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old_eastender

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Baker & Dasilva were certainly our best two players. Williams and Bentley were decent also.

Brownhill and Smith were miles off it for me. I was a big fan of Corey but let’s be honest he’s finished now and we desperately need an upgrade. He’s just not mobile enough. Injuries have impacted him massively 

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14 minutes ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

You may be right but I thought he initially partnered Famara , had a short spell almost in a old fashioned inside right role and then seemed to be overtly wide in a midfield 4/5

Wanted to save this for a specific thread but here goes:

We started 4231

      Brownhill | Smith

Weimann | Pato | Eliasson

                Diedhiou

Both in and out of possession it morphed between this and 4411, but I think most people would say it’s 4231.

This was up against Baaaarnsley’s 4-diamond-2 (Mowatt advanced, Dougall deep) with Chaplin and Jacob Brown playing up top but willing to run in to out to give a wide option.

There were about 3 or 4 occasions where Mowatt got on the ball in the pocket where Josh and Korey looked at each other trying to work out who was marking him and why he’d got free.  I feared his very decent left peg might make us pay.  Luckily it didn’t.

With Chaplin and Brown also happy to split Williams and Hunt and Baker and Dasilva respectively when Bentley had the ball, and work bloody hard, knowing Mowatt would cover any attempt to go down the middle, it really stifled us.

After about 25 minutes, I noticed we’d switched to 4141;

                                Smith (picking up Mowatt)

Weimann | Brownhill | Paterson | Eliasson

                              Diedhiou

It snuffed Mowatt out, but we never controlled the midfield, and nor did we get our full-backs into the game in the first half, not helped by Brownhill’s poor display.  We looked threatening from set pieces, hitting the woodwork twice, but the chances fashioned from open play were Barnsley’s in the main.  I give LJ credit for that, but it only helped us defensively, not with the ball.

Second half, was more open and both sides in and out of shape as the game ebbed and flowed.

What I can’t understand is in the first half (and parts of second half) is that we didn’t seem to have any clue how to play out from the back against a diamond.  Was similar v Charlton wasn’t it?  That is a big question that needs answering for me.

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12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Wanted to save this for a specific thread but here goes:

We started 4231

      Brownhill | Smith

Weimann | Pato | Eliasson

                Diedhiou

Both in and out of possession it morphed between this and 4411, but I think most people would say it’s 4231.

This was up against Baaaarnsley’s 4-diamond-2 (Mowatt advanced, Dougall deep) with Chaplin and Jacob Brown playing up top but willing to run in to out to give a wide option.

There were about 3 or 4 occasions where Mowatt got on the ball in the pocket where Josh and Korey looked at each other trying to work out who was marking him and why he’d got free.  I feared his very decent left peg might make us pay.  Luckily it didn’t.

With Chaplin and Brown also happy to split Williams and Hunt and Baker and Dasilva respectively when Bentley had the ball, and work bloody hard, knowing Mowatt would cover any attempt to go down the middle, it really stifled us.

After about 25 minutes, I noticed we’d switched to 4141;

                                Smith (picking up Mowatt)

Weimann | Brownhill | Paterson | Eliasson

                              Diedhiou

It snuffed Mowatt out, but we never controlled the midfield, and nor did we get our full-backs into the game in the first half, not helped by Brownhill’s poor display.  We looked threatening from set pieces, hitting the woodwork twice, but the chances fashioned from open play were Barnsley’s in the main.  I give LJ credit for that, but it only helped us defensively, not with the ball.

Second half, was more open and both sides in and out of shape as the game ebbed and flowed.

What I can’t understand is in the first half (and parts of second half) is that we didn’t seem to have any clue how to play out from the back against a diamond.  Was similar v Charlton wasn’t it?  That is a big question that needs answering for me.

