Team v Man City

[dynamoSpurs]

Playing City Away, AVB is going to use 2 holding midfielders in there, so not expecting Paulinho to push up like normal. Something like:

Lloris
Walker Chi Daws Verts
Paulinho Sandro
Towsend Holtby Lamela
Soldado​

This is so dead and ineffective.

 

[Syn_13]

This is so dead and ineffective.

It's only 1 player different to what you suggested earlier. Not sure if Capoue is going be fully fit for this one anyway.

 

[Wardy]

This is so dead and ineffective.

Yep, but that's what I'm expecting him to play

 

[Kirito]

Team we want

Lloris
Walker Vlad Vert Rose
Sandro Paulinho
Lamela Holtby Townsend
Soldado

Team we'll see

Lloris
Walker Dawson Vlad Vert
Paulinho Dembele
Townsend Holtby Sigg
Soldado

 

[King of Otters]

Pauline should be dropped. He's been lacklustre of late.

Bring Capoo in alongside Sandra, with Holtby City just in front. Llamala and Android on the flanks with Soldildo up tops.

I think that's just the kind of player he is, energetic but generally quite pish.

Hugo

Walker Daws Kaboul Verts

Sandro Capoue

Holtby

Lamela -----------------Townsend

Soldado​

 

[stonecolddeanaustin]

Team we want

Lloris
Walker Vlad Vert Rose
Sandro Paulinho
Lamela Holtby Townsend
Soldado

Team we'll see

Lloris
Walker Dawson Vlad Vert
Paulinho Dembele
Townsend Holtby Sigg
Soldado

Sandro will play (unless he's picked up an injury I don't know about). AVB may be a bit stubborn at times but he's not stupid. I can see why he may have seen fit to rest him at home to Newcastle in a game that we should in theory be looking to win fairly comfortably but away to Man City he's one of the first names on the team sheet.

 

[Bobbins]

I think that's just the kind of player he is, energetic but generally quite pish.

Hugo

Walker Daws Kaboul Verts

Sandro Capoue

Holtby

Lamela -----------------Townsend

Soldado​

Anything but this and I will be a bit miffed.

I expect to be miffed.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

It's only 1 player different to what you suggested earlier. Not sure if Capoue is going be fully fit for this one anyway.

1 player is 9% of our team, so in my books, that's signficiant .

Anyways, I think my point was more toward the persistence with the inverted "wingers".

 

[idontgetit]

Team we want

Lloris
Walker Vlad Vert Rose
Sandro Paulinho
Lamela Holtby Townsend
Soldado

Team we'll see

Lloris
Walker Dawson Vlad Vert
Paulinho Dembele
Townsend Holtby Sigg
Soldado

yeah I don't think it's possible to get much more accurate than that. Sadly

 

[idontgetit]

How good is Capoue in the final 3rd? Can't say I've seen much of him and it worries me that the forwards will just get isolated if we play him with Sandro. Like I said I've not seen much of him so open to us playing that if he can get forward a bit. Personally I think Capoue and Paulinho is the best pairing if we're going to play a deep midfield pair as they are the most balanced all round midfielders in the squad. Dembele and Paulinho never seemed to get the balance of attacking and defending right. Paulinho/Sandro and Dembele/Sandro has looked good when Paulinho or Dembele have pushed up the field but then you might as well go the whole hog and play a 4-3-3 instead of piss-arsing around with a twisted 4-2-3-1.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

How good is Capoue in the final 3rd? Can't say I've seen much of him and it worries me that the forwards will just get isolated if we play him with Sandro. Like I said I've not seen much of him so open to us playing that if he can get forward a bit. Personally I think Capoue and Paulinho is the best pairing if we're going to play a deep midfield pair as they are the most balanced all round midfielders in the squad. Dembele and Paulinho never seemed to get the balance of attacking and defending right. Paulinho/Sandro and Dembele/Sandro has looked good when Paulinho or Dembele have pushed up the field but then you might as well go the whole hog and play a 4-3-3 instead of piss-arsing around with a twisted 4-2-3-1.

Dembele has never looked good this season. Just deal with it.

And how can we isolate our forwards anymore than we have already been doing??

If ever there was a time to bolster the midfield, it's vs. City at Eastlands.

And playing Sandro and Capoo will not stifle our attacks. City do this regularly with Dinho and Yaya, right??

 

[idontgetit]

Dembele has never looked good this season. Just deal with it.

And how can we isolate our forwards anymore than we have already been doing??

If ever there was a time to bolster the midfield, it's vs. City at Eastlands.

And playing Sandro and Capoo will not stifle our attacks. City do this regularly with Dinho and Yaya, right??

