Yes and he'd keep losing the ball if there wasn't a net in the way!
Shane Long
- Thread starter - Doing The Lambert Walk
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Our problem is that none of our central midfielders are comfortable going forward with the ball. Davis, Clasie, JWP, Wanyama and Romeu are all too safe and have 0 composure in the final third of the pitch, which leads to some awful decision making/final balls.
This is exactly right. It is all about transitions. We transition from defence to midfield extremely well, but our transition to attack is pretty reliant on Tadic - and he's very hit and miss.
He's a bit more 'have another touch' than 'hit or miss' as that suggests he shoots!!
He's saying that because he's an idiot. VVD was our best player this year by far.
True. It's not just about Mane, Pelle and Long. We don't have a player in a role that we need, hopefully Ron fixes that.
I'd agree with that, with the exception of Davis, who is a technical grade up from those others you mention, imo. But something definitely happens to all the midfielders when they get into the final 3rd. It's probably confidence more than anything else, and the rarefied atmosphere of being so high up the pitch. In terms of passing it affects Davis the least, but his shooting does go astray. One can only hope they all work on their weaknesses.
Tadic has bundles of technical ability. He's probably got the best single foot in the club, and his weaker one is fairly capable too. But like most left sided players he is rather balanced that way, unlike some right sided player who are so equal you almost can't tell which foot they prefer. I think Dusan's problem of taking too many touches is that he wants to do the pretty thing, and even make the opposition look a bit stupid. Consequently, he screws up occasionally.
I fully agree that we need a better attacking midfielder, or two.
I think even Le God has just said that we lack players that regularly split defences, which is something else I agree with.
Many attacks around the 18 yard line, breakdown as a result of attempted, defence splitting, passes being cut out, but I don't think this is just the fault of the player making the pass.
Sometimes they have to delay the pass whilst waiting for someone to make the run into the right place, which enables the defence to close the gaps.
One of the reasons I enjoy watching the "better" clubs is because of the collective off the ball movement, of players, and the awareness, of the player on the ball to see the big picture and instinctively put the pass in the right place.
We do have players that can do this, but not with the same consistency as the top players, which is why we will need to raise our recruitment sights in the summer, if we are to continue improving.
I think even Le God has just said that we lack players that regularly split defences, which is something else I agree with.
Many attacks around the 18 yard line, breakdown as a result of attempted, defence splitting, passes being cut out, but I don't think this is just the fault of the player making the pass.
Sometimes they have to delay the pass whilst waiting for someone to make the run into the right place, which enables the defence to close the gaps.
One of the reasons I enjoy watching the "better" clubs is because of the collective off the ball movement, of players, and the awareness, of the player on the ball to see the big picture and instinctively put the pass in the right place.
We do have players that can do this, but not with the same consistency as the top players, which is why we will need to raise our recruitment sights in the summer, if we are to continue improving.
It's a chicken and egg situation. The players have to make the runs and the ball player has to make the pass. We do have players who will make the runs, but they don't. We don't seem to have the players who make the defence splitting runs, but once in a blue moon they do. However, we are definitely light on players who make the killer pass, even though we could all find a game where they've done it, I've no doubt [I can think of two instances with no effort at all]. But there is no instinctual through-ball player which would make it a regular occurrence.
We need a Jim McCalliog.
We need a Jim McCalliog.
It's a chicken and egg situation. The players have to make the runs and the ball player has to make the pass. We do have players who will make the runs, but they don't. We don't seem to have the players who make the defence splitting runs, but once in a blue moon they do. However, we are definitely light on players who make the killer pass, even though we could all find a game where they've done it, I've no doubt [I can think of two instances with no effort at all]. But there is no instinctual through-ball player which would make it a regular occurrence.
We need a Jim McCalliog.
As you say, the passer has to have confidence a run will be made and the strikers won't run if they don't think anyone can/will make the pass.
By no means suggesting he is the solution because it's at a much lower level, but Hesketh played CAM all season for the u21s and created plenty of chances with clever through balls.
Tadic and Long linked up well against Villa. But does Tadic have the other facets in his game to play in the middle?
