Here is a Pelle positive. No one seems to have mentioned the blocked shot he had when Bertrand pulled the ball half in the first half. Excellent movement where he just pulled deep off the CB as Bertrand raced through and his first time left foot shot was blocked. They didn't who it in MOTD. If we get wide players further forward and pulling balls back across rather than looping thirty yard floating passes to him, he'll have a chance.
Probably right, but today was one game. Did we say that after Sunderland and west Ham last season? Similar performances.
Can't wait for J-Rod to get fit either. I'm certain he's the type of player that could have won the match today.
It's a bit simplistic, yeah. Because if Olsson feels that way, then Pelle probably feels like he'd rather go up against a big defender himself because that's HIS forte. As opposed to some really quick guy who just nips the ball from him. Maybe Olsson feels like one good crunching tackle and Shane Long's speed is negated the rest of the game so then he's easy to defend. Creating mismatches is a tricky game. If you get it right, your player can dominate. But if you get it wrong, then you get dominated.
I think much of the issue is that people have created a narrative in their heads (which may end up as a truth) regarding Pellé, so will focus on the points that back that narrative up. Similarly (and equally inexplicably given the game time) many have 'decided' that Taïder is good - so likely when he plays, much focus will be given to the things he does well. Both will need time (as will Tadic, though his level and game are such it'll likely be a swifter adjustment). There's no guarantee who will end up right, but we should be careful about perceiving that which we decide to be true before the event itself.
Very true. As you said i think a lot of people have drawn conclusions about certain players and will find or focus on whatever they can find to support that belief. I think thats almost a subconscious decision done without real awareness but it will change how you perceive a player and what part of their game will be focused on or marginalised.
One of the clearest examples of this phenomenon in action is Wanyama. Fortunately he's begun to win the doubters round now.
Forster - 7.5 Not a lot to do, but did everything he needed well. Gives me confidence that he won't be an easy man to beat, and very good at collecting crosses using his extra height. Clyne - 6 Didn't see too much from Clyne today in terms of him offering an additional attacking threat, and got caught out on the one occasion he did gamble leading to his yellow card. Fonte - 6 Did reasonably well, but was skinned badly by Ideye near the end to allow the one on one. Yoshida - 6.5 Under-rated by many in my opinion. Solid squad member, and just on today's performance, the better of our two CB's. Betrand - 7 Seems solid, and consistently offered Tadic options with his over-lapping runs. No downgrade on Shaw for this season. Shaw may be whatever in 3-4-5 years time, but at this specific moment in time I don't believe Bertrand to be any worse than the player we had in Shaw. Wanyama - 7 Solid as ever, good at breaking up their attacks, not so good at having the ball at his feet with two men closing him down. Schneiderlin - 7 Another good performance, could have been even better if he'd gambled on getting into the box more or winning a few more second balls further up the pitch. Davis - 5.5 Seems harsh, and I do like Davis, but I'm rating him based on his performance as a right winger, something he clearly isn't. Ward-Prowse - 6.5 Manages the game well for his tender years, plays the simple stuff brilliantly well, and almost gave us the win with his free-kick. Still a lot of developing for him to do, but I'd love to see a bit more guile or trickery from my central attacking midfielder. Will come in time I'm sure. Tadic - 7 Can see that he's the man that will make us tick, and has some incredible skills, just needs his decision making fine tuned a little at times for me. Pelle - 5.5 Yep, he's already been picked out by many as the weak link. I think this is a fair score for today, but let's be honest a) It's only one game, and b) he wasn't really given enough support from midfield runners today for this to all fall on him. Hopefully the combination play into and also back out of him will start coming together in the next few weeks. Koeman - 5.5 Not a lot to say. It obviously wasn't a great performance, and personally I'm more enamoured to a manager who gestures a bit more from the touchline. So, not a fan of him just watching it from his chair as much as he did, but also what other options did he have today to change things? No Gaston available, no Jay-Rod available, and still waiting on an attacking signing or two before September 2nd I hope.
