I really feel that this game showed us what we should've done against Man Utd on the weekend. The Basque side was very positive, attacked from the outset and didn't show their hosts an undue amount of respect and it worked very well for them. We chose to select a very controlled side, attempting to subdue them, control possession and avoid giving away chances, which backfired badly. We stifled our own creativity as a result, moving arguably our best player out of position, which resulted in the creation of very few chances. Sandro and Livermore dominated the centre of the park, but neither's likely to pick out that killer ball and there was no connection between the midfield and the strikers. It's been an ongoing problem for us recently, in my opinion, as we seem to change our natural game, our system and our tactics, to try and negate the threat from the teams around us in the table. We'd be far better off just sticking to our guns and playing our normal way, even if we did go on to lose, as we don't have the personnel or the practice to play in a different style. Also, our set-pieces really suck. Nothing to do with the rest of the thread really, but it's been pissing me off!
Also helps to have a "Bully Target Man" as I like to call it - Fernando Llorente. Has been one of the guys I've mentioned a number of times in regards to getting a real top drawer striker. United were battered by his physical presence and he's also got nifty foot work. Think he'd be the ideal player to lead our line, especially in the 4-5-1 formation.
Very good player SOS, but he'd also be very expensive. He's been linked with the big two in Spain, he's currently the only Spanish striker in their squad that's on form and Bilbao's Basque-only approach makes them rather possessive, too. Someone like Andy Carroll could learn a lot from watching how he plays, in my opinion.
Having a quick sleep, I think. I'd disagree about there being an effective plan B. The 4-4-2 with Kranjcar on the right was particularly effective against Liverpool and Newcastle at home (4-0, 5-0), but it's unsuited to some opponents. Redknapp clearly doesn't like to rotate and doesn't trust some members of our squad, for some reason or we'd have significant squad depth, which appears to have been sacrificed, for some reason.
Naturally PNP, any half good striker these days costs a bomb, let alone a quality one. Though it comes to the point where Levy needs to show his ambition, he knows we won't find a proven striker for anything less than £20m+. We COULD cover the costs by getting rid of some of the deadwood (Jenas - £4m?, Bentley - £5m?, Bassong - £4m?, Gio - £5m?, Pienaar - £3m?) straight away that's £21m on a rough valuation plus their wages combined will easily cover what Llorente would likely ask for. Now that obviously depends on actually getting rid of them sort of players but put that on top of the kitty Levy will make available and Llorente SHOULD be affordable. It's a load of "ifs and buts" I know, though to me it's a logical and ideal situation we need to look at if we're to move on to another level.
I agree to everthing said, United were poor last night, the majority of Sunday's match and we should've beaten them. United were much more open last night though. On Sunday they had nearly everyone back in their final third without too much pressure on the ball carrier, this left us with less space to put the final ball into.
I agree SOS, but it may depend upon other sides moving for him. If Real and/or Barca try to sign him, then we have no chance. If he features heavily for the Spanish national team in the summer, then his value may increase substantially, too.
Both us and Bilbao gifted Utd two goals and were gifted one back each: Surely the only real differences between the two results were - (1) Bilbao got a dodgy goal past the Ref, we didn't; (2) They scored one of their few open play chances, we didn't score from any of ours, although we created more. (3) United scored a brilliant individual goal against us, not against Bilbao. This sort of thing is partly down to luck surely: If you could play the matches many times we would win more often than Bilbao.
So true. Let's hope Barca are happy with Messi banging in hat-tricks and Madrid with Ronaldo It'd be brilliant if we could pull off a "Modric-eqsue" signing - try and get him before the tournament to prevent any extra interest/ increase on value, though that'd be extremely doubtful.
im afraid for me we have a small club mentality with no belief whenever we play United in particular.......we have made this into a fukin beast on our back....even if we were winning 4 nil with 10 minutes to go id be keeping my tenner firmly in my pocket...
if the reports of the "£50 mill kitty" in the summer are true, this guy would be someone I'd choose too, SOS. Yes he'd be expensive, but we're talking about 20 odd mill for Remy who I don't think we need. it's unlikely we'll hold on to Adebayor and we need a big target man, if that's the case. he's got a great first touch, similar in style to berbatov. Llorente or Leandro for me.
