Tanner and Sykes

[Davefevs]

Think most of us see Pring (LB) and Semenyo (LF) as a lopsided threat versus our right side.

From a passing combos point of view:

Tanner / Sykes - Brum (16) Blackburn (16) passing exchanges

Pring / Semenyo - Brum (9) Blackburn (13)

But does that tell the whole story?  Not really.  Without generalising too much, several of our left side’s combos involve dribbling, and at pace.  I thought Hedges and Rankin-Costello did a good job on them on Saturday, whereas Colin was often left stranded by Bacuna in the Brum game.  Whereas with Tanner and Sykes it’s a bit more safe.

I watched all their combos and picked some from Saturday.

James feed Tanner (1).  Tanner controls and plays inside to Sykes (2).  There is a nice big gap (circle), but Tanner moves backwards and receives a sideways pass (3), and then goes back to Vyner (4) who actually receives the ball back in our half.

Could Tanner have gone beyond, if only to open space for Sykes?

Could Wells have spun  in behind for first time clipped ball?

Tanner plays a simple pass to Sykes (1), holds onto it whilst Wells drags his marker towards the ball  before spinning him.  Sykes plays a sliderule pass (2) inside and Wells crosses for a combo of Semenyo and Naismith to try to poke towards goal.  A good example of what is possible with the right movement.

Sykes doesn’t really have anywhere to go so passes to Tanner (1).  Tanner has a fair bit of space, but goes back to Vyner (2).

more of an emphasis of their defensive work, Long ball aimed towards BBD, but Tanner well positioned to cut it out, heads to Sykes (1) who has anticipated the dropping point.

Tanner gets to the loose ball first and plays into Sykes (1).  He then does what I wanted in pic1, by making a run on the outside (ignoring the “cheating” BBD).  Sykes moves the ball away from his marker and reverse passes to Tanner (2).  The pass is a bit heavy and the defender ushers out for a Goal-kick.  But more evidence of how they could link up better.

Having played a give and go with Scott, Tanner does the same with Sykes (1 & 2).  Tanner then find Wells on the touchline 15 yards into the opposition half and carries on his run.  Wells cuts induce and crosses but it’s headed away.

There were a couple of other examples which were a bit safe, but overall, their link-up had a bit more positivity than I thought whilst watching live.

Looking forward to seeing how it evolves…and also whether Bell gets minutes to give a different combo.

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Davefevs

[Cannybluff]

Interesting... do you ever make videos, just hard to follow clicking images zooming then reading text

 

 

 

 

[Port Said Red]

As much as I appreciate that Sykes is in good form, I thought Bell and Tanner were even better together.

Bell's position was more to the right of the penalty area, giving Tanner the space to go outside him, or play the pass that allowed Bell to make a run to the byline.

[Rocking Red Cyril]

19 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

As much as I appreciate that Sykes is in good form, I thought Bell and Tanner were even better together.

Bell's position was more to the right of the penalty area, giving Tanner the space to go outside him, or play the pass that allowed Bell to make a run to the byline.

But had we not changed to more attacking mindset when Bell came on ? Therefore changing the positional sense of players.

Just my thoughts 

[Port Said Red]

9 minutes ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

But had we not changed to more attacking mindset when Bell came on ? Therefore changing the positional sense of players.

Just my thoughts 

Maybe, if Bell came on with an instruction to play 5 yards more infield, then that was an an excellent and subtle tactical move by the coaching team.

[Davefevs]

8 hours ago, Cannybluff said:

Interesting... do you ever make videos, just hard to follow clicking images zooming then reading text

 

 

 

 

What, like this?

Yes, but they take ages to create, need to be hosted on another platform, e.g. twitter or YouTube, because you can’t just embed a video here.  Some of the software I have tracks the players, but it’s really not accurate enough, so you end up moving blobs frame by frame, which is tedious.

[1960maaan]

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

What, like this?

Yes, but they take ages to create, need to be hosted on another platform, e.g. twitter or YouTube, because you can’t just embed a video here.  Some of the software I have tracks the players, but it’s really not accurate enough, so you end up moving blobs frame by frame, which is tedious.

How about editing a still with graphics, into the video like a sort of freeze frame with info.

Like I know what I'm talking about 

I know how mind numbing it can be. On my videos I keep them simple, and still get caught out by the software removing the text  
It can be very long winded and time consuming process. 

[Davefevs]

2 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

How about editing a still with graphics, into the video like a sort of freeze frame with info.

Yeah, that’s possible, but was on my iPad as the clock was striking midnight!!!  Much easier to screenshot the video, draw a few coloured lines on to give a general impression of their link-up.

Definitely food for thought on future videos I do though, that my streamline the workflow considerably.  The Metrica sports software is great (and free) but is so time consuming.  Ta for the idea.

[marcofisher]

Tanner is seriously good. I knew he was good but I did not think he had in him what he did for our third goal today. Breaking away with pace down the touch line, and the technique and vision to place that ball exactly onto the onrushing Bell’s foot from 30 odd yards away was breathtaking. I was more impressed with that assist than the finish! 
 

Such intelligence and skill whenever I see him play which I think often goes unnoticed by some, and plays aggressively and in the right way. I think he could be a real cult hero, and I can see why NP likes him. 

