I’m with Sav. I’m actually glad I’m not actually as she’d be spending all her time trying to get attention on Twitter.
I blocked her I get bored of her mental health stuff. Once is enough for that kind of thing. Secondly as soon as I hear a female talking about football I can't stop myself becoming sexist and I just roll my eyes and don't want to listen.
Then there's the one that weighs about 60 stone and 18 stone in tits and thinks she's Melinda messenger or something
I thought we could afford anything now. Btw Saudi Aramco just announced they had double their profits for 2021 to US$110billion so there are no luxuries we can't afford. We could buy Chelsea just so that we have somewhere to train in London before games down there.
Anyway with players like St Maximin I think it is up to the manager, knowing his strengths and weaknesses, to figure out which position to play him in and when to play him. Tracking back is not part of his game so there is little point criticising him for not doing it. Trouble is he is at his best when he is running at people, or into space, and to do that he needs to pick the ball up deep. I prefer to see him in an advanced midfield role, where he can pick it up off the midfield and be the impetus to get us forward. When the opposition have the ball he can press from the front with Wilson or Wood. Leave it up to the four midfielders behind them to do the tracking back when required.
Most wildly talented attackers play in this formation, coming off the wings. City and Liverpool have used 433 for years and when it's done correctly you can't live with it. For a few games we did it really well, but through a combo of fatigue and the players just being not good enough, our levels have dropped. Max is at his best on the left of that front three. That means we need someone to cover him - and I'd say that Joelinton has been our biggest player on the left of the midfield trio, because he works, tracks and tackles. That, plus a solid left back, makes Max a huge threat. The issue becomes the squad depth; if Joelinton or Targett aren't available, Max becomes more vulnerable. Max also has to adapt a little; he's spent most of his NUFC career getting the ball 30 yards from his own goal. He now needs to do more with it higher up the pitch with less room to move. He doesn't seem to work off the bench for me; I think it may be because if you bring him on after 70 mins or so, a lot of the energy levels are lower; you then put two on him to stifle the threat and aren't as exposed on the other wing. Also, if we've got the likes of Murphy on the other side, or Wood up front, the threat is negligible from those two (and also Almiron, Gayle, etc.). Subsequently over-marking Max doesn't leave you as exposed as you would be facing, say, Liverpool, City, Chelsea, etc. What will help Max shine is the return of Wilson and Fraser finding another level of fitness; you can't just ignore those players, their movement and threat is good.
Agreed, he 1. Doesn't work as a sub 2. Like Ben Arfa, will not work in a 4-4-2, 4-5-1 where the wingers is expected to do a lot more tracking back and defending. Ben Arfa's best spell at newcastle was in a 4-3-3 as RW. In 4-3-3 the wingers have a lot more freedom from defensive duties as that is taken care of more by the 3 CM's, particularly the left and right sided CM's. Wingers in a 4-4-2 are not the same as wingers in a 4-3-3. ASM is suited to 4-3-3. If you play 5 at the back you might as well just leave ASM off. He should have started vs Everton while we were up the pitch attacking.
Ah cool, a nice endless debate about ASM with occasional tits. ASM is better than HBA cos is work rate is far better, he isn't toxic in the dressing room, he's more consistent and gets far more assists. He's better than Robert cos Robert was a complete luxury player who could only be bothered to play a quarter of the time. Ginola? To far back to compare, and a very different player to Ginola. I had concerns at the start that Howe's style was not one that necessarily would get the best out of ASM, and sometimes it's looking that way, although he should be able to adapt the style to accommodate him. I don't see this being a HBA getting the boot scenario anyway.
Robert got 22 goals in 129 league games for us, ASM has 11 in 77, which is basically the same return. ASM is far more of a team player and gets more assists, Robert was a complete luxury player who needed strong working players around him. Also he frequently drifted out of games, and was absolutely awful in his last season here. After us he went to Portsmouth and his career drifted away to nothingness, he never properly fulfilled his potential.
