With Dubravka, Lejuene, Lascelles, Longstaff, and Rondon we really have got the beginnings of a decent spine to build around. The Rafa effect.
To be honest, I've been a critic of some of Rafas tactics this season. The Fulham home game for instance where they were there for the taking was one of the most underwhelming games I've seen. Yesterday however was totally different. We HAVE got a decent spine now, let's continue to attack and let other teams worry about us. The last few games have been a big improvement.
Agree. Btw not mentioned too much yesterday as of course Migggy and Longataff stole the limelight but how good is Lejuene!? He's been absolute mustard since he came back. Makes a big difference to the side imo.
Absolutely immense, since hes come back in we W3 D1 L2 in the league conceding 5 goals in the process playing Spurs, Chelsea and City in there, compare that to the 6 games prior to him coming back W1 D2 L3 conceding 9 and playing Man U and Liverpool. Make us look so much more calm and composed at the back and he can actually play a pass, some of the passes he was playing out of the back yesterday, switching play, playing balls in behind we're amazing!
Th Think we are finally starting to get the players in or fit again to make the new system work. Lejeune makes three at the back way more viable, which means we also should see the best of Yedlin at wing back rather than fullback etc With Almiron offering some genuine pace and threat it's slowly slotting into place Assuming we can stay up and get some money invested in a few positions over the summer (big ask) this team could really start to make a move on the top half of the table
His little "dink" over the top to Miggy to cross for our 2nd on Sat was lovely. Between him and Schar we've got 2 cracking defenders who can pick out passes very nicely. Looking forward to our next 4-5 games masssively now.
The 3 Ls and Schar are providing a very strong base at the back, but lots of credit has to go to Rondon for me, he makes so much happen up front, as well as making goals, he's skillful and sets others up, and strong and brave enough to muscle defenders out the way....whereas Gayle looked like he was gonna get his leg broken every time he attacked, Rondon looks like he's gonna smash the opposition apart. Nice base of strength we've got now, which allows for the flair players like Almiron and Perez. Burnley is gonna be a big test though, as good as we were on Saturday, Huddersfield were absolute ****e, and Burnley are in great form atm.
Different game against Burnley who have looked solid and are grinding out results at present. They have gone very narrow, very tight and very direct. Teams are struggling with it, not least the physicality. We will need to produce more against them than we did against Huddersfield. Huddersfield are a very poor side at present, and the manager change has not helped of course. Obviously they were down to 10, and I don't subscribe to this theory Rafa and other modern managers put forward that is more difficult against 10 men sometimes. I'd always prefer to have more men than the oppo! Lejeune and the others will have a big part to play. We need to control Wood and Barnes. They are on fire and are really getting in teams faces. It is tough to manage. Spurs have very capable centre halfs and they looked a bit shell shocked at times. Barnes in particular was at them all day. He was pulling onto Rose too and giving him a difficult time. We need to fettle him early doors. Lejeune is very good. I can see why he hasn't been picked up by the big sides who generally favour a back four. He can play in a four but he is incredibly slow. In a 3 he has more cover from Lascelles. We saw his pace issue the other week when Wolves brought on Costa, he had a torrid time as he tired. Again though I have sympathy as he is not long back from injury and that was a high intensity game. All of the other facets of his game are first class. Schar is the same in a different way. I can see why is he isn't at a top club. He gets over excited and loses the ball in silly areas. However he has pace and is also good with the ball. He can really drive out of defence and surge. It drives the team onto the opposition. The Hayden goal against Wolves was largely down to him. Basically I think we have 3 centre backs who are probably not good enough to play for the top 6, but I'd pitch them up against any other centre back in the league. We have one of the better defences in the league for me and our back 4 (including Dubravka) is the reason for this.
I think it will be quite interesting to see how the game pans out Vs Burnley. I think potentially our style may not suit them but they will make it difficult. It will be a very tough game.
We are very hard to score against. Only Chelsea, Spurs, City and Liverpool have conceded less than us this season but our defenders will have to be on their toes as Barnes and Woods are a very physical duo and need to be contained. Whilst I've predicted a 2-1 win, I can see it being that with 10 mins to go and then Crouch comes on and causes mayhem at the back and they sneak a bloody equaliser in the dying moments. Hopefully we've learned our lesson from the amount of points we've dropped at the death this season and we can come away with the points.
Spot on and I think this will be the case. If fit enough, I'd be tempted to change Hayden for Diame for physical presence. I really like our identity. The ball playing CB's ensure that when we have more possession, we can do something with it. More often we'll invite other teams onto us and with Almiron/Perez/Muto will have a lot of pace for the counter attack. So it works either way and we actually have a couple of options from the bench (mainly defensive ones).
When Rafa was in charge of us he built probably the best spine we’ve had in Reina carra hyypia Masch alonso gerrard Torres. It was just the other parts could never quite get right but it’s no surprise that’s the areas he’s looked to strengthen the most
