Gorgeous George

[Port Said Red]

Hopefully losing his whipping boy tag, his defending has rarely been in doubt, but now he has McRorie along side him he is starting to get more involved at the other end of the pitch too. 

His covering last night was superb, there was one point where Forest tried make a quick break trying to take advantage of Dickie being still upfield, but George was across and taking up the perfect position on the left of the defence.

Cam is always going to be more eye catching With his dynamism and lung busting runs, but with Tanner and McCrorie it feels like the right side of our defence has suddenly become a strength rather than a weakness.

Regarding the criticism of him constantly passing inside to Zak, I would rather he did that to retain possession than hit hopeful channel balls which we have been guilty of before.

Edited January 27 by Port Said Red

[Shuffle]

Good to see him get recognition and agree he’s been excellent & reads game very well. 

[And Its Smith]

Can certainly see why Manning could keep with the back five. It makes us very solid. Just need it to be not at the expense of the top end of the pitch.  I actually don’t think it is that much. We get in good positions and then don’t execute well.

 

As for Tanner, he’s found his best position.  Superb last 4 games 

[1960maaan]

8 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Can certainly see why Manning could keep with the back five. It makes us very solid. Just need it to be not at the expense of the top end of the pitch.  I actually don’t think it is that much. We get in good positions and then don’t execute well.

I just said similar on the match thread.
Solid & good width , decent MF just needs a tweak up top.
One criticism would be when we get wide at pace, we do lack bodies in the box. When it works, like TC's chance from a cross, we can look dangerous. I think we need to find a good fit for the 2 roles just behind/with TC . Twine looks a reasonable bet, Mehmeti needs to think "team" more if it's going to be him though. Knight isn't the finisher we need there , but he finds all the right positions, so maybe he'll settle with Twines vision .

[GrahamC]

I thought he was absolutely outstanding, his reading of the game was superb & his distribution is improving.

I found the slagging off he got truly embarrassing, he’s made the leap from League Two, is someone never lacking in effort & whilst others are seemingly never fit, has already played loads of games for us.

[Port Said Red]

13 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Can certainly see why Manning could keep with the back five. It makes us very solid. Just need it to be not at the expense of the top end of the pitch.  I actually don’t think it is that much. We get in good positions and then don’t execute well.

 

As for Tanner, he’s found his best position.  Superb last 4 games 

Is it a back 5? To my eye it looks more 3 4 3 certainly going forward, but @Davefevs keeps using the term "fluid" so I will go with that. It certainly changes with the situation in games, I noticed that Zak was waving Tanner forward when Forest were playing with only one up front in the first half.

[Chrizzler]

I've never understood the criticism George gets. 

[Bazooka Joe]

He’s been quietly getting on with the job and silencing his critics.

Good for him.

Keep up the good work George.

[And Its Smith]

5 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Is it a back 5? To my eye it looks more 3 4 3 certainly going forward, but @Davefevs keeps using the term "fluid" so I will go with that. It certainly changes with the situation in games, I noticed that Zak was waving Tanner forward when Forest were playing with only one up front in the first half.

For me, calling it a back 3 or 5 is the same really. It’s 3 with the ball and 5 without and we have the ball about 50% of the time so it’s all semantics I would say

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, And Its Smith said:

Can certainly see why Manning could keep with the back five. It makes us very solid. Just need it to be not at the expense of the top end of the pitch.  I actually don’t think it is that much. We get in good positions and then don’t execute well.

 

As for Tanner, he’s found his best position.  Superb last 4 games 

58 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I just said similar on the match thread.
Solid & good width , decent MF just needs a tweak up top.
One criticism would be when we get wide at pace, we do lack bodies in the box. When it works, like TC's chance from a cross, we can look dangerous. I think we need to find a good fit for the 2 roles just behind/with TC . Twine looks a reasonable bet, Mehmeti needs to think "team" more if it's going to be him though. Knight isn't the finisher we need there , but he finds all the right positions, so maybe he'll settle with Twines vision .

Digressing from Tanner per se, this is the pros and cons of the way we are playing.  The spaces and potential overloads are in wide areas, the solidity of our defence in the central areas, meaning that even if we get past the full backs in wide areas we are crossing to one or two targets.  We need to find a way of getting beyond the opposition defence inside the lines of the penalty area, for crosses and cut-backs.

FWIW that’s not gonna be easy against what I thought was a pretty tidy Forest defence last night.  But it is a bit of a worry in league games.  By the time we’ve “gone round the outside” we are finding ourselves trying to fashion chances against pretty well set defences.

Its why some of our better chances are coming on the break (Cornick to Pring), set-pieces (Knight header / Pring shot) or from regaining the ball high up / pressing (Conway - West Ham - twice).  Last night we saw Vyner make a chance, breaking forward from an interception.

Having said all that, if we play at that level (I thought we played well) on Tuesday we will beat Coventry….but probably one-nil!

