Team vs Villa

[DaSpurs]

Perfect game to experiment with 3 at the back

I'm curious as to your reasoning tbh. With how easily countered we are, I would consider that to near suicide. But despite my strong language, I'm genuinely curious as to how you would make it work.

 

[ultimateloner]

I fancy eriksen to do the damage this game from the left.

Read an article that says the villa Rb gets fwd a lot.

I want us to play Soldado so he can attack the balls coming in from the left

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

I disagree, I think before Mason came in he was probably our best/consistent player - go read through the ratings threads - but Mason's positional indiscipline (I know the tactical theory behind having him getting more forward) is doubling Capoue's work load defensively and pulling him about. Hard to look great in those circumstances and we used to see exactly the same frequently in Redknapp's 442 days with CM's like Parker and Sandro having to run around like nana's just to break even.

This is what Pochettino has to solve. I like Mason and the idea of what he brings, but he plainly at the moment isn't bringing enough of the incisive creative stuff to pay off the defensive and positional compromise he's inflicting on us.

This is why I personally like Bentaleb, and thought he was underrated. He did occasionally go to sleep on a runner, but he was a diligent player with better positional discipline than Mason, saw more ball and actually played incisive passes too (such as Liverpool - he also averages more key passes a game than both Mason and Capoue).

As I say, Mason is more inclined to get into advanced positions, and I can understand the appeal to Pochettino of that, but you have to accept the pressure that then puts on Capoue as the lone CM left holding the fort. Either that or Pochettino needs to get him moving around the pitch like MS at Soton so as to minimise the compromise.

People used to bitch continually about Parker, and eventually Sandro under exactly the same circumstances. It's why for example, ManC have been playing the to Fern's sometimes. Even Yaya causes a trade off.

Yeh Mason is a bit green behind the ears, but it's not as though Capoue has positional discipline, defensively his positioning is all over the place. It doesn't get mentioned that much because he makes 100 passes out of 105 and 'sees the ball' more than every other player in the league, but he gets caught out of position an awful lot for a 'defensive' midfield player. He doesn't have the ability to stamp himself on the game defensively and when he does it is usually in a bad way and leads to our defence getting exposed. You can't really compare him to Parker or Sandro who were both far better defensively aware than Capoue.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Yeh Mason is a bit green behind the ears, but it's not as though Capoue has positional discipline, defensively his positioning is all over the place. It doesn't get mentioned that much because he makes 100 passes out of 105 and 'sees the ball' more than every other player in the league, but he gets caught out of position an awful lot for a 'defensive' midfield player. He doesn't have the ability to stamp himself on the game defensively and when he does it is usually in a bad way and leads to our defence getting exposed. You can't really compare him to Parker or Sandro who were both far better defensively aware than Capoue.

Name me all the cm's we've had in the last 20 years who could do everything (every facet) to a high standard ?

Over the last few years every Cm we've had has been flawed and been criticised on here, many unfairly pilloried for stuff that was ridiculous. Zakora, Jenas, Huddlestone, Palacios, Parker, Sandro, Paulinho etc etc Even Carrick and Modric were flawed and were criticised in some aspects.

Parker was criticised for covering too much ground, Jenas for not being Billy Bremner, Palacios for giving the odd sloppy pass, Sandro might have been more aggressive, but he'd invariably tear around doing kung fu, get booked inside 30 mins, then have to avoid tackling anyone until he'd run himself into the ground by the 60th minute and he had the passing range of about 3 yards. I still defended all of those CM's though because I know the uber CM is almost a myth. There will nearly always be compromise and it's about finding a good balance in a CM2 and any team playing a CM2 has this dilemma.

I don't think Capoue is anywhere near as flawed as you are making out. I think he's the best footballing DM we've had of all that bunch. His passing is superior to all of those bar Carrick. He's not lazy, he reads the game pretty well, positionally good and he tackles and intercepts pretty well. If you want a DM who can pass the ball, then he's a pretty good one IMO.

I don't mind if we try Stambouli with Mason, but I'd prefer we switched to a 433 and had Mason and Bentaleb either side of Capoue, I think that would give us much better balance of skills, balnce on the pitch and three players who can all do varying degrees of different skills well. They can all pass well, they can all tackle, they can all get about.

At the moment our attacking players (including the fb's) are allowing their midfield to walk past them creating overloads on Mason and Capoue, and as the deeper CM, Capoue is often the one left holding the baby and fighting fires. Until we defend better as a team, this will continue to be a problem, not matter who we put there.