After giving it much thought, I have decided to let RonKo decide the starting eleven against Burnley, but I will make myself available should he need my expertise.
Well, once AL gives us the Saints v Burnley match thread tomorrow you can spell out your team if you suddenly get the urge.
Absolutely disagree with the part in bold; it couldn't be further from reality. This has been Pelle's biggest downfall for several weeks. He has not held the ball up well for a long, long time. I have been mentioning it for ages. Long and Mane held it up against Chelsea much better than Pelle has for ages. He has been flicking or tricking and trying something special rather than getting his body between the ball and the CB and just holding it up and laying it back for a team mate. He has been looking for the champagne pass too often also. I think he may well start, but I would not start him. Long won more balls in the air on Sunday too, which is incredible when you consider the size of Pelle. I don't like criticizing our players, yet Pelle is in dire need of getting back to basics.
Good try but it doesn't work like that, you PM your account and I deduct an agreed amount at my leisure!
Gosh, when you disagree with me FLT, you do it so vehemently I feel pinned back by your passion. Couldn't be further from reality..? Wow..!
Oops I didn't mean to be so aggressive, but yes on that topic I am very passionate Sorry. Strikers card in back pocket means I get a bit frustrated in that area.
Pelle even did it when he came on against Chelsea. Granted, one nearly came off (and would have had his chipped ball had less height), but they didn't merely give possession back to Chelsea when we did. Because our wide players and mids were often pushed back save Pelle/Mane, they also prevented us from getting meaningful opportunities on the counter when support arrived, which was the greatest threat we'd posed throughout the match.
Well no, not every flick or trick is worth trying because over the course of a game you give up too much possession cheaply. And I didn't say that it was. You have extreme difficulty comprehending entire messages within the context of a thread. Someone asked how Pelle looked when he came on in the Chelsea game. And IMO, in that particular situation (us trying to steal a goal on the counter late in the game), that is when trying a flick or two is called for.
I thought Mane was a bigger threat and had a better game than Long. If we go back to one striker it should be him. If we go 4-4-2 again, I would lean towards adding Long but I could go either way with it. I still think the primary issue was the Dusan/Bertrand pairing not being used and Elia not really fitting in. Also, while the offense looked better against Chelsea, they have some slow 10,000 year old defenders back there. And we still couldn't score in open play. Once they solved the mismatch down the left and put Ramires in, they controlled the game. So while I'm more than happy with a draw at Stamford Bridge, there's still some work left to do.
Thanks for identifying my extreme problems Doc, I look forward to the next session. Funny that now you add another sentence or explanation that it is easier to understand.... Maybe, and just maybe, my difficulty also lies with your extreme difficulty in expressing your message... Just a thought, eh? I stand by the theme I have echoed in several threads, including this one; Pelle tries that every time it comes to him, no matter what the time of the game. He needs to adjust his game. Maybe I did understood yet disagreed. Maybe I thought that flicking it on at that time of the game was in fact the very time that he should have held it up and kept possession. Our defence had been under a lot of pressure and when we cleared it, it came straight back, risking them nicking a goal late in the game. I understood, I just disagreed.
If we were looking more towards killing out the game, I don't think we would have substituted a striker for a striker. We had Gardos and Targett on the bench as options. Or if we had substituted a striker, I think it would have been Mane. Once it got to injury time or thereabouts, then yes-- I think maybe we needed to start thinking about just preserving the point as a point is still a good result and by that point it was obvious we were on the backfoot. But at the time Pelle initially came on, I think he was there to try and steal points.
I still say you need to relieve the pressure on the defence. Get hold of the ball first, link with support players and build from there. Ps... You wouldn't have had extreme difficulty understanding my post would you? I never mentioned hanging on for a point.... Keeping hold of the ball after having been under pressure for a while is the best form of attack.
Surely the important thing, at any time of the game, at any point on the pitch, is not to needlessly give away possession? That happened twice in the first half, once when Vic miscontrolled the ball and Chelsea broke and nearly scored, and secondly when Bertrand won a corner off Ivanovic. The corner kick went straight across the box missing everybody, Chelsea broke, and scored. This is not the first time since we got back the the Prem that we have conceded a goal almost directly from our own corner kick. I realise this is changing the subject but I had to get that off my chest. Thank you for your indulgence.
Absolutely, but when it was Mane/Long many of our scariest moves involved one of them kinda sorta holding up play (not by standing with their back to goal, but dribbling while retaining possession and looking for an opening). Those were often 2 v 3, which isn't the greatest...until someone appears filling the wide spaces in support, at which the defense is in all kinds of trouble, because someone either has to vacate the centre of the park to cover, leaving all manner of space for the forwards, or they have to leave the flank uncovered, at which point the wide player has nothing stopping them from getting into a dangerous position. Granted, the fullbacks were tired enough that they weren't going to be arriving as they had earlier in the game, but Djuricic was fresh and running about maniacally to provide that support.
Yeah, we got the Mane penalty because he held the ball long enough for Wanyama to arrive and they were able to play a nice 1-2. And that is something that Pelle hasn't been doing enough of, no question. Mane likes to dribble so he'll always semi-hold the ball for a bit but sometimes he still opts to go 1 against 2 which annoys me but he didn't do that against Chelsea. He really had a great game. But there are three Pelle plays on offense that stand out in my mind. One was right after he came on and he nodded on a header. He had I think Mane making a run and he almost sprung him. That was IMO, the right move. Then there was one that was kinda blah. He could have maybe held it but I don't really think help was coming as players were tired, we couldn't commit guys forward like we were in the first half, and there just weren't any good options. So it didn't matter to me whether he tried the quick pass or held it, it was low percentage either way. And then the third one was when he did have Djuricic open. It wasn't a flick though. He tried a long, Hollywood pass that really had no chance of success and it wasn't a great position anyway. That's the one I didn't like. Djuricic was a little frustrated by it, too. So I'm not endorsing Pelle's tendency to always flick the ball and just general lack of patience. But in the limited role he played in that game, it was alright. To me, Mane was the constant threat, leading the line and opening up spaces. I'm still nervous about his reliability, but he should be our primary striker/target based on what he's shown the last game. If go 4-3-3, or 4-2-3-1, I want Mane up top. If we play with two strikers, then we have to decide whether to have Long or Pelle to play off of Mane. Long makes good runs and drags defenders out of position. But I think Pelle has a better nose for goal and plays better close passes. So if you put Pelle in a different role in a 4-4-2 where he's maybe not quite in the hole but at least not the lone striker in a target man role, then it might suit his style better. Although really, if we are going to play 4-4-2 I think I'm tempted to give DJuricic a look over either Long or Pelle. It's a little risky, but I do like what I've seen of him. And we might as well get a good look in case we want to keep him.
Against the teams we have coming up, Djuricic definitely could add something, though I'd use him as the forwardmost of the three mids; we can afford to have a fourth out-and-out attacking player on the pitch, methinks. He has already shown an aptitude for making runs beyond the forwards, and that combined with the movement of Mane and Long could put a scare into even the most well-drilled of defenses.