Helpful view / post Dave

As for your last paragraph , being brutal , Korey and Josh , setting aside their pluses, are between them not good enough technically , on ball for me

If you want players to take it off the Centre halves or full backs deep , Neither breed confidence in doing so

Neither are ‘great’  passers of the ball and both can have a suspect first touch under pressure 

As soon as we kicked off I said to the lad next to me, anticipating what was likely ‘We moved Pack on , With Nagy as his replacement to provide that role and we had no obvious receiver in there today

If Nagy isn’t going to play , we miss Pack , and although he had his limitations in some respects , we miss quite a few things about Pack , including his range of passing which Nagy doesn’t have 

In fairness (Blimey I think this is the third ‘In fairness’ to LJ post I’ve just written) I don’t think the plan was to try and play through them Dav ebecause of their press

I suspect that , particularly with the current vibe , LJ was happy to go longer to avert the press, and have to be honest , with the way we’ve been playing , and what he had available and in any kind of form , having been plagued by constantly giving the ball away in our own half for weeks now, I’d have to say , if that’s right , he did the sensible / right thing today

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13 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Wanted to save this for a specific thread but here goes:

We started 4231

      Brownhill | Smith

Weimann | Pato | Eliasson

                Diedhiou

Both in and out of possession it morphed between this and 4411, but I think most people would say it’s 4231.

This was up against Baaaarnsley’s 4-diamond-2 (Mowatt advanced, Dougall deep) with Chaplin and Jacob Brown playing up top but willing to run in to out to give a wide option.

There were about 3 or 4 occasions where Mowatt got on the ball in the pocket where Josh and Korey looked at each other trying to work out who was marking him and why he’d got free.  I feared his very decent left peg might make us pay.  Luckily it didn’t.

With Chaplin and Brown also happy to split Williams and Hunt and Baker and Dasilva respectively when Bentley had the ball, and work bloody hard, knowing Mowatt would cover any attempt to go down the middle, it really stifled us.

After about 25 minutes, I noticed we’d switched to 4141;

                                Smith (picking up Mowatt)

Weimann | Brownhill | Paterson | Eliasson

                              Diedhiou

It snuffed Mowatt out, but we never controlled the midfield, and nor did we get our full-backs into the game in the first half, not helped by Brownhill’s poor display.  We looked threatening from set pieces, hitting the woodwork twice, but the chances fashioned from open play were Barnsley’s in the main.  I give LJ credit for that, but it only helped us defensively, not with the ball.

Second half, was more open and both sides in and out of shape as the game ebbed and flowed.

What I can’t understand is in the first half (and parts of second half) is that we didn’t seem to have any clue how to play out from the back against a diamond.  Was similar v Charlton wasn’t it?  That is a big question that needs answering for me.

Yep thought Weimann was our wide right all game as well

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2 minutes ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

Helpful view / post Dave

As for your last paragraph , being brutal , Korey and Josh , setting aside their pluses, are between them not good enough technically , on ball for me

If you what players to take it off the Centre halves or full backs deep , Neither breed confidence in doing so

Neither are ‘great’  passers of the ball and both can have a suspect first touch under pressure 

As soon as we kicked off I said to the lad next to me, anticipating what was likely ‘We moved Pack on , With Nagy as his replacement to provide that role.

If Nagy isn’t going to play , we miss Pack , and although he had his limitations in some respects , we miss quite a few things about Pack , including his range of passing which Nagy doesn’t have 

In fairness (Blimey I think this is the third ‘In fairness’ to LJ post I’ve just written) I don’t think the plan was to try and play through them Dav ebecause of their press

I suspect that , particularly with the current vibe , LJ was happy to go longer to avert the press, and have to be honest , with the way we’ve been playing , and what he had available and in any kind of form , having been plagued by constantly giving the ball away in our own half for weeks now, I’d have to say , if that’s right , he did the sensible / right thing today

I suspect you’ll get a little “like” emoji from @Harry later ?

With Williams, Baker, Korey and Josh, I can understand why we wouldn’t want to play through their press.  I suppose my question is, if we are gonna go a bit longer, how was that plan gonna be executed?  It didn’t look like there was much of one.  Having said that, most of our good play first half came when we got in behind them:

  • two balls from Hunt over top of LB putting Weimann away (some more things he did), resulting in corners, from which we looked a threat
  • throw from Bents, which Weimann (oooh, another thing) flicked onto Pato to burst through
  • Hunt volley into Fam, who spun and released Eliasson, who couldn't get the angle to free Brownhill

I don’t mind us playing a bit longer if we are set up to take advantage.

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9 minutes ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

If you want players to take it off the Centre halves or full backs deep , Neither breed confidence in doing so

Neither are ‘great’  passers of the ball and both can have a suspect first touch under pressure 

Agree, and when you have 2 centre halves and a right back who all have a crap touch and can’t pass, it’s suddenly very difficult to play out from the back and keep possession. 

Thats not a dig at Baker - he was excellent today and he does what he does but we miss a better footballer beside him IMO.

