The thing is, he saw the run from the other side of the pitch when he pretty much had his back to where the ball ended up. He hit a perfect pass. Maybe it should have been intercepted, but as you say, it wasn't!
Agreed, but do you see what I meant, that he tries that sort of thing every time? I like a CF who hold s it up and brings people in to play. (if you'd been sat near me, I actually moaned to my son when he hit the pass... only to cheer 2 seconds later )
Surely, thats exactly what he did on this occasion. I know what you mean though and he was doing that more earlier on in the season. Too many little one-touch flicks at the moment which are 50:50 at best.
Just watched the U21s game against Spurs and it was like watching the first team Well organised defence, solid defensive midfield but toothless going forward It's getting very frustrating
I have vague memories that Danny Butterfield scored a hat trick playing upfront as a one off for whoever he played for before Saints. I'm sure someone will correct me if I made that up in my own head though.
.....and become a 'hoofball' team! If we're going to change I rather see the small guys, with a bit of speed and trickery. Having said that, it definitely worked for Chris Sutton.
It's unfortunate if so. He has played all but 17 minutes in our league matches stretching back to the beginning of November. That has to be exhausting, and over that span he had scored one goal every ~750 minutes, and other aspects of his game have dropped off noticeably; we just aren't gaining anything by continuing to run him into the ground.
Don't disagree with you, but I can't see Koeman resting him. Might be interesting to start with Long and bring Pelle on in the 2nd half.
Yeah, I'm stating that it's unfortunate if Koeman isn't willing to rest him; he's been pretty much unimpeachable as manager, but continuing to run a jaded and ineffectual Pelle out for the remainder of the year would be worth a raised eyebrow. Can't check at the moment as I'm at work, but I suspect that Pelle's played more minutes in the league than any other forward (plus many of our cup matches, plus internationals) which is one hell of a workload for a player of his size...and a player who isn't exactly a tireless 22 year old anymore.
I don't see the magic in 3-5-2. Clyne and Bertrand have no problems coming up and joining the attack, and our defense is just fine with only two CB's back. And we still can't score. They just need to sort out the attacking movement with the players we have. Put Tadic back in the left or maybe in the center, and most of the problem goes away. Elia and Mane are too similar. If one guy can get in behind the defense, that's enough. You don't need two players to run behind the defense, much less three. We aren't having problems on breakaways and counters, we're having problems creating even half-chances when the defense is set.
I don't think there's magic in a 3-5-2, but as someone said it is trying something different. Earlier in the thread, it was also raised as a good formation against two strikers as that leaves 3 v 2 rather than 2 v 2 when the FBs push on. It is just about trying something different. I agree that we need better movement up front, which is another reason I'd try a smaller, speedier player than Pelle, just as a change and to give him a break. It will also stop us playing so many long high balls, that I feel we have resorted to a bit too much recently.
