Mick Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Well done Pards, genius today, you sexy bugger, do me. http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e283/theworm2345/Pardew.gif Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ObiChrisKenobi Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Four midfielders play per game. There's no world-beaters, aside from Cheick, obvs , but to say it's one of the most static in the league is very harsh. Unfortunately Barton was out today but there's several good connections throughout the midfield and defense. Barton/Nolan/Tiote work well in tandom, as do Barton/Simpson and Jonas/Jose. I agree with you, a bit, that they don't link to the attack too well. I'm looking forward to Ben Arfa's return where that's concerned. Midfields - collective. It really is a static midfield. Very little off the ball movement, what there is of it, its often Barton/Tioté dropping deep to link with the defence. Nolan sometimes makes a forward run to link with the midfield, but only late. He's never up there during the initial attacking phase (long ball to targetman) to win a knock down/flick on. Be interested in which games you believe good midfield movement has happened. From what I've seen this season, most of the midfield movement is very rigid, and the players rarely support each other for an easy passing angle/option. Most passes happen to smaller passes to Joey Barton (the most mobile of the current midfielders) as he's the only one offering an option. Once Barton has the ball, midfield stops 'moving'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guinness_fiend Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Btw, i thought both Chris Foy and the linesman on the Milburn side were f***ing terrible. Both linesmen were. f***ing dire performance from the lot of them. Would deffo like to see the Ranger offside goal again and the Best pen shout that was inexplicably flagged as offside, but only when he went to ground. Harper 7 - fine Simpson 6 - irritating at times by failing to show for the ball Williamson 7 - not aerially dominant but coped well Coloccini 7 - fine Enrique 6 - hit and miss R.Taylor 5 - sending off looked harsh, no way it'll be rescinded though, s*** set pieces mainly Tiote 7 - mostly good Nolan 6 - faded Gutierrez 5 - full of s*** Best 6 - started brightly, not helped by terrible officiating Lovenkrands 5 - scampered about to little effect S. Taylor 6 - fine Ranger 6 - tried Kuqi 6 - did well, should have replaced Best far earlier Both were cast iron offsides, I'm afraid. The replays show as much. The linesmen were spot on, it's not their fault that our players cannot work out high back lines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 The one where Best was shoved over was only very very marginally offside. It was technically correct, but only by a couple of inches. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guinness_fiend Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 The one where Best was shoved over was only very very marginally offside. It was technically correct, but only by a couple of inches. So they were both correct and cast iron. Linespeople (guffaw) cannot win. But it does demonstrate where the likes of Best need to improve and quick - learn to read the movement of the defence and catch them on the back foot, rather than running off like a headless chicken and wasting a perfectly good opportunity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Well they were correct, whether they were 'cast iron' I'm not sure. I never get annoyed at forwards for being offside really, unless it's a really obvious one. Playing on the edge of offside is how you give yourself a chance of getting in on goal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guinness_fiend Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 But the likes of Messi (poor comparison, I know) drift up with the defence and then sprint off *after* the pass was made, not before. It's an art. Many top class forwards run horizontally across the backline to get that extra advantage on the turn. Ours don't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistle17 Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 To use an FM phrase, I think it's fair to say our midfield can be fairly 'rigid' at times. Today in the 2nd half especially we made the pitch small for ourselves and its not a rareity to see our midfield too close to the back 4, leaving our strikers isolated and having to feed off the atrocious long balls we have a tendency to resort to. This was at its worst against Fulham a few weeks back, imo. The worst is when for instance we see Jonas on the touchline calling for the ball, he recieves it and is closed down and both our CM's get sucked into where the ball is in the little congested space and it leaves us with nothing but static play. Very frustrating. But, on a more positive view, we have 3 very hardworkers in Barton, Tiote and Jonas. Barton does a lot more running than people appreciate imo. I think that although Nolan's goals a key to the teams success, we'd benefit a lot more if Tiote played alongside someone like Gary Speed. That's some wish I know, but I think we'd see a great improvement then. This midfield is certainly no worse than that of the 2006/07 season when we'd regularly see: Milner---Parker---Butt---N'Zogbia. That central midfield pairing was like hell on earth, and adding to that very poor crossing ability from both wingers, I'd definitely take what we have now, without a doubt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 But the likes of Messi (poor comparison, I know) drift up with the defence and then sprint off *after* the pass was made, not before. It's an art. Many top class forwards run horizontally across the backline to get that extra advantage on the turn. Ours don't. Yeah, it's a fine art, and obviously if you have the acceleration of Messi you don't need as much of a head start to get in. Offsides like Best's today, where one foot happens to be ahead of the defender, I just don't have a problem with. A lot of the time they won't be spotted and you'll score. When the margin is as tight as that a lot of it is luck. Yes, he could be a better player and always bend his runs exactly right though, can't argue with that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Well they were correct, whether they were 'cast iron' I'm not sure. I never get annoyed at forwards for being offside really, unless it's a really obvious one. Playing on the edge of offside is how you give yourself a chance of getting in