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2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I suspect you’ll get a little “like” emoji from @Harry later ?

With Williams, Baker, Korey and Josh, I can understand why we wouldn’t want to play through their press.  I suppose my question is, if we are gonna go a bit longer, how was that plan gonna be executed?  It didn’t look like there was much of one.  Having said that, most of our good play first half came when we got in behind them:

  • two balls from Hunt over top of LB putting Weimann away (some more things he did), resulting in corners, from which we looked a threat
  • throw from Bents, which Weimann (oooh, another thing) flicked onto Pato to burst through
  • Hunt volley into Fam, who spun and released Eliasson, who couldn't get the angle to free Brownhill

I don’t mind us playing a bit longer if we are set up to take advantage.

Great points

I think we are generally muddled in our thinking / approach atm and have been for some time

Agree about your comments the ‘how to go longer’  but I think it was more about risk averse , and in terms of trying to get a result , I think the plan of less risk against the press was probably sensible in LJs situation 

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25 minutes ago, Corsham Alf said:

Baker & Dasilva were certainly our best two players. Williams and Bentley were decent also.

Brownhill and Smith were miles off it for me. I was a big fan of Corey but let’s be honest he’s finished now and we desperately need an upgrade. He’s just not mobile enough. Injuries have impacted him massively 

I thought Smith put in a shift and had a decent game. Gave us a bit of bite in that defensive midfield position. If he can stay fit (big if) he's worth keeping imho

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5 minutes ago, Kibs said:

Agree, and when you have 2 centre halves and a right back who all have a crap touch and can’t pass, it’s suddenly very difficult to play out from the back keep possession. 

Thats not a dig at Baker - he was excellent today and he does what he does but we miss a better footballer beside him IMO.

And it’s also about what options you have to pass to , and what movement to receive balls (Our biggest continual major failing IMO) whether you are Baker , Williams.........or Webster 

Im not sure Webster would look so good back in our side at present , nor make the difference people think he would

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5 minutes ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

Great points

I think we are generally muddled in our thinking / approach atm and have been for some time

Agree about your comments the ‘how to go longer’  but I think it was more about risk averse , and in terms of trying to get a result , I think the plan of less risk against the press was probably sensible in LJs situation 

Today, probably as a knee-jerk reaction to Brownhill’s performance, was to think if he actually did go to Burnley, I’d replace him with.....

.....big, athletic, central midfielder, complimented by Nagy, Massengo and Morrell (next season).  I think we could play a bit longer then.  Plus we’d have a better balanced midfield, little ones and a big one.

3 minutes ago, Bas's perfect hattrick said:

I thought Smith put in a shift and had a decent game. Gave us a bit of bite in that defensive midfield position. If he can stay fit (big if) he's worth keeping imho

As earlier, he’s doing his “putting out fires - LJ” bit decently enough, but needs to get back that speed of thought on the ball.

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3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Today, probably as a knee-jerk reaction to Brownhill’s performance, was to think if he actually did go to Burnley, I’d replace him with.....

.....big, athletic, central midfielder, complimented by Nagy, Massengo and Morrell (next season).  I think we could play a bit longer then.  Plus we’d have a better balanced midfield, little ones and a big one.

As earlier, he’s doing his “putting out fires - LJ” bit decently enough, but needs to get back that speed of thought on the ball.

I suspect we will try and move Famara on

Always think the core skills of your front one / two / three have a large part in dictating the way you play 

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Paterson way up there for MOM! best he has been since illness late 2018, from me that’s good because I can’t say I’ve ever really rated him!
Weiman, could almost say useless, but other than Paterson who else put in the miles today?
DaSilva Fantastic run for the goal, thanks to the O’dowda tackle, but what’s wrong with Bentley, the left wing players had lots of space for most of the match, so why did he not feed the left? Most balls were lumped into crowded areas - perhaps LJ can answer that one! 
Midfield ball retention not the best again, it’s not happening on the pitch, WTF is happening in training?

Baker another solid performance.

As a whole team did quite well, so much so that the Coach chose not to mess it up again with his ill judged tinkering!

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The bottom line is that we have a major problem in the middle at the moment. Neither Williams or Baker feel happy bringing the ball out of defence, so playing out from the back really isn’t possible unless we play a sweeper/defensive midfielder in front of them (the Pack role).

