Philosopher

Just now, birdman said:

Baffles me why we refuse those shots. Infuriating.

We have been shooting a bit more today. McGinn has had a couple, Cash a couple prior to the goal.

Just now, bobzy said:

He's saved us with a couple of challenges to be fair.

Also been mugged off by Bangura, slow and ponderous sideways passing, silly yellow card, I could go on. But if that's the winner, none of that matters!

Cash has been awful, but that erases all of that!

Just now, Steero113 said:

Watkins currently hasn’t touched the ball in 16 mins 

His runs are smarter. He makes space for others. But that irrelevant. We are talking about Duran not playing well, he hasn't been bad per say either, but best player stuff is delusional. He playing for himself, not the team!

1 minute ago, Steero113 said:

Two of them were proper efforts that required good stops. 

not sure you’ve noticed but we’ve provided him with absolutely nothing all game either. 
 

 

He been making the wrong runs, a lot of the time. Not coming short enough. Shooting when he should be passing or crossing. The point of a guy his size and strength is that the ball sticks, but Watkins holds it up way better than he does.

2 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

Well no, Duran is in a different ballpark to Hogan, quite clearly.

Duran has actual ability, but he's not playing smart, he's too emotional.

1 minute ago, jim said:

Yet had the most shots on target (3)

The miss hit, the stupid one from outside the box at a ridiculous angle. 3 shots wow we whoop de do!

Kamara easily our best player. Definitely not Duran or Ramsey.

Duran playing emotionally not with his head. Been ineffective, not really been a threat.

Ramsey and Moreno still not sharp. Moreno not back to top speed yet. 

Duran looks like he wants to go.

8 hours ago, brummybloke said:

Just seen sansons contract is up at the end of the season, thought he had a year left so I take that one back.

Traore's contract is up in the summer too. Those two off the books should reduce wages by at least100k per week.

8 hours ago, MaVilla said:

 

Yeah i saw that too, bad attitude at Dortmund, bad attitude and Manure.

Wouldnt touch him with a barge pole.

I saw an interview with Vidic also, where he called out Sancho for being unprofessional (from when Vidic was in the dressing room with him).

not a good look.

All of this seems like bs. He was unprofessional and whatnot at Dortmond but they're loaning him back. They also kept him for an extra season because Man U wouldn't offer an extra 10m to meet their 100m valuation before the set deadline. Doesn't sound like they wanted rid of him.

It would make more sense to me that his level dropped after they refused to let him go. Which is hardly surprising. If we do everything needed to get a promotion at work, but we get blocked, would that affect our motivation?

Vidic retired long before Sancho became a man u player. So how was he in the dressing room?

Some players need an arm round them, and to feel appreciated, other respond better to a kick up the bum. 

Sancho clearly had more potential than he has shown, but he's had to deal with a shit environment at Man U. And quite frankly average managers. So I wouldn't write him off. I also wouldn’t label him a bad egg, because he was depressed and lost motivation, we are talking about a man in his early 20's suffering his first major setback in football. Nobody's perfect.

If that is the new badge, then I makes Heck look like an idiot, and will piss every fan off. It was also make us a bit of a laughing stock. 

I simply can't believe that's the new crest, it would represent a real failure.

Somehow they took the Lerner crest that no one likes, and made it worse!

I give to Luiz because he has a number of very important goals and assists as well as his general play orchestrating things in the middle. 

But I could probably name 8 or 9 that could be chosen as well. Watkins, Martinez, Pau, Konsa, Digne, Bailey, McGinn, all right up there.

2 minutes ago, maqroll said:

If Barca or Arsenal or Man City come in for Douglas, I worry...

Barca can't afford him!

4 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

Is he the one?
 

 

I want him!

26 minutes ago, Nabby said:

Not sure Cash would have started but if he was avaliable he would of been on earlish in the 2nd half.  If I have a critique I would like to see us sometimes stick Bailey /Diarby wide left to cross the ball from byline not check back like they do on the right ( granted Bailey does get some assists from RF cross's) Just think some variation would be good.

We were poor in possession in our own half. That was our downfall. So I don't think an adjustment like that would have made a difference. 

We simply misplaced too many passes.

He's lacking a bit of confidence, needs a goal or two.

At 60 minutes we needed changes. It was clear. On 75 minutes I was still wondering why there weren't any changes.

The problem last night was that the players under performing were the likes of McGinn, Ramsey, and Luiz, and we just didn't good alternatives on the bench. We needed Tielemens and Kamara last night.

I have to be honest, I don't particularly like it. 

The colour scheme is fine for such a badge. 150 years probably should be gilded. It just looks a bit squiggly and illegible!

7 minutes ago, desensitized43 said:

I think that's the key phrase.

