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Masterclass considering the midfield and Isak getting injured.

 

We look close to our old selves. Fitness held up really well in that one and, consequently, so did shape.

 

Hopefully, Wilson and Barnes back in the squad for Saturday. Onwards and upwards.

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Would be interesting to see him trying out 5 at the back from the start sometime. Miley/Longstaff can use a rest, and we have to prepare for the inevitable Bruno suspension anyways.

 

 

Edited by Displayname

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"Our game plan was to be aggressive and stop their rhythm. We did that well in the first half. They play a high line and we used that well. We had to adjust our plan when they got the goal but the players saw it out well."
 

:indi:

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That's more like it! Pretty much the performance I was hoping to see against Fulham. We had it spot on from the first minute. Played a very cerebral game in the first half. Bit more ragged as we got tired in the second half, but no complaints in the circumstances. I'm delighted with the reactive substitution, bringing on Livramento to kill off Bailey's threat.

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2 hours ago, Gallowgate Toon said:

Masterclass considering the midfield and Isak getting injured.

 

We look close to our old selves. Fitness held up really well in that one and, consequently, so did shape.

 

Hopefully, Wilson and Barnes back in the squad for Saturday. Onwards and upwards.

 

Thought we looked dead tired at around 60 minute mark and we went into full survival mode. There's no way in hell those players would have been able to apply the pressure Villa did after we got the third and keep at it until the end of the game. 

 

We have looked better than before in the last two matches though. That ~2 weeks period of rest served us well. Still the lack of rotation/sub options is hurting us bad.

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Never doubted this man for a second. I said throughout our bad run that things will change in January once we start getting time between games. It was so obvious.

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Great to hear what sounded like a superb away end chanting his name from start to finish. Been so much shit written about him and us from people outside the region to stir it up. 

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6 hours ago, PauloGeordio said:

"Our game plan was to be aggressive and stop their rhythm. We did that well in the first half. They play a high line and we used that well. We had to adjust our plan when they got the goal but the players saw it out well."
 

:indi:

 

What a guy man. Pardew, Allardyce, etc would have tried to take the credit themselves there.

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Guest reefatoon
3 hours ago, Decky said:

Never doubted this man for a second. I said throughout our bad run that things will change in January once we start getting time between games. It was so obvious.


Surprised people have struggled with it as it’s been so obvious.

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Just had that Michael Jordan clip in my head all night "...and I took that personally."

 

It certainly feels like Howe did.  After they battered us all over Villa park last season.  We have since given them a hiding at SJP and then they didn't have many answers last night.  Although granted, we did ride our luck a bit in that 10 minute spell around the Watkins goal.  It was still a masterclass.

 

To my very untrained eye.  I don't do tactics, a bit like Bacon Bruce.  There were quite a few noticeable differences to our game:

 

  • Width - We seemed to play very wide and stretch their backline.  Leaving plenty of gaps for runners, which we exploited all night.  
  • Left hand side - we really attacked Cash and Miley just strolled in behind time and again, with nobody bothering to track him from midfield.  Usually a massive bias with attacking down the right with Longstaff doing the Miley role.
  • Burn - he did get put in a spin cycle for 2 hours on 60 degrees when Bailey came on.  But before that, he was incredible.  Super aggressive and followed McGinn into that space every time.  Winning it back a lot of the while, making it hard for him to turn and play out, or fouling him.  Not sure he got pinged for fouling him, but he did a few times and it was clever play.
  • Press - we were happy to go direct and get in behind with measured long balls.  Turned them around a lot and then the cavalry would arrive and it was like a trigger for us to then push out.  We'd often only have one player in their half, a long diagonal gets played into an area.  Then we suddenly had 5 players in their half.  They struggled playing out a lot of the while after this.  The outball over the top of the first line to McGinn rarely worked because of the job Burn was doing.
  • Watkins - seemed happy to follow him into the midfield and also in behind.  Seemed like a concerted effort, mainly from Schar, to not try and play offside or high against him and always drop and follow his run.  Got lucky with the offside, of course.  But that was more to do with Miley turning it over in a shit area, from memory. 
  • Midfield - others have said it.  We looked to have Miley and Longstaff much further forward and they covered shit loads of ground.  Bruno seemed much more reserved and less involved in an attacking sense.  But we kept more control because of it and there were only a handful of times when that dreaded 'ball into the space between defence and midfield' happened. 
  • Subs - Howe often gets criticised for not making them or being unable to change things.  Tino coming on and going to a back 5 basically stopped their attacking threat.  Bar a couple of times where Bailey was dribbling like a man possessed and would have beaten a prime Maldini :lol: 

 

I think their team selection helped.  Konsa at right back and Bailey out wide, instead of Cash and Diaby, who were both atrocious.  Would have made it a lot harder, I think.  But how often when we get it right, does it get said that the other team are terrible and it's the worst they've played all season?  This is another one of those games. 

 

Totally smothered them and Howe got his tactics right for basically the entire game.  

 

I just hope this is a season defining result.  A lot of variables, Bruno's ban, how long Isak is out for and if Wilson, Barnes and Willock are actually close to returning.  But you'd like to hope we can build on this now.  

 

 

Edited by Lush Vlad

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Give Howe time on the training ground and let our guys rest up a bit and see what happens here. I have no doubt at all that if we didn’t face a dozen first team injuries this season we’d have seen a consistent force with a different style here and there utilizing the best of the front 3’s abilities and our midfielders strengths. It’s sad we never saw it this season but Gordon/Isak/Murph and Barnes/Wilson/Miggy + 3 out of Bruno/JL/Willock/Tonali 

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I said this in some other threads but it was a hybrid of Howe that back end of the takeover season and last season. I thought it was masterful and I think its the way we need to play against most sides until we get the injured lads back. 

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