This will annoy people on here so I apologise in advance but I doubt he has, I think Walter is talking nonsense. At best I can imagine Madley gave a very British apology whereby we say sorry for anything regardless of whether we’re at fault or not.
Still early in the season, but I'm clutching at the belief there'll be three worse teams than us...God willing.
Can someone with a bit more football knowledge explain to me what our ‘play style is’. I was happy to give Walter the benefit of doubt and think he deserves a bit more time, however two things have seriously niggled me today. The first is the obvious as been discussed the corner routines with no defender at the half way line at all. Absolute madness. The second has bugged me for a while. Why when set our midfield up do we literally have one sitter (who we never seen to pass to) and two number 10s. But they’re not number 10s as we know them. It’s most noticeable at goal kicks, but they are literally pinned on their back line usually fairly wide. I just don’t understand it. Puerta is obviously a talented player with a bit of bite. But he’s totally in the wrong position. Same with Mehlem. He’s so far up the pitch they never offer themselves to the ball. I don’t think it’s a player choice either. Doesn’t matter who we have in midfield both seem to do it leaving the sitter they’re on his own. It’s not ironic in the last 2/3 games we swap most of our midfielders when we aren’t doing well. I always think it’s better your midfielders not far away from each with the ball, not other sides of the pitch. Again someone can explain to me what he’s trying to achieve, because all I see is Walter meant to give us attacking freedom, but it feels all rigid to me.
IF you are right and Madley hasn't apologized, then the useless gonad should do a) For the handball he missed -which you and every Sunderland fan in the ground saw as well as every City fan - and where was the linesman FFS? b) For his useless positioning at the corner that led to the goal. Surely he should have been at the opposite side of the penalty box where he can keep an eye on what is going on and keep out of the way. Anyhow, you got away with some dodgy decisions today - remember that next time they go against you
The ref probably did apologise but for his poor positioning, not the decision as it was technically correct. Ultimately Mehlem could have dealt with it but made a stupid choice and Isoder was excellent in taking advantage, some finish having busted a gut for the whole pitch.
From what I read from those ‘tactico’ sites about Walter’s style of play at Holstein Kiel, Stuttgart and Hamburg, he has a midfield three of one #6 and two #8s or #10s, like you describe. One article described his midfield tactics as ‘emptying the pivot space’. What I imagine that means is that the #6 doesn’t drop deep and show for the ball when playing out from the back, like Seri would do under Rosenior. Instead, the #6 in Walter’s system is supposed to vacate that area by pushing up or wider and therefore allows one of the centre-backs to rotate into where the defensive midfielder usually is. I think the purpose of it is to create decoys to confuse the opposition’s press. The problem is, it creates a huge gap between the defensive line and the midfield so the entire midfield is miles away during build-up.
evening lads... i actually thought it was a good game and as i said on our forum, i think your coach set up to allow our lads to play around but stop us scoring but changed it to attack us second half hoping we would still play around and leave plenty of spaces, it might well have worked with some teams but our coach seems to have a plan B and plan C when needed and changes things on the pitch fast. long way to go yet, never say never, we have started well but i dare say we have not been 'great' but are getting results...might take a while but your coach should get the rest of his message across but to me, he seems to have the team close to the way he wants them, whether that will be enough neither of us will know till the end of the season, good luck for most of the season lads. just to add, i no longer know what refs are meant to do these days, they are told to let 'minor fouls' go yet a lad taps a ball away he gets a card, we had a lad sent off (2nd yellow) for shrugging his shoulders in the general direction of a ref...yes there was a hand ball (not a deliberate one but that only makes a difference if it is for/against one of the big 6) and he got in the way of at least 4 passages of play, other than that he was up to his usual expected standards.
Apologies - I should have said next time a dodgy decision that costs you a point or 3 goes against you remember you had your share of good fortune today
I agree. Watching clips from Walter’s time at Holstein Kiel and Hamburg shows how it’s supposed to work. Maybe that’s what Walter means when he keeps saying they need to be braver. McLoughlin attempted to do it but got carried away and ended up on the left-wing. Jones is too conservative and very rarely does it. I did notice Hughes do it more and stepped into the defensive midfield area but we still passed it out wide to Coyle and Drameh during build-up.
Puerta and Hughes looked good , we really do have some decent players Not sure how Bobby Madley is reffing above sunday league level
That’s all well and good. But I’d rather Puerta or Zambrano with the ball in the middle of the park not our centre half. The width of our two midfielders and not offering themselves for the ball is the worrying thing.
