Oregon_Geordie Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Well, they can't seem to in the current setup. But I guess the midfield is not the problem... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 They were absolutely fine v Villa. Might need to tweak the way they're playing to get the best out of both but aye, that's a load of shite. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Teams have figured out Popes horrendous on the ball and pressure him so much when he has it at feet. if you play the same formation and 11 week in week out like we do, these elite managers are going to figure out how to beat you. We need to start changing things up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Hope is barely a journalist let alone a pundit. Weird bloke Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemtizz Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Damn that's crazy only took them 5 years to figure it out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Just now, Jordan said: Teams have figured out Popes horrendous on the ball and pressure him so much when he has it at feet. if you play the same formation and 11 week in week out like we do, these elite managers are going to figure out how to beat you. We need to start changing things up. Agree with this but it’s all over the park. Pope is dodgy with his feet and will come far out the box too. Test him, he’ll get one wrong and lose a bit of confidence. His whole game might fall apart (crosses and saves). Trippier wants to attack. Target the space he leaves in behind. Trips ends up sitting deep all game. Almiron has no right foot and is poor 1v1. Keep Trippier defensive and guide Almiron to his right foot. Watch out for their combination play too. Massive spaces in thr half spaces between defence and 3 midfielders. Number 10s/ second strikers have a field day. only Bruno G can progress the ball from midfield. Stay tight on him. He’ll try and dribble his way out of trouble. Keep at it, you’ll be able to knick it dangerously at least once. We need different tricks now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregon_Geordie Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said: Hope is barely a journalist let alone a pundit. Weird bloke Agree, usually despise the bloke but agree with a lot of the points he makes there. But hey ho, everything is fucking magic because he said otherwise. The Midfield balance is completely imbalanced - in my opinion course - It's neither supporting the attack nor shielding the defense. Villa also had a hateful of chances btw. Like I said I don't want Eddie out and I love both Bruno and Tonali but it's not working in the middle, it needs a rethink or a change in tactics. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 ...or more than 4 games against the very best teams in the league to get into its groove. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 If Howe changes a tactic that's taken us to the brink of the top 3 and a Cup Final because of this start, I'll think far less of him than if he has faith in his process and just looks for a few tweaks to get us back on our way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregon_Geordie Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Let's see, hopefully that's the case. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gavin400 Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Luckily we have the international break now to get things sorted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 (edited) For me, Tonali for Longstaff is clearly a massive upgrade. The midfield aren’t playing well but I don’t think the answer is to change the formation as such, it’ll be more about tweaking it, making sure they’re all fit and understand their instructions. We made the decision to sign flexible and versatile players and we have to live with that. I know destroyer DMs are trendy now but it’s not the way we went, so we need to back these lads and Howe to get them working. Easier fixtures will certainly help a lot. Edited September 2, 2023 by AyeDubbleYoo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said: If Howe changes a tactic that's taken us to the brink of the top 3 and a Cup Final because of this start, I'll think far less of him than if he has faith in his process and just looks for a few tweaks to get us back on our way. I think I've said before that I think we'd evolve in style this season. I don't think Tonali was signed to play in a 3, I don't think Barnes and Gordon were signed to be either/or, Eddie's insistence about Gordon's ability through the middle, the two young full backs who like to attack. All points to a change in system to me but it won't be overnight, it'll be drip fed in when players get up to speed, when the group get used to each other and can read each other better. Edit....oh and also why a striker was on the list of needs on that board in the documentary Edited September 2, 2023 by madras Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufc123 Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 5 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said: ...or more than 4 games against the very best teams in the league to get into its groove. He also pointed that out. It was the manner of the loss wich is a fair point. He also said Howe is a good manager, and we will be fine. Apart from the they cant play together dont think he said much wrong. Liked the full backs for the future but also had concern about the strengthening here and now wich also is a fair point. