Indeed. Surprised a few more people didn't remember that - because it was at the same time that Strachan announcing he was leaving. I can remember being on top of the world one minute that month, to crashing back down to earth at hearing Strachan's news.
Remember that well and of course we never truly recovered from WGS's departure. Well we have, but it's taken nearly 10 years
Well, I read a few pages of comments then jumped to the end. To read some of them, you'd think we'd lost. You know who you are. Get a grip and cheer up. Vin
So weird. I watched the game, went away on a weekend vacation came back thinking "Well, finally this will be a game where noone has anything to say." Instead I see Wanyama being called a liability and singled out yet again. Wanyama played just fine. No, he didn't boss the midfield or win the game on his own. No one did. It was a rather routine victory against a team where everyone did their part and nothing exciting happened. We were just better, so we won. These are the kinds of games we should be playing and winning. Unlike what happened against Sunderland. Wanyama won a bunch of aerial challenges, he made three tackles, and we dominated possession and we kept a clean sheet. Virtually every time Wanyama got the ball, he dumped it off quickly which is exactly what he should be doing. He attempted 9 long balls, 7 of them successful. That's pretty good. I don't know what some of you are expecting from a defensive midfielder but if it's something other than what Wanyama provided today, you will continue to be disappointed. And you'll be disappointed with Cork as well, because he's not going to play clever throughballs or get a lot of assists or do blackflips on the pitch or whatever it is you think defensive midfielders should do. You'll just have to settle for boring sideways passes, no goals or assists, no standoutish play, and dull clean sheet victories. Sorry if that's a problem for you.
Well said. Although I went to the match and would not have said it was boring. 1st half we dominated but didn't create. That 5 min spell early in 2nd half where osvaldo scored and rickie put in one of his trademark free kicks..... how could that not be described as exciting? We didn't sit back either we came at them for a 3rd even in the dying seconds. Give us credit- yes its palace but as always said there are no easy games. Its a win against PL opposition.
I think Cork sometimes sprays passes out wide to the people on the wing. I haven't seen VW do this yet.
I'll miss the Prix de L'Arc De Triumph thanks to Swansea's European adventure. Was planning a decent bet, too.
Independent mostly say that Palace were rubbish. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...urth-as-palace-problems-multiply-8846330.html Some more nice words from uncle J. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/29/southampton-crystal-palace-match-report
Well that point does seem to get mentioned every time England go out of a tournament. I always seem to read about the heat and England chasing the ball as the cool/slick/unruffled Portuguese/Brazilians/Italians calmly passed it around. Perhaps the better question is why nobody ever seems to do anything about it.
I think most English coaches are too stuck in their manuals to do it. Failing that, perhaps it's because they don't know how to do it..? I was watching the analysis [if you can call it that] on MOTD2 of Stoke City's varying ability to close their opposition down. Against Man City recently they were right there, whereas against one or two other teams, they've been nowhere. The motivation of Stoke players was questioned, ie, do they only get motivated to do it against the bigger teams..? I don't think so. I just think they don't know how to do it against every team because every team plays slightly differently. Given their ideal opposition, they close players down very well. Given a team who will pass the ball around them they quickly lose heart and concentration, or end up fouling. It's something that Saints players have had coached out of them. They close down the opposition, but they do it as a unit. The whole team presses the ball, or the player, that they are up against. It's quite clever, and what's even better is the tactic that can be used against it, ie the high ball over the top, seems to be well catered for by Saints. Liverpool managed it once, this season, and nearly got in, but that's about it. I see that on MOTD1, Martinez was very impressed by Saints defensive high line, and I've heard one or two other pundits refer to it as refreshing, which is another way of saying new. The only thing new to the pressing game is that it's new to this country.
Crystal Palace pressed Osvaldo...if you notice (leading up to the Rickie free kick) five surrounded Dani, which meant 4 Saints players were unmarked (even if they hadn't given away a free kick). Not so much pressing as panicking! Have to press as a unit whilst knowing what your team mates are doing and covering for them. We are lucky to have Mauricio who is very familiar with this system. the team bought into it straight away (as seen in the Everton game).
Mauricio is actually a fully paid up disciple of Marcelo Bielsa who, kind of, if not invented the unit press style of play, developed it to the point where it is an incredibly strong means of winning football matches. So yeah, Pochettino is familiar with it, all right. Pep Guardiola reckons Bielsa is the best football manager in the world. I think he's out of football team management, at the moment, too. Sunderland..?
Simply put, I think we're sorting it all out bit by bit. The first thing that always needs to be sorted (and was most critically urgent in our case) was our leaky defence. Put a tick by that one now. We'll I'm sure now develop the midfield and attack to operate effectively, safe in the knowledge that they have a solid base behind them. These things take time. And we're still 5th.
Because every time we get player(s) that can play the short game i.e. Barry or Rooney everyone starts saying they are crap. Add to that you cannot play possession with players like Gerrard, Beckham and Lampard running the show because their first (and often only) instinct is to hit 60 yard diagonal hollywood passes. When Gerrard and Lampard finally retire then we might be able to get ball players rather than ball hitters in the middle like Scholes used to do. Also the fans don't help as every time someone gets within 30 yards of goal English fans shout SHOOT. Wonder if they will ever shout 'keep the ball my san' or 'pass'. How many times on this board have people said we should shoot from distance more often? Is it English instinct? Obviously Pochettino thinks otherwise and has 'advised' the players not to shoot although Rodriguez must not have heard it because he shoots whenever he gets the ball within 30 yards just like...........
"In football everything is complicated by the presence of the other team." -Jean Paul Sartre. Who's point was that you can't develop and apply a universal philosophy of football to suit all occasions.
The fundamental problem starts at school, where the second you get the ball, someone's bellowing from the touchline for you to "USE IT!"
