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Really? His passing is nee better than Larssons
Ki may be a great passer. Yet his decision making with those passes actually, at times was detrimental to the team. It is no use having a >90% passing accuracy if they are the wrong passes.Come on Rocky, this is a football forum and you're letting the side down.
Ki is a better passer than Larsson. When it comes to composure they shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence.
We're missing the close initial outlet that Ki gave us. He was the one who quickly established our possession and started the passing sequence in a controlled manner. Without him we might as well bring in Big Sam Allardyce. It's like a f**king game of rugby when we regain possession for fleeting seconds when defending.
Larsson can do the simple stuff as well as Colback, nee doubts about it. He also tries to create which often means trying to make a more difficult pass. We don't miss Colback one bit. Ki we do as his passing was often 1st time and quicker than Colback who often needed 3-4 touches before playing a simple pass.Sorry, but it was a lot better, particularly in terms of keeping the ball. Ki and Colback regularly approached 90% completion. Larsson has usually hovered around 80%.
Cue the perennial pass sideways red herring. Keeping the ball is more important to a 'passing game'.
I think they've done their season's quotas already haven't they?Our midfield just isnt good enough. It doesnt create or score goals. Catts and Larsson will create and/or score how many this season? Johnson seems to do 2 or 3 good things in a game then disappear.
Just hope Alvarez, Buckley and Giaccherini can add something and Rodwell starts to produce.
Passing philosophy is great to a point, but we get knowhere and have no cutting edge. No support to wickham, so he loses it or it comes backwards. We work the ball out wide and the player in space, is a fullback who has no pace or can't cross a ball, instead of someone like johnson. Pass, pass, pass, is all good, but with no cutting edge, just makes us predictable and easy to defend against.
The other problem is we're defending too deep, probably cos O'Shea and Brown have no pace left and we can't risk exposing them, but every other team presses us much higher up the pitch when we're in possession. We sit back and defend the penalty box with as many bodies as possible, just like we did under MON - but we don't have anyone with pace (like McClean ) to get us out on a quick break and we don't have a forward that can hold it up until the rest get up in support.Passing philosophy is great to a point, but we get knowhere and have no cutting edge. No support to wickham, so he loses it or it comes backwards. We work the ball out wide and the player in space, is a fullback who has no pace or can't cross a ball, instead of someone like johnson. Pass, pass, pass, is all good, but with no cutting edge, just makes us predictable and easy to defend against.
Absolutely mate. I'm all for passing it at the back and using mannone, rather than knocking it over the fullback and giving it away. But we are so one paced about when we do go forward and far too cautious as well. Our "wingers" tucking in all the time is something thats rrally getting on my tits a bit now. Obviously been told to do it, but I felt sorry for vergini on Saturday especially. He has no pace and can't beat a man going forward, but he was our outlet ball. Surely getting johnson in those positions, is what we should be working on. He had a great spell last season, doing just that. Not saying every game, but games against bottom half sides, I would have johnson and buckley out wide and stretch the pitch. Both like to run at players and will give is more of a threat. How many crosses do you see our so called wingers put in? Not many. Someone like wickham or even fletcher needs service like this. Not the ball fired at him head height, then expected to deal with it, with 2 or 3 opposition players around.I can see where you are coming from mate, I think a faster tempo and better movement in the final 3rd will remedy this though. We have done it well enough under Poyet at times but this season has seen us move the ball a lot slower than we should be
I'm all for periods of possession and slowing the game down but this only useful at certain points in the game like just after scoring etc
Like i say mate, i would have johnson and buckley out wide and the alvarez or giacc behind wickham. At least we then have a bit of pace and directness out wide, to get us up the pitch.The other problem is we're defending too deep, probably cos O'Shea and Brown have no pace left and we can't risk exposing them, but every other team presses us much higher up the pitch when we're in possession. We sit back and defend the penalty box with as many bodies as possible, just like we did under MON - but we don't have anyone with pace (like McClean ) to get us out on a quick break and we don't have a forward that can hold it up until the rest get up in support.
Absolutely mate. I'm all for passing it at the back and using mannone, rather than knocking it over the fullback and giving it away. But we are so one paced about when we do go forward and far too cautious as well. Our "wingers" tucking in all the time is something thats rrally getting on my tits a bit now. Obviously been told to do it, but I felt sorry for vergini on Saturday especially. He has no pace and can't beat a man going forward, but he was our outlet ball. Surely getting johnson in those positions, is what we should be working on. He had a great spell last season, doing just that. Not saying every game, but games against bottom half sides, I would have johnson and buckley out wide and stretch the pitch. Both like to run at players and will give is more of a threat. How many crosses do you see our so called wingers put in? Not many. Someone like wickham or even fletcher needs service like this. Not the ball fired at him head height, then expected to deal with it, with 2 or 3 opposition players around. Totally agree, by upping the pace, teams will make mistakes against us or we will find ourselves in better areas of the pitch. Too slow and too predictable atm.
You're right, but if we do manage to put a few decent crosses in, our forward(s) need to position themselves better. There was one time on Saturday where, I think it was Rodwell, got down the right and put in a cross from the edge of the box, but Wickham had gone to the back post and there were three Burnley defenders between him and the ball - naturally it didn't get past the first one! Where was the player making a run to the near post? If it had got to Wickham, it would have needed to be the best ball ever for him to have scored from where he was.Absolutely mate. I'm all for passing it at the back and using mannone, rather than knocking it over the fullback and giving it away. But we are so one paced about when we do go forward and far too cautious as well. Our "wingers" tucking in all the time is something thats rrally getting on my tits a bit now. Obviously been told to do it, but I felt sorry for vergini on Saturday especially. He has no pace and can't beat a man going forward, but he was our outlet ball. Surely getting johnson in those positions, is what we should be working on. He had a great spell last season, doing just that. Not saying every game, but games against bottom half sides, I would have johnson and buckley out wide and stretch the pitch. Both like to run at players and will give is more of a threat. How many crosses do you see our so called wingers put in? Not many. Someone like wickham or even fletcher needs service like this. Not the ball fired at him head height, then expected to deal with it, with 2 or 3 opposition players around.
Totally agree, by upping the pace, teams will make mistakes against us or we will find ourselves in better areas of the pitch. Too slow and too predictable atm.
Like i say mate, i would have johnson and buckley out wide and the alvarez or giacc behind wickham. At least we then have a bit of pace and directness out wide, to get us up the pitch.
Don't know what you're on about. Mannone took it off one of the centre halves about a hundred times. He was always willing in support, to creatively pass it along to the other centre half. Worked a charm every time. I think Mannone had 100% completion rate on 100 passes, if you check the stats on OPTA, better than any midfielder.....someone needs to take it off the centre halves earlier so we can move it a bit quicker - we also seem to lack a bit of bravery in terms of the final ball in the last third - we need more like Seb's pass to Borini against West Brom. Currently, only Giacc and AJ seem to have any creativity.
Don't know what you're on about. Mannone took it off one of the centre halves about a hundred times. He was always willing in support, to creatively pass it along to the other centre half. Worked a charm every time. I think Mannone had 100% completion rate on 100 passes, if you check the stats on OPTA, better than any midfielder.....