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 14 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said: If Howe changes a tactic that's taken us to the brink of the top 3 and a Cup Final because of this start, I'll think far less of him than if he has faith in his process and just looks for a few tweaks to get us back on our way. Tbf Pep continually evolves what City do. SAF always evolved it. Prime Wenger evolved it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 5 minutes ago, nufc123 said: He also pointed that out. It was the manner of the loss wich is a fair point. He also said Howe is a good manager, and we will be fine. Apart from the they cant play together dont think he said much wrong. Liked the full backs for the future but also had concern about the strengthening here and now wich also is a fair point. Unless it was in an earlier post, it wasn't mentioned. 18 minutes ago, Oregon_Geordie said: it needs a rethink or a change in tactics. As for the rest, I don't think any of us disagree really. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt1892 Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 The issue with the midfield is Joelinton, who was at his best last season playing on the left of midfield and dropping in to cover Willock when he adventured forward. Talk of Tonali and Bruno not being able to work together is just lazy, Redknapp was on about it as if Longstaff was a defensive midfielder and now Bruno has to play the role now he is out. Clearly no idea what he is talking about. He should play Isak off Wilson and then Bruno and Tonali as the double pivot. 4-2-3-1. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilson Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 50 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said: Nah, stopped it at “they can’t play together”. Absolute nonsense. Seen/heard this take a few times tonight, rage inducing. Think I'll be having a football blackout for a bit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHoob Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 3 minutes ago, Wilson said: Seen/heard this take a few times tonight, rage inducing. Think I'll be having a football blackout for a bit. Aye, two players who've barely played 4 games together in not playing like a well oiled machine shocker. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 The way we play will be too much for the majority of teams between now and Arsenal. One of the things we lacked last season with too many draws was only really having Bruno who could unlock a defence who played deep against us. We now have Tonali. Maybe against teams like City, Liverpool, even Brighton we might need to tweak things a bit moving forward but it'd be a shambles to finally get into this position now, then end up sticking Longstaff back in for Tonali or Bruno for instance when we have a run of winnable games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregon_Geordie Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Interesting data from today. Bruno lost possession 8 times, Tonali 9, and Joe 6 (obviously only played 50-odd mins) Clearly, Bruno was the single pivot and Tonali was far more advanced. Joe doing a bit of everything. No real conclusion to this other than, is Tonali doing enough defensively? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanji Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 It was a shit day in the office but clear as day we literally had the chance to go up 1 or 2 nil before they had a sniff. We had another chance before halftime to level. Our GK came out and ignored a simple ball to Trips, booted it out to their player. Scrambled back. Made a good save. Then fumbled a shot to their striker. We made our own problem there. I’m confident in Eddie’s work ethic to fix this over the break and get the system and players right. This tough start is classically fine margin away from being 6-7-9 points and we’re at 3. That’s life. We have 30+ premier league matches, 3 cups to compete it. I’m trusting the man who’s going to spend the next 3 days obsessing over finding the solution. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conjo Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 1 hour ago, buzza said: Thought their keeper was great as an extra "baller" in the back line. Pope was hesitant and made far too many mistakes in his distribution, we need to improve if we want to play it out from the back For a keeper who plays so high up the pitch as Pope does it's kind of embarrasing how poor his first touch and passing is. Verbruggen today hit his full backs and wingers beautifully with 30m passes every time Brighton were pressured enough to have to put the ball back to him and allowed them to maintain possesion with a player who was not being pressed. Pope receives the ball and kills it dead like kids were told to do it at 5-6 years old. Then he's out of time because teams knows to press him now and he just has to hoof it (without any technique to get the ball high or with any thought about where to hoof it) in order to not screw up like he's done a few times now. At his age it's probably not something he'll be able to improve a lot on but I really hope he does make an effort in training to, if nothing else, get more comfortable with being put under pressure. Having your keeper as an outlet against a high press seems to be incredibly important these days. We've already seen that first hand today, against Liverpool and Man City. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted September 3, 2023 Share Posted September 3, 2023 I don't think I've once heard Solly March's name mentioned in terms of an England call up, I thought he was absolutely incredible today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted September 3, 2023 Share Posted September 3, 2023 Just now, Wullie said: I don't think I've once heard Solly March's name mentioned in terms of an England call up, I thought he was absolutely incredible today. He's English!?! Wtf, I just assumed he'd never been mentioned because he's not English. Criminal really, he's class. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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