I was at the game and your formation is very much as I saw it. I suggested earlier that it would be interesting to see Elia in for Long for ,sheer pace can be devastating, and they would compliment each other. Add the attacking capability of the full backs and it would be extremely difficult to "park the bus" and keep a clean sheet for the whole game
It's more that he just hasn't been anything close to AWFUL at holding the ball up well. Which is what people seem to think. And Long, in that last game actually really was awful at retaining the ball and many people completely missed it. And yet, people thought that Long was so much better at keeping possession. And that Pelle came in and starting giving the ball away right and left. In fact, Pelle had a 63% success rate which is right around his average. And Long was at 45% which is super terrible. Overall, Pelle's been a mediocre target striker. And Long's been a mediocre fast striker. They are generally fulfilling their roles; doing what a big/strong guy or fast guy are minimally expected to do, respectively. And nothing more than that. They're not awful, they're just not good. They more-or-less occupy exactly 1 defender. Take either Pelle or Long out of the game. Take one opposition CB out of the game. Play 10 v 10. Probably get the same result. That said, I think they both have potential to be better if they can find their niche. I've been saying that the problem with our attack has a lot do with tactics/organization. Pelle and Long can both succeed if you put them in the right situation, IMO. We just haven't found it. Right now, we have two guys I feel good about. Tadic should play on the left. Mane should play...somewhere. Everyone else... I like them, they all have certain strengths, they all work hard, they all have excellent games on occasion... but for the most part they're just not nailed-on type starters. So Tadic and Mane + Davis, JWP, Elia, Djuricic, Long, Pelle.... I feel confident there's a decent offense in there somewhere. I just can't figure out what it is.
STOKED! Got my tickets. Team; Forster clyne fonte alder Bert wany Schneider Davis mane tadic . Long/Pelle Davis Yoshida target elia djuricic jwp pelle/long
Agree with FLT re Pelle and the constant high tariff football he plays. Yes, if it pays off it looks great and is more likely to result in a chance, but so often they're under or over hit and we end up losing possession from a promising build up. Tadic is also guilty of over complicating and not ****ING shooting It's all the more frustrating with Peele as I can think of two goals that resulted from straight forward hold up play. The chest down for the Elia goal at Newcastle and the hold up play on the edge of the box for Long against Leicester. It's tough for Ron to manage as occasionally you need that unexpected to unlock a good defence , but there is a balance and Pelle has to find that in his game. Decision making is always what separates the great from the good in football.
I've a sneaking vague memory that Jeremy Vine might be a Saints fan. OR one of the Eggheads is. OR they've deduced it SH style.
I'd like to see the same team given another run out. We have options to change things up in personnel and formation if it's not working. With Toby back from injury, 3 at the back can work well for us again, or even pushing him up into midfield.
Not in the starting line up. But within a game, if Wanyama or Schneiderlin pick up an injury or are looking close to picking up a second yellow. Or if we are pushing for a goal. He could play just in front of the back four with Wanyama, Schneiderlin or other midfielders further forward.
This is exactly what happened for the last few minutes when we beat Newcastle 4-0 in September. Gardos replaced Cork and Toby went into Morgan's position while Morgan went forward. I remember Toby pinging a lovely ball out to Clyne as part of the 41 pass move leading to Morgan scoring.
