Match Day Thread Burnley (H) Sunday 12/08 13:30

Agreed. Cedric's not really a good wingback, and the combination play with Bertrand hasn't been there for a year, for reasons I cannot fully grasp.

And beyond that, the three at the back never seem to have a terribly good idea of when they should be stepping up.

 

They had 16 shots , 6 on target . They didn't score either .

 

Cork MotM?

 

I personally hate wingbacks, but Hughes doesn’t need to ditch 5 at the back just yet.

We have to see what happens against a more creative side with fast little guys. See if Vestergaard can deal with them as well as he does crosses.

We have a lot of depth in this team but maybe not enough top shelf quality. So I suspect our best option is to be flexible with our tactics and player rotation and handle it on a game-by-game basis.

 

Well, after an appalling first 15 minites, that was actually pretty good. Ings looked awesome. Elyounousi was pretty good. Felt sorry for Armstrong but it forced us to change shape. We desperately need to drop the 5 at the back, be ause with 4 we looked a totally different proposition.

 

Just got back. Draw a fair result. Burnley better first half, Saints dominated the last 35 or so when we changed formation. Danny Ings was a huge positive today. Looked really bright right from when he came on. Nailed on starter from now on.

 

Well there was improvement as the game went on. All the new signings look like they can do a decent job. Thought Redmond looked better today, Bit braver.

 

Redmond impressed me. Really drove at them. I am still worried about Vestergard. He got dominated in the air and seems to have little judgement of where it is going.

 

My stream wasn't great, but I thought I saw him clear a lot in the air, and then that chance where he hooked it out which looked like a Burnley goal if it found their man. Need to see more from them. Loved the look of Ings.

 

Hoedt, you mean?

 

Vestergard was our best player. Couple of moments but overall he was very good against a physical front line.

 

Good point.

 

He let the ball bounce in dangerous areas, he didn't win enough in the air, but he was alright on the floor. They were physical and it was a new test for him so I don't mind goving him a chance. I can't agree he was our best player. That's pushing it way out there! Redmond was probably our best player over the 90.

 

Ings looked good, brought other players in to the game. He helped beat Burnley’s press.

Defensively I thought Lemina and Romeu were getting caught a lot.

Redmond was good on the ball, off the he didn’t work hard enough for me. My only gripe with him.

 

That's what doubly confuses me. Even if 3ATB was good for some other reason, our defensive players don't fit it.

 

Just got back.

I'm just going to pretend the first 60 minutes didn't happen as hopefully anything involving a back 3 has become irrelevant.

Once we had the extra man forward and Ings coming back to pick up the ball it gave us much more options to pass it through them and allowed us to show our quality on the ball more. just lacking that final ball really, it just wasn't falling for us.
Redmond looked good on what i think is his natural right side. Vestergaard also solid and i'm hoping Armstrong is okay.

End result is a point against a team that finished 6th last season on the infamous first day of the season. Not the worst result.

 

Yeah. At no point over the past twelve months has "we really need to find a way to shoehorn Hoedt or Stephens into the lineup" crossed my mind.

 

I think everyone would be in agreement that the back five has to go!

 

Vestergard for me. Won everything

 

Funny how we see things differently. I thought he was awful first half and seemed to get bullied by their forwards. Second half he was good and started to judge the aerial balls better. For his size I expected him to be more dominant, but I suppose Chris Wood is a bit of a man mountain himself. He did make some good tackles and he made me laugh with the most hilarious attempt at a flying backheel I have seen in a long time.

Much better performance, in the end, than I expected. First 15 I had ny head in my hands. It was like BMG never ended... we were actually kind of good for the last 30 minutes or so.