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Harry Redknapp: The Aftermath

Would you keep Arry after the Season?

  • Yes - He's done well and should be given at least one more season to consolidate our team

    Votes: 25 53.2%
  • No - he's peaked and would hold us back.

    Votes: 22 46.8%

  • Total voters
    47
Who else wants Harry to stay?

Am i the only one that wants Harry to stay; He has done a great job this season but sadly for him; He over-achieved and the fans expected too much. With Hodgson being approached by the FA and should he be the manager then I hope Levy sticks with Redknapp as there are hardly any managers available out there that can do a better job.

People forget that Arsenal,Liverpool,Chelsea,United and City's wage bills are completely different and Harry has turned our bad players into good ones by giving them lots of confidence; Don't forget everybody thought Modric was too small for the Prem and Wenger said this and Bale was playing really bad for us and although Ekotto's injury gave Bale a chance; Harry then moved him to LM and that was a master stroke.

So who else wants Harry to stay and lead us to the title. 8)
 
Please have a look at what other threads on similar or the same topic are going before starting a new one.
 
does anyone remember when

they used to deliver milk to your door, nah im just bricking you

do you remember a comment redknapp made about how he got a job offer from dubai but we had just got champs league football, he said he fancied a crack at the champs league

Well anyone else think he may take a job out there now rather then deal with the stress of the premership which can not be great on his ticker.

They seem to pay their managers well over there and i have read him say a few times how he likes the lifestyle out there. Im sure i read a quote by him saying he only turned down the job because he wanted a shot at the champs league. Anyone remember that?
 
Dubai club Al Ahli target Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp is wanted as coach by ambitious Dubai side Al Ahli, according to a report from The Daily Mail.

Al Ahli are owned by the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, a man who was educated at the London School of Economics and who has a keen interest in sport.

The Sheikh would like Redknapp primarily to boost the credibility of the league in the United Arab Emirates, perceived largely as a kind of luxury retirement home for footballers from around the wold.

Redknapp would not only boost credibility in his own right but also attract a higher calibre of player from around the world, in the Sheikh's view.

The Spurs boss has one year left on his contract at White Hart Lane and Al Ahli apparently could return for him next year.

However, he is currently preparing to take Spurs into the Champions League for the first time next season after being named Manager of the Year, so chances of any move would certainly appear slim at the moment.
 
Although "money is ...(his) GHod", I really can't see him leaving Sandbanks now. He's got young grandchildren growing up in the area etc.

I can see him taking an advisory role at a club, a bit like Pleat does. However he wouldn't be welcomed back by any of the 3 south coast clubs he has managed, so my guess would be somewhere commutable like Reading or Swindon (with his old mate Di Canio).
 
Dubai club Al Ahli target Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp is wanted as coach by ambitious Dubai side Al Ahli, according to a report from The Daily Mail.

Al Ahli are owned by the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, a man who was educated at the London School of Economics and who has a keen interest in sport.

The Sheikh would like Redknapp primarily to boost the credibility of the league in the United Arab Emirates, perceived largely as a kind of luxury retirement home for footballers from around the wold.

Redknapp would not only boost credibility in his own right but also attract a higher calibre of player from around the world, in the Sheikh's view.

The Spurs boss has one year left on his contract at White Hart Lane and Al Ahli apparently could return for him next year.

However, he is currently preparing to take Spurs into the Champions League for the first time next season after being named Manager of the Year, so chances of any move would certainly appear slim at the moment.

When was this? im sure i remember him saying he was thinking about it and the only reason he stayed was because we got champs league. I could see him ending up out there.
 
Although "money is ...(his) GHod", I really can't see him leaving Sandbanks now. He's got young grandchildren growing up in the area etc.

I can see him taking an advisory role at a club, a bit like Pleat does. However he wouldn't be welcomed back by any of the 3 south coast clubs he has managed, so my guess would be somewhere commutable like Reading or Swindon (with his old mate Di Canio).

Bournemouth? hayling island the possibilities are endless

im a little drunk, wellim not little im big but im only a little drunk.
 
Harry wearing Under Armour

Not sure if anyone else noticed but when being interviewed by SSN today about how gutted he was re Ingerlund, Harry was wearing a white UA top with blue trim.
He was in his car :)lol:) so I couldn't tell whether it had a ****erel on it. Presumably on his way to training so maybe they've started wearing next season's gear now....or maybe not.
 
How many top top Managers are there though? In terms of the Premiership you have two. Ferguson and Wenger. On a worldworld scale, or even European scale, I'd say neither of them were top top Managers based on the fact they've been involved in the Champions League for years and achieved comparitively very little in it.


