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claretspice

-----------Trafford Beyer OShea Ekdal Vitinho JBG* Brownhill Berge Redmond -------------Odobert ------------Rodriguez I'd like the extra height and presence in the backline to help us defend set pieces, hence Beyer at full back (where he's played loads in the past I believe). I also gather Odobert p...

claretspice

Lacks any sort of discipline at times and is all over the place. He doesn’t support Jay. I said at the weekend- he's good in possession but he doesn’t do enough off the ball- either defensively but most especially in making runs off the ball. He makes runs, some good ones - but he doesn’t make enou...

claretspice

If we are thinking of single examples then how about when Trafford played a direct ball over the top against Sheffield United which Amdouni latched onto, brought down exquisitely and created a chance for Jay. Doesn’t seem to go with the ‘waited for the game to come to him’ thing. Jay is doing an ok...

claretspice

You’ve admitted to not watching the game yesterday. I was at the Amex. The build up to the goal involved Jay, he did that part well, he did little else all game and lost every single physical battle with Dunk and Van Hecke. Amdouni was involved quite a bit more and looked threatening all first half...

claretspice

A staggering statistic that offers hope if we can stop giving so many goals away from trying to play out from the back whatever the risk. That’s down to VK. It looked like tactics changed against Sheffield with long balls helping reduce predictability , but we reverted to type and unnecessarily gif...

claretspice

If you look at the player ratings and man of the match votes on here then your view on him not being MOM vs Sheffield is an outlier (fair enough, your view). He had a major role in creating the first, scored the third and assisted the fourth. That’s 3 goal contributions in a single PL game. I also ...

claretspice

Obafemi looked sharp against Sheff Utd but must have picked up another injury to not be in a squad since but I think a fully fit Obafemi in front of Amdouni would cause mayhem, Obafemi will drag defenders away with his pace and runs to give Amdouni more room, if they close Amdouni down it's a simpl...

claretspice

Amdouni was man of the match against Sheffield and extremely effective first half yesterday. Can’t agree he’s not providing a link option at all. It’s a fair point that it’s not his (or Jay’s) game to stretch the backline and that’s an issue we have without Foster unfortunately. I didn't think Amdo...

claretspice

Noone for Jay until Foster is available to start. I didn't see the game yesterday but in the previous two games Jay has been the more effective of the front two. I thought that was also the case against Palace. It seems to me he's being wrongly maligned. I think if there's a problem in our team up f...

claretspice

Noone for Jay until Foster is available to start. I didn't see the game yesterday but in the previous two games Jay has been the more effective of the front two. I thought that was also the case against Palace. It seems to me he's being wrongly maligned. I think if there's a problem in our team up f...

claretspice

Vitinho to left back and one of various options to right back is another option, of course.

claretspice

Its massive in the sense that the next two games are chances for points before a couple of games that look tough on paper, and when you have 8 points from 16 games you are running very short of chances to resurrect the season.

claretspice

I am sure there is a player in Tresor but there are quite a few examples of players of his ilk not adapting to English football. He's clearly got quality - he moves around the pitch like a proper player and clearly has lovely feel and balance. But he doesn't particularly carry the ball with purpose ...

claretspice

-----------Trafford Beyer O'Shea Ekdal Taylor -------Berge Brownhill JBG-------------------Redmond --------Jay Obafemi Two calls - firstly I liked the look of the Ekdal/O'Shea partnership and given Beyer has played a lot of football at right back I think that (whilst Vitinho hasn't done tonnes wrong...

claretspice

Personally, I think the answer is Redmond for Saturday because he provides a more direct threat and has experience of this division to offer. Tresor looks a footballer to me, but he looks like someone who drifts into space and then looks to pick a pass, rather than someone who carries the ball and c...

claretspice

If Obafemi wasn't on the bench then fair enough. But certainly Redmond (plenty of evidence of him running behind from his Southampton days), and then also Zaroury who has a fizz to his movement that is lacking in Amdouni in particular.

claretspice

steve1264b wrote: ↑
Wed Dec 06, 2023 9:03 pm
So who would you have brought on?

Obafemi and/or Redmond. Redmond instead of JBG and Obafemi for Amdouni on about the hour.

