Haha, we have to even it out on the board I suppose. For every Spurf and THFC6061 there's an SOS and Tots to even it up
agree with all of this, but as SOS says, Lennons defensive work is amazing. i guess it's great having so much variety within our wing options. One thing lennon is also good at is cutting across the pitch and trying to slot a ball through. he doesn't do it very often as he seems to have been instructed to work with Walker down the right and cut the ball back to the striker. A shame, because he's found some good passes when he's drifted in. in a way, it's a shame that we saw so much of the 4231 last year. I think alot of people wanted us to have the 433 this season (before they realised we have no creativity when we set up like that) because they saw too much of a narrow side playing 4231 last season with the wrong personnel. If we'd have had holtby all last season, as well as Eriksen and another winger like Townsend for example, the 4231 would have been very exciting. But because we had the likes of Dempsey and sigurdsson in those positions who weren't right for it, it put a slight downer on the formation. i have every confidence that if we line up in that way this season, we'll have the sort of success that chelsea have had with it recently. - Mata being the main troublemaker for them, Eriksen being ours.
Thank **** for that, there's me thinking I must have watched a different game to all these other posters that saw 'chances' and crosses...to who?, marvelling at better possession stats...they let us have it so we could ponce about across the pitch from one side to other...then back again, possession across the centre circle passing it to someone else in the hope they'll do something was all I saw. Chesney had little to do really.
Pretty much all I saw as well., some of it appeared to be in slow motion. I thought there was something wrong with the flat-screen again.
We need to play a midfield of 2 of Sandro/dembele/Capoue/Paulinho and then 1 of eriksen/holtby/lamela off Soldado IMO. Our full backs also need to improve on their delivery into the box as they get into good positions often
Chances created is a funny one, as its clear from what's been said that there are differing views on what is classed as a "chance". For me, a chance is when a player has beat the defenders to get into an attacking position, and created an opportunity to have a clean attempt at goal, be that a header or a strike with the ball. A long shot could be viewed as a chance, so could a free kick but they are more individual brilliance, rather then down to the team creating chances. Thats different from a dangerous position, as a team could be approaching the box, made some neat passes and been in a dangerous position, but failed to find a team mate to try and score and that's the point I think is more relevant to us, as we tend to be in dangerous areas and have opportunities to create chances but we tend to always fail with the final ball/pass. Also OPTA probably class a chance in terms of where the ball is touched, so if we have a striker who receives the ball in the area, they probably deem that to be a chance but in reality it doesn't always lead to a chance. which is why you often see "20 chances" then you're sat there thinking " i can only remember 3"!
I hope we don't suffer from Europa league hangovers like we did last season but we lost to Arsenal after Europe didn't we so more of the same? I hope not.
We beat Swansea after Europe, though - which is doubly strange as we played in Tbilisi yet they played at home. Maybe they were more hungover than us?
Then a player in the middle loses the ball, the opponent passes into the vacant FB area to counter and Walker gets slated for being out of position, the lad can't win! I think it should be looked into further as to why our FB's are out position, its the risk you run asking them to provide regular attacking width.
I think the idea is rose and walker providing width on the overlap, the wide attacking players playing more narrow and the DM's dropping to provide cover for Rose/Walker
Just the answer I was looking for, thats why I think some of the moans at our FB's position are a little harsh, the cover isn't always there in the FB area's. Last season Sandro/Parker etc were pretty disciplined at that, not sure about the current two atm.
Many of the best full backs are not good defensively. If they run up and down the line all day and support the attack when going forward, they are better suited to the modern game than an old style tackler in the mould of Ron Harris. Utd have the same issue as Spurs. Rafael and Evra are great when the team has the ball (both are quick and push forward at the same time) yet ropey when defending especially under a high ball. But how often do teams who tend to control possession get caught out in the full back areas? It happens, but not often enough for a team to trade in players with these attributes for more defensively minded players. In fact, when Rafael and Walker have made their occasional, but costly blunders, it's usually been down yo a lack of concentration or a rush of blood and those are weaknesses which can be worked on.
Good points about the fullbacks. I have a guess the current plan for the fullbacks, which Rose and Walker have executed reasonably well, was at the heart of the falling out between AVB and Beni. Beni tends to cut in and hold the ball up and look for options, while AVB wants someone like Rose to keep dribbling down the sideline. Beni wants a conventional winger to his left (we used to have somebody who was okay there, if memory serves), while AVB wants a right footer to his fullback's right cutting in.