I'm sorry? Did you just say there that neither Ferguson or Wenger were "top managers" in Europe/international fields based on how little they've achieved in the CL? Sir Alex Ferguson, winner of how many titles? Winner of the Champions League twice? Someone who has had Man U in the competition every season since I don't know when? And like him or not, Wenger has been to the CL final and got the filth in it for 14 seasons in a row, plus won a few pots (albeit a while ago)? Tell me I mis-read that please. Either man would easily make the top 15 managers in international club football over the last two decades. Easily. Not even a question.
 
I'm sorry? Did you just say there that neither Ferguson or Wenger were "top managers" in Europe/international fields based on how little they've achieved in the CL? Sir Alex Ferguson, winner of how many titles? Winner of the Champions League twice? Someone who has had Man U in the competition every season since I don't know when? And like him or not, Wenger has been to the CL final and got the filth in it for 14 seasons in a row, plus won a few pots (albeit a while ago)? Tell me I mis-read that please. Either man would easily make the top 15 managers in international club football over the last two decades. Easily. Not even a question.

Ferguson in 1st, Wenger in the top 5 for me personally.
 
After being knocked out by Real, we suffered a bit. But we only lost to Chelsea and City.
We were not losing to QPR and Norwich.

Our slump last year was when we lost to Blackpool (19th) despite battering them.... then drew with West Ham (20th), Wolves (17th) and Wigan (16th). There was a draw with West Brom and we scraped a draw in another game against Blackpool. Yes, there were some tough fixtures in there as well but we only took 9 out of 30 points at the 'business end' of the season. After we lost to City the pressure was off and we won our last two.

Before that little run we were still in a great position for 4th.
 
Insightful again Fuego. Any chance of you writing some blog articles for the site?

Thanks. Hmmm, maybe, but whenever I try to write articles they never turn out right. They tend to turn into rants about opposition players being brick. :p Aside from tactics, I'm really limited too.

Thats exactly it Fuego, when we play with two wingers tell then to stay wide, the fullbacks job should be to defend and support the wingers, when Lennon plays with Walker then you waste Lennon, Corluka is great with Lennon because he supports him, also Bale gets away with a lot on here because he helps out Ekotto very little, no matter what you think of Benny with Bale in front wandering all over the place he is very exposed, having two kamakaze fullbacks also means you cant defend a high line because the ball gets played in behind them.

You can play wingers and tell them to stay wide with attacking full backs... Our season until Norwich had attacking full backs and wingers that stayed wide. (They did switch wings from time to time, but they stayed wide for the most part.)

I don't agree that playing Walker with Lennon wastes Lennon, I think having 2 players in advanced positions on a wing means that the opposition needs at least 2 people defending against them. BAE and Bale is especially good because when BAE is alongside Bale, the opposition has to put one person on BAE and leave Bale with a 1v1 or put both people on Bale and leave BAE open.

The high line comment is debatable. Barca defend a high line with attacking full backs as do plenty of other teams.

Define "support"? Corluka did go forwards, not as much as Walker, but he did turn up on the edge of the opposition box to receive the ball and cross it. He wasn't a Roberto Carlos road runner type, but he got forward often enough. Yes, I know Bale doesn't help BAE, but that's Bale wandering all over the place, not BAE getting forward.



Also VDV drops too deep and Modric makes too few forward runs, with Ade up front on his own he needs support, VDV is nowhere and Modric never gets into the opponents box, so you think right one of the two wide men should get into the box but they dont, teams defend deep against us and we just pass it around in front of them, they try and catch us on the break, while I am at it our centre midfield do not run at the opposition enough to commit players.
Football is a simply game.


Many of these points have nothing to do with where our full backs are, like a couple of your earlier points. I'm not saying some of them aren't valid points... I just liked how we played during the first half of the season, so I'm making the argument for attacking full backs and wingers that stay on the wings.


VDV - Well, yes and no. Shortly after the F.A Cup game against Chelsea, I watched it again just to look at VDV dropping deep when I made a post about it. When he dropped deep, he made things happen, when he didn't drop deep, he had Mikel or Lampard on him and he wasn't in the game. In some games, he doesn't need to drop deep as much, in some he does. It's important that he becomes the third man in midfield sometimes, he is of little use if he's with Ade surrounded by 2 CBs and a DM.

Modric making too few forward runs... He does make them sometimes, but I'd agree with this for the most part. I'm not sure how much of it is down to Harry's tactics and how much is down to the way Modric naturally plays, but he could turn up in the box more.

