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Diarra out till December

woodlebert said:
Good post. Just because it was the best option at home with 10 men for 60 mins against Villa doesn’t mean it’s the best option now Diarra is out

We may well see it, but for different reasons
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Getting Ballard in with Mukiele's throws is a potential weapon. Mukiele and Alderete are likely comfortable either side of central defence. Maybe all three are decent in one on one situations as well - because unless you're playing defensive wingbacks they're going to have to be comfortable being pulled into wide areas and isolated at times, will they then still have the same level of collective strength they appear to have now though?

But then you start looking at wingbacks and who is suited and also midfield and who is tasked with helping out now you can't easily double up down that side and if they're suited to it physically- like Xhaka and how that potentially changes our patterns of play.

It's not as simple as dumping an extra forward in like some think and an extra centre half - we've spent over a year now breaking quickly after turning over possesion and the wingers have played a big part in the build up play. Whilst you want to be able to change things I don't think we should be changing the whole system just to get Ballard's aerial prowess in. As much as I like him he'll probably be injured after 4 or 5 games again anyway 😀
 

bedlington mackem said:
Who thought that Elliott Anderson and Adam Wharton would make the step up to the Premiership and England ? You cant write Dan off , he is a good footballer
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They both looked a lot better than Neil. Thats why.

People see things that just aren’t there with him.
Boots said:
I mean you wont. You seem very invested in your opinion, which is based on the square root of fuckall. Dan Neal is perfectly adequate cover and will make the step up without too much problem. ill be happy to be proved right
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Played 3 of 450 plus minutes. You seem to have more confidence in him than the club.
 
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That’s a bit of bad luck. I suppose at least he might not go to the African nations now, which could help us late December. Of course on the flip side, he could be fit mid December, off to the AFCON and then back to us in January, which wouldn’t be great.
 
SAFC 2012 said:
They both looked a lot better than Neil. Thats why.

People see things that just aren’t there with him.

Played 3 of 450 plus minutes. You seem to have more confidence in him than the club.
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Elliot Anderson is vastly superior to Dan Neill. Any one who ever watched Anderson will not be surprised to see him hit the level he has. Maybe bot earlier than spme thought.Only good news is the skunks let him go. Dirty oil guzzling Camel jockeys love it🤣
 
Perryqhill said:
I very much doubt we'll play 3 at the back as it'll leave gaps down the sides or we'll end up being defensive anyway. I can't even see how it's close to being our best option. Then also how do you operate with the likes of Xhaka? He'd then be expected to cover some of those gaps in the wider areas and moving him into areas he's more likely to be exposed im is going to isolate him occasionally and take him away from the areas we need him giving us what he can on the ball.

We've spent over a year with 4 at the back, we've always been able to go to a 442 out of possession, which is pretty straoght forward to get players to adapt and fit into and due to how we're set up our wingers are never reply going to have the support or flexibility around them, at this level, to stand out.

People are getting carried away because of how we adapted at home to Villa and how we tried to take advanted of set pieces as they were our best option at that point. but any 352 type formation we would use would always be limited by a lack of freedom in certain roles and would require a level of ball retention that we've not managed to display yet to make it work. It would come with more pitfalls and leave more gaps than anything positive we would gain from it.
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Spent over a year with a complete different set of players just to note. You really have to be flexible and change when necessary.

Matter of opinion and how you see the formation working but really don’t think it would leave any gaps tbh, in fact it will push teams down our wings where we would probably want them to go. Xhaka wouldn’t change imo as they’d still play 3 centre mids. We are limited in roles in our 4-3-3/4-4-2 defensively, we are very rigid and in fact isolated to the forward. It gives us the option to have someone close to Isidor and spring on counters.

Just don’t necessarily see the whole “we just play 4 at the back and that’s what we are built on” argument. Championship yes, but not now. I’ll be happy to be wrong on Saturday but I think you’ll see us change to a 3, and as I say just for the foreseeable (Forest and Utd away).
 
Fkn he’ll just seen it on SAFC. Bloody typical!!!
Boots said:
I mean you wont. You seem very invested in your opinion, which is based on the square root of fuckall. Dan Neal is perfectly adequate cover and will make the step up without too much problem. ill be happy to be proved right
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Who and if you’re on about our Dan Neil.. not a chance he’s on par with the 3 we signed. No idea what you’ve been watching to think that
 
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Perryqhill said:
I very much doubt we'll play 3 at the back as it'll leave gaps down the sides or we'll end up being defensive anyway. I can't even see how it's close to being our best option. Then also how do you operate with the likes of Xhaka? He'd then be expected to cover some of those gaps in the wider areas and moving him into areas he's more likely to be exposed im is going to isolate him occasionally and take him away from the areas we need him giving us what he can on the ball.

We've spent over a year with 4 at the back, we've always been able to go to a 442 out of possession, which is pretty straoght forward to get players to adapt and fit into and due to how we're set up our wingers are never reply going to have the support or flexibility around them, at this level, to stand out.

People are getting carried away because of how we adapted at home to Villa and how we tried to take advanted of set pieces as they were our best option at that point. but any 352 type formation we would use would always be limited by a lack of freedom in certain roles and would require a level of ball retention that we've not managed to display yet to make it work. It would come with more pitfalls and leave more gaps than anything positive we would gain from it.
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I agree with this however we are suddenly in the strange position of when we need a goal the best thing to do may be to throw on a centre back
 
Rocky77 said:
Reinildo is out for 3 games, Talbi would be the LWB.
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He is good defensively ( Reggie gave a nod to that ) and very quick .
woodlebert said:
I think he trusts Rigg to understand the system tbh.

RLB played him as the second player pressing in the front line a lot last season, which is a difficult job to do when you're in a midfield 3.

If we're looking for solidity, Le Fee on the left and Rigg in the middle probably provides it. Adingra is more of a wildcard on the left wing
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I thought the a slight disappointment( in a great team performance ) at the weekend was Enzo
He wasn’t great defensively for me ?
Think Tabli is better ?
Mind I trust totally in Reggie
 
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