greydos

5 hours ago, Erikse said:

 

Roy Keane said (about the Ronaldo situation at Man Utd):

"People are obsessed with the pressing game these days."

 

He said it as if pressing was a strange thing to care so much about. It was quite telling of the difference from when he played. I remember it from when I was a kid, the strikes rarely bothered to put much energy into chasing down the defenders or the goalie, and there was definetly not much organized press with several players involved.

 

 

 

Yeah strikers didn’t need to press as centre backs were going to hoof it. Or give a pass to the full

back to play a channel ball. I still doubt the idea that football requires more now. All the off the pitch advancements have extended longevity in most other sports despite performance levels increasing there also. 
 

F1 cars have more downforce than years ago. Alonso and Hamilton are racing into their 40s. Tennis players are stronger. Federer, Djokovic, Nadal have gone on longer. More cricket is played than years ago. The England cricket team’s getting older. Anderson, Broad played late, etc. 

I’m just not sure I buy that because striker’s press a bit more the game’s harder overall. It just changes the balance of off ball running. If attack and wide midfielders are pressing more, defenders are in fewer battles than before and so resting more. 

2 hours ago, SteV said:

Yes, but like everything, things have moved on. The physical output required during a match from a modern elite level player (especially in an Eddie Howe team) is far, far greater than what was required in previous generations.

Training, nutrition, sports science, sleep science etc have moved on also. Are you suggesting that the gap between the exertion required to play 90 minutes has grown more than the loads placed on players on training and their ability to train for that exertion? Why is that not the case in other sports? Runners still run a normal marathon distance. Tennis players still play the same amount of sets and matches. Cricketers play more cricket. 
 

Are there more sprints in football now compared with 1990s? Longer distances run? Arguably, with 4-4-2 hoofball being pervasive in the 1990s more stamina was required as it was a game mostly full of length of the pitch transitions. 
 

This idea football has “moved on” seems easy to say but difficult to prove. 

16 hours ago, SteV said:

And constantly having to flog himself for 90+ mins every week due to lack of viable alternatives doesn’t help. 

In my day playing 90 minutes each week wasn’t “flogging” but desired as being a normal footballer. 

13 minutes ago, Groundhog63 said:

I know "it's not the same" but there's a certain irony of us frothing at the mouth over having to sell Bruno, Isak or Botman to progress then salivating over the prospect of nabbing relegated/promotion team's best players. Especially newly promoted. 

Definitely a food chain  ?????

If the market forces a player sale that’s just football. If contrived premier league elitist rules force the sale that’s a disgrace!

He was always fit as a fiddle under Bruce. Perhaps 2-day training weeks are best after all!

4 hours ago, Away Toon said:

Hall appears to have the skill set to play the fullback role similar to what Rico Lewis does at City. Might be a bit too revolutionary for Eddie though.

Zinchenko for me. 

Eddie is my King. Lewis is my left back. That is all. 

Sir Eddie doesn’t believe in playing possession football for possession’s sake. I think that’s where he has to adapt going forward. Well coached possession football reduces the amount of high intensity reactive running a team has to do. It means matches are played at our intensity and not the opposition’s intensity. If games are played at your intensity, and you train for that intensity, you’re less likely to suffer injuries. 
 

it’s like in rugby where teams play France trying to keep the ball on the park to tire their massive forwards. Their forwards don’t train for high ball in time play, so they get tired and need replacing or risk getting injured. 
 

We need to control games so they’re played on our terms. Then we can conserve energy against minnows rather than go toe-to-toe to the death with Luton and the likes!

The worst thing for me about losing to Man Scott is not the difference in quality but core body strength. Whenever there’s duels for the ball or a battle to get it under they always our strength us and come out with it. Watching Dan Burn running with Foden and struggling to knock him over shoulder to shoulder, or watching Bruno lose out to Kovacic or Willock lose out to Silva. 
 

I can take teams having more technical quality than us. But not team should be physically stronger than us. We should be bossing duels.

I think this season will be the absolute making of Eddie Howe and of us. He’ll have gone into the season believing in his methods but with question marks about whether they would work actually at the top level. He’s now been fully tested and will have learnt loss about  where he needs to improve and what the team needs to succeed. I’ve no doubt he’ll learn his lessons and implement them over the summer. I expect next year we’ll be comfortably top 6, the style will have developed a little, as will his use of the squad, and our squad composition will be almost bomb proof.

i just feel sorry for his wife and kids who absolutely won’t see him for the holidays!

1 hour ago, Kanji said:

Why are some of the greats just magnified in all sports? their durability - MJ, Lebron, Messi, Ronaldo, Federer, Novak, Tom Brady. etc etc etc

Jimmy Anderson! (Broken back in first 2 years, ever-present the rest)

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It wouldn't even be back-up. It would be someone ready-made to step in. If he's left-footed he can start at LB.

 

I think most top teams have at least 3 top options.

 

Dias Stones Ake Akanji

Saliba Gabriel White Kiwior

VVD Konate Matip Gomez

Pau Carlos Konsa Mings

Varane Martinez Maguire Evans

Schar Botman Lascelles Burn

 

Ours is the weakest by a distance.

