- Jan 27, 2011
- 383
- 362
Obviously another hugely disappointing performance today and what could turn out to be a very costly 3 points dropped. For me, Fulham were not spectacular at all and while they defended solidly, we rarely gave them anything to really think about.
There is a common theme which, in my opinion, is costing us big time and is consistent in all three of the games that we have lost recently. That theme is a lack of winger. Wing play is vital to our over all game and our pattern of play has been the same for a very long time. For the vast majority of the last 6 years, we have played with an out and out winger on one side and a guy cutting in on the other side. This changed for a while when we had both Bale and Lennon operating in the wide areas but we have had at least one wide man there for the vast majority of the time, basically for as long as Lennon has been in the first team (see also Simon Davies, Andy Reid etc).
What this gives us is width. The main advantage of this width is that it forces the opposition to 'seperate' in the middle of the park, they have to commit at least 1 midfielder and a full back to deal with our winger and full back combination, meaning there are gaps in which 1 of our CM's, our strikers and our opposite winger coming in from the other side can operate in, when in and around the opposition penalty area. This concept was key to our recent success and especially our success in the Champions League, where European teams aren't used to dealing with fast players willing to beat you on the outside.
So what happens when we don't play with width? As happened today, the game became congested. In the first half, while BAE and Sig did keep their width to a certain extent, we lacked pace. It was a difficult ask for BAE to operate as a LM as it isnt his natural game and Sig was non existent on the other side, mainly due to a lack of service and poor understanding with Naughton (neither of them can be blamed for that really as this was their first performance together).
In the second half, we had serious problems with penetration. Dempsey and Sig were too narrow. What this meant is that when Naugton especially got on the ball in the final third, the opposition penalty area was absolutely rammed with bodies, leaving no space for second balls to fall into. This, coupled with over hit crosses meant that we created very few chances.
The most threatening we looked all afternoon was when we moved Bale to right midfield. Finally we had some pace in the wide areas and were able to stretch Fulham a little. IMO the best move would have been to move Bale to LM and have Dempsey on the right hand side. However, it showed that when we injected some pace out wide (plus the introduction of the excellent Tom Carroll in the middle) and had someone who was willing to beat somebody on the outside. We looked threatening and forced the goalkeeper into making some saves.
In conclusion, if Lennon is injured for any more games, I think it is vital that Bale plays LW for every game that Lennon is not playing in, to give us the ability to stretch teams and open up pockets of space. Bale especially helps with this as most teams normally triple up on him in the wide areas. If Lennon is back then we can play Bale through the centre.
Without this width, we struggle and this isn't something new for us, we struggled last season when we had to play say Pienaar and Kranjcar wide, or Modric and Kranjcar wide. In hindsight, we should have held on to young Andros Townsend.
A real tough one to take today but it is vital that we get back to our shape and playing the way we know how to play. COYS
There is a common theme which, in my opinion, is costing us big time and is consistent in all three of the games that we have lost recently. That theme is a lack of winger. Wing play is vital to our over all game and our pattern of play has been the same for a very long time. For the vast majority of the last 6 years, we have played with an out and out winger on one side and a guy cutting in on the other side. This changed for a while when we had both Bale and Lennon operating in the wide areas but we have had at least one wide man there for the vast majority of the time, basically for as long as Lennon has been in the first team (see also Simon Davies, Andy Reid etc).
What this gives us is width. The main advantage of this width is that it forces the opposition to 'seperate' in the middle of the park, they have to commit at least 1 midfielder and a full back to deal with our winger and full back combination, meaning there are gaps in which 1 of our CM's, our strikers and our opposite winger coming in from the other side can operate in, when in and around the opposition penalty area. This concept was key to our recent success and especially our success in the Champions League, where European teams aren't used to dealing with fast players willing to beat you on the outside.
So what happens when we don't play with width? As happened today, the game became congested. In the first half, while BAE and Sig did keep their width to a certain extent, we lacked pace. It was a difficult ask for BAE to operate as a LM as it isnt his natural game and Sig was non existent on the other side, mainly due to a lack of service and poor understanding with Naughton (neither of them can be blamed for that really as this was their first performance together).
In the second half, we had serious problems with penetration. Dempsey and Sig were too narrow. What this meant is that when Naugton especially got on the ball in the final third, the opposition penalty area was absolutely rammed with bodies, leaving no space for second balls to fall into. This, coupled with over hit crosses meant that we created very few chances.
The most threatening we looked all afternoon was when we moved Bale to right midfield. Finally we had some pace in the wide areas and were able to stretch Fulham a little. IMO the best move would have been to move Bale to LM and have Dempsey on the right hand side. However, it showed that when we injected some pace out wide (plus the introduction of the excellent Tom Carroll in the middle) and had someone who was willing to beat somebody on the outside. We looked threatening and forced the goalkeeper into making some saves.
In conclusion, if Lennon is injured for any more games, I think it is vital that Bale plays LW for every game that Lennon is not playing in, to give us the ability to stretch teams and open up pockets of space. Bale especially helps with this as most teams normally triple up on him in the wide areas. If Lennon is back then we can play Bale through the centre.
Without this width, we struggle and this isn't something new for us, we struggled last season when we had to play say Pienaar and Kranjcar wide, or Modric and Kranjcar wide. In hindsight, we should have held on to young Andros Townsend.
A real tough one to take today but it is vital that we get back to our shape and playing the way we know how to play. COYS