Can make an argument for Zaroury but that's a whole different can of worms.

claretspice

I think our biggest single problem is that we have far too many players who want the ball into feet, and are used to playing in leagues where they can do that without needing to be constantly on the move. Tresor, Amdouni and to a lesser extent Larssen all want that sort of ball and just aren't dynam...

claretspice

Not terrible, but not good enough either. Trafford- 7 - thought he was fine Vitinho - 7 - thought he was solid and progressive enough Taylor - 6 - not bad although beaten easily a couple of times O'Shea - 7 - excellent with one momentary exception - a square pass to a man who is surrounded and the l...

claretspice

Primarily OShea's error for me. Berge has 3 closing his and is trapped. So the ball is a bad idea in the first place and it's also underhit. Perhaps he might have bailed himself out with a really really good touch but I'm not sure the heavy touch made much difference once he was surrounded. I too th...

claretspice

Nothing to do with injuries - we saw it last season and I’m sure that’s why he wasn’t considered at the start of the season. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now - players coming to England from continental leagues can look a touch slow initially till they adapt to the pace of E...

claretspice

Steve-Harpers-perm wrote: ↑
Sat Dec 02, 2023 8:29 pm
The bizarre booking of Beyer as well!

Not sure there was anything bizarre about that except the ludicrous decision of Beyer's to boot the ball high into the Bob Lord when the whistle had evidently gone. Mandatory yellow.

claretspice

His long passing today was excellent and he also delivered a couple of good crosses. His shorter passing at times was a bit untidy - one into touch and 2 or 3 that were intercepted when moving it out to the full back - not a pass you can afford to get wrong at this level.

claretspice

Spice has been banging his drum but it only has one beat. Berge is much more than a deep position player as most can see I don't think saying that a player's best position is as a deeper midfield player rather than an advanced midfield player equates to saying the player is one dimensional, but eve...

claretspice

One gave Vitinho 6 apart from that all 7s and 8s. Yep me- I thought that whilst he saw plenty of the ball, his end product going forwards was hit and miss and that in the first half he was the player against which any joy Sheffield United had came. But clearly a minority view which is of course fine!

claretspice

No idea why it took us that long to move him into the pivot position in midfield but he's been outstanding since installed there. More to come too if he can become just a little more dynamic.

claretspice

Thank goodness for that. Trafford- 7 - pretty much untested but swept up smartly and assuredly a couple of times when we got back passes wrong. Vitinho - 6 - not entirely convincing but he stuck at it. Taylor- 8 - terrific cross for the opener set the tone for a very effective afternoon. O'Shea - 7 ...

claretspice

Just one change for me: Beyer to right back and Ekdal in at centre back. I'm not sure Vitinho is as dicey as some on here make out, but we need as much presence at the back as we can get.

Everything else as we were last week.

claretspice

Wasn't there on Saturday but I found the choice of Zaroury and Ramsey to come on odd. They are two of the most inexperienced players in the squad. He had Redmond for example on the bench who is a very experienced player. We needed game management knowledge in those final minutes. Ramsey is super tal...

claretspice

I doubt very much that another manager would be able to get much more out of the present squad without bringing in another 2 or 3 players. Finding.getting the right players would be much of a lottery too. So we need to stick with Kompany even if it means the almost inevitable relegation. What happe...

claretspice

Not so sure tbh. He’s very headstrong and clearly believes in himself and his abilities (as he should). The workaholic statements and constant reiteration of those points gives me the impression he’s someone that isn’t capable of working under a DoF type. Again, I’d like to reiterate that I wouldn’...

claretspice

Totally agree with all of that Spice - the only point that I’ll add is that I wonder if the new deal or even initial deal included more control/power to VK. One of the reasons that VK/Anderlecht reportedly parted is because they weren’t prepared to offer him the total control that he wanted… That i...

claretspice

My personal view is that (unless there are factors behind the scenes we do not know about) getting rid of Kompany now would be counter productive. This team is heavily invested in Kompany and his structures and I think it's pretty implausible that a change is going to improve matters this season. Th...

claretspice

Big fan of Berge and no surprise he's looking immensely comfortable in that deeper more orthodox midfield position. I quite like the comparison above with Carrick although he's clearly got more desire to drive forwards. He will always have a languid style but I wonder if Kompany will feel he might h...