The difference from last season is that we miss Webster bringing the ball forward and we miss Pack providing cover, plus his longer ball passes. Even before Webster, Flint didn’t necessarily bring it out but was one of the best long ball passers that we have seen for a long time. No one at the back or in midfield now has that skill.

Josh Brownhill is currently a liability. Lightweight in play, struggles to stay on his feet, easily bypassed in central midfielder, and not a “leader of men” as captain. He is best wide on the right but not in a midfield pairing, especially not with Korey Smith, who is clearly not the same player as two years ago, before his long injury lay offs.

I have never been a Paterson fan but fair play to him, he really played well today, and would be MOTM. Eliasson has a tough afternoon, Dasilvais improving following his return, although he had little defensive support at times. Baker and Williams were ok at the back, while Weimann and Diedhiou played their usual games.

However until we sort central midfield and how we play out from the back, we will continue to struggle. Barnsley played far better football today and were very unlucky to lose. They snaffled nearly every second ball, and at times played both around us and through us. They were good on the ball and generally fluid. We were second best for long periods and looked more like the team struggling near the bottom of the table.

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2 hours ago, Kibs said:

How you’ve got Smith higher than Paterson I’ve no idea! 
 

Im quick to criticise Paterson (Not for his football ability) so credit where it’s due. I thought he was excellent today, one of the only “footballers” in our team. 
 

He was always positive, receiving it on the half turn and getting us going in the right direction.

Some of our players should take note - you don’t need to be big and strong to protect the ball and it is possible to receive it under pressure without losing possession!!!!

Totally agree about Pato - I couldn’t believe it when he was subbed ( no disrespect to O’Dowda)

 

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2 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

The bottom line is that we have a major problem in the middle at the moment. Neither Williams or Baker feel happy bringing the ball out of defence, so playing out from the back really isn’t possible unless we play a sweeper/defensive midfielder in front of them (the Pack role).

The difference from last season is that we miss Webster bringing the ball forward and we miss Pack providing cover, plus his longer ball passes. Even before Webster, Flint didn’t necessarily bring it out but was one of the best long ball passers that we have seen for a long time. No one at the back or in midfield now has that skill.

Josh Brownhill is currently a liability. Lightweight in play, struggles to stay on his feet, easily bypassed in central midfielder, and not a “leader of men” as captain. He is best wide on the right but not in a midfield pairing, especially not with Korey Smith, who is clearly not the same player as two years ago, before his long injury lay offs.

how many times did he slip over today on the bill.  Did I see him shout to one of the subs to get a change of boots...about 65 minutes in!!!

I have never been a Paterson fan but fair play to him, he really played well today, and would be MOTM. Eliasson has a tough afternoon, Dasilvais improving following his return, although he had little defensive support at times. Baker and Williams were ok at the back, while Weimann and Diedhiou played their usual games.

However until we sort central midfield and how we play out from the back, we will continue to struggle. Barnsley played far better football today and were very unlucky to lose. They snaffled nearly every second ball, and at times played both around us and through us. They were good on the ball and generally fluid. We were second best for long periods and looked more like the team struggling near the bottom of the table.

Agree, but I think overall we fashioned better chances.  Perhaps it should’ve been our standard 2-2 with them ?

 

2 minutes ago, bcfcredandwhite said:

Totally agree about Pato - I couldn’t believe it when he was subbed ( no disrespect to O’Dowda)

 

Knackered.

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LJ wont play Moore in front of Kalas Baker and Williams. Thus if we have a problem bringing it out then look no further than how we play. 

Moore gets down the wing when he can as well as come out through the middle where as the other three, while decent, are immobile. Hunt has been dreadful for weeks, a bit better today, but really its no surprise Desilva getting forward from the back led to the goal.

We are bypassing the centre of the field going out, but have to defend it when out of possession. Without both Massengo and Nagy we don’t win back possession upfield as much as we should, although KS did well winning the ball in front of and in our own area.

The problem with going long is no one is close to Fammy so the ball comes back quickly and we don’t win much second ball.

These are our issues in a nutshell right now, nevertheless on the bright side we created more opportunities today than we have since September....That is a huge plus....Just don’t keep missing sitters!

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5 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

LJ wont play Moore in front of Kalas Baker and Williams.

I know you mean in preference to those three players, but I'd like to see LJ literally / positionally play Taylor Moore in front of (defensive midfield) two of the above. 

