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Thomas Frank - Head Coach

Gutter Boy said:
About our only home win in 3 years. And considerably etter than Paulinha, Bentancur and co have done against the other relegation fodder.
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I don't really think any of our current options for CM are suited to a 2 man midfield as pair - the two young uns on paper potentially most suited but age/experience means they'll struggle for the most part in the Prem.
 
SissokoWasGood (BoL) said:
I’m not sure you can say the team was galvanised by having better players back when we played Spence on left wing, Odobert and Simons have been routinely described as not good enough yet and played a lot with us and Solanke back. Solanke is also a weird one because I swear I’ve seen a ton of people describe him as emblematic of us almost of signing good but not great players and being one we need to upgrade. And now all of a sudden since being out he’s being spoken of as the key to unlocking everything.

I’m not sure I buy it. I think the team displayed a great level of aggression and executed in some key moments. But the intent was largely the same as lots of other games. We just did it better and got the breaks when we needed. Maybe Solanke was the key to unlocking everything, but I tend to agree with Frank that overall performances had been trending better even if we hadn’t had the breaks, and last night we got them.
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I just thought they looked a lot more settled, with good chemistry down the flanks, and the team was looking a lot more ballanced and settled. Not quite sure the point you're making there. I agree there were signs things were coming together in previous games, but Solanke and Udogie no doubt helped, as did Spence on the wing and the mis-match with the fullback who couldn't handle him.

I'd add the team playing with tempo as a key factor. In the past we've tried to play quickly and just lost the ball. Last night we were in the zone playing fast and retaining the ball. Was hard to play againt.
 
billyiddo said:
I don't really think any of our current options for CM are suited to a 2 man midfield as pair - the two young uns on paper potentially most suited but age/experience means they'll struggle for the most part in the Prem.
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I would really like to see TF put out a team which wasn't the standard 4-2-3-1 if we don't have the personnel for it. Last night's game was a great example of setting the team up to play to their strengths and not fitting square pegs in round holes.
 
SpurMeUp said:
I just thought they looked a lot more settled, with good chemistry down the flanks, and the team was looking a lot more ballanced and settled. Not quite sure the point you're making there. I agree there were signs things were coming together in previous games, but Solanke and Udogie no doubt helped, as did Spence on the wing and the mis-match with the fullback who couldn't handle him.

I'd add the team playing with tempo as a key factor. In the past we've tried to play quickly and just lost the ball. Last night we were in the zone playing fast and retaining the ball. Was hard to play againt.
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I genuinely just think we’ve tried to play this way a number of times and actually played ok and probably deserved more from the 30 minutes that we do it. But I agree that last night the quality was much higher, the aggression off the ball but also the intent and the incisiveness of the passing with it.

I just am challenging the idea that it was somehow down to player quality allowing us to do this. Those players have by and large played all season. I agree they were settled. Maybe Udogie and Solanke absolutely unlocked everything for everyone, but it might also have been that we were able to physically outmatch a German team in a way we can’t with an English team. But I don’t think it was player quality, simply because we have had Udogie and still dropped points, and I don’t think Solanke on his own unlocks everything.

Overall my point has always been that the players we have are pretty good, and also that I’d been seeing green shoots of the Frank plan (start fast, and be able to raise our intensity towards the end if needed, but be solid and counter in the middle of the game). In a sense last night didn’t feel massively different to me in intent, I just think we actually executed well, dominated physically and got the breaks when in previous games we’d had silly stuff go against us.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Smells a bit like mischievous gossip at the moment, it's not from a decent source is it? You can't try and run off a bad ankle injury like he was giving that one a good go at
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Fingers crossed. Although Gallagher, Sarr, Gray and Palinha is a pretty good group of options for central midfield. Gets tricky when thinking about whether we’ll need one of them to also play the 10.
 
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