Not seeing signs that coaching is having any impact on the squad. There were some signs last season that the players had been coached to pass and move. What happened to it?
I can't argue with this assessment. It is all well and good slowing things down at times, but we seem to be doing it all the time at present. This needs to be sorted asap..
I think we will have to persevere with this until personnel improves, our back four are slow overall and the movement ahead of them is often poor or non existent, we are missing the influence of Ki when he played deep he gave us an option and was very good on the ball, the drawback was he could not defend our creaking defenders, Catts is the direct opposite and was missed last night, its swings and roundabouts. At present we have the worst set of strikers in history and are carrying a liability for a central defender this is putting us under increasing pressure and something has to change or we are in for a very tough season, Gus failed to take the opportunity last night to try something different and this may cost us short term.
I reckon that Gus still doesn't have his best 11 available to him yet. Alvares isn't up to speed yet, Rodwell still isn't match fit but impriving all the time, Fletchers head is still up his own arse and **** know's why. Gomez needs to start more games and Buckley is still trying to get up to speed with life in the EPL. I'm concerned at the lack of goals like everyone else but i reckon Gus will turn it round, we just need ti click and find that one performance to get us going.
Good post, but we always seem to be waiting for someone or other to improve, and while we are not up the creek at the moment we are slowly heading there. Its a results led game and I don't think anybody saw last Sunday's coming, and the shock waves are still reverberating.
I think playing Vergini centre half next to Brown and playing Jones right back. And the main one, dropping Larsson for Giaccherini could do the trick of quickening us up and making us more attacking. Vergini is a very good passer and moves forward with the ball and picks an intelligent pass. Oshea plays an easy negative pass or hoofs it to no one. Jones gives us more attacking threat bombing down the right than Vergini does. Our big problem so far is the gap between the middle three and the front three. Bringing Giaccherini in the Larsson solves this as he plugs that gap in a 4-2-3-1 between the two holding midfielders and the striker. -----------------Mannone-------------------- Jones------Vergini-------Brown---Van Aanholt -------------Rodwell---Cattermole------------- Buckley----------Giaccherini----------Johnson -------------------Wickham------------------- Pace and width there with Giaccherini the link up man
Agree with clockstander- do we ever buy someone who isn't short on physical fitness, short on match fitness, needs game time, recovering from a persistent niggle, adjusting to a new culture, needing time to get used to team mates, adjusting to English game or EPL speed ? Allways seem to be hearing the phrase 'has hit the ground running' with other clubs' signings.
What i noticed at the game last night was our willingness to concede ground and retreat onto our 18 yard line as soon as Stoke ventured forward with the ball. Nzonzi, Adam etc pretty much picked up the ball in their own half and waltzed into ours without any pressure. I would say this was partly down to Cattermole not playing and the lack of a leader in the team last night. Stoke wouldn't have scored that equalizer if we weren't defending in our own box, work needs done on this ASAP.
yeh that looks good but i fear gus may find a place for alvaires and coates and maybe have buckley and jones on the bench.having said that its the only way we are going to get alvieras and coates match fit.
I would leave the back four as they are and while i sort of agree that O'shea isn't the best distributor of the ball and is prone to the odd mistake, he and Brown compliment each other very well and I'm not convinced Virgini is a centre half. We do need to try someone else in for Larsson though, he offers very little in attack, grafts all day but very defencively minded and he just doesn't link up with the striker at all. That said, that could be down to instructions from the bench as well.
Its no good leaving the back four as they are, Oshea is a liability in my opinion, and Jones looks twice the player at right back than he does at left, we have very few options but we cant just hope things will sort themselves out, we haven't got the time, or the points, to go down this route. As suggested the Jones, Vergini or Coates, Brown, PVA with Catts in front looks spot on, it should have been tried last night.
Oshea was forced to come forward last night and carry the ball(not his job)as there were no options .where is the midfield ?. As said him and brown do complement each other and cover each other well. Cattermole was the missing link last night. We seem to pass well until we reach the box area , then we keep on passing until we lose the ball or pass backwards. We go missing in the final third due to there not being a decisive striker. Vergini gets forward but sometimes forgets to defend causing problems for the rest of the defence
Just watching the Spurs v Forest game. Forest are one up and well worth it, playing a high speed quick challenging game and putting Spurs off their game. Tells us anything?
We're not exactly struggling defencivly mate, it's in the middle and up front. I'd be tempted to leave the back four as is and swap Larsson for either Gomez, PVA or Giacc.
Two CB are fine for me. Get jones in at RB and that makes us more attacking and no worse defensively. Gomez in for Larsson. Parker I like the look of 4231 but don't think Gus is looking to change the shape at the minute.
