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northbankboy68 11:14 Mon Jan 3
My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Don't get me wrong, there is so much to be pleased, even proud about, with WHU these days. Credit is due to Moyes, the coaching staff, players and fans.
That said, there is one aspect of our game that constantly troubles me. It's as if we have become one of those teams, against a half decent side at least, that needs to score 3 or 4 to win a game. Why is this? There are a few factors in my view:
- In Oggie and Zouma we have lost two outstanding defenders and this needs to be addressed in the window. Cresswell's injury also doesn't help
- In virtually every game we too often give the ball away too cheaply when not under pressure. Repeat offenders of this include Benrahma, Masuaku, Dawson and occasionally Diop. This needs to be addressed in coaching. Sometimes I think we can turn exciting attack into crisis defense faster than lager turns to pass.
- Once we go two or more goals up we somehow seem to lose the ability to maintain pressure on the other team or alternatively don't seem adept at managing the game as some other teams. This also needs to be addressed in the coaching sessions in my view.
Anyway, Happy New Year all and let's hope for an even better 2022! COYI!
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Replies - Newest Posts First ( Show In Chronological Order)
Sniper
12:18 Wed Jan 19
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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We’re not great at keeping possession and this also makes our game management poor. That’s why we had those successive games of going 3-0 up and then having the lead cut back last season, same as the palace game, same also against Brighton and Brentford at home this season
But with Dawson and diop in defence and Antonio looking shattered up front, our distribution is woeful and there’s not much to aim for.
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SUM A DING WONG
7:56 Tue Jan 18
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Just to add as well, when Antonio's movement is better, it creates space for the other players to move into, so players can then be found more easily.
Even with more time on the ball, if there's no movement, it's very difficult to play the ball forward.
If you're Man City or Liverpool, it's not so bad because you can drop deep, take the ball off the defence, and pass your way through teams that are compact.
Unfortunately, we're not Man City or Liverpool.
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SUM A DING WONG
7:09 Tue Jan 18
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Antonio isn't moving about like we know he can.
Consequently, every ball has to be aimed at him with pin point accuracy.
Much easier playing the ball into space ( which you can do when Antonio's movement is better).
I don't know why we don't just give Antonio a well deserved rest and play our other striker.
Ahh, hold on.
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pdbis
6:06 Tue Jan 18
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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3-5-2 on saturday
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Nutsin
11:53 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Fuck me Pickles talking football!
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Hammer and Pickle
11:14 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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It's a truism but like in cricket, were dropped catches, lose matches, in football it's the balls given away that lose games. We definitely need to work on this.
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epsom
11:03 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Sajmo 11.04
I agree with you that the random balls from the back are an issue. A couple of times I watched Dawson's distribution from the back and the lack of available options was very obvious.
Southampton away in particular, I watched him because I felt exactly as you described, I remember him looking up and not seeing any easy passes and having to hit long, whereas on the left Ogbonna always had an option to pass as Cresswell, Rice, Fornals and Behrama were always looking for the ball. Since Ogbonna and Cresswell have been injured our ability to play out from the back has diminished further.
The first Lanzini goal at palace was played out from the back with a long ball to Coufal on the right before Bowen found Rice and he went on the charge up the left. So we can do it as the build up play was very good...
I don't pretend to know the answer, Dawson is no playmaker, his receiving and passing is slow, but we have to give Dawson and Drop better options when they do have the ball and get much better at playing out from the back.
A posting on the obvious I know, but with Ogbonna out, we have to fix this as even Zouma is not great at playing out from the back....
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fraser
3:45 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Brighton even against 10 we could only gift back possession..very poor that it looked like they had the extra man..
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Westside
2:06 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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and don't think we have conceded that many late doors to lose a point or two?
Manchester United at home, 1 point, Brentford at home 2 points, Brighton at home 2 points,
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Mex Martillo
1:37 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Carters, we need good replacements in before they go. They are just about keeping us going forward at the moment and without them we would be much worse.
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ludo21
1:37 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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We seem to be able to go for periods of the game showing good passing and possession then five minutes later go completely to pot, giving the ball away and clearing our lines to opposition player time and again... it's very frustrating.
How we play seems to depend a lot on how a player like Benrahma is playing. When he's on form we generally play very well. When is isn't we lose possession too easily. Obviously he will be missing for a few weeks so presumably Vlasic will get a bigger role. He seems to be playing with a bit more confidence now, and his goal will have helped, so it will be interesting to see how he goes.
Fornals was a star player at the start of the season but has gone off the boil. Hopefully he will come back stronger.
Any team will suffer if their two first choice CBs re out (Liverpool last season). I think we have done okay considering. Not many sides will have as good 3rd / 4th choice CBs as Dawson and Diop but having said that Zouma can't come back soon enough and a left footed CB / long term replacement for Ogbonna should be a priority... the Bournemouth player who can also play LB makes sense if Moyes thinks he's good enough.
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CARTERS
11:35 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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vexed.
100%
Also, dump some of the Wage Stealers....
Yamalenko,
Masuaku.
Fredericks.
My patience is done with Diop.
Play him on his right side and then decide.
Once that's done get rid of him or ,play him in his natural position.
24m for him and 2m for Dawason.
Is this Brain surgery?? Why is Dawson ahead of him??
Now C & H say play him in midfield>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FFS
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master
11:06 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Lack of movement off the ball or once a pass is made is quite evident. Lanzini and Rice are the only players really moving.
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Sajmo1
11:04 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Random long balls from the back are the biggest negative for me. It really hurts seeing Dawson repeatedly handing the ball over to the opposition. Same goes for Fab and pretty much everyone else at the back except for Cress
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Mex Martillo
10:46 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Fraser, I think we agreed there, strange times...
Maybe the excuse in the Palace game was we were just knackered after so many games and best way to save energy was to sit back and punt the ball up field. It was a worry to watch though. Not sure about the excuses in the other games...
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Mad Dog
10:32 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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Another concern is that in a lot of games we seemed to start off slow and only wake-up once we conceded.
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Manuel
10:27 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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IIRC correctly we have killed off quite a few games over the last year or so with late goals, so I wouldn't say it's a huge problem, and don't think we have conceded that many late doors to lose a point or two?
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fraser
10:23 Tue Jan 4
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Darby - Very true, but we just seem to panic and do really fucking stupid things
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Darby_
10:09 Tue Jan 4
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In theory we should be at our counterattacking best when we're ahead as the other team can't sit back.
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fraser
10:07 Tue Jan 4
Re: My Main Concern About Our Style of Play
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We are fucking terrible at closing out games.. We were 3 up with 8 minutes to go and nearly blew it.
We sit too deep and then hit long balls straight back to the opposition time and time again. That is by far our worst trait..
We seem scared to pass the ball sometimes and it almost looks like we'd rather hoof it up the pitch and get back into shape and defend than risk a stray pass getting the ball and team up the pitch.
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