SUIYHA
Scott Parker
We are dominating possession and territory in every game. We complained for years about not having a proper striker with good movement and good technique, now we have spent £26m on getting one of the most prolific ones in La Liga to lead our line. We have the creative talents of Christian Eriksen, one of the best young playmakers in the world, Lewis Holtby, a former Germany U21 captain, and Paulinho, a £17m Brazilian international. On the wings, we have arguably the biggest breakthrough player in the league in Townsend, with Lennon always a threat and Sigurdsson chipping in with a few goals and assists.
And yet - we have only scored 9 goals from our 9 Premier League games this season. Less than Swansea, Southampton and Saudi Sportswashing Machine. The same as Fulham and Villa. We have scored less than half of what Arsenal and City have managed. It is a real worry. Where do you think it's going wrong? And it is going wrong. Because you might sit there and think that when our team "clicks" a bit more, then the goals will start flowing. But I think that if we don't get some of the slices of luck we've had in some games this season, eg - the penalty today, Townsend's cross going straight in last week - and luck will always run out eventually, then we'll start to struggle. Even if we can keep grinding results out, our goal difference looks set to count against us if it gets really tight at the end of the season, which it almost certainly will.
I get that AVB wants to use a 4-3-3 formation as the base. No problem with that, most top teams do these days. What I don't like is how he uses it. Today's team selection was the sort of thing I'd expect to see against Arsenal away, not against Hull at home. The weaker PL sides have been coming to White Hart Lane to put 10 men behind the ball and play for a draw for years now, we should be better prepared for this - our rivals manage to break them down and put them away, this is what we need to be able to do too if we are to compete at the top.
The first thing that I think is causing problems for our attack is the high line. I mean sure, it helps us keep the ball in the opposition half, forces them backwards, keeps the pressure off of our goal and onto theirs. But it also forces their players backwards into tight, rigid defensive formations and denies our players the space they need to operate in their half. Every game this season in which we've scored the first goal, bar Chelsea, I've known we were going to go on and win because we're good at hitting teams on the counter when they commit men forward. But when they sit back, it's hard for us, and by playing the high line we are forcing them back. It's done wonders for our defence - we've already kept more clean sheets in the league this season than we did in the entire 02/03 season, and have equalled our tally from the 06/07 season when we finished in the top 5. But clean sheets don't win you matches, they just stop you from losing them. I'm not saying that we should abandon this completely as it has been effective. But I think playing a bit deeper at times, especially at home to the weaker sides, may be something worth thinking about.
The long and the short of it is, we need to get better at creating chances at the other end, and we need to figure out how to do it with the personnel that we've currently got. All well and good saying we should sign X creative player or Y striker, to make it all click, but we've got 10 games before we can sign anyone new and I can't bear to miss out on CL football/finishing above the scum by one point yet again because of a failure to get one more goal earlier in the season that would have made all the difference.
So as far as I'm concerned, there are three ways we can approach these sorts of games:
1. Paulinho, Sandro and Dembele are all very good players. Capoue looked promising too in the games he did play. But we can only start one of them in these sorts of games in a 4-3-3, as two of Eriksen, Holtby and Sigurdsson need to start in the middle. We're just not creative enough to break down a 10 man defence otherwise, we need skilful players in the middle of the park who can play one touch, pass and move football and spot tiny gaps to play the ball in to. Paulinho is the best out of the first three at this. But I'm pretty sure that Eriksen and Holtby have never been on the pitch at the same time, nor have either of them played with Sigurdsson in the middle with two direct wingers. That's how we should be playing a 4-3-3 against these sorts of teams.
2. Avoid the use of inverted wingers, unless you have a full-back that will get forward on the overlap. The middle is crowded enough as it is without our wide men drifting inside. We need players who can stretch the play, drag defenders out wide and create gaps for Soldado/Paulhino and co in the centre.
3. Go 4-4-2. It's not fashionable these days. But when Soldado is crowded out, it helps having another striker that can pull defenders away with their own movement. I'd love to see Soldado paired up with a motivated Adebayor (may never happen). We went through a period last season of playing 4-4-2 with Defoe and Ade up front towards the end of 2012 and the start of 2013 and it yielded some good results, but we haven't tried it at all this season. I am also starting to think that CF may be Lamela's best position, so this may also give us the best way of getting our £30m on the pitch alongside Townsend/Lennon.