It's hard to create passing triangles in midfield if the deeper midfielders are staying flat and deep. It's also easier for the opposition to mark the no.10 out of the game because they don't have to worry about picking up other midfield runners and can concentrate on him. Without those runners going past him the 10 will have to stay close to the striker to prevent the striker being totally isolated, making the 10's positioning and movement limited and predictable and therefore even easier to mark. With the 10 marked out of the game the play has to go down the wings, where with our inverted wingers you end up with double marked forwards taking potshots from outside the box. If our wide forwards do take the ball outside and get a cross in you'll have Soldado, Holtby and one other forward taking on 2 big center backs, a full back and two defensive midfielders including a fairly large Yaya which is a complete mismatch in favour of the defence.

If Capoue is happy getting forward linking up play and crashing in to the box to finish off attacks then it should be fine. We've looked our best when Paulinho has done it for us. Think of Cardiff, Norwich, Villa etc. Yaya does it a bit for City as he has excellent distribution and can drive with the ball, although he doesn't have to do it as much as they have a ridiculous forward line that can just be given the ball and left to get on with the job. I don't think we have that luxury, we have to attack and defend as a single unit. If playing two DM's enables that than brilliant, it's just until I see it I'm a little unsure.

Dembele I agree has been off form although last year he looked good playing with Sandro and this year showed glimpses of that against Chelsea. I wouldn't start him but if I wanted a ball carrier in the middle of the pitch I know exactly who I'd turn to

Edit: And more to the point our problem has been passing and movement, not solidity in midfield. You don't need three beasts to play a high tempo pressing game, just ask Barcelona

 

[jambreck]

Dembele has never looked good this season. Just deal with it.

And how can we isolate our forwards anymore than we have already been doing??

If ever there was a time to bolster the midfield, it's vs. City at Eastlands.

And playing Sandro and Capoo will not stifle our attacks. City do this regularly with Dinho and Yaya, right??

Dembele was excellent in one of the home games (can't remember which) - the one when he played alongside Sandro, funnily enough.

Sandro is the key. With him in the team, our other midfielders can function properly.

 

[TheSecretNonFootballer]

Dembele was excellent in one of the home games (can't remember which) - the one when he played alongside Sandro, funnily enough.

Sandro is the key. With him in the team, our other midfielders can function properly.

Having someone specifically to sit back, either Sandro or Capoue, has generally resulted in the other midfielder pushing up a bit more. I think either of those guys will always play when fully fit.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

Dembele has never looked good this season. Just deal with it.

And how can we isolate our forward anymore than we have already been doing so??

If ever there was a time to bolsten the midfield, it's vs. City at Eastlands.

And playing Sandro and Capoo will not stifle our attacks. City do this regularly with Dinho and Yaya, right??

It's hard to create passing triangles in midfield if the deeper midfielders are staying flat and deep. It's also easier for the opposition to mark the no.10 out of the game because they don't have to worry about picking up other midfield runners and can concentrate on him. Without those runners going past him the 10 will have to stay close to the striker to prevent the striker being totally isolated, making the 10's positioning and movement limited and predictable and therefore even easier to mark. With the 10 marked out of the game the play has to go down the wings, where with our inverted wingers you end up with double marked forwards taking potshots from outside the box. If our wide forwards do take the ball outside and get a cross in you'll have Soldado, Holtby and one other forward taking on 2 big center backs, a full back and two defensive midfielders including a fairly large Yaya which is a complete mismatch in favour of the defence.

If Capoue is happy getting forward linking up play and crashing in to the box to finish off attacks then it should be fine. We've looked our best when Paulinho has done it for us. Think of Cardiff, Norwich, Villa etc. Yaya does it a bit for City as he has excellent distribution and can drive with the ball, although he doesn't have to do it as much as they have a ridiculous forward line that can just be given the ball and left to get on with the job. I don't think we have that luxury, we have to attack and defend as a single unit. If playing two DM's enables that than brilliant, it's just until I see it I'm a little unsure.

Dembele I agree has been off form although last year he looked good playing with Sandro and this year showed glimpses of that against Chelsea. I wouldn't start him but if I wanted a ball carrier in the middle of the pitch I know exactly who I'd turn to

Edit: And more to the point our problem has been passing and movement, not solidity in midfield. You don't need three beasts to play a high tempo pressing game, just ask Barcelona

Agrred, but to play like that we need a real playmaker A real puppetmaster in the middle (i.e. Modders). Pauline is not disciplined enough and gets forward too often. So what you'll end up with is Pauline, Townsend, Gylf/Lamela and Dembele (when played) all stepping on each others toes, no one knows their role and runs are being hampered left, right and centre.

 

[idontgetit]

Agrred, but to play like that we need a real playmaker A real puppetmaster in the middle (i.e. Modders). Pauline is not disciplined enough and gets forward too often. So what you'll end up with is Pauline, Townsend, Gylf/Lamela and Dembele (when played) all stepping on each others toes, no one knows their role and runs are being hampered left, right and centre.

