How the flying f*ck do you know all of that Brian? In all seriousness though, the effectiveness of attacking full-backs shouldn't be measured simply by looking at how many goals came about as a result of their crossing. For one thing, Kane just isn't a 6-yard-box striker in the Gomez mould. He drops deep, drifts wide, hangs back at the edge of the box. It is telling that I think Alli has scored our 'furthest forward' goals this season, not Kane, and is the reason why I tend to agree with Spurlock that Kane can be utilised as a deadly #10 with ease. In a system like ours, the true value of FB's who can bomb forward is that they stretch opposition lines and drag defenders out of position. At the beginning of the season we were struggling badly to score. Prior to the drubbing of City, we only managed 5 goals in 6 games - a return which I'm sure you'll agree isn't enough for aspiring champions whose name isn't 'Leicester'. Part of this was down to Kane's lack of form, but another major factor was that we hadn't quite nailed the Dier dropping back into CB to allow the FB's to bomb forward. As a result, our play in the final 3rd was congested and far, far too fiddly. At the time, I simply assumed this was down to Eriksen being injured. But on reflection, your comments have me thinking that it was perhaps more down to our FB system not quite settling. In a 4-2-3-1 formation that utilises inverted wingers as we often do, central areas naturally become saturated as players simply collide with eachother or dribble into a cluster of defenders. This is why Rose and Walker, irrespective of their sometimes iffy defending and drops in concentration (especially Walker), are more valuable overall to our system than Trippier and Davies, who are probably better at crossing and defending respectively. Both have improved in learning the craft of the bombing full-back (Davies more than Frodo), but still have a way to go until they're stretching defences like Rose and Walker do. In this sense, crossing is an insignificance stacked up against the more important job of creating space for the 3-1 to operate in.
I looked it up because it drives me mental! when I watch us I don't see our forwards making the right runs. Not enough attacking the near post like Vardy v Germany (Toby is great at doing it from corners). Not enough gambling on the ball making it to the far post and sliding them in there. A top quality forward would bring that to our game without losing anything that Kane and Alli and others already supply. I am with you and Spurlock. Kane's future is going to be playing more varied roles. He has the talent to supply as well as score goals and if we can land a player of sufficient quality, then we'll start to score the goals our play deserves.
Can't believe I've found myself in agreement with you . The Kuyt comparison is pretty much spot on, he joined Pool with that phenomenal goal record in Holland and just didn't replicate that at yourselves but became a really important player nonetheless for a good number of seasons due to his hard work and commitment. Lamela was somewhat signed as the heir to Bale and while he's done nothing like what Bale could do since joining a couple years back, his work rate this season has been off the charts and we've sorely missed him when he's not featured - as evidenced against you lot on Saturday where Son looked lost and left his full back exposed a lot.
Yeah i meant no wummery, but for exactly the reasons stated by yourself, hes become a bit of a cult hero rather than the goal machine you and us with dirk were expecting.
I thought it was awful business when Liverpool sold Kuyt for less than a million. He was ugly as ****, but he embraced that side of the game, too. Worked his arse off, played wherever he was asked to, didn't moan and scored goals. Why wouldn't you want a player like that in your squad? Lamela has the potential to be a bit more than that, in my opinion. He can't live on that possibility forever, though. Needs to do a bit more in front of goal. Very important to Pochettino's system, still.
Lamela potentially does have more about him, and should do for 30m he should also only improve with time. Although i dont think he will ever be world beater and top the scoring charts its about what he brings to your team overall and you all seem quite pleased with that aspect. Everyone could do with a dirk type player **** Leicester might win the lge with 10 of them tbf
Careful, you'll have Leicester fans berating you soon for not praising their wonderful, attractive and entertaining football.