What do you feel is the main reason we're not creating chances the way we should do? Any other suggestions to change things?
And yet - we have only scored 9 goals from our 9 Premier League games this season. Less than Swansea, Southampton and Saudi Sportswashing Machine. The same as Fulham and Villa. We have scored less than half of what Arsenal and City have managed. It is a real worry. Where do you think it's going wrong? And it is going wrong. Because you might sit there and think that when our team "clicks" a bit more, then the goals will start flowing. But I think that if we don't get some of the slices of luck we've had in some games this season, eg - the penalty today, Townsend's cross going straight in last week - and luck will always run out eventually, then we'll start to struggle. Even if we can keep grinding results out, our goal difference looks set to count against us if it gets really tight at the end of the season, which it almost certainly will.
I get that AVB wants to use a 4-3-3 formation as the base. No problem with that, most top teams do these days. What I don't like is how he uses it. Today's team selection was the sort of thing I'd expect to see against Arsenal away, not against Hull at home. The weaker PL sides have been coming to White Hart Lane to put 10 men behind the ball and play for a draw for years now, we should be better prepared for this - our rivals manage to break them down and put them away, this is what we need to be able to do too if we are to compete at the top.
The first thing that I think is causing problems for our attack is the high line. I mean sure, it helps us keep the ball in the opposition half, forces them backwards, keeps the pressure off of our goal and onto theirs. But it also forces their players backwards into tight, rigid defensive formations and denies our players the space they need to operate in their half. Every game this season in which we've scored the first goal, bar Chelsea, I've known we were going to go on and win because we're good at hitting teams on the counter when they commit men forward. But when they sit back, it's hard for us, and by playing the high line we are forcing them back. It's done wonders for our defence - we've already kept more clean sheets in the league this season than we did in the entire 02/03 season, and have equalled our tally from the 06/07 season when we finished in the top 5. But clean sheets don't win you matches, they just stop you from losing them. I'm not saying that we should abandon this completely as it has been effective. But I think playing a bit deeper at times, especially at home to the weaker sides, may be something worth thinking about.
The long and the short of it is, we need to get better at creating chances at the other end, and we need to figure out how to do it with the personnel that we've currently got. All well and good saying we should sign X creative player or Y striker, to make it all click, but we've got 10 games before we can sign anyone new and I can't bear to miss out on CL football/finishing above the scum by one point yet again because of a failure to get one more goal earlier in the season that would have made all the difference.
So as far as I'm concerned, there are three ways we can approach these sorts of games:
1. Paulinho, Sandro and Dembele are all very good players. Capoue looked promising too in the games he did play. But we can only start one of them in these sorts of games in a 4-3-3, as two of Eriksen, Holtby and Sigurdsson need to start in the middle. We're just not creative enough to break down a 10 man defence otherwise, we need skilful players in the middle of the park who can play one touch, pass and move football and spot tiny gaps to play the ball in to. Paulinho is the best out of the first three at this. But I'm pretty sure that Eriksen and Holtby have never been on the pitch at the same time, nor have either of them played with Sigurdsson in the middle with two direct wingers. That's how we should be playing a 4-3-3 against these sorts of teams.
2. Avoid the use of inverted wingers, unless you have a full-back that will get forward on the overlap. The middle is crowded enough as it is without our wide men drifting inside. We need players who can stretch the play, drag defenders out wide and create gaps for Soldado/Paulhino and co in the centre.
3. Go 4-4-2. It's not fashionable these days. But when Soldado is crowded out, it helps having another striker that can pull defenders away with their own movement. I'd love to see Soldado paired up with a motivated Adebayor (may never happen). We went through a period last season of playing 4-4-2 with Defoe and Ade up front towards the end of 2012 and the start of 2013 and it yielded some good results, but we haven't tried it at all this season. I am also starting to think that CF may be Lamela's best position, so this may also give us the best way of getting our £30m on the pitch alongside Townsend/Lennon.
What do you feel is the main reason we're not creating chances the way we should do? Any other suggestions to change things?
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