I don't want to see him unless it's a dire emergency. He's not and has never been good enough.

To be honest I think there is a good player in there, in regards to Chambers. He has a lot of good qualities. But he seem very nervy passing the ball around on the edge of his own area. Plus the team needs pace at the back. I think struggles with the pressure, maybe a lack of belief!?

So ultimately (if he was fit) I'd pick Hause over Chambers at centre back, which says it all about his future at the club! 

28 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

I didn't think we needed to sign anyone, but I am now of the opinion that our most urgent signing is a RB if the right one is available.

I'm a Matty Cash fan, but I think he's reached his limits and I feel he stands out a bit now in the team as not being as fluid and switched on as the others.

I agree RB is where we can find an immediate improvement in the first team. So this makes RB a bigger priority than a back up anything!

Cash is good when teams come at us, as his energy and movement will see him exploit the space that leaves. However he is an average crosser at best, and he struggles to beat a man one on one. We also need genuine recovery pace in his position.

In regard to a back up for Watkins, i feel Duran is perfect. Watkins almost never gets injured. Now there is always a first but, the reality is his Back up will be lucky to pick up even one premier league start. Duran has HUGE potential. This lad (so long as he works hard and listens to those trying to help him) will be a star. For me his raw potential is world class complete striker. Pace, power, technique, work rate, touch, all the best raw materials are in him.

Now if we decided to loan him out to get him more game time, then a striker coming in on loan would make sense. But who would go on loan to a club where he probably won't even get to start in the Premier league?

1 hour ago, lexicon said:

It doesn't matter what it is in relation to TBF - other teams have to break them down too and the fact is we're 2nd highest scorers. 

The majority of our goals come from creating space via drawing teams onto us, or through winning the ball back and hitting teams hard a fast before they can fall back into their defensive shape.  If we take out the inferior opposition we faced in the ECL we have scored 11 goals against low blocks. Prem teams that employed low block we have faced are; Palace, Luton, Forest, Brentford, Wolves, and Bournemouth.  That's 1.83 goals per game against low blocks. Against teams that didn't employ a low block we have scored 28 goals in 11 games at a ratio of 2.5 (these 11 games include our hammerings at the hand of Newcastle and Liverpool). So there is a clear discrepancy between the two.

1.83 goals per game against low blocks is respectable. I'd say and we don't have a major problem there as the point of a low block is to prevent conceding goals. However I'd also say that ideally this ratio should be higher than 2. 

The other factor here is against those low block teams I mentioned we have conceded first to all but Luton. So 5 out of 6 low blocks have scored first against us. This means in order to win we need to score at least 2 goals against said low block teams. But our goals for versus low block teams is slightly less than 2. Also all of the low blocks teams have scored against us.

This points to a vulnerability in transition and that's at least in part down to our high line, but also to poor pressing at times. The only way to improve here is to be more defensive (but we'd then score less goals) or find a way to score more, while not weakening defensively. 

Part of the vulnerability of our highline is that you need pace in the back line to recover when the offside trap is broken through. Moreno and Konsa (currently) are the only defenders we have with a genuine turn of pace. And Moreno has been injured most of the season. This why I advocate a speed merchant right back (our right hand side is usually the source of the breach when it come to our defense). 

I also feel that this season our attacking of the left side has been stunted by having to shoehorn the likes of Tielemens and Zaniolo in there. So threat there has been reduced in Ramsey and Moreno's absence. On the right we have been stunted by Cash just being limited going forward, or by playing Konsa at RB.

The final piece of analysis is that Emery expects the player that partners Watkins to be left footed. (Hence why we signed 2 left footed fowards in the summer). I believe part of his tactical plan is having the strikers work the channel on their side, and part of this is the forwards having their stronger foot on the inside of the channel they're operating in.  

So if we sign any midfielders or forwards, they would ideally need to be fast and relentless in the press. And any defenders have to be able to pass and have pace.

The positions that will most likely be looked at in the near future, are right back, Left midfielder (no 8/10 type that can carry the ball - assuming Buendia doesn't have much of a future with us and is a current long term absentee), Right footed striker, and younger left back as we have two 30 years old there.

26 minutes ago, lexicon said:

How are we struggling to break teams down? We've scored the second most goals in the league 

He is talking in relation to low blocks.

However it can be argued that that is the point of low blocks. They're hard to break down. I'd like to see someone like Frimpong who can also defend. For me we need speed merchants in the fullback positions. We have Moreno left, but for me Cash isn't quite at the level going forward. If Cash was bringing what Moreno brings Brentford would've been battered.

I like Digne as his touch and delivery is first class and offers something different, but bringing in a young left back in Moreno's mold makes sense.