Best book I ever read. Not a wasted word from beginning to end. Deeply spiritual guy,Tolstoy, both wise and slightly mad. Dunno if that's also true of Claude.
He was actually at some fault with the penalty too - Fonte was calling him across to cover and he didn't....well he didn't do anything basically.
If you could swap every shot outside the box for a shot inside the box that would be fine of course, but sometimes the options are a shot outside the box or a lot of tippy-tappy faffing about until you lose the ball I know which I prefer ... and I love tippy-tappy ... in its place And if that all sounds like a euphemism then it still holds true
Just seen highlights on MOTD. Not presuming to judge compared to some who had to sit through 90 mins of it, but at least we created chances. As said, sometimes you have to shoot from distance....and surprise sometimes works. I'd be more worried if no chances were created at all. A little bit of luck is often all you need. The commentator also mentioned that we were neat and tidy at Old Trafford...just lacked a finish. And the MOTD summing up was mainly about their keeper....so I'm assuming our dreadful hopelessness and crappiness has passed everyone else by. I'm going to file the first three matches away and hope for better (since there is nothing I can do about it anyway).
He didn't get the chance to show much of his distribution yesterday. That's a massive part of his game. It must already be one of the best in the league. He has got a few assists for the youths and can seem to easily pick a 50 yard pass to players feet. He is the England under 21 goalkeeper, I'm pretty sure he'll play for England, one day.
It's like he has been told to shut up or he is stropping. Basically every other player has said something.
Looking at the defensive side, of using the diamond formation, the key for me, is getting the right man at the base of the diamond, and him and the CBs working together as a unit. The first goal at Old Trafford came about as a direct result of Rooney running into the space behind Targett, not being closed down, and being allowed to measure his cross. Not Targett's fault as he was following instructions and pushing forward, up the line. Yesterday the Sunderland penalty came as a result of a player running into the space behind Targett, not being closed down, and being allowed to measure his cross. Again, not Targett's fault, as explained above. Just my opinion, but for this system to function correctly, the left side CB should be the player closing down those runs, (the right CB should do similar on the other side of the pitch) whilst the deep midfielder slots seamlessly into the gap left by that CB. VVD was going to run out to closedown Rooney, in the first incident, but was indecisive and stayed inside the area, whilst Davis ran back, albeit too late to have any impact. I'm going to be contentious and suggest we play Yoshida or Bertrand (more mobile, a natural lefty and played there as part of a back 3, last season) as the left CB, Fonte right CB (so long as he gets his head straight) with VVD playing at the base of the diamond. He reads the game well, tackles well, heads the ball well, is quick to shut down space, is comfortable on the ball and can hit a mean long ball. Still very early days, but a very steep learning curve for the whole squad, if the system is set in stone.
But it does suggest an effective ratio; 3.65 shots outside the box will, on average, produce as many goals as 1 shot inside the box. So if we aimed to convert those 16 shots from range into 5 shots inside, while our shooting stats would be less delightful, we'd probably score more goals.
So we weren't great yesterday, oh well. We have lost 2 very key players in our team (Mane and Wanyama) and one of our main goalscorers in Pelle. We have signed a winger to replace Mane who we are trying to convert into a striker so that will take time, a centre mid who looks to have promise but needs time to adjust to a new league, new team and new system, and haven't replaced Pelle as yet. We also have a new manager who is learning the PL and has a system he is trying to implement. Surely nobody can be shocked that we don't look very good atm? Will it all come together and we will be great? I have no idea and neither does anyone else so I can't see why anyone would be super positive or negative at this moment in time, need to give it another 10 games or so before we can form an opinion on whether it is working or not.
Woah, you can't come on here writing so much reasoned common sense Saintmagic, this is the post match OTT thread....
No offence mate, that sort of quasi scientific analysis may work in a lot of sports. Really don't see how it applies to the beautiful game though. Just how do you convert 16 sho.... no, I'm not even going to bother. I'll just keep shouting "shoot" at what looks like the right moment, & get frustrated if said player either a) doesn't and the chance passes, or b) does and misses.
It applies pretty simply: eschewing a long shot in an attempt to work a final ball that will generate a shot in the box is not a bad thing even if it fails with regularity, because shots within the box produce goals at a far higher rate (and putting the ball into the 10th row will also result in the opposition taking possession). Conversely, racking up huge numbers of shots outside the box is hardly an indication of attacking dominance, because even at the rate we took them in the last match, you'd be happy if one every two matches actually goes in...and it took an egregious goalkeeper error for us to get any joy.
I'm not advocating never shooting from outside the box but when every single shot in a game is from outside it smacks of desperation. Vin
So, 24 hours have passed, time for a reasoned response to the game: I've said many times on here that I pay to be entertained. I can live with Saints losing if the game is worth watching. I didn't feel that I received value for money yesterday. For the first fifteen minutes I felt that we attacked with pace, vigour and liberal use of the width of the pitch. Then for an hour we seemed to try to pass it through the ten men Sunderland had piled up in the middle of the pitch and it went downhill. Then after they had scored, we woke up and started using the whole pitch again. The codpiece in front of me bellowing endlessly at Claude, Matty and (bizarrely) Fraser needs a good, firm clip round the ear. The FA needs to introduce a rule that any referee who is petty enough to demand a retake of a free kick in a team's own half because it was two feet away from the spot the incident occurred should be sent to bed early with no supper. Vin
Is that it? No rant? No demanding the manager out? No calling for the emptying of purses? Jeez, you're too soft.
Just got in from watching SunderlandU23vSaintsU23. The difference between the teams was noticeable. Men against boys.If this is our vaunted Academy then we are in trouble. 3-0 could have been 6!
