That could easily be turned around on those that heavily criticised AVB and certain players for the West Ham result. Rather than recognising it as a one off surely a big win should be praised as the big loss was criticised. Anyway we haven't had a big win yet so it's all by the by.
With Newcastle parking the bus and barely getting out of their half, we should play 3 5 2 ( I know AVB wouldn't dare) Lloris Vlad Dawson Vertonghen Townsend Sandro Dembele Eriksen Lamella Defoe Soldado
I guarantee Pauli will start, and Holtby ought to too after tonight's Eriksen performance. Defoe's performance tonight also proved very well that Soldado is not the problem, it's the rest of the side's creativity.
Whoever's in it, a 3-5-2 isn't a bad idea at all in a game where a draw is in no way a decent result. I might play Blue and White's back four, though maybe with Walker instead of Chiriches, plus Gylfi/Lennon, Holtby, Dembele/Capoue/Townsend, Paulinho, Lamela Eriksen Soldado You'd think that team could score a goal or two... ...especially now that all that gel is seeping in.
3 at the back doesn't work against one up top, we saw it again in the Arsenal-Liverpool game last week. It leaves the two wider centre backs constantly worrying about whether to stay and wait or push up/wide to find a player to mark and decent fullbacks will be able to push the wingbacks deep and take them out of the game. I'd say we should stick with the formation we're playing at the moment, we just need some more speed in our attacks and to get a few crosses in. I'd be surprised if the line up isn't: Lloris Walker, Dawson, Chiriches, Vertonghen Paulinho, Sandro Lamela, Holtby, Townsend Soldado I guess we're still playing 4231 but it does look more like a 4141 when Sandro's playing. I quite like that, I was starting to feel like holding midfielders were going out of fashion.
it looks good on paper as the key is having 5 in midfield and controlling the game but like you say it doesn't work in England, its popular in Italy but over here the formation turns into a 5-3-2 and then all you hear is "the team has few attacking options" or "not enough players" in the final 3rd. If 4141 is good enough for Bayern then lets go with 4141, I would still prefer 4411 as the striker gets more support but if Lamela is that special player baldini says he is, then he could be the man to show the gel does work, with his slick hair!
The problem I have with our formation is this... AVB is absolutely adament that we are not playing 4-4-2 at the moment, but instead a 4-2-3-1. However the way we are lining up is with 2 inverted wingers, a striker and a 10. This is exactly how Harry set us up, with VDV in the 10 and non-inverted wingers (or just wingers). A 4-2-3-1 should work like Chelsea have it, with the 3 moving around, in between the lines, and especially in between the CB and full back. Ours havent done this at all, they get the ball, square up the man and pass it back to CM, full back or occasionally (as of last night) cross it (siggy) or run at people (Lamela). This is not the progressive formation change that AVB thinks it is. If siggy/Andros etc started making these less obvious runs, they would automatically be opening people up in the following ways: Full back would have to choose between winger and full back to mark CB would have to peel away from Striker number 10 gets an option for a ball over the top Winger making the run gets the chance to have a shot in the box (if the 10 finds him with a through ball, or ball over the top) or square a ball for striker/paulinho/other winger to knock in we are still basically playing the same lines as we did at 4-4-2 but without the fast break away, VDV, quick passing in midfield (modric) but with better ball retention.
It was kind of similar but it looked and felt more like a 442 as VDV got a lot closer to our striker and we had differing roots to goal. Whilst now we have wingers that always cut in as our main outlet, we used to have wingers that always went down the line but there was also options that included VDV and the striker whereas currently we're looking for some clever play through the middle but all we're really getting is wingers cutting in and running out of options. Walker's been really good providing width for us but relying on both fullbacks to bring us width presents some obvious problems in defence and in the speed of our play. If we start getting the ball out wider more often then we'll no doubt come across another problem, getting players in the box, Paulinho's pretty good at it but Eriksen and Holtby aren't really so much of a threat. I think we could look a bit further back in 'Arry's tactics for inspiration, like playing one proper winger and one player who likes to cut inside. The Ekotto/Modric and Bale/Modric partnerships down the left always worked really well going forward and I think we can incorporate similar with a Townsend/Walker or Lamela/Walker partnership down the right but the key is to still have the threat of an out and out winger on the otherside. That should help us with getting more crosses in and adding a bit more pace to our play but that won't guaruntee us goals. One of the features we had under Redknapp was Crouch's runs to the far post and heading knockdowns back into the danger area which were really successful, until teams started realising that you don't need to mark Crouch just the players he looks to knock it down to(they also realised they could foul Crouch as much as they wanted). Now obviously we don't have a giant player like Crouch but we can still have effect of an easy target for the cross, if the ball's on the right and the left winger doesn't get sucked in to the box, the cross can go over everyone's head in the middle and our winger can knock it back into the danger area, like with Crouch. Well maybe it wouldn't work but it's an idea anyway
AVB's stubbornness to use wingers on their correct side, for even a portion of the game, is something that I will never be able to reconcile with. It encourages total anti-football. Why not start inverted just to seize control of the tempo, then revert to traditional wingers and try to get a couple of goals, then can switch back to inverted wingers to see the game out.
Have to be honest I was asleep practically from kick off (an all too common occurrence these days) and woke up as the first goal was going in.
Tbf, when they switched not lot changed. Gylfi doesn't have the pace to go round the outside of a full back and Lamela still cut in the majority of the time, that seems to be his game.
It was before Lamela's newfound burst of confidence though, and Gylfi was knocking in good balls - ie defoe's chance. Am I the only one that enjoyed the game last night? thought we were much improved moving forwards compared to either Hull games, or the last Sheriff game.
It does seem to be a habit now to dismiss all performances as "boring" out of hand. Last night's performance was vastly superior to the first game against Sheriff, especially with players actually looking to take on their markers for a change, especially Lamela whilst Dembele was driving through the middle rather than passing sideways after a couple of touches, plus Gylfi seemed to be popping up everywhere.
better, not brilliant i would say. Rather than the team performance i found i was more happy for Lamela and equally disappointed in Eriksen
Better is good,means an understanding with each others play is developing,which eventually will lead to better football