He brings the ball forward so well and has the skills and instinct to try and retain possession and that rarely seen ability of late, to consistently pass to a teammate. His weakness has been in terms of winning the aerial battles and the odd mistake. 

I think he has the footballing ability and physical presence to play defensive midfield and, who knows,  it might turn out to be another positional change revelation like Bobby Reid.  Defensive midfield is a little less pressurised than playing centre back where the odd mistake as the last man has more significance and scrutiny. 

There is a growing consensus that whilst we need a striker who is more clinical than Fammy, our midfield is being dominated match after match by the opposition and is a little lightweight and needs strengthening. 

The three practical solutions are 1) sell Brownhill and recruit.  Recruitment has been interesting but a little lightweight and unbalanced, although I don't think we have seen the best of Nagy just yet.  2) Bring back Joe Morrell, something I'd like to see but doesn't look likely to happen. LJ talks him up but actions speak louder than words.  3) Lastly,  give Taylor Moore the opportunity to physically strengthen midfield and potentially provide more cohesion to our link-up play. Perhaps worth a try given the obvious current weakness.

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9 minutes ago, bcfcnick said:

I know you mean in preference to those three players, but I'd like to see LJ literally / positionally play Taylor Moore in front of (defensive midfield) two of the above. 

He brings the ball forward so well and has the skills and instinct to try and retain possession and that rarely seen ability of late, to consistently pass to a teammate. His weakness has been in terms of winning the aerial battles and the odd mistake. 

I think he has the footballing ability and physical presence to play defensive midfield and, who knows,  it might turn out to be another positional change revelation like Bobby Reid.  Defensive midfield is a little less pressurised than playing centre back where the odd mistake as the last man has more significance and scrutiny. 

There is a growing consensus that whilst we need a striker who is more clinical than Fammy, our midfield is being dominated match after match by the opposition and is a little lightweight and needs strengthening. 

The three practical solutions are 1) sell Brownhill and recruit.  Recruitment has been interesting but a little lightweight and unbalanced, although I don't think we have seen the best of Nagy just yet.  2) Bring back Joe Morrell, something I'd like to see but doesn't look likely to happen. LJ talks him up but actions speak louder than words.  3) Lastly,  give Taylor Moore the opportunity to physically strengthen midfield and potentially provide more cohesion to our link-up play. Perhaps worth a try given the obvious current weakness.

Totally agree with this and discussed the same at the game, our midfield is too small, we miss a pack type player and although selling looked great business at the time, now maybe not. TM is excellent at reading the game, is a leader and good footballer and would add physical strength to the midfield, as we are a bit too nice and try to nick the ball rather than a good hard tackle.

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1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Wanted to save this for a specific thread but here goes:

We started 4231

      Brownhill | Smith

Weimann | Pato | Eliasson

                Diedhiou

Both in and out of possession it morphed between this and 4411, but I think most people would say it’s 4231.

This was up against Baaaarnsley’s 4-diamond-2 (Mowatt advanced, Dougall deep) with Chaplin and Jacob Brown playing up top but willing to run in to out to give a wide option.

There were about 3 or 4 occasions where Mowatt got on the ball in the pocket where Josh and Korey looked at each other trying to work out who was marking him and why he’d got free.  I feared his very decent left peg might make us pay.  Luckily it didn’t.

With Chaplin and Brown also happy to split Williams and Hunt and Baker and Dasilva respectively when Bentley had the ball, and work bloody hard, knowing Mowatt would cover any attempt to go down the middle, it really stifled us.

After about 25 minutes, I noticed we’d switched to 4141;

                                Smith (picking up Mowatt)

Weimann | Brownhill | Paterson | Eliasson

                              Diedhiou

It snuffed Mowatt out, but we never controlled the midfield, and nor did we get our full-backs into the game in the first half, not helped by Brownhill’s poor display.  We looked threatening from set pieces, hitting the woodwork twice, but the chances fashioned from open play were Barnsley’s in the main.  I give LJ credit for that, but it only helped us defensively, not with the ball.

Second half, was more open and both sides in and out of shape as the game ebbed and flowed.

What I can’t understand is in the first half (and parts of second half) is that we didn’t seem to have any clue how to play out from the back against a diamond.  Was similar v Charlton wasn’t it?  That is a big question that needs answering for me.

I thought it was as clear as a 4-1-4-1 as you’ll likely to see at the start.

Brownhill was shocking meaning Smith had to pick up a lot of his work. Smith did not look happy with him today.