Ade being isolated is always going to be an issue when we can't get the ball from the centre circle to Ade without launching it into the air. If we can't play through the middle to get it to him or use the wings to at least cross it to him (so he doesn't have to control an aerial ball), it's a problem. But if Ade looks isolated, we usually have a bigger problem. We're normally having trouble getting the ball into the opposition third (in which case VDV has gone to help)... Unless you mean when we're counter attacking? In that case, Ade, Bale, Lennon, Walker and BAE are the most likely to be furthest forward, this is because they're faster than Modric, VDV and Parker and because Kaboul and whichever other CB plays isn't likely to run the length of the field counter-attacking... Don't get me wrong, VDV, Modric and Parker do try to keep up, but they're likely to have stopped to send the counter-attack into action... They do keep up sometimes and get into the box, but in those scenarios, Ade wouldn't be isolated... There's really no solution to this, no one wants to see Ade looking isolated but sending someone to keep him company is usually pointless. Not only would we have to defend or struggle to get our of our own half with one fewer player, but our only extra option would be a long ball (still to Ade because VDV isn't great at flicking the ball on) and the vast vast vast majority of times that I've seen Ade attempt to flick the ball to VDV, it doesn't work. I've watched a few games purely to see how often this works and out of the games I watched, it didn't work once. VDV tried to pass it first time for him, control it, etc and nothing worked. I'm sure it works sometimes, but this doesn't seem like a good option.
So we're left with Ade coming deep, going wide or playing long balls... If we had possession, we could send the wingers forward a bit to make him less isolated, the jump from a 4-4-1-1 to a 4-3-3 with VDV as the point of a midfield triangle isn't that bad.

I might have read too much into that and slightly changed your point. But if it was just that we might have the ball in the opposition third and no one is anywhere near their box aside from Ade, that's not normal for us. VDV is usually there... Bale roams all over the place at the moment and is usually getting in Ade's way...



Wide men not getting into the box - Yes they do. For crosses and due to cutting inside, Bale due to roaming.. But you just said you wanted our full backs to stay back, this lowers the chance of wide men getting into the box.



Teams just defend deep against us and we pass it around in front of them - Yes they do. To play a high line against Bale and Lennon is insanely risky, Modric and VDV can spring Walker, Ade, Bale or Lennon. So defending deep is the option teams have left when faced with our pace... We do indeed pass it around in front of them. Bale is unlikely to receive the ball at the corner flag, dribble around players into the box and score. Bale is much more effective when he's already running at someone, he knocks the ball beyond them, runs around and can either get off a free cross or try to get 1v1 against the goalkeeper... That's why teams play deep... We saw Chelsea defend deep against Barca and hardly contest the ball over two thirds of the pitch... So if we can't pass through a team defending deep, we could take long range shots or put crosses in... Having attacking full backs helps offensively, but having them stay back means we're harder to counter against... I'd like them attacking personally, it'd help with the crosses part and it'd also give us 2 additional players to pass to.



Our CMs don't run at people enough to commit them - Yes and no... I'm assuming you mean when in possession... If so, you have a point but Parker isn't going to do a Messi, Modric does dribble past players very often, but usually in wide areas or on the edge of the opposition box if he's that far forward with the ball... They aren't going to do that in dangerous positions, losing the ball in the middle of the pitch because you ran into someone instead of passing it is silly, careless and dangerous.

If you mean when we have possession but not one of the CMs, then you probably have a point, but that's because Modric wants the ball and because Parker is a DM that can't afford to run to the corner flag to drag players out of position. If we lost the ball and our DM was on the far side of their box, it's likely that we'd have defensive issues.

If you mean when the opposition isn't in possession, Parker does press even if the rest of the team doesn't seem like they're going to press, but pressing is a team thing... We pressed well in the first half of the season.


Football might be a simple game, but you gave one suggestion which I didn't feel would help us, you then came back and listed a few things you felt were downsides of us playing with attacking full backs, then you listed a few of our major problems... Well, Bale roaming all over the place is a massive problem, but BAE was attacking for the first half of the season, so it worked before.. VDV, Modric, etc aren't affected by the full backs when it came to the things you said... A lot of your post deals with not so simple stuff anyway... Sure, the defensive line might be considered "simple", but your original comment made it sound like a manager could just play any formation using any tactics and generally whoever plays better on the day will win... So your latter post dealing with various issues our team has shows that it's maybe not as simple as you made everything sound... Sure, you can simplify stuff, but if you sat down with a team and went over all those issues, you'd end up saying a lot more than I did in the post you replied to.

As for the post you replied to when you said football is a simple game, it was a post explaining why 3-5-2 doesn't work against 4-5-1. All I did was explain why Blackburn would get its ass handed to it playing 3-5-2 against us and watching the game, it looks like what I said was right, so despite being a simple game, Blackburn's tactical approach was woeful. Any game is simple on the surface, but most games have some depth. Football does have some depth, you've seen Wigan beat teams with far better players, their tactics helped, it's not as simple as Wigan suddenly becoming Barca overnight.
 