[HOZDA]

Tanner is underrated. Does the basics right, doesn't shy from a tackle and his consistency/availablity has been really good. Nothing flashy - keeps it simple. Great 1on1 duelist too

The current RCB of a back 3 suits him and his attributes. At RB, yes he isn't the most skillful, forward-minded and direct player, which I think a lot of the frustration and criticism was directed at, but that's not really his playstyle. Saying that, he did have one moment yesterday where he burst into space and put in a nice cross - so he will have moments to overlap in this formation, but I think having players like McCrorie/Sykes/Twine infront places less expectation on him to do this.

As mentioned by another poster, he's stepped up well from League 2 and for me, should be a starter for us. Still young too - keep it up George!

[cidercity1987]

I love him, so tidy on the ball and his positioning is fantastic

[cidercity1987]

There was one dodgy moment towards the end of the first half when he pushed infield to help Vyner stop a counter attack through the middle but left his man clear out wide

Their best chance came from that so hopefully the coaches can go through it with him as in that instance he went too far inside 

[Natchfever]

3 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

Is it a back 5? To my eye it looks more 3 4 3 certainly going forward, but @Davefevs keeps using the term "fluid" so I will go with that. It certainly changes with the situation in games, I noticed that Zak was waving Tanner forward when Forest were playing with only one up front in the first half.

Nice no nonsense defender.

Think he will make way when Atkinson or Naismith return though with 3 at the back.

[Port Said Red]

1 minute ago, Natchfever said:

Nice no nonsense defender.

Think he will make way when Atkinson or Naismith return though with 3 at the back.

Allows for some R&R especially when you see our upcoming schedule.

[Natchfever]

2 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Allows for some R&R especially when you see our upcoming schedule.

Definitely, hes been an excellent acquisition.

[Engvall’s Splinter]

Scandalously underrated by some fans. Absolute snip at 300k and plenty of growth in him to develop also. 

[1960maaan]

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

FWIW that’s not gonna be easy against what I thought was a pretty tidy Forest defence last night.

Unexpected game , or score last night. They have scored 2 or more in each of the last 6 games, but conceded 10 in those games , 4 against Blackpool. 
Then last night we didn't test their keeper and Max didn't have a save of note to make. Not sure what to expect in the replay.

5 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

As for Tanner, he’s found his best position.

It does seem a good fit.
Early days I know, but that McCrorie / Tanner rotation was really promising. It's the first time for a while Old George has bombed forward without a 2nd thought. Gave Ross passing options, and carried the ball forward much more often than he had done at FB. Hope that continues.

[MelksRed]

9 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

with Tanner and McCrorie it feels like the right side of our defence has suddenly become a strength rather than a weakness.

Agree - McCrorie still lingers in midfield (with some pretty impressive in field play I might add) and I would like him to take advantage of the opponents half (like Sykes does....just runs). A couple of times last night Tanner carried the ball forward and McCrorie made no attempt to provide an option going up the line....in one case Tanner went past him, looked up then passed it backward too him. 

Appreciate that he is only just back...I'm enthused by this touch and vision. 

 

[downendcity]

4 hours ago, Engvall’s Splinter said:

Scandalously underrated by some fans. Absolute snip at 300k and plenty of growth in him to develop also. 

To Bournemouth for £10m next year it is then!

[Ska Junkie]

What happens when Sykes is fit?

[Red Skin]

9 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

What happens when Sykes is fit?

Plays in the front three for me.  Sykes, Conway, Twine.

[RedRock]

2 minutes ago, Red Skin said:

Plays in the front three for me.  Sykes, Conway, Twine.

Now then, that gets the juices flowing! 
 

[kit]

The criticism to a certain extent was fair. If you are playing a system and style that requires a marauding full back then he simply isn't up to it because he kills attacks, can't cross, can't beat a player with pace or skill.

In games where we've been on the back foot and need to defend first he's looked great, such as Sunderland where he nullified Clarke. He's a great option for games where we need to defend well at the end if games etc.

He looked good at centre back last season when he and pring played at either side of a back 3, so his performances the last couple of games are nothing new. It suits his game a lot better playing there, comfortable on the ball, good at defending, simple attacking options i.e. carrying the ball when it opens up or just playing simple passes to more creative players rather than being the creator and being a safe out ball when required.

We've never seen him play at centre back as part of a pair so no idea if he can do that role. At the moment he is a good option at rcb, with a fully fit set of options he looks like he can compete there to either start or keep other centre backs honest with real challengers to start there and can also fill certain situations at full back. He is not the answer as full back playing a back four if we want to play front foot football for a season.

[marmite]

I was critical of Tanner a while back but I think he has improved lately (LM influence?), so I'll hold my hands up and say we'll done George.  Keep it up and that place in the starting 11 is yours. Part of a really strong back line now.