Some people can't disagree without being confrontational. Not agree and explain (disagree mode); not agree and call someone an idiot or resort to sarcasm (confrontational). The way to handle confrontational people...put your point again and then give up if they persist (you will never change their view) The rest will recognise you are correct (if you are)...you don't have to come to blows. It took me a few decades to work out that some arguments aren't worth the energy...some people will not change their views because they are too strongly held or because they are too stupid to follow logical argument (just don't tell them).
Well, there will be tall centre backs every week. If you are going to play Pelle you need someone playing off him for the inevitable knock-downs. An old-fashioned inside forward. I said elsewhere that Pelle looks like he should be a good player but at the moment is coming across more like George Clooney trying to play the part of a good player. I don't think our 'hoof up to Pelle' tactics were very helpful to be fair to him.
What actually happens in debates where both parties have deep-seated views is that one person will react to the others opinions by actually strengthening his own argument. This goes back and forth so the two parties end up getting further apart in their opinions rather than closer together. This is not an observation by smart-aleck me, but a philosophical theory stated by Carl Popper (I think, but it was a LONG time ago that I was reading this stuff).
Pelle doesn't work as a lone striker. I thought we should probably start with Long and Pelle, but it is a close call whether to start defensively and then put Long on. I can understand why Koeman started with the same team that started at Liverpool. That same team could start against another team and do well...mustn't forget the opposition do have an impact on the game. We often looked better against better sides last season...the difficulty was that we leaked goals against better sides, being the worst team in the league for the low number of chances needed to score against us.
Our performance wasn't helped by West Brom who blatantly came to get a point just like they did last season.
There was very little movement in front of the ball, and the man in possession was always forced to pause and look for options, which often weren't available. In that situation the default option was always going to be to knock it up to Pelle, but with no one anywhere near him his own options were severely limited. As someone else has said, we looked like a team of strangers. That can only get better. In the meantime its daft to single any one player out for criticism.
For instance, Pelle being blamed when Tadic put a ball across too high. There would scarcely be a word last season if Lallana had crossed a ball just too high for Lambert. Give them time.
I never mentioned it on here but I was surprised when we didn't start Long as I thought he would have caused the two big West Brom centre backs more problems, but I would have played him and Pelle together. The problem which faced Koeman is that we played 4-3-3 all pre-season with Tadic, Pelle & Isgrove upfront. Against Liverpool he knew we couldn't be quite so open and needed an additional midfielder so dropped Isgrove and this worked reasonably well. Against West Brom we needed to be more open to be able to break them down, but it looks like Koeman has reservations on Isgrove. Koeman needs to decide how he wants us to attack teams. If he wants us to play like Swansea with two wingers either side of a main striker then we're going to need to bring in at least one quality winger to make that a viable option. Yesterday I believe we should have gone back to last seasons tactics with Long as a 2nd striker, Tadic being moved to the middle and free to roam and JWP/Davis as an advanced midfielder on the cover
Well I didn't particularly discuss the game at all in advance so I didn't say anything. It's not so much playing Pelle as the constant long balls. Although he hasn't yet shown he can do much except compete for high balls so maybe he's part of the reason for that. Yes it's too early for anything to be confirmed but his performances so far have been exactly what the people who didn't like the signing expected and those people aren't just going to ignore that. Assessing players is an ongoing process and as yet Pelle doesn't look good. He may improve. If he'd scored 2 goals in 2 games a lot of people would be saying things like "Great signing." or "Paying off the fee already." just as someone said earlier that Forster may be the signing of the summer on the basis of two good but hardly world-beating performances. This is just the same thing in the opposite direction.
Gotta give credit though to West Brom though. I noticed two things yesterday; 1) The short distance between their striker and their centre backs. There was literally no space in between the lines, WBA were very compact. The only time we looked threatening was down the flanks, but we didn't get Olsson and Dawson facing their own goal enough. 2) The time they gave Yoshida and Fonte on the ball. They had Anichebe cutting out avenues, but they weren't pressed. But as soon as Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Clyne or Bertrand were on the ball, they pressed, and gave them no time on the ball, meaning they had to pass it back to.... Yoshida and Fonte. When the ball into midfield was cut off, we went long to Pellè... and Olsson and Dawson cleared it.