Yeah totally, that's why I think our formation is hampering us. With a deeper midfield pairing who is picking up the player dropping off of the back four, who is getting up the pitch to support an attack? Dembele and Paulinho really struggled at this as a pairing. When Sandro's played he's pretty much taken responsibility for sitting and Paulinho has been free to get involved up the pitch and we've looked decent. Everton 1st half for example Sandro sat deep and knocked the fuck out of Lukaku while Pauli was then free to get up the pitch. I think Newcastle 2nd half was similar. It's a bit weird though saying to the right side DM stay deep whilst the left DM saunters up the pitch, it just seems a bit unbalanced to me and that's why I keep saying go 4-3-3.

One of Sandro/Capoue sitting in the hole in front of the back four, one of Dembele/Paulinho playing box to box and one of Holtby/Erikson being the playmaker linking everything up from deep and then playing the killer passes in the final 3rd. Holtby and Paulinho being able to move up and down the pitch either side of the covering Sandro makes them really hard to mark out of the game. The lack of a 10 might make our striker isolated so instead the wide forwards push up and play as strikers when we're on the ball. The fullbacks can push up, knowing Sandro's helping the cb's, and take up the creative slack from the wide forwards who can focus on getting in behind the defence.

It makes us so much more threatening on the ball and yet we're not really any worse off defensively. I just don't think we need two DM's. They get in each others way, prevent us from being fluid, leave the attackers isolated, invite pressure on to us and just simply aren't needed to play a high line pressing game.

When other teams play with two sitting players they have at least one great passer of the ball playing there e.g Alonso, Modric, Carrick, Barry, Yaya, Arteta etc etc. It could work for us but only if Capoue can do that role for us as well as those players can

 

[TheAmerican]

Agrred, but to play like that we need a real playmaker A real puppetmaster in the middle (i.e. Modders). Pauline is not disciplined enough and gets forward too often. So what you'll end up with is Pauline, Townsend, Gylf/Lamela and Dembele (when played) all stepping on each others toes, no one knows their role and runs are being hampered left, right and centre.

I still would like to see Holtby given a shot at deep playmaker. I think he could replicate every bit of some like Ever Banega's game; tackling, interceptions, through balls, long shots, and that little bit of tenacity.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

Yeah totally, that's why I think our formation is hampering us. With a deeper midfield pairing who is picking up the player dropping off of the back four, who is getting up the pitch to support an attack? Dembele and Paulinho really struggled at this as a pairing. When Sandro's played he's pretty much taken responsibility for sitting and Paulinho has been free to get involved up the pitch and we've looked decent. Everton 1st half for example Sandro sat deep and knocked the fuck out of Lukaku while Pauli was then free to get up the pitch. I think Newcastle 2nd half was similar. It's a bit weird though saying to the right side DM stay deep whilst the left DM saunters up the pitch, it just seems a bit unbalanced to me and that's why I keep saying go 4-3-3.

One of Sandro/Capoue sitting in the hole in front of the back four, one of Dembele/Paulinho playing box to box and one of Holtby/Erikson being the playmaker linking everything up from deep and then playing the killer passes in the final 3rd. Holtby and Paulinho being able to move up and down the pitch either side of the covering Sandro makes them really hard to mark out of the game. The lack of a 10 might make our striker isolated so instead the wide forwards push up and play as strikers when we're on the ball. The fullbacks can push up, knowing Sandro's helping the cb's, and take up the creative slack from the wide forwards who can focus on getting in behind the defence.

It makes us so much more threatening on the ball and yet we're not really any worse off defensively. I just don't think we need two DM's. They get in each others way, prevent us from being fluid, leave the attackers isolated, invite pressure on to us and just simply aren't needed to play a high line pressing game.

When other teams play with two sitting players they have at least one great passer of the ball playing there e.g Alonso, Modric, Carrick, Barry, Yaya, Arteta etc etc. It could work for us but only if Capoue can do that role for us as well as those players can

I like the sound of that . As long as Dembele doesn't start .

I still would like to see Holtby given a shot at deep playmaker. I think he could replicate every bit of some like Ever Banega's game; tackling, interceptions, through balls, long shots, and that little bit of tenacity.

Yeah I'd love him to be given the chance to try at least!

 

[dynamoSpurs]

Negredo | Aguero

Nasri | Yaya | Fernandinho | Navas

Clichy | Demechelis | Lescott (?) | Zabaleta


Between Navas, Nasri (who always does us in), Nedredo and Aguero, I really, really fear the worst. This is gonna be tough.

 

[TheAmerican]

Yeah I'd love him to be given the chance to try at least!

He's always played too deep to be a pure number 10, but AVB seems content in pushing him into this role. It makes me a little sad.