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Better or worse without Pack


Top Robin

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Look don't get me wrong, I love the guy and he is a really important player for us.

But, I really thought we played better and quicker flowing football in midfield last night without him in there.

The passing was quick and the movement was good.......seemed to create the attacks faster.

I know he'll be back soon but just thought I'd mention it.

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9 minutes ago, Top Robin said:

Look don't get me wrong, I love the guy and he is a really important player for us.

But, I really thought we played better and quicker flowing football in midfield last night without him in there.

The passing was quick and the movement was good.......seemed to create the attacks faster.

I know he'll be back soon but just thought I'd mention it.

I agree, however when we weren't able to counter at pace, I think we missed him when the game needed controlling a bit more. 

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3 minutes ago, Super said:

Clearly Central is where Brownhill is best.

Personally I thought Brownhill was just about average in CM last night. Lots of times he made poor passes or poor decisions, but his work rate was good and helped to pressure Fulham. 

What was very noticeable with Pack’s absence was the 3 times in the first 25 minutes where they had a player run with the ball right up the centre of the pitch to the edge of our box - that simply doesn’t happen when Pack plays as he fills those holes and forces the opposition back or sideways. You rarely get runners straight down our spine when Pack plays in there. 

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43 minutes ago, Super said:

Clearly Central is where Brownhill is best.

He was inside right to my eyes with Bobby inside left.  We matched their shape.  However, we missed Pack as I think Korey did get dragged out the middle and they broke through the centre of the pitch.  At Fulham, Pack sat in the middle with Brownhill and Smith either side and Bobby as a false 9.  We nicked the ball off them on a number of occasions and were dominant.  With Bobby and Korey deeper and no Marlon we weren't as good at winning it high up (though we did okay).

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1 hour ago, Top Robin said:

Look don't get me wrong, I love the guy and he is a really important player for us.

But, I really thought we played better and quicker flowing football in midfield last night without him in there.

The passing was quick and the movement was good.......seemed to create the attacks faster.

I know he'll be back soon but just thought I'd mention it.

horse for courses . Pack would be much more missed in Games like Cardiff

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2 hours ago, BRISTOL86 said:

I think in Pack, Smith and Brownhill we have three excellent CMs, all of which/combinations of which have their strengths and weaknesses. 

Brownhill is more mobile and attacking than Pack, Pack a little more physical. Nice to have options. 

This is very true. Makes you wonder how good we might be, playing 3-5-2

Wright-Flint-Baker

Patto-Smith-Pack-Brownhill-Bryan

Fammy-Reid

That is a damn good side, imo. 

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2 minutes ago, Robbored said:

Do you know anything about football? 

Pack was a significant miss last night and he'll be missed again at Cardiff.

How extremely rude, tell me, what would Pack of brought to the game last night that we were missing? I agree he might be missed at Cardiff but certainly not last night

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1 hour ago, Bar BS3 said:

This is very true. Makes you wonder how good we might be, playing 3-5-2

Wright-Flint-Baker

Patto-Smith-Pack-Brownhill-Bryan

Fammy-Reid

That is a damn good side, imo. 

Not a huge fan or 3-5-2 unless you work and work on it in pre-season, which we may have done but I doubt it.

It has its advantages playing against a 4-4-2 and certainly against a 4-5-1.

But I don't believe we currently have the players to employ it in the wing-back roles. 

Going forward with the team above we would be strong but defensively we would be very exposed in the wide areas. even with Pisano fit and match hardened.

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I don't think we missed him that much last night and actually the type of game it was I think we benefited from having three players in midfield with such high energy.

It was always going to be a game in which Fulham had the majority of possession and looked to control the game in midfield through Johansen, McDonald and Cairney and I actually felt that having such mobility in Reid, Brownhill and Smith allowed us to get around the pitch, press, never allow them time on the ball and never become overrun in the middle of the park.

Having said though, although I thought Smith was superb, deservedly man of the match, and made a quite incredible amount of interceptions and tackles there were a few times he did, completely understandably, show the weaknesses in his game compared to Pack. He did a couple of times give the ball away softly or miss a pass that Pack would have made. There was also one instance in the first half that Fielding was looking to take a quick goal kick and whereas Pack would have been coming short to get the ball off the keeper, Smith had absolutely no interest in this and all Fielding was greeted with was the name on the back of his shirt forcing him to kick long.

One thing that I am unfortunately quite resigned to though is that I think we will Pack a hell of a lot on Sunday. Firstly against the 2018 version of Dave Bassett's Wimbledon, simply we are going to miss Pack's size in offering a shield in front of Zohore/Madine when Cardiff (I assume endlessly) play the long ball up to them. We will have a lot more possession of the ball than we did last night and we will miss Pack's ability and composure in keeping the ball and giving good service to our more attacking players who will face the difficult task of breaking down what is, I guess I have to be fair and describe as a solid team.

So I think last night was possibly a good one for us to be without him and I thought the three lads in the middle of the park all put in a tremendous shift and made it very difficult for some very talented players to play their game. I would still say though that for the majority of games Pack would still be one of the first names on the sheet for me, possibly only behind Baker and Bobby.

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2 hours ago, Bar BS3 said:

This is very true. Makes you wonder how good we might be, playing 3-5-2

Wright-Flint-Baker

Patto-Smith-Pack-Brownhill-Bryan

Fammy-Reid

That is a damn good side, imo. 

           Wright-   Flint-.  Baker

                         Pack

   Pisano-  Smith-.   Brownhill-.  Bryan

                   Reid

                           Fammy

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