Rival watch

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
Citizen Kane. said:
I feel this series of cup games have exposed Conte's own limitations as well as the glaring deficiencies with the squad.

He is as strong a 'system manager' as you'll ever see; a one trick pony whose trick happens to be very, very good.

@PleaseNotPoll among others have argued - and I agree - that his fixation on the wing back system cost us as much as the tripe in our squad against Chelsea and Morecambe. Shoe-horning multiple already poor players into positions that further emphasise their weaknesses just for the sake of sticking to a 'system' was frankly a madness. Why play a terrible RB as a LWB when the simplest solution is to go 4 at the back and play Davies in his natural position? Why play a terrible left footed midfielder on the right of a midfield 3? Why try to solve lack of central thrust by playing inverted wing-backs?

In this regard, it has to be said that other managers out there have greater tactical flexibility and can genuinely improve any group of players simply by deploying them in a logical way. Poch did this when he switched between 352 and 4231 depending on who was available. Guardiola has had to do this at City as the core of the team he inherited moved on or retired. He has adapted to playing with a false 9 - a problem he never really had at Barca or Bayern. Even Nuno showed more willingness to adapt when he ditched 433 for 4231 for a period.

Being so tactically rigid means improving this group becomes even harder. Whoever we sign has to fit Conte's tactical profile as closely as possible, as they won't be playing any other profile as long as he is in the dugout.

And this is where our lack of ambition and money is a real issue. The typical "make do" signings we've seen so many of over the past 2 years simply won't "do" anymore. Their flaws will be brutally exposed by a system that literally never changes one iota to compensate for them.
Click to expand...

I'm torn on this. We don't have 2 centre halves, who I'd have sufficient confidence in to keep the GA down to an acceptable level, to play 4 at the back. So 3 at the back, with wing backs it is.

After that your options are really just versions of 3 in the middle, or 3 up top and who plays where. We only seem to have 3 midfielders who can do anything like the job required and the same up top. The back ups are pretty ****ing dreadful but you can't play the same players in 50+ games a season, so he's in a really **** position. I'm slightly confused as to why we went with 3 up top in the away leg at Chelsea, but it ain't Nuno at Arsenal...

That said, some players have been selected to play in positions that don't make any degree of sense. Playing Bryan on the right or Doherty on the left ain't great at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: redwhiteandermblue, The Changing Man and The Huddlefro
"Thanks for that Brian" said:
I'm torn on this. We don't have 2 centre halves, who I'd have sufficient confidence in to keep the GA down to an acceptable level, to play 4 at the back. So 3 at the back, with wing backs it is.

After that your options are really just versions of 3 in the middle, or 3 up top and who plays where. We only seem to have 3 midfielders who can do anything like the job required and the same up top. The back ups are pretty ****ing dreadful but you can't play the same players in 50+ games a season, so he's in a really **** position. I'm slightly confused as to why we went with 3 up top in the away leg at Chelsea, but it ain't Nuno at Arsenal...

That said, some players have been selected to play in positions that don't make any degree of sense. Playing Bryan on the right or Doherty on the left ain't great at all.
Click to expand...

I don’t mind 3atb, in fact I think it suits our CBs and definitely our left-sided fullbacks. And many of the midfielders and forwards have played the system to good effect in the past with club or country. I think Conte has to be more judicious as to when he uses 352 and 343 though.

343 is fine if you want to counter or if you have 2 outstanding midfielders. Otherwise you end up losing the midfield, especially if they outnumber you, like the first half of the first Chelsea leg, when truthfully the damage in that tie was really done. Against top teams we don’t have the midfield or defence (at least that’s been fit over the last few games) to reliably soak up the kind of pressure they’ll apply.

I think in possession the 352 makes more sense as you need midfield runners in behind and it allows for a more creative midfield specialist to be used. It puts even more demands on the WBs though for width, and we struggle down the right for that right now. It also makes more sense as a formation if you don’t have outstanding midfielders and want to go toe-to-toe with the opposition, as you have extra bodies in there. Like the Liverpool game.
 
vimhawk said:
Sorry off topic but anyone else here play boardgames (don't mean to sound snobbish, but I mean apart from the usual family stuff)?
Click to expand...
Not the levels that tabletop gaming has gotten to. There's a TT cafe in Croydon, and the amount of games where the instructions are slight variants on "Download our app so you can get the overly convoluted rules" was offputting

And that's before you see the size of some boxes, for example Scythe is a game you could likely kill somebody with if you dropped it on them
 
The Changing Man said:
Xhaka sent off, don't know if that rules him out on Sunday
Click to expand...
From BBC

That straight red card for Granit Xhaka sees him miss the north London derby away at Tottenham next Sunday as well as the second leg of this one next Thursday.

With Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard all unavailable for various reasons, it'll be an inexperienced Arsenal midfield against Spurs.
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
He's such a ****ing liability. Should get sent off far more often, too. Twat.
Click to expand...

Indeed. The surprise is not that he got a red card, it's that he doesn't get more. He got away with an utterly blatant one recently didn't he, when everyone was still in their "Kane should have been sent off" agenda.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back