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3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Dasilva 7 - sneaked a 7 for the run and cross that led to the goal.  Still feeling his way back, but he is getting better.  Defensively sound.

 

Probably against the grain, but I thought he was poor today. First half especially it showed him to be far more one footed than I remembered - they stopped him from being able to pass on his left up the line and he repeatedly looked like he didn't know what to do and in turn Eliasson with one or two men tight on him saw very little of the ball.

I don't know what sparked his run (or two) up field nearer the end of the game, but that's much more how I remembered him.

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7 minutes ago, AshtonGreat said:

We certainly don't see many goals or assists

Serious question

How many 

Goals 

Assists

Would you expect / demand from our second forward who is regularly played wide or in a midfield role for the team and uses a monstrous amount of effort and energy in other areas too ?

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2 hours ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

Helpful view / post Dave

As for your last paragraph , being brutal , Korey and Josh , setting aside their pluses, are between them not good enough technically , on ball for me

If you want players to take it off the Centre halves or full backs deep , Neither breed confidence in doing so

Neither are ‘great’  passers of the ball and both can have a suspect first touch under pressure 

As soon as we kicked off I said to the lad next to me, anticipating what was likely ‘We moved Pack on , With Nagy as his replacement to provide that role and we had no obvious receiver in there today

If Nagy isn’t going to play , we miss Pack , and although he had his limitations in some respects , we miss quite a few things about Pack , including his range of passing which Nagy doesn’t have 

In fairness (Blimey I think this is the third ‘In fairness’ to LJ post I’ve just written) I don’t think the plan was to try and play through them Dav ebecause of their press

I suspect that , particularly with the current vibe , LJ was happy to go longer to avert the press, and have to be honest , with the way we’ve been playing , and what he had available and in any kind of form , having been plagued by constantly giving the ball away in our own half for weeks now, I’d have to say , if that’s right , he did the sensible / right thing today

 

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I suspect you’ll get a little “like” emoji from @Harry later ?

With Williams, Baker, Korey and Josh, I can understand why we wouldn’t want to play through their press.  I suppose my question is, if we are gonna go a bit longer, how was that plan gonna be executed?  It didn’t look like there was much of one.  Having said that, most of our good play first half came when we got in behind them:

  • two balls from Hunt over top of LB putting Weimann away (some more things he did), resulting in corners, from which we looked a threat
  • throw from Bents, which Weimann (oooh, another thing) flicked onto Pato to burst through
  • Hunt volley into Fam, who spun and released Eliasson, who couldn't get the angle to free Brownhill

I don’t mind us playing a bit longer if we are set up to take advantage.

Yep. That definitely gets a like from me. 
 

Been saying all season that none of our midfield are comfortable taking the ball off the back four. None have the composure to play from deep. They all panic. About 15-20 times this season one of JB, AN or HNM have lost possession easily on the edge of their own box when trying to ‘play’ out. 
Pack tended to make this error about 3 times a season and get absolutely blasted for it. This season it’s happened 15-20 times! 
 

Bob is right. We miss Pack if we wanna play a measured build up. Perhaps LJ has realised he doesn’t have the tools for this and correctly started to play more ‘direct’. It was clear that the midfield were bypassed today in our build up. Fam won his fair share of knock downs and we had runners off him. 
 

If that’s to be our identity for the rest of the season then so be it. It’s a case of realising we don’t have the players to be able to play a measured build up, so play to our strengths. Big man up top, runners off him, full backs pushing on for overloads. 

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14 minutes ago, Henry said:

I thought it was as clear as a 4-1-4-1 as you’ll likely to see at the start.

Brownhill was shocking meaning Smith had to pick up a lot of his work. Smith did not look happy with him today.

Smith and Brownhill alongside each other at the start imho.  Pato definitely in the free role.  Then after 25 mins, Brownhill alongside Paterson with Smith deeper.  For a few minutes Brownhill seemed to go alongside Fam (which never works for Josh), which may partly have been to be in position to start a press, but it seemed strange to have Pato in midfield and then Josh advanced.  Hey-ho!

In fairness formations are only really seen when the ball is dead, during play it’s generally too fluid.

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Good pressing Bob, Bob

I like the questioning and look forward to a forum where only people going to the game can comment on the game itself. Obviously a wider forum for topics other than the games and players should be facilitated 

A major reason why this forum attracts such a small % of City fans is that so few contributors have actually  been to the games. 

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