Funnily enough, when Tadic does find himself in the middle he can look very good indeed. One doesn't have to think too hard of the amount of through balls he's played when in a central position. Usually though the game has got a bit stretched before we see him there. When the game is tight, he's out wide where Ronald wants him.
I agree that Davis is the best of the bunch, but he's still far from the player we need him to be IMO, he still slows the play down massively in the final 3rd due to his indecisiveness. I think there's just a lack of fluidity and teams know they can sit back and we'll generally struggle to play the killer ball when they're under pressure.
It is why, despite the benefits that he does offer us, we have to move on from Davis. He is the one of the three 'CMs' on the pitch who we need to be getting goals from. You can't exactly be critical of Victor, for example, for not being a goalscorer (or failing that, a bucket load of assists like an Ozil). That's not even close to his role in this team.
If Davis isn't going to get at least 8 PL goals every season (but ideally something like 12 - I'm certainly not asking for a Gerrard-Lampard-20 goal a season type) - and his Saints career to date doesn't suggest he will - then I don't see us ever breaking into the top six without first replacing him. There's a game kicking off in half an hour. One side has Sigurdsson, the other side has Coutinho.
If Davis isn't going to get at least 8 PL goals every season (but ideally something like 12 - I'm certainly not asking for a Gerrard-Lampard-20 goal a season type) - and his Saints career to date doesn't suggest he will - then I don't see us ever breaking into the top six without first replacing him. There's a game kicking off in half an hour. One side has Sigurdsson, the other side has Coutinho.
We definitely need to improve on Davis. He's a good player and a great team man to have in the squad but he doesn't score or create enough goals. We also need to look at our strikers though. Arsenal and Giroud are a perfect example of how you can have all the creativity you like but also need someone to finish the chances created. Shane Long has probably been our best forward this season but as yet he's never scored 10 goals in a Premier League season. With a bit of luck he'll get there for the first time this afternoon but I still think he's unlikely to be the man who scores the goals that take us into the top 6. Not that that means he's useless - Dennis Bergkamp wasn't a goal machine either - I just think he needs to play with a real goal scorer. I'd like to see Koeman play Long and Austin together and see how they go.
It cuts both ways. Long is not a good finisher, and his first touch is poor. For that reason, he's not really that great in close quarters He is a good header and can get at the end of crosses if the middle is crowded, but he's not the guy who can create a little space, latch on to a throughball, and stick it home. Long doesn't have the quick feet, he's a little too lanky.
IMO, both players are valuable for their ability to run and cover ground, and willingness to play defense and tackle. You need someone like that. But you only want one. Otherwise you are giving up too much offense.
So to me, you can play Long or you can play Davis. But you can't play Long AND Davis. I prefer Davis because AMC is a better position for the support stuff he does. But you could argue that if we had a scoring-type AMC/withdrawn forward... like a Michu, I guess... then we can get our goals that way.
But I've been annoyingly harping on this for a while now. It's not that any individual player we have is bad, it's that the attack as a whole doesn't fit together. I don't know if we can get a true stud who can pass AND dribble AND score, or who can finish AND play defense. So we have to get players whose skills complement each other instead.
IMO, both players are valuable for their ability to run and cover ground, and willingness to play defense and tackle. You need someone like that. But you only want one. Otherwise you are giving up too much offense.
So to me, you can play Long or you can play Davis. But you can't play Long AND Davis. I prefer Davis because AMC is a better position for the support stuff he does. But you could argue that if we had a scoring-type AMC/withdrawn forward... like a Michu, I guess... then we can get our goals that way.
But I've been annoyingly harping on this for a while now. It's not that any individual player we have is bad, it's that the attack as a whole doesn't fit together. I don't know if we can get a true stud who can pass AND dribble AND score, or who can finish AND play defense. So we have to get players whose skills complement each other instead.
well that was another strong performance going forward to support the status quo.
Long, Tadic & Mane have really clicked
Long, Tadic & Mane have really clicked
Last six matches, they have 12 goals and 8 assists between them. Every goal but one (Wanyama's) over that stretch has either been scored or assisted by one of the trio.