the best back 7 picks itself I would still like to see davis elia mane and tadic play together Chelsea could not cope with our pace on saturday and I think that front 3 with the ball played on the ground to them would be very difficult to contain
Can Elia play on the right? The Chelsea game proved beyond all doubt that Tadić has to play on the left, and Mané has to go down the middle, so we need a natural right footed speeder on the right. If Elia is more left-sided, I would pick Djuricic instead. That could be interesting.
Agreed but I could envisage Tadic and Elia / Djuricic interchanging flanks during the game. That always unsettlesdefenders
I'm for the same eleven, for exactly the reasons that FLT states, speed sand movement to unsettle a resolute Burnley side. Long deserves the chance, and its a perfect game for him. Hopeful for this one. Players will have taken a lot of confidence from the Chelsea game, and we can field our best eleven with good options on the bench. Lets show them that we are in it to the end!
No, he didn't. He was largely ineffective with the ball. Look up the stats if you don't believe me. And our primary attack wasn't even through the center. Their weak link wasn't the CB's. It was Ivanovic and their right flank. Every time Ivanovic pushed up, it left them exposed on that side and Bertrand and Tadic were killing them on the counters. That happened probably like half a dozen times. We were destroying them on that side. Yes, Long is mobile and runs into space and that helps spread out the defense a bit. Plus he won some headers. That has some value. Not a lot, but some. Still, I was a little disappointed in how he played overall. Because for all our dominance during the first half, Long was pretty much anonymous. If Bertrand and Tadic are constantly creating chances, shouldn't Long be putting some away? You and others are claiming Long did all kinds of things he didn't. Pelle being bad doesn't make Long good. Pelle has not been as bad as people think, and Long hasn't been as good. Neither one of them has been any great shakes. Because we don't have any other players we know can play on the right of a 4-3-3, we may be resigned to playing Mane there and playing Long up top. But I think we should try to explore other options. If Long's main attribute is he's fast and runs around a lot, then it seems like Elia might be able to provide the same qualities.
We played 4-2-3-1 against Chelsea. Davis on the right, Mane behind Long. Perhaps you are suggesting a formation change. I'd like to see the same shape again personally. Elia tends to hug the touchline on the left, so there's no reason he can't play on the right. It should suit him better as a right footer to play on the right, rather than the left.
I have to agree with a fair amount of this - though I think 'anonymous' is a bit unfair, I thought Shane had a decent game in the situation, Long's pass accuracy was 45% with 22 completed passes, and 2 of those were kick-offs, as far as I can tell that's the second worst percentage achieved this season for an outfield player after Damien Delaney at 42%, though that's difficult to verify. Comparing that with Pelle and Gomis in the Swansea game, Pelle managed 40 passes at 60% and Gomis 26 at 73%, though only 7 of them were in our half. Looking at dispossesions and whatnot, Long lost the ball 5 times, Gomis 6 and Pelle 3. Headers, Long won 4/10, Pelle 12/15, Gomis 2/5. I know stats don't tell near the whole story but considering the main focus of this discussion is just straight-up ball retention I think they paint a good enough picture. No disrespect to you FLT, but I kind of think you're seeing what you want to see to a degree.
Koeman says no new injuries...everyone fit. Kept getting asked about Advocaat and advice he would give...but he says he is a very experienced coach. Asked how he found the PL...said it was easier because the players at SFC are professional and down to earth and do what he asks. Nice to hear. Has spoken to Morgan and Victor about not getting unnecessary cards, although acknowledged that sometimes they are necessary. Said Long was picked for the Chelsea game, but didn't indicate if he would be first choice for Burnley.
The best thing about Long is he stretches the defence when he's on the pitch. We were a real danger on the break with his pace against Chelsea. Even when we are on top he pulls defenders out of position a lot with his work please log in to view this image rate and pace. He does need to work on things like his passing, touch, decision making and finishing.
Koeman also said not really surprised that Bertrand wasn't selected, but he is sure his day will come.
Exactly that. You can't discount the psychological element - with Long playing, he makes the likes of Terry and Cahill nervous about pace so they'll naturally and instinctively sit deeper to counter that. By doing that, it opens a greater gap to the midfield which a player like Mane can effectively utilise. As was the case, first half at least, against Chelsea - and is why, with their creaky CB combo, Long was absolutely the right choice. Whether he's the right man for the Burnley game, well I trust Ron to know the answer to that.
Sorry FLT, I have to agree with Mikey here. Pelle does lose the ball, but I've always seen him hold it up more often.
It is enjoyable reading all this debate. Anyone would think forums weren't just for name calling and posting silly images.
No, we didn't. Well sort of. It shifted around a bit through the game Not sure if it was because players were naturally reacting to game flow or if it was a formal part of Koeman's tactics. But we were actually in more of a 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-2 for a lot of the first half: BACK FOURWanyama-SchneiderlinDavis-----------------------------Tadic Mane-Long That's how I saw it. Although formation analysis gets kind of silly because players are not in perfect rows. You could argue that Mane was a bit behind Long and call that a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3. But the key to me is that Mane was played in the center, and functioned more like a striker albeit a semi-withdrawn one.
I have to say that I am amazed at those stats posted. I can't argue with stats, although I am attempted to go back and watch a re-run of that game. Everyone seemed to think Williams was awesome! He couldn't have been if Pelle won all those headers (though I wonder where the ball ended up). I may well be seeing what I want to, but I really do feel that Pelle has been poor at holding the ball up for a long time and has been restrictive in terms of our attack. Maybe it is me. Maybe it is because my expectations of him in that position are too high. I'll watch closely in his next games. Do people here really think he has been holding the ball up well (as in then passing it back to a Saints player)? I'm prepared to look again and see if I'm wrong.
As I said above, I haven't seen it that way, but I'm prepared to be wrong (just don't tell the wife!) I'm going to be watching
Think Williams credit came mostly from the double goal-line clearance from Sadio that got them the win. I do entirely agree that Pelle's hold-up play has been degenerating from what for me was the high-point of his game early in the season. Definitely agree that he's been trying little flicks and whatnot far too much as you've been saying elsewhere, though I actually kind of blame Ron for that a bit, it's clear as day that he's losing the ball a lot by trying them so Ron should be stamping that out of his game and if he still does it pulling him out. In the heat of the moment I can see why he's trying to play the perfect bal to unlock the defence too often, but Ron should be looking at it from a different viewpoint with a clear head and then sorting it out. It's just that I don't think it's been so bad (and I actually specifically remember thinking in the first half of the Swansea game that Grazi had his act together and was bringing people into play really nicely especially in the air) and I don't think Shane's was really much better at all. But that's not really an issue for me as he's a different kind of player and is generally used in different scenarios to good effect. Just think people (Not you necessarily, I've had this same discussion with a couple of my mates) have gone 'Well we've been having some bad performances mainly because of bad forward play, and this time we've had a good performance so it must be because of good forward play!' and kind of elevated everything Long did to another level than what it actually was.
