whilst City might have lost 4 games this season which they'll be disappointed with, the concern is that they have scored 28 goals in 11 games and their goal difference is 16. - the best in the league. Yes, our defensive record in terms of goals conceded is the second best in the league, but City on their own turf will cause massive problems for us. Their attackers are simply lethal. After poor results against West ham and Newcastle at home, i think we're better off playing this one safe. We really can't afford another defeat. Then when we play united at home, we can "have a go at them". (that'll be the day) IMO, we play this one extremely cautious for the first half at least, until we've sussed out their weaknesses, then we make the changes which might help us to win the game. However, it'll be very tough. COYS.
Problem with that mate is if it's as cautious as it was like the first 45 vs NUFC, we'll have already lost before the second half at the Etihad.
I think most of us would rather we have a go, even if it means we get annihilated. From a tactical point of view, I've always thought draws are death, anyway. Draw all your games and you might get relegated. Trying to go for a draw when you probably won't get one makes no sense to me at all. Good to hear Sandro is making the right noises, even if his memory seems a little hazy to me.
I don't think that we were cautious at all in the first half against Newcastle. Quite the opposite, in fact. We had two box-to-box midfielders in the holding roles, nobody closing down in the advance midfield roles, a high defensive line and a keeper who doesn't want to leave his. If we want to beat City then we need to reintroduce the factors that resulted in so many clean sheets in this campaign and add a couple of twists to it. Lloris, Sandro and Holtby have to start and Townsend needs to swap wings. Either Lennon or Lamela should play on the right and we have to stretch City when we've got the ball and threaten to hurt them on the break when they've got it. Capoue and Kane have to make the bench, so that we have the option of going 4-4-2 or replacing one of the deep midfielders with another destroyer and it'd help if Rose finally made a return. I'd go with: Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Rose; Sandro; Lennon, Paulinho, Holtby, Townsend; Soldado. Subs: Friedel, Kaboul, Capoue, Eriksen, Lamela, Kane, Defoe. Start Chiriches if Rose isn't available and the Romanian is able to play. I think Villas-Boas will pick a similar side, but he'll start Townsend and Lennon on the opposite sides to the side I've picked and the bench will be different. The subs won't match, either.
I don't get why AVB is described as a permanently cautious manager. I remember away to Arsenal last season with both Adebayor and Defoe. How many teams would go to the Emirates and even think about playing two strikers neither of whom drop back into midfield. It seemed to be working too until the red card. Even at half time in that game when we were down to 10 he could've played it safe and just simply shut up shop. Instead he still had us attacking them which left us very open and contributed to some more goals. Another thing I don't get is why he is described as a negative coach when the problem we're having is teams coming to our place and just park the bus. Yes you can say we are not very incisive or particularly creative if we struggle to break them down, but how is AVB the negative manager when the away teams have just parked a bus in front of goal. Let's say we go to the Etihad and defend for our lives and hardly move into City's half. Will Pellegrini be accused of using negative tactics? It will most likely be AVB.
In my opinion the problem is not so much the system it's actually the players we have available. I'm sure others will disagree. Our most creative player is supposedly Eriksen but whenever I see him play I rarely see him do something creative. I see Soldado making a good run into space and I've hardly seen any evidence that Eriksen has even seen the run. If he's meant to be the player who we can rely on to create something, what chance do we have if he continues to fail to create. You can bet Modric would spot the runs and sometimes before anyone has even moved. He also did things at a quicker tempo which I don't think Eriksen has shown he can do yet. Silva and Aguero may be able to show us on Sunday how a creative player performs and I don't think we have any player anywhere near that level yet. Having said that I still think Eriksen is a good player who will hopefully prove himself. He's only played a few games still and may be adapting to the pace of the game over here. He's also playing with a completely new team who haven't played together much themselves either. If you think about it, out of the attacking players that have played most of our games, Sigurddson is the longest serving. Only Dembele was here last season too. That's a lot of players still getting used to each other and the way they like to link up. I think it may be unrealistic to expect amazing attacking football too soon with so much change. I can understand why others think differently but I'm confident it will get better.