on goal. I hate how often he's offside, it just shows how thick he is and he constantly gives away possession because of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistle17 Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Well they were correct, whether they were 'cast iron' I'm not sure. I never get annoyed at forwards for being offside really, unless it's a really obvious one. Playing on the edge of offside is how you give yourself a chance of getting in on goal. Playing on the shoulder of a defender can be very effective, but only if you have the intelligence to time your run well. Something Lovenkrands and Best don't have atm. Sometimes the pass isn't given early enough but so many times Best and Lovenkrands are guilty of being lazy about their runs and completely mis-timing them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skirge Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 It became more about protecting the point than winning the game, it got tight panicky and scrappy but we held on and I for one am very happy with the outcome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 But the likes of Messi (poor comparison, I know) drift up with the defence and then sprint off *after* the pass was made, not before. It's an art. Many top class forwards run horizontally across the backline to get that extra advantage on the turn. Ours don't. Yeah, it's a fine art, and obviously if you have the acceleration of Messi you don't need as much of a head start to get in. Offsides like Best's today, where one foot happens to be ahead of the defender, I just don't have a problem with. A lot of the time they won't be spotted and you'll score. When the margin is as tight as that a lot of it is luck. Yes, he could be a better player and always bend his runs exactly right though, can't argue with that. If it was purely down to luck then he'd be offside a lot less than he is, it's not luck, it's either laziness or ignorance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 To be fair to Best, our midfielders are shit at playing an early ball into space. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ObiChrisKenobi Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Thought Best worked really hard today, closed down from the front, won countless headers (let down by no support). Some good dribbling, decent cross. Just needs to sort his movement and timing off the ball out (and possibly his attacking/shooting heading ability). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Four midfielders play per game. There's no world-beaters, aside from Cheick, obvs , but to say it's one of the most static in the league is very harsh. Unfortunately Barton was out today but there's several good connections throughout the midfield and defense. Barton/Nolan/Tiote work well in tandom, as do Barton/Simpson and Jonas/Jose. I agree with you, a bit, that they don't link to the attack too well. I'm looking forward to Ben Arfa's return where that's concerned. Midfields - collective. It really is a static midfield. Very little off the ball movement, what there is of it, its often Barton/Tioté dropping deep to link with the defence. Nolan sometimes makes a forward run to link with the midfield, but only late. He's never up there during the initial attacking phase (long ball to targetman) to win a knock down/flick on. Be interested in which games you believe good midfield movement has happened. From what I've seen this season, most of the midfield movement is very rigid, and the players rarely support each other for an easy passing angle/option. Most passes happen to smaller passes to Joey Barton (the most mobile of the current midfielders) as he's the only one offering an option. Once Barton has the ball, midfield stops 'moving'. Top post. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 The one where Best was shoved over was only very very marginally offside. It was technically correct, but only by a couple of inches. So they were both correct and cast iron. Linespeople (guffaw) cannot win. But it does demonstrate where the likes of Best need to improve and quick - learn to read the movement of the defence and catch them on the back foot, rather than running off like a headless chicken and wasting a perfectly good opportunity. Being 2 inches offside is running off like a headless chicken? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Merse Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Best was good today - some bollocks spoken on here like Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ameritoon Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 The effort Best gave today was great, he did what he could and did it well enough. Fair play to him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Best was good today - some bollocks spoken on here like Did he have any shots on target today? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyt Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Best was good today - some bollocks spoken on here like Did he have any shots on target today? Aye, when their keeper pushed it out from a Enrique cross Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Aye, when their keeper pushed it out from a Enrique cross I don't remember a single shot on target from him, when was that? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ujpest doza Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Aye, when their keeper pushed it out from a Enrique cross I don't remember a single shot on target from him, when was that? When Lovenkrands had a shot saved and Best looked certain to score but (i think) wheater managed to get a block on it. Best had a very good game today i thought. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Heneage Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 I followed the game through livescore/bbc and Taylors red card really annoyed me especially considering it sounds like we were doing well and the goal was against the run of play. On a sidenote I think despite a supposed decent outing Taylor has to go on the transfer list. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vedder Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Ranger really needs to work on his running off the ball. He holds it up well but once he lays it off he doesn't know where to run and often ends up just getting in the way. Also, probs been monetioned already but Pardew should get Kuqi on a bit earlier, looked like the new Sibierski today! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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