O’Shea

[alwaysaclaret]

Certainly his best game for us today. His passing looked good for the most part although 3 poorly weighted second half passes could’ve proved costly against a better team. We do need to encourage our young team. Well played today anyway.

Yes I also noticed the 3 underweighted passes too, cut these out and could be a fine player, although there was also times he could have got right into the heart of Sheff Utd yesterday with plenty of space at times in front of him. However, he's best game in a claret shirt, but thing's to improve on.

[CrosspoolClarets]

He’s the equivalent to Kevin Long for me, not bad in the air, solid backup, but limited as a starter in the PL. He is more mobile than Long, and has a better long pass, but he gives up more chances like the one Trafford smothered in the second half.

Beyer’s stupid booking when the game was already won could end up costing us 3 points on Tuesday, because I doubt Ekdal is fit enough for 90 and I worry about O’Shea coping at LCB which will eliminate his long pass ability by putting him on his wrong foot. I’d play Delcroix and O’Shea on that basis.

[Goalposts]

He won his headers , and played the pass to Larson. His distribution is terrible generally gave away the ball 6 times to a utd player, and passed short underweighted balls a few times to burnley players. His reading of the game in general appears to still be developing he tends to slow the ball down , but definitely a much better game, dont think with a fully fit ekdal and al dakhil he gets to start alongside Breyer.

[alwaysaclaret]

He’s the equivalent to Kevin Long for me, not bad in the air, solid backup, but limited as a starter in the PL. He is more mobile than Long, and has a better long pass, but he gives up more chances like the one Trafford smothered in the second half.

Beyer’s stupid booking when the game was already won could end up costing us 3 points on Tuesday, because I doubt Ekdal is fit enough for 90 and I worry about O’Shea coping at LCB which will eliminate his long pass ability by putting him on his wrong foot. I’d play Delcroix and O’Shea on that basis.

Is Beyer on 5 bookings ?

[RVclaret]

He’s the equivalent to Kevin Long for me, not bad in the air, solid backup, but limited as a starter in the PL. He is more mobile than Long, and has a better long pass, but he gives up more chances like the one Trafford smothered in the second half.

Beyer’s stupid booking when the game was already won could end up costing us 3 points on Tuesday, because I doubt Ekdal is fit enough for 90 and I worry about O’Shea coping at LCB which will eliminate his long pass ability by putting him on his wrong foot. I’d play Delcroix and O’Shea on that basis.

Ekdal has been an LCB for all of his career before joining us!

[Conroy92]

People noticed the two or three misplaced passes but didn't seem to notice that along with the ball he played for Larsen there was also a delightful ball he whipped to the back post that Koleosho should have found the target with.
Thought he played well.

[Rileybobs]

Lots being made of a few misplaced passes, which whilst often frustrating seem to be fairly minor errors and shouldn’t detract from all the good work he’s doing. He’s not the finished article but I like him.

[spt_claret]

He’s the equivalent to Kevin Long for me, not bad in the air, solid backup, but limited as a starter in the PL. He is more mobile than Long, and has a better long pass, but he gives up more chances like the one Trafford smothered in the second half.

Beyer’s stupid booking when the game was already won could end up costing us 3 points on Tuesday, because I doubt Ekdal is fit enough for 90 and I worry about O’Shea coping at LCB which will eliminate his long pass ability by putting him on his wrong foot. I’d play Delcroix and O’Shea on that basis.

Long was a super professional servant for us.
O'Shea is absolutely miles better than Long.

[JimmyRobbo]

So different to Long. Loved Long for what he is: a limited footballer who works hard and is very professional.

O'Shea is streets ahead. In almost every area, perhaps bar his heading, but they are night and day.

I think O'Shea is more like Ben Mee was in his early years for us. I'm not suggesting he will end up as important a central defender as BM but a closer comparison.

[jedi_master]

To say I have not been impressed would be an understatement (though he’s not alone in that), but he was excellent yesterday both defensively and carrying the ball up into midfield. Excellent ball for JBL as well. Let’s hope he keeps it up.

[claretgimmer]

I think Ekdals presence on the bench probably elevated his performance level which I thought was his best so far but I also feel games against the likes of a physical McBurnie suit him more than against skilful slick type of forward that top clubs tend to employ

[ClaretLoup]

Great news everyone, O'Shea has made Garth Crooks team of the week

[Claret3495]

Costing us yet again!

[TsarBomba]

That ball from O’Shea in to Berge was just plain stupid. Kompany can’t legislate for such thick decision making.

[Boss Hogg]

Ideally Ekdal partners Beyer. We’ll see next match maybe.

[Woodleyclaret]

Absolute gift with stupid back passes

[CoolClaret]

That ball from O’Shea in to Berge was just plain stupid. Kompany can’t legislate for such thick decision making.

I guarentee they practice that exact bit of play on the training ground.

[mybloodisclaret]

I guarentee they practice that exact bit of play on the training ground.

100% do they do it when Berge has 2 men closing him down? Crazy pass.

[warksclaret]

Only Man City can play that type of ball, and turn it into an attacking situation

[CoolClaret]

100% do they do it when Berge has 2 men closing him down? Crazy pass.

Yep because the ball is straight back to the keeper and then it's out to Charlie Taylor who was in acres of space and you're in behind.