claretspice

Wasn't there today but seems to me Taylor has to do more to prevent the cross on the outside for the first goal, whilst Beyer makes a bad decision to commit in the first place which takes him out of position in the centre (but also means he was actually backing Taylor up on the inside, allowing Tayl...

claretspice

Two different questions here though. Is he likely to transform the team? No, it'd be mad to imagine he'll have that sort of impact from what we've seen so far. Is he if fit worth trying, to see if he can help shore up a back line which has looked a bit short of confidence and leadership, compared to...

claretspice

Ekdal strikes me as player who has enough about him to manage a game after a long absence. He's an Intelligent player. Given the travails O'Shea and Al Dakhil have had recently, and the general lack of leadership in the team, I'd be extremely tempted to put him in if he's fully fit. The only way to ...

claretspice

Trafford Roberts Taylor Ekdal Beyer Berge Brownhill Gudmundsson Koleosho Rodriguez Redmond We need a focal point to our attack, which Jay did fine against Palace, and we need his presence defending set plays. Redmond plays as the second striker because frankly Amdouni hasn't shown enough starting ga...

claretspice

boatshed bill wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 10, 2023 9:38 pm
The situation with Lyle Foster has created the need for someone who can lead the line, if Brereton Diaz can do it we could do a lot worse.

Don't think that is what Brereton Diaz is. Played off Gallagher at Rovers. Not sure he's what we need.

claretspice

Against the better teams he needs to be further forward. Against sides around us he's good enough to carry the ball from deeper. I'd argue against the best sides, if we're to try and play out (which realistically we have to; we don't have the front players to do anything else) we need someone who c...

claretspice

His best performances have come in deeper roles when the game is primarily in front of him, and he can pick the ball up and progress it from deep and also drive onto second balls. He was by some distance our best player last weekend playing in that deeper playmaking role and I'd keep him there and b...

claretspice

-----------------Trafford
-----OShea Beyer Delcroix
Roberts-------------------Taylor
---------Berge Brownhill
Gudmundsson Koleosho
------------Redmond

Template we used at home to City. Debate Guddy or amdouni, and Delcroix.

claretspice

I was discussing this today. Last season we started with a “pure” play through the the thirds philosophy, but after some early hiccups, we became a bit more pragmatic and weren’t adverse to going longer into the space behind their defence - Tella was the main beneficiary. That had the effect of the...

claretspice

It's still up to the players to take responsibility for 90 minutes, isn't it? Beyer has held his hand up, and fair play to him. He hasn't said "I'd have booted it out but I've been brainwashed by Vinnie" :D I don't think anyone sensible has suggested brainwashing. But obviously, players decisions a...

claretspice

boatshed bill wrote: ↑
Sat Nov 04, 2023 9:28 pm
That's what managers do, Spice.

Well exactly

claretspice

So you seriously think Kompany is brainwashing the players. Another swipe at the management by the usual suspects. What about players having a mind of their own. After Berge's MOTM performance today spice, I suggest you stop when you are ahead instead of stirring another pot Brainwashing? Eh? He's ...

claretspice

He just had to welly it into the stand. He was on his wrong foot having to execute a tricky turn to get it back to his keeper, under pressure. The desire to play from all areas is laudable, but its hard to escape the conclusion rhe management is over emphasising this and not supporting the players e...

claretspice

A disappointing, frustrating afternoon. Trafford - 5 - relatively little goalkeeping to do but that he had was not especially convincing and whilst he wasn't ar fault for either goal a keeper of real presence might have done more to make the first goal harder. Passing ok but safe and lacking the vis...

claretspice

4th attempt - We saw a 4-2-2-2 / 4-4-2 against Benfica - with Foster out and Jay maybe not being up to leading the line on his own in the PL maybe we play Redmond and Amdouni together in a fluid front two? -----------Keeper Roberts-O'Shea-Beyer*-Taylor -------Berge----Cork ---Brownhill--------Zarou...

claretspice

if Foster is out (and boy that is a blow) then I think I'd play Redmond at number 9, I'm pretty sure he's played there before for Southampton, and Rodriguez has been pretty ineffective. He can come short and go in behind and retains mobility at the top end of the pitch. I don't think Amdouni at numb...

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