- Jan 27, 2011
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Townsend deserves credit for finally showing us a glimpse of Soldado's true ability.
Maybe there is a player there. Incredible cross.
Townsend deserves credit for finally showing us a glimpse of Soldado's true ability.
Maybe there is a player there. Incredible cross.
Townsend deserves credit for finally showing us a glimpse of Soldado's true ability.
Maybe there is a player there. Incredible cross.
Haha, you beat me to it - sorry for essentially copying your post, but I hadn't seen it when I replied to NEVILLEB.
Hhmmm….
Is it just a little bit of history repeating itself ? So we follow the foreign guy with new fangled ideas with the English guy who says what we want to hear.
The starting line up was straight out of the Harry Redknapp Silver Linings playbook. Just stick the best 11 players you have into a 442. Fuck a holding midfielder away from home, or matching up their three man midfield, I'm picking sides and I want Eriksen in a cm2, Lamela as a right winger. It was reminiscent of Modric in the CM2 with VDV right wing that we saw a few times under Redknapp. It was a really naive piece of team selection and we were fucking lucky that Southampton didn't have the wherewithal to capitalise. We've been moaning about AVB's team selections, so there is no way we can condone the stupidity of this. Last week I moaned that he pitched a CM2 against Liverpool's 3. That would have been 10-3 to Liverpool today, they'd have murdered that set up, as would many decent sides.
As was often the case with Redknapp though, there was a silver lining, and that silver lining was Adebayor. We all know what Adebayor is capable of. Today we got the real McCoy. We don't win that game and create most of the chances we did without him. Not just the goals and the chances he created for others, but he also saw more more ball than three of our midfield 4.
Without him that would have been a very different game.
The first half was dire. We couldn't string three passes together and Southampton were equally disappointing.
Not only could we not pass but it seems like we are no longer pressing the ball at all anymore. They managed to move the ball from their corner of the pitch to score without any of our players getting within two yards of any of theirs.
The second half we were much better, kept the ball better for the first 20-25 minutes of it. As for the goals, the first one was a great piece of work by Soldado and a great finish by Adebayor, the second was fucking fortuitous as Rose had three players to aim a cut back to, but instead chose to whack it at their defender who scored for us. The third goal was one of those scrappy affairs that you can't help but notice was conspicuous by it's absence from many previous games this year. A ball bobbles around, drops to Adebayor who slots it through a defenders legs (how many times did stuff get blocked in previous games). The counter argument is that it was the inclusion of the previously persona non grata Adebayor that was the vital factor.
The second half was a pretty open affair, with us undoubtedly making more chances, Southampton carved out two or three one v ones, as did we and Soldado missed another couple of humdingers on top.
Eriksen did produce the odd nice touch, including a sweet little ball for Rose that led to the goal, but was largely lost amongst the maelstrom that was the middle third for much of this game.
The defence continues to worry me massively, all of them.
A major positive factor was that we clearly seemed to get more bodies in the box to support attacks. Something we haven't been doing well previously.
I'm not nocking Lamela, I'm glad he was picked ahead of Lennon, he has ability and works hard and I'm sure in time will prove to be a good acquisition, but 30 million ? 30 fucking million ? Shish man, gotta say, I can't remember 30m ever looking this skinny.
The last sub was bonkers. AVB bonkers. Surely Capoue on to shore up the game ?
I'm not being wilfully churlish here I promise. I have no problem in theory with Sherwood getting the job. Before the first two games I'd hoped his time with the youth set up, playing hight tempo 433 type football would be his MO I admit, and I don't really care what the formation is as long as we work hard, play good football. I also like that he seems to be more willing to trust good development players. Hope this is a feature.
It's early days, lets see what happens in the coming games, we have injuries to come back into the reckoning and will be interesting to see what happens.
First two games have been really hard to weigh up, to see the rhyme or reason in some of the selections, the balance, the tactics not all bad, not all good.
Individual
Lloris - Had a bit of a mare to be honest. I thought he was a bit flat footed for the first goal, shouldn't have come out for the second and punched a few badly.
Walker - Defensively pretty sound today. Offensively didn't offer a lot. Be nice if he could throw it to a team mate occasionally.
Dawson - Dawson
Chiriches - Another who was less than impressive really. Poor in the air, got done twice on through balls (although Rose played one onside I think) and too easily lost by Lallana for the first.
Rose - Got very lucky with the cross which wasn't heading for any of our players. Defensively some less than great moments, and struggles with the offside line. First full game back I guess. Doesn't fill me with loads of confidence at either end I have to say.
Lamela - Tried hard to involve himself. Maybe tried too much at times, I don't know ? Needs to just compose himself at times and his touch and choices will improve. Have to say though, 30m looks very steep.
Eriksen - OK. Don't want to be seeing him too often in a cm2.
Dembele - Second game running he's been caught too much fannying around on the ball. Hard pressers do not suit him. In fact, the odd blinder aside, I'm not overly fond of him in a CM2 either.
Sigurdsson - Very typical Sigurdsson. Has some ability but generally takes a very flotsam jetsam approach to applying it.
Soldado - I was disappointed with his finishing and his work off the ball at times. With that midfield you really want your strikers helping out more than he did at times. The positives are his movement was good, his set up for Adebayor excellent, and he does see a little more of the ball than Defoe.
Adebayor - I hope he's back and his head stays right for the rest of the season. You can almost afford to get some of your tactics skewed if you have a match winner like him on song. You forget how invaluable he was in his "good" season and we actually had 4 world class players in the same team at the same time once.
Bentaleb - Great to see the kid given some time and for him to step up to the mark required on this occasion.
Chadli - Thought he did quiet well while he was on.
^^^^ I'm fucking baffled as to why Levy hasn't been in touch.
Sherwood seems to be pandering to a the desires that were frustrated by AVB. 2 strikers, picking all the expensive players, picking young players, Adebayor back in. I wouldn't read too much into it as a tactical plan, but that may be wishful thinking given he has Ferdinand as his assistant.