Sounds great in theory - but it's a lot harder to execute against good teams.

[agreenwood]

I guarentee they practice that exact bit of play on the training ground.

Course they do. It’s deliberately designed to draw the oppo midfield in, with Berge then laying it off to the full back to break the line. If the oppo don’t come with the press on Berge it’s not effective.

It’s risky and requires solid execution. The latter didn’t happen and it’s arguable that neither O’Shea or Berge were quite in the right area of the pitch for it to work as well as intended.

[Elizabeth]

Berge should have done so much better

[CoolClaret]

Course they do. It’s deliberately designed to draw the oppo midfield in, with Berge then laying it off to the full back to break the line. If the oppo don’t come with the press on Berge it’s not effective.

It’s risky and requires solid execution. The latter didn’t happen and it’s arguable that neither O’Shea or Berge were quite in the right area of the pitch for it to work as well as intended.

Precisely.

So it's not something that we can particularly blame on the players. That's why it's on the manager for me.

[Dark Cloud]

Berge should have done so much better

I really do agree, but I also think he was given a bloody shitty pass and was so busy thinking how the hell he was going to offload the ball that he forgot he actually needed to control said ball first.

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

They still think they’re playing against Millwall and Blackpool the way they mess around at the back. Can’t do it at this level just get rid.

So many errors we’re making at the back just don’t play the ball, at the back.

[agreenwood]

Precisely.

So it's not something that we can particularly blame on the players. That's why it's on the manager for me.

It’s a pretty common tactic now. We did it last season and were so good at it that the opposition largely stopped trying to press us high, but it took us a while to perfect it. We conceded a sloppy goal or two trying it in the early games.

We’ve had joy at times with it this season, but clearly the standard of opposition is higher and we’ve started again with a largely new team.

We actually probably caused Wolves more problems with our high press tonight, then they did us. They certainly weren’t much better at playing out from the back than us. The difference is Hwang punishes our clanger and Jay lets them off big time.

[Elizabeth]

I really do agree, but I also think he was given a bloody shitty pass and was so busy thinking how the hell he was going to offload the ball that he forgot he actually needed to control said ball first.

That's making excuses for him DC. The ultimate responsibility was on him regardless of what was passed to him.

[taio]

Both O'Shea and Berge were at fault.

[elwaclaret]

It should never have gone anywhere but launched up top. They were set for the press, anyone one of them could have just cleared… and that includes the pass back to Trafford, there were options.

It is not difficult to see when sides have started adopting a pressing game, the coaches should be screaming to mix it up.

[Murger]

I’m still not having him. Being decent against a dogshite Sheffield Utd is no great feat.

[fungus_the_bogeyman]

I thought I saw some glimmers of hope at the weekend, but how many points is he going to cost us?

[BabylonClaret]

He had a good game tonight apart from the error. He should have seen that the sensible and efdwct8ve patter CoolClaret sets out above wasn't on because there was no ball out for Berge

[burnleymik]

Struggles when he is under pressure on the ball, but getting better and better defensively. He is quick, strong and we saw on Saturday if he gets time on the ball he can ping one hell of a cross. I am sure he can learn composure and cut out those mistakes and I think he will be a decent player for us.

The biggest concern is can we afford the time and mistakes to allow him to develop at this level? I suppose that all comes down to whether the board/VK are okay with us being relegated from the Prem. We have a few other players in a similar boat to O'Shea.

This next transfer window will tell us how they are thinking.

[Dark Cloud]

I guarentee they practice that exact bit of play on the training ground.

********!

[CoolClaret]

********!

Good argument

Mental how we did it all last year, at other times which has cost us during the season and posters/fans acting like we don’t practice these patterns of play to get out of a press?

Under stress you revert to your training. Guarantee if they’re playing 11vs11 or scenarios if O’Shea was there in training and he lined it VK would say something.

The same as when Beyer mucked about with it and got dispossessed against Palace and we conceded.

[Dark Cloud]

I respectfully disagree in that Beyer's cock up against Palace was very different from tonight's cock up and that no matter how many times a team practices "playing out from the back" a stupid pass is still a stupid pass and a high level professional player should bloody see that and O'Shea didn't and played Berge into trouble. Berge then made a bad situation worse and showed the control of a rather squiffy André Grey and the rest is bloody (sadly) history....as they say!

[CryerBFC]

Just watched VKs post match from Amazon, doesn’t say much on the error but did say that OSheas ball into midfield was sloppy and caused us to lose the ball

[TopCat]

Berge should have done so much better

Unbelievable.

[Benson]

Just watched VKs post match from Amazon, doesn’t say much on the error but did say that OSheas ball into midfield was sloppy and caused us to lose the ball

It’s Kompanys tactic and he need to own it.

[Alan Young]

That's making excuses for him DC. The ultimate responsibility was on him regardless of what was passed to him.

He couldn’t go back to O’Shea or Trafford and had 3 Wolves players closing in. Love to know what he was expected to do in that situation. A poor pass in any area of the pitch. An awful one on the edge of our own box.

[jrgbfc]

Berge should have done so much better

He should, but he should never have been given the ball there in the first place. About 90% of the blame has to go on O Shea for me. Was a ridiculous pass to play given it was about 2 minutes before the interval.