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Have you ever played at a decent level ?, this is not meant to be disrespectful.

Nope, not at any level, unless a local under 11 team counts? We were at the bottom of the league and lost every game by at least 10 goals, sometimes 25+.


I have no problem with the question, I'm quite happy to admit I'm absolutely brick at playing football. For the record, I currently watch about 28 hours of football a week, I read coaching manuals from time to time and read plenty of scouting reports too.

Mourinho wasn't good enough to be a pro. Andre Villas Boas was 16 when he was found by Bobby Robson and played absolutely no level of football at all. So no, my playing career ended when I was 11 and I was brick then. :p


If it's a case of you trying to say that I'm over-complicating things because decent level coaches use "just run around a bit", I'm not buying that. Academy level football does this sort of thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdtOq_XlZAU


I seriously doubt Harry goes over tactics to even the Nike Academy level... I remember VDV being happy that we don't have long tactics sessions and that the whiteboard is always empty.



this present Utd side do not over commit their fullbacks and neither do Chelsea, also my opinion is based on the fact of playing two pukka wingers, watch us play we look for Ekotto and Walker all the time its boring, all our supposedly talentled players ie, Modric and VDV do not do enough for me, we are a one trick pony.

Rafael is the United RB... He is also so brick they've played Smalling and Jones as RB. But Rafael is a Brazilian RB. He goes forward all the time... And Evra hit the post when 4-3 up against Everton... We don't over commit our fullbacks compared to United or Chelsea.... Chelsea have Ashley Cole, a very attacking full back, Ivanovic is one of the very few full backs at the top teams that isn't an attacking full back by definition, but he still attacks from time to time... His seemingly reserved attacking displays are not by design and he still goes forward enough to score.

This is from Wikipedia:
2011-12
Branislav Ivanovic scored a headed goal in the 42nd minute of Chelsea's 5-0 home win over Belgian club KRC Genk in the Champions League Group E.[17] He assisted Frank Lampard from a outside-of-the-foot cross in the 50th minute against Blackburn Rovers F.C. Chelsea won the game as it was the only goal of the match.
Branislav scored the winning goal in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 on 14 March 2012 to complete the turn around against which was decisive extra time winner against Napoli which Chelsea won by 4-1 and 5-4 on aggreagate at Stamford Bridge.[18] On 31 March 2012, Ivanović scored a double against Aston Villa in a 2-4 away win.[19]. Ivanovic scored again in the following game against Wigan Athletic in a 2–1 victory, with a highly controversial offside goal.

So not only does he have 5 goals this season, but he got an assist from a cross and scored an offside goal... He must go over the halfway line in open play then. Those goals aren't all from corners. But Bosingwa and Fererra are attacking fullbacks that attack all the time.

also my opinion is based on the fact of playing two pukka wingers, watch us play we look for Ekotto and Walker all the time its boring, all our supposedly talentled players ie, Modric and VDV do not do enough for me, we are a one trick pony.

What is a "pukka winger"?

I looked up "pukka" and got the definition:
"1. Genuine; authentic.
2. Superior; first-class."


So does a "pukka winger" mean someone like Valencia or Lennon that always stays on the wing or does it mean a good winger like Nani or Bale?

I'd use a Chelsea example to even things out, but they use a forward 3 so they don't even use midfield wingers.... They use forward "wingers" like Kalou, Mata, Torres, Sturridge, Ramierez, Malouda and so on....

Now, Mata, Torres, Sturridge and Ramierez are not "genuine or authentic" wingers and neither is Kalou really...

Kalou, Torres (before this week), Malouda and so on are not "superior" or "first class".

So I have no clue what you're trying to say there.


Yes, we look for BAE all the time, he averages 59.4 passes per game. Parker averages 61.4, Modric averages 70.1. No one else comes anywhere close. He's a good LB on the ball... I don't see the problem with passing to BAE, he's usually unmarked which is why we pass to him. If Ade was unmarked, we'd pass to Ade, same goes for Bale.

That "supposedly" implies BAE is more talented than Modric and VDV in your opinion.


We are not a one trick pony. We have two basic forms of attack, pass through the middle or use the wings to advance. We're easy to stop at the moment because Bale doesn't stay on the wing, that's the thing that limits us. Passing to BAE should give him the option to pass to Bale (short if Bale has someone behind him and behind if there's space), the nearest CB, the furthest CB, possibly Walker although that's needlessly risky and usually not on, Ade (high ball for him to head or possibly a Hollywood ball in behind), Parker (sometimes) and Modric... I don't have an issue with that. The key players are closest to BAE, Bale and Modric...

In a situation in which a CB passes the ball to BAE, assuming it's not King