Edited January 28, 2023 by marcofisher

[bcfc01]

1 hour ago, marcofisher said:

Tanner is seriously good. I knew he was good but I did not think he had in him what he did for our third goal today. Breaking away with pace down the touch line, and the technique and vision to place that ball exactly onto the onrushing Bell’s foot from 30 odd yards away was breathtaking. I was more impressed with that assist than the finish! 
 

Such intelligence and skill whenever I see him play which I think often goes unnoticed by some, and plays aggressively and in the right way. I think he could be a real cult hero, and I can see why NP likes him. 

I like him a lot, but he is not the finished article by a long way.

Ball watches quite a lot, he needs to cut that out - and I'm sure he will.

He's got time on his side and will get better as the season goes on.

[Port Said Red]

I thought both Sykes and Tanner both took a step up yesterday. They worked well in tandem and both got assists and could have had more.

As @marcofishersaid, that pass from Tanner was Beckhamesque, everyone around me shouting for Bell and I kept saying "what a ball, what a ball". It really makes me laugh when I see comments on here like "Tanner gets a nosebleed if he goes over the halfway line", I wonder what game some are watching.

[Davefevs]

I agree, proving to be a very decent acquisition at circa £300k.  Just 23 and had two hamstring injuries last season.  He’s very solid, uncomplicated, and yesterday, neither Grant or Rogic got any change out of him.  Diangana gave him a bit more of test late on as West Brom stretched the game as they gambled to get back into it, but he stood up to it.  He puts his opponents first touch under pressure for fear of a strong tackle.

Hope he keeps this form up.

Someone said to me last that the eleven on the pitch at the end cost £3m (Tanner, Atkinson, Williams)….that’s nothing really is it.

[Kolsch]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I agree, proving to be a very decent acquisition at circa £300k.  Just 23 and had two hamstring injuries last season.  He’s very solid, uncomplicated, and yesterday, neither Grant or Rogic got any change out of him.  Diangana gave him a bit more of test late on as West Brom stretched the game as they gambled to get back into it, but he stood up to it.  He puts his opponents first touch under pressure for fear of a strong tackle.

Hope he keeps this form up.

Someone said to me last that the eleven on the pitch at the end cost £3m (Tanner, Atkinson, Williams)….that’s nothing really is it.

He is proving to be great value. I might be mistaken but I’m sure he has been involved in every match day team this season (bench for the first few months but still available) so hopefully the injury issues last season were just a one off.

He is getting better every game and I was really impressed by his organisation yesterday. He was constantly at Sykes and helping him out positionally. 
 

The pass for the goal was outstanding and a very under appreciated part of his game is his weight of passes and ability to not give the ball away. Even when he has to go long he tends to find a man.

It’s quite exciting to see this line up develop. The majority could be our core group for the next 18 months and they’re all under 25.

[Out of his pie crust]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I agree, proving to be a very decent acquisition at circa £300k.  Just 23 and had two hamstring injuries last season.  He’s very solid, uncomplicated, and yesterday, neither Grant or Rogic got any change out of him.  Diangana gave him a bit more of test late on as West Brom stretched the game as they gambled to get back into it, but he stood up to it.  He puts his opponents first touch under pressure for fear of a strong tackle.

Hope he keeps this form up.

Someone said to me last that the eleven on the pitch at the end cost £3m (Tanner, Atkinson, Williams)….that’s nothing really is it.

£3m is incredible 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Kolsch said:

He is proving to be great value. I might be mistaken but I’m sure he has been involved in every match day team this season (bench for the first few months but still available) so hopefully the injury issues last season were just a one off.

He is getting better every game and I was really impressed by his organisation yesterday. He was constantly at Sykes and helping him out positionally. 
 

The pass for the goal was outstanding and a very under appreciated part of his game is his weight of passes and ability to not give the ball away. Even when he has to go long he tends to find a man.

It’s quite exciting to see this line up develop. The majority could be our core group for the next 18 months and they’re all under 25.

Missed one squad (Blackburn away) other than suspension:

[James54De]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I agree, proving to be a very decent acquisition at circa £300k.  Just 23 and had two hamstring injuries last season.  He’s very solid, uncomplicated, and yesterday, neither Grant or Rogic got any change out of him.  Diangana gave him a bit more of test late on as West Brom stretched the game as they gambled to get back into it, but he stood up to it.  He puts his opponents first touch under pressure for fear of a strong tackle.

Hope he keeps this form up.

Someone said to me last that the eleven on the pitch at the end cost £3m (Tanner, Atkinson, Williams)….that’s nothing really is it.

Not when you consider the £8 million centre half sat on the bench. 

[Roger Red Hat]

20 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

It's mad. Other than Wells, Weimann and Williams there's nothing left from the Ashton era that is contributing despite £40 odd million of outlay 

Thank fk for that!

[alexukhc]

When Wilson comes back where does he fit in?

[E.J.Thribb]

56 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

It's mad. Other than Wells, Weimann and Williams there's nothing left from the Ashton era that is contributing despite £40 odd million of outlay 

The more I look back on those days the more I shudder. For every decent but there were about twenty others who clogged up our wage bill. 

[Kolsch]

9 minutes ago, alexukhc said:

When Wilson comes back where does he fit in?

Keeps his place with Kane in front at times. I think him and Wilson would work well together down the right. It’d be a good option in games where we need more width.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Kolsch

[alexukhc]

33 minutes ago, Kolsch said:

Keeps his place with Kane in front at times. I think him and Wilson would work well together down the right. It’d be a good option in games where we need more width.

I thought much the same tbh