Lenny

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

I swear I'm watching different Dan Burn to the one N-O is

He is typically fine but he has miscontrolled the ball when receiving a pass several times today (under no pressure thankfully). 

1 minute ago, worthy said:

Yeah, you are probably right. For me it looked like he clipped the ankle. Didn’t help that the commentators talked about Nunez getting a pen for the similar shit as well . 

Well yes, consistency of officiating is a totally different subject

2 minutes ago, worthy said:

Im still pissed about the ref not giving a pen to Wilson for that tackle, and the only angle they showed you don’t see that Wilson plays the ball a bit ahead then he gets clipped on the ankle, same with the outrageous shirt pull on Dan Burn, his kit was a fucking flag. And the yellow on Bruno was the softest shit I’ve seen.  . So FUCKING happy today as well, what a game, what a win. 

The contact on Wilson was due to Wilson leaving his foot out to force it. Don't think it was a pen, sadly.

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Yep, the only negative for me.  Our defence is now making the switch-offs a clockwork occurrence in our matches.  We’ve kept one clean sheet in nearly half a season’s worth of games - and I think if we watch the games back, the vast majority are conceded very softly.  The lack of pace at the back leaves us very, very vulnerable to simple passes through or over the back line.  Burn isn’t tucking in like he was earlier in the season - he’s bombing forward and the centre halves are stretched.  If we play like that we need a no 5 with a bit of pace - Botman isn’t going to get any quicker. 

You can't really have it all though unfortunately, at least not with the players we have at our disposal. 

We'd started to look predictable with our lopsided approach of having Burn stay back so that our right side could attack, so we had to adapt, hence Burn making more forward runs in the second half of the season. 

Naturally it's higher risk and we'll conceded more as a result, but hopefully, 1 win permitting, the reward has outweighed the risk. 

Just now, Big Geordie said:

Villa 2 Spurs 0

 

Luiz

LuIz

5 hours ago, Kanji said:

 

You should look at the average positions - Schar is the clear higher up CB and Botman is the one who's usually mopping up deeper. Schar's at his best when he's very aggresive winning the ball like that - recall his world class performance under Rafa at Leicester in 2019 (?) 

 

The CB's are both instructed to aggresively press and win back the ball when they come into the CF or wingers, ala Schar for Murph's howitzer and ala Botman for Willock's header v Man United. 

Fair enough

My perception was that whilst he tends to roam forward more, he's less aggressive at pressing when opposition players are actively in our third than Botman.

32 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I'd consider Schar the more aggressive player. He's more likely to follow the attacker deep into their own half like he did on Son for Isak's first goal.

 

That was a good tactical bit by Howe. 

 

Also - I don't think Botman is significantly faster than Schar. Our entire backline is pretty slow.

I think Botman is more aggressive in that he'll hunt out attacking players when they are approaching our defensive third, whereas Schar is more likely to mop up should they get past the Botman/defensive charge.

Agreed on the pace of the backline, we could do with bringing in some faster players to offer more circumstantial depth.

I do think Botman is a fair bit faster than Schar, mind, even if he isn't "fast". Schar is seriously slow

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Aye that was poor.

 

Cost me a mega haul on FPL too.

 

But he's often in that position 1v1 with an attacker. And deals with it 9 times out of 10. Botman isn't often in that position as Burn is close by.

I also think that Botman is instructed to be the more aggressive of the two CB's as he has the recovery pace that Schar doesn't.

1 minute ago, UncleBingo said:

I'd don't think I've ever seen a transformation in a player like his. He is absolutely phenomenal.

Studied Mo Diame and said "hold my beer". 

Very impressive result, particularly given how poor we were first half. Responded very well.

Really poor performance, that. Very, very passive.

20 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

Yeh, he was definitely involved in some nice bits of play (although I felt that was partly down to West Ham downing tools by that point imo), but thought he turned back a fair bit when Id have exoected him to push forward and just wasn't as intense as I'd expect him to be considering he's not played much. Compare that to say Isak who came on as chased down everything as well as being positive with the ball anytime he had it, I just thought it was a good, but subdued performance from him.

 

 

 

I'd imagine the players were instructed not to take any unnecessary risks at 3-1 when he came on and just manage the game out, hence the more passive approach going forward.

He was still pretty sharp defensively but with games in quick succession we weren't going to going all out at the point he came on. 

On 26/03/2023 at 12:14, LV said:

Hmmm not sure. If McTominay is playing I just can’t see them scoring or stopping him from scoring. 

17 hours ago, Kanji said:

I said this months ago but part of Schar's game is to play the speculative ball more. 

Yep, I read similar that both he and Botman are instructed to actively seek the switch as part of our game plan. If he's doing it less it'll likely be due to us trying to adapt our strategy.

Ando has been better (naturally) since we've improved, but some of snipes really do grate. On the extended highlights, Raisbeck says "ASM producing a number of stepovers", to which Ando says "And going nowhere", despite him giving the ball to Willock to progress forward and us win a corner.

Fuck off with that shite man

Imagine telling Chris Wood 15 months ago that over the next 12 months he'd accumulate £44m in transfer fees - he's probably made himself a right fortune

"One pass too many according to the commentator". They made one fucken pass

Felix does look very good. Really enjoyable play-style to watch.

I think it's worth noting that a lot of the actions you see taken by our players are their own specific instructions now, rather than them just doing what they think works as with under the likes of Bruce.

For example, Schar being more inclined to carry the ball forward than Botman is because Botman has recovery pace that Schar doesn't, so it's less of a risk. Schar will often be more aggressive going in for the challenge, with Botman ready to sweep in behind, likely for the same reason.

I also read somewhere that our defenders are explicitly told to use the keeper less (I think it might have been an article on Botman), but look for a line breaking pass as frequently as possible. Line breaking passes are high risk, high reward, so it stands to reason that some high risk passes are going to fail. The important thing is that the upside of the higher risk passes far outweighs the downside that the occasional failed pass brings.

6 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Dive aside he was good, pretty much held our midfield together. The other two (and others tbf) were sloppy in possession.

 

 

 

I thought Willock was very sloppy, but I didn't notice anything particularly sloppy with Longstaff today.

I honestly can't see ASM working out. I think he's trying but the way we play is just not natural to him.

I also think he looks utterly shot of confidence and the crowd getting on his back every time something doesn't come off for him can't be helping.
He's reminds me of Miggy was before he came into form; he's playing like he doesn't believe what he's doing is going to work

Given how frequently he's being subbed, I wouldn't be surprised if we're managing his fitness for fear of burnout. 

He's crucial for us at the moment. 

1 minute ago, Numbers said:

Sloppy as fuck from Willock for their goal, bet he gets pelters for that. Great finish from Adams mind.

He's made a handful of very loose passes in the half amongst the positive stuff he's done, to be fair. He needs to cut it out because it's not a particularly isolated occurrence. 

2 hours ago, Hanshithispantz said:

I mean in this case I agree, his tweet adds nowt as we’ve known Gordon is here for a day, but he’s quite clearly one of the most reliable voices on Twitter (outside of those who literally only comment on done deals) so using him as a ‘news aggregator’ makes sense.

 

 

 

 

 

It's solely what I use their tweets for.

Just now, Rich said:

Trippier or Schär and it’s not even close.

They've both played well too, but Bruno has completely controlled the centre of the park.