as long passes." http://eplindex.com/37849/marcelo-bielsas-tactical-influence-mauricio-pochettino-tactics.html. These long passes have so far been largely ineffective mostly opening up gaps in our attack rather than in the oppositions defence.
Absolutely, though some players are equally comfortable and good stroking the ball around and waiting for opportunities. The ones we've acquired don't fit that mold. When Osvaldo wins a ball (heh, anywhere on the pitch, really), practically every time he's looking to create a one-two...quickly playing it backwards to a (hopefully) on-rushing midfielder and then separating from his man. That only works if we have someone moving on to the ball and looking to release it quickly, though, and we haven't been doing that. Agreed. It's been a concern of mine going back to the Championship. Make the second pass before the defense has adjusted to the first and that. Yeah, Chelsea's doing a fair bit of it under Mourinho now, as well. When it's working, you open up a fair bit of space between midfield and defense, but you have to use it quickly before they settle into formation.
I think we will not get the best out of our team untill our best full backs play! JWP and Wanyama are covering for Fox and Chambers to much to utilise their strengths!
I may have phrased it harshly, for the record I am a fan of Chambers but at this stage I feel Clyne is a better option, and I'd prefer him in the team.
Although I'm pleased with Chambers so far. I thought this was the game for Clyne to come back into the team. Not only would his pace have been useful in dealing with Redmond, we have clearly missed the width that he gives us down the right. Difficult to say what our formation was today. I imagine Osvaldo was given free range, playing off Lambert. Norwich were good, and pressed us well at times, but we did have space in midfield which we normally make count. But today, our midfield was not it's usual dominant self. The reason for that is hard to explain. Wanyama wasn't particularly good today and Morgan seems to be struggling, whether that's with fitness or what I don't know. But if he is, as his recent early substitutions suggest, we have the depth to not have to play him. Not sure where Cork was today, but give me a fit Cork over a half fit Morgan please. We didn't press and harass Norwich like we normally do and that probably stems down to our CDMs having a poor day by their standards. Bring Shaw and Clyne back into the team and I hope to see the attacking side of our game improve. It just doesn't seem to work without the width that their overlapping runs provides. Hopefully Morgan has time to get back to fitness if that's the problem over the international break. I've aired my view before that I'm not sure that Morgan and Wanyama compliment each other as a partnership, but I can't put my finger on why that is, so perhaps it is just a lack of fitness. I don't think it's possible to judge if Lambert and Osvaldo can work together yet. It didn't look too promising today, but they had little to work with, Norwich were defensively very organised and our link up play was poor all over the pitch, not just between our strikers. Hopefully all we need is the width of our full backs to get back to our best. I'd like to give Lambert and Osvaldo more of a chance together, but we may have to look to bench one of them if things continue to look so disjointed. Maybe this is pointless to suggest since we stick with 4-2-3-1 with Pochettino. But I wonder if we can get away with playing something more like this: -------------Boruc Clyne---Fonte---Lovren---Shaw -----------Wanyama ----JWP/Cork----Schniederlin JWP/Lallana--Gaston--JRod/Lallana --------Lambert/Osvaldo
Hey, he did say "I wonder if we can get away with playing something more like this". I'm not convinced that most PL managers/refs can count past eleven, so it's worth a shot.