Fair enough they are no Barcelona but i do feel they are mostly an entertaining team to watch (only seen them play maybe 5/6times this season in fairness, including 2 against us) Good on them. the chances of them doing the same or even getting near top 4 next season are slim imho for various reasons like players leaving and coming in, affecting spirit and fluidity on the pitch, they will of course be less of a surprise for other teams who will be strengthening in the summer, also European football to add to an already hectic domestic schedule and inexperience in dealing with such things, which they will be for the 1st time in many respects. i dont think they can do it tbh. yourselves for example will have a much better chance than Leicester of doing as good or better than this year simply because you are more prepared and have that kind of experience now. im sure many here wont agree but i also think the chances of us finishing below wherever we end up this year will be slim due to klopp getting in some of his own players, and getting rid of 75% of the current squad in one go (hopefully in some kind of chinese BOGOF deal for 17 bizllion pounds ). also a pre season to get the fitness to the levels needed to play klopps style. i cant recall if when poch 1st took you over if some players suffered with his regime?(injuries or lack of form?) i know he got rid of a lot of players quite quickly and brought in some youngsters, but i cant recall if generally you hit the ground running with him or it took half a season for the work to show? i think thats the way it will be with us and klopp as he stamps his identity more on the side. Theres no way he can make us worse ffs
Definitely fair play to Leicester, they're about to pull off one of, if not the biggest shock in English league history so you can only commend them for doing that. I'd like to see them keep their key players for what it's worth but don't think it'll happen, the lures and offers of some of the sides supposedly interested will be hard to turn down, so unless the chairman stands firm, I can see Mahrez going and possibly Kante as well. At Vardy's age, not many will want to splash the cash on someone who'll have little re-sale value so Leicester should be safe there. I'm already looking forward to next season, the young players will have had the experience of this season plus pre-season training to really push on and I don't really fear the inevitable strengthening of City, Utd and Chelsea. Think you'll guys will be better under Klopp, although if a lot of changes happen with ins and outs it may be a transitional year. Our first year under Poch was a bit topsy-turvy (transitional basically) at the beginning as a lot of the big money signings from the previous summer weren't adapting to his philosophy and then an argument broke out between senior players and youngsters, in which Poch sided with the youngsters and so towards the end of the season there was a clear direction as to how we were going and a lot of us were excited for this season as the young players like Bentaleb, Mason and Kane were only going to get better (now it's Dier & Alli over Mason & Bentaleb), admittedly we didn't expect to be in with a chance of the league title but did feel there was an outside chance of top four. What Poch has done has been nothing short of incredible, he's given us a **** load of belief in this young side.
Leicester have played very few games this season like the Liverpool team of 2013/14. They've also had very few injuries which is statistically unlikely to be the same next season. Chuck in that everyone will go flat out against them as champions (maybe?), an extra 10 cup games (at least 6 of which will be the biggest games the players have ever known), European travel and a few months out for a couple of players and it will be a much tougher road. They'll strengthen (I reckon their top players will stay next season if maybe not for too much longer) and I'm not writing them off as struggling for top half as some are, however, if they pull off top 6 next season that will be an amazing achievement.
I think top 10 will be the first target for next season. I also think we'll keep our players. I don't worry for Mahrez or Vardy but Kante is likely to attract interest from the very best. Especially because he's likely to star for a side that is my tip to win the Euros. We'll certainly strengthen and in Walsh we've got the best man for the job. I think that Leicester will need to back up/improve Vardy, Simpson, Morgan, Drinkwater, Kasper and Mahrez. So we're looking for a new striker, right back, centre half, centre midfielder, keeper and winger. As far as I'm concerned, I'd happily take staying up again.
I think we started to see signs of change pretty much halfway through Poch's first season with us. We became harder to beat and, more significantly, our record against the big guns began to improve drastically over the farce it had been under AVB and Interim Tim. I've always felt that to be a clearer indication of how good a team is and how well they buy into the manager's philosophy than a team who are (*cough*Arsenal*cough*) flat-track bullies who simply have enough individual quality than the lesser sides out there. We kicked off the 2nd half of that season with a 0-0 against United, followed by the famous 5-3 against Chelsea, then a few weeks later beat the scum 2-1, then very narrowly lost to you in the game that f'ing Balotelli decided to score his only goal of the season ). We were also unlucky to lose 1-0 to City later in the season in what was a thoroughly bad-tempered game ruined by an inept ref. The only pathetic displays of that half of the season were the 3-0 reverses to United and Stoke. I agree - Klopp will benefit enormously from a full pre-season. However, one of the reasons I feel Poch has settled in so quickly is that his philosophy is very much aligned with Levy, the latter of whom didn't invest tens of millions into one of the best academies in the world only for the manager to insist on bringing in overpriced foreign dross. Both men firmly believe in nurturing youngsters who play with their heart on their sleeve. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm not sure how much Fenway buys into Klopp's philosophy, largely because - unlike Levy - they know sweet fa about football...hence trusting a man as incompetent as Ian Ayre to run the club. Cf. Man United and the Glazers/Woodward for another example of American misjudgment. If Henry hands over complete control to Klopp, and allows him to shift your forests of deadwood as quickly as possible and at a loss if necessary, I think you'll be back in contention for the top 4 next year.
You can't deny that we're bloody entertaining to watch. The dross passing it around the back style is the last thing I want our boys doing. Get it forward and get everyone to follow it. It's fantastic to watch. Might not be "attractive" but it's effective and entertaining.
I most certainly can deny that you're entertaining to watch. It's essentially like watching Chelsea again of last season, Mahrez and Vardy being the Hazard and Costa, they manage to provide that spark and get the goals while the rest of the side sit solid and rigid to contain the opposition. The only real difference is that you guys are naturally being praised for it as you've smashed your expectations while Chelsea were criticised for it as they were a team of superstars playing football that'd send you to sleep for the most part. I'll happily say that Mahrez (minus the diving) and Vardy have been a joy to watch from a neutral perspective but Leicester's style as a whole does not excite nor entertain me. Effective, clinical and efficient but not entertaining.
I can only imagine that you've only been watching for the last month or so and when we played you at WHL so i'll let you off.
Absolutely, I could have listed the countless examples of when we've played superb, fast and exciting football but I'll just let you off.