I agree overall, but I don’t see us as weaker than Manure’s lot. 

I just want to finish above Manure for one season in my life! Let’s just break that duck at least as a consolation

10 minutes ago, jonny1403 said:

Already scored more goals than ASM last season in about 1/10th of the appearances man 

Hasn’t won anywhere near the number of free kicks or bandana-fans ASM would’ve though! 

Gordon can drill a corner fair play! I’d pay good money to see one of his corners met by Sir Les. The power on that header could kill a man!

Surely we can coax Al-Ittifaq or another Saudi team to bid £25m for Ashworth? Push the price up for Manure!

23 hours ago, Mike said:

Tip: Defend Wood.

Plenty tried to defend Wood on this Forum 2 years ago but got battered!

1 hour ago, Krabbe2 said:

Going to win this one and the congregation will think top 4 is within reach again. 
 

In a jubilant scene after the match, Dummett and Ritchie sign a new contract for 3 years.

At least it’ll reduce wages if Dummett & Ritchie share the same contract

11 minutes ago, sushimonster85 said:

 

This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and it happens everywhere. 

You mean, in your view it happens everywhere? Or is that a fact? 

7 hours ago, Dr Jinx said:

It’s fucked, like they’re a hard club to turn down because almost guaranteed success.

 

But we don’t have to sell, and Trippier may not mind staying either but if that does turn out to be the case, how unsettled is he going to be?

 

But let’s look at the obvious, no official bids come in for a player unless the back channeling has happened first and a player has indicated they want to go.

 

Trippier wants out for whatever reason so we should just get on with it. No player is bigger than the club.

 

But it’s worrying that basically our club captain in all but official title wants out, it raises concerns about how things are going behind the scenes.

This board and indeed our club is blessed to have someone so skilled in the art of Jinx as you, good Doctor. Thank you for subtlety ensuring Tripps stays with us for another 2 years 

10 hours ago, JonBez comesock said:

 

Unbelievable this season. Only 2:17 seconds in scouting our proposed new signing and he gets an injury!

10 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

The club can't keep complaining about FFP/PSR when we consistently seem to shop in the most expensive market there is here in this country and the PL. We have a £120m outlay on Gordon, Livramento and Barnes. The first of which has indeed come good this season, the second of which has excelled yet makes for bleemin' Dan Burn at the first opportunity and the latter of which has only played 185 minutes thus far this season. The outlay could become ~£155m if Hall's deal is made permanent even though Matt Ritchie gets on the pitch ahead of him.

 

I imagine what is a reasonable amount of wages is going on de facto cheerleaders in Ritchie, Dummett, Gillespie and dead wood such as Manquillo and Targett plus players who could be sold for a reasonableish fee whom we could afford moving on due to availability or ability such as Wilson or Almirón.

 

Bruno we can't win a football match without even against dross opposition, this season and last. Isak is by far and away one of the best strikers we've had in the last 15 years and Botman is a top centre half and only going to improve given his age. We still need a RW and a CB, two positions we neglected to improve in the summer. If any of those 3 players leave then we'll go 2 steps back and given the links we consistently seem to get, many of which are based on nowt, granted, I can't see us going 3 steps forward.

 

This seems like a rant about the club's transfer dealings and/or owners and maybe it is (I don't like Eales, think he's in front of the cameras far too much for a PL CEO, that 'mackem in Milan' thing at the CL draw ) but I guess its more of a 'fuck FFP/PSR' rant. Just venting.

 

 

 

I still can’t believe we let Shelvey go without a replacement… 

22 hours ago, Tiresias said:

Really the best Schar moments should have been all times he had  head injuries 5 minutes in, looks like he's going off and, stays on and is unbeatable

Would be longer than Lord of the  rings extended edition!

23 hours ago, Hovagod said:

Going to this with my ostensibly Manchester City supporting nephew. He’s under strict instructions to not wear his shirt. Even so, will I get beaten up?

Tell us what dap your nephew is and his fighting credentials and we can properly asses whether you’ll defend yourself or get decked by him!

2 hours ago, Nucasol said:

He’s either a substitute from next season or sold to generate FFP wiggle room. A team with aspirations to consistently be a Top 4/6 side doesn’t have Miggy as their primary RW. He’s bearing the brunt of no options in his position but as a winger I’d expect more than 6 assists over the 130 odd games he’s played for us. As an example:

 

Solano in 2001/02 - 37 games, 7 goals and 9 assists

Solano in 2002/03 - 31 games, 7 goals and 6 assists

Robert in 2001/02 - 36 games, 8 goals and 11 assists 

Robert in 2002/03 - 27 games, 5 goals and 7 assists 

 

That’s the level of productivity we need to aspire to from wingers if we’re serious about being a consistent European places force.

The way we setup, we’re designed for Trippier to get the assists Almiron should. If there was a stat for the pass before the assist Almiron (and Longstaff) would be quite high up I think. Solano never had to rely on Aaron Hughes/Griffin overlapping to play the final ball as he had a wand of a foot and operated on the correct side for winger-assists. 
 

I’m not entirely defending Almiron just want to add fair context for him