WBA v Bristol City Matchday Thread

[Davefevs]

On 19/09/2018 at 08:52, BobBobSuperBob said:

If we are going to play MP and Josh in there , for me Marlon needs to be on a rope , never caught upfield 

Unfort7nately if he’s caught out of position he simply doesn’t have the pace to recover

That restricts his contribution and passing ability around their box but needs must away from home specially, if we aren’t going to get caught on a regular basis

Korey in theory has every asset to be a decent defensive midfielder but even when he plays we get caught through the middle

Appears more of a case of a lack discipline in positioning or Lee isn’t   drumming the-message in clear enough or notwanting to place restrictions on players

by the nature of the way we play - the ‘defensive midfielder ‘ needs to be a good passer of the ball with the ability to pass short or long - as much as I like Korey I’m not sure that’s his strength

A combined Marlon and Korey would be perfect but if I’m being brutal both players are either a complete defensive or attacking midfielder and have mixed attributes 

Marlon has all the tools but lacks pace and thus I come back to the conclusion to resolve the problem we need to restrict Marlon when we go forward - it’s a gain v loss judgement

We shouldn’t really need Pack to be our screener , our quarterback , our play orchestrater and our creator around the box

Josh and the widemen need to step up into that respect ( And I think they can and have - Elliasson already has created how many this season and is a revelation)

Away from home , If I was LJ I’d want to be able to look up and see Marlon sat 15-20 yds in the box front of my Centre Halves At any point in a game

 

On 19/09/2018 at 09:09, Lew-T said:

Agree with that but you don’t want to isolate the two CM. If we want Pack to sit then a 442 isn’t feasible imo. Probably play a 4-1-3-2 possibly?

                     Maenpaa 

Hunt        Kalas      Webster      Kelly

                        Pack

Eliasson    Brownhill      O’Dowda

            Diedhiou    Weimann

 

There have been occasions where players have run through the middle of us and we constantly back away, giving them the opportunity to shoot. Definitely something to look at.

Both spot on.

Ignoring Tuesday night for a second, the home games I’ve seen live and away games on telly/iPad since Kalas has come in has seen us play a higher line (more pace in the backline across the pitch overall than last season), and therefore the “distances” (LJ quote again) have been much smaller between front and back when we haven’t had the ball.  As a result, Pack is pushed a bit further forward by the advanced starting positions of the CBs, and can therefore have more influence in the opposition half, even if it is only 5-10 yards further forward than last year.  5-10 yards is significant in the way LJ wants to play.

Going back to Tuesday, I felt that although Kalas and Webster wanted to play high, Brom got very good possession on the break, high up the pitch, and forced them both to retreat deep very quickly, often back-pedalling against the willing shoulder-runs from Gayle and Rodriguez.  Both the strikers were able to get a chipped pass on the halfway line (proving the desire of AW and TK to play high), control, pop it off for Barnes, Phillips or Gibbs and then run off their markers.  Ideally Pack, Brownhill or the full-backs would be in good positions to pressure the passer, or it Barnes’s case, stop the speedy ball-carrying.  They didn’t for several reasons (one being we pressed the CBs too high imho), and we then saw gaps between our 3 units, and boy did we get punished!

Wigan won’t have that quality tonight, not to say they haven’t got other qualities, but it really should be a totally different game.