I'm sorry but to suggest Solskjaer tactically outwitted Pochettino is really quite something. They just hit hopeful long balls. They didn't press as a team, and lost shape often. They surrendered so much space by playing deep. We huffed and we puffed and couldn't blow the house on the edge of their penalty area down. Then on a brief break, one little piggy slammed the ball into the net. The pigs then promptly returned to their house and held the door shut for another twenty minutes or so. Simple as that.
I don't think we needed a Plan B. I thought everything in the first half worked well, there was just some poor crossing from Shaw. Even at the start of the second half, there were 3-4 straight possessions where Shaw was just standing completely alone on the wing and botched a dribble or a cross. But if we had just stuck with it and kept applying the pressure, we would have eventually broken through and scored. We looked poor from about when Cardiff scored all the way until maybe the last 5 minutes of the match... and then that was in part due to Cardiff parking the bus. It's our failure to play for 90 minutes that hurts us, not the tactics. I don't think it's a coincidence that we've also thrown away the most points from winning positions. We run out of steam after about 50 minutes.
The main thing this game highlighted for me was that only one week in we already miss Jay Rodriguez. Nobody else gets in behind the defence as frequently or successfully as him, and we needed that today.
Good first half without really battering the goal, couple good saves from Marshall, hit the bar, had a penalty shout that I didn't get a good look at on the stream but some of the players were appealing for vociferously. Cardiff were alternating between 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 but in the middle of the half there were still a few times when we caught them short at the back where JRod was sorely missed. Second half we started slower and Cardiff were much more firmly set with 10 behind the ball really squeezing the middle of the pitch leaving Shaw in particular in acres but he unerringly failed to beat the first man or dragged his crosses. Then from a pretty poor set piece into the box Chambers headed an easy unchallenged clearance straight out to to the feet of Cala at the edge of the box, who sold Morgan and in particular Davis like he was Ribery and then miraculously smashed it into the corner. Was their only really serviceable chance in the game until late when Zaha got the better of the CBs but couldn't get past Gazza 1 on 1. For the rest of the game we failed to really make Cardiff sweat but Gaston, Gallagher and Rickie all fluffed great chances and Marshall pulled off a few more excellent saves. Basically we somehow simultaneously managed to look pretty tame going forwards but could have easily scored about 4 on another day. A bad result and a pretty poor performance, but not a real sickener by any means for me. And now I've just reread your post and realised you said a 'very short summary'... Whatever, I waffle - deal with it.
What I'm saying LTL, is that in games such as this by playing the way we play against a side organised and prepared to defend for the large part, leads to a game where the chances we create are overall 'poor' chances, whereas the chances we concede are generally 'better' chances. Yep, we had 7 Shots on Target against their 4, but realistically the amount of expected goals from the two sides was around 1.3-1.4 each team due to the position of those chances and the defensive cover to block or stop those shots from where they were taken. Again, only my opinion, but not good enough at home to a relegation candidate.
Pochettino outwits himself against these teams at home DTLW by being so stubborn minded about playing only one way and overcommitting resources so that our attacks are 8 v 8 around their box, and theirs are 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 running into ours. Only takes an average manager with those resources to be prepared to not go toe to toe with us and let us outfox ourselves as often as not imho. Also, so it's maybe a little clearer, I thought 1-1 would probably have been a fairer reflection rather than 0-1, but we definitely didn't create enough decent chances to deserve to win. Disappointing at home to a side that poor.
Latviandream, the reason for this is because they put bodies behind the ball and defend. We commit men forward to attack and will always leave less at the back. It's the way the two teams approached the game, nothing to do with coaching. Unless you're suggesting Poch should've just lined bodies up along the edge of the penalty area too? With that in mind, what would you have done differently then? Bear in mind please you have a bench consisting of Cropper, Hooiveld, Clyne, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, do Prado and Gallagher.
But that's to do with players, not tactics. To suggest Pochettino will never get us to 60 points is preposterous. Martinez would never have got Wigan to 60 points because of the players at his disposal, not because of his managerial limitations. Hence he goes to Everton - better player = more points. Pochettino may well have reached his ceiling, but it's THE ceiling with this set of players. That much has been abundantly clear all through this season. To get better, we don't need to improve our tactics, we need to improve our personnel.