Luckily Silva is injured. Out for four weeks but agree him and aguero are superb players, for all agueros goal tally he's also aware of his team mates, quick thinker, dynamic striker.
I enjoy hearing different POVs, TBS. The criticism of AVB comes from many people with many opinions, but generally comes under the heading of playing dull football. I did note that after the Everton game, when we played attractively for at least a half, and the Newcastle game, where we attacked in waves, the criticism did seem to move towards a lack of goals. I certainly wouldn't say we play negatively. We play a high line and press. My frustration has been with neither of those two things, but with our consistently slow buildup. But we attacked at pace the second half against Newcastle, and I'm hoping that's a sign of things to come. Another point is that I've seen us, every once in a while look like we know what we're doing with the slow buildup. Oddly enough, if we're going to be slow, we need to be really, really patient. Just keep passing it around the edge of the box, making the defenders move, until there's an opening. It is interesting to note how consistently we've played more positively, strictly speaking, than our opp. We outpossessed Arsenal at the Emirates. But that brings us to the next criticism: when everyone knows we play one way, everyone knows the way to beat us is to sit back and hit us on the break. Most of us, including me, think we need to be less predictable. While if pressed, I'd say I prefer the way Harry's teams played, what I'd really like to see is a team capable both of attacking in waves and building up slowly while maintaining possession and so is less predictable. I'm hoping we're going that direction. Man City will be interesting because we'll face a team who's all but certain to try to play more positively than we do--arguably, for the first time all year (I think Chelsea vs. us was a tossup in the stats).
I keep seeing this thing about Creative players,and not creating,yet we seem to have more shots on goal and more chances than the opposition in most games,Isn't that creating chances?.
AVB is over cautious and that is why we have conceded so few goals this season. Other teams play defensive against us but we still play with 2 defensive midfielders and only two strikers when we are chasing the game. TBS, your example of Ade and Defoe was last season ; how did we set up against them this year? What gets me is the slow build up and the 18 touch's that each player needs before passing to the player who was obviously going to get the ball next anyway but is now surrounded by two defenders as the opposition also knew he was next in line for the pass. We have to have less passes!!. Erikssen should have shot first time and Krul would not have got into a position to save. Bony's first goal on Sunday was not a great strike but he struck it first time and did not give Begovic time to adjust. I watched that goal and thought how we would have controlled the ball , taken a step forward around the defender and given everyone time to get into place to stop the shot.
One thing to take solace in is that Arsenal had this same criticism. Eg, lack of penetration, trying to "walk the ball into the net". They're now top and look fantastic.
The French FA have posted a clip of Lloris in training, so he should be fit for their games and back for us against City: [video=youtube;g68MC2YrHTY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g68MC2YrHTY[/video]
As long as he's back for the City game, then I don't care about him missing a couple of friendlies for England.
I personally think the system AVB is wanting to play isn't suited to the style of our players. Lamela, Towsnend, Eriksen, Holtby, Lennon, Chadli, Dembele and Paulinho are all attack minded midfielders with a bit of flair (Paulinho could be classed as defensive too), yet the system and style we seem to play is a rigid one where players need to stick to their positions and tasks instead of having a bit freedom to perhaps roam around and try different options if their current position isn't getting them much luck. Throughout this whole season, I've only seen the wingers swap once in a game and that was against Hull with Townsend and Lennon, in fairness it didn't really turn out to be effective in the end but I think the players need to have that certain bit of freedom if we're to see the best of them when on the front foot. Last Thursday Lamela played with a bit of freedom and he put in what was by far the best performance he's had in a Spurs shirt, he started on the right, moved to the left, back to right and even dabble in the centre, their defence couldn't keep up with him and I think that's the sort of space and freedom a lot of our midfielders need. If it was possible to mould Redknapp's attacking philosophy with AVB's off the ball and defensive philosophy, we'd have a team that could do some real business, easier said than done I know but the players we have here are capable of doing it in my opinon.