So we're overcommitting against teams that are so defensive? What do you want us to do, attack with 6 against their 8 and defending with 5 against their 3, and play for a 0-0?
Yes Marshall was great, but we didn't test them enough. The way the 1st half went, it had 1-0 Cardiff written all over it. They defended deep, we had lots of space in front of them but were wasteful in the final third, and our crossing was pretty awful. Chambers and Shaw were not themselves, and in truth, there wasn't a lot to be excited about. I guess that Cardiff, with them having something to play for, just wanted it more.
Not sure really Al about the wanting it more thing - to be honest, I was amazed at how little they looked like they wanted it in the first half. That improved in the second, but this wasn't a case of desire for me. Yes, agreed though, extra crossing practice very necessary for the two young'uns. EVERY team struggles to break down 'the parked bus' we're no different, and have lesser players than the top teams, so we'll just get these results sometimes I'm afraid. A classic smash n' grab.
There's only two or three things I'd do differently: 1) I'd not let more than 2 of Cork/Schneiderlin/Shaw and Chambers attack at the same time, ever. We're awful at being outpaced in 1 v 1, 2 v 2, or 3 v 3 situations. Personally in that respect we over-commit going forward imho with players who are unlikely to contribute goals, but very likely to lead to an increase in goals conceded at the other end. 2) I'd use the forward resources better. I'd have brought Gallagher on far earlier so that there was a proper forward resource for Lambert to hit when he dropped deep. I'd also have encouraged crosses to be from the byline and backwards towards the penalty spot with midfield runners coming into them rather than from 5-10 yards short of the byeline into the keepers arms on the edge of the 6 yard box. 3) I wouldn't have suggested that we line up with 8 men behind the ball as I feel that those two tactics largely equalled out and a 1-1 scoreline would have been fair today. Interesting that if we had it would have been 0-0 so no real difference, and both scores dissappointing for this fixture.
Realistically this season we'll finish with 52-53 points correct? That's with a few unfavourable refereeing decisions in my opinion. What I'm saying it that if we keep all of the core of our squad together this summer and sign 2-3 players for the usual 20-30m, who's to say that 60 points isn't a reasonable expectation next season with those resources? I don't however believe that Pochettino will ever get beyond 60 points even if those resource related factors are met, because I think he's at his managerial limit. That's fine if you disagree, but I never said anything about Martinez's ceiling. Moyes has also hit his ceiling imho, he's got far greater resources now but isn't going to return anything much more with them.
I couldn't judge just how good a chance/save it was from Gallagher's second half chance, but (with that lack of knowledge in mind) I wouldn't have particularly said that Marshall was anything special today. Seemed fairly basic saves that he was making to me, ones which you'd expect a PL keeper to make. No Jay, and a really poor offensive performance from Shaw, combined to show just how badly we lack that option of pace and width in this squad. Just as the West Ham and Sunderland home games did. And I don't buy that (quite frankly ridiculous) line that "we don't play with pace/width". Well of course we don't, because we don't have any!! It's a plan B that we are badly lacking in. We spent 90 minutes trying to pass our way through ten men, and failed. Cardiff were nothing special, but we couldn't break them down. We didn't really have the option of going round them, nor playing the early pass over the top. We really were just limited to trying to pass our way through. And, save for a creating the odd save-able chance, we failed. But no worries. So long as we learn from today in the summer transfer window, I'll be happy.
I do disagree. Completely. I think that even if you had Ferguson managing this team, you'd struggle to get an awful lot more ultimately. But there we are. All about opinions. I also think that 60 points is realistic for next season with a couple of signings. Not sure what your point is there?
It's an interesting(ish) question actually. How many points do you imagine THIS group of players would achieve under, say, Ferguson? Or another talented, young manager learning his trade, such as Martinez. I think Fergie would have made sure we didn't lose some of the games we have done when leading, through his experience and nous. So I'd give us 6-9 more points under his stewardship. I don't think we'd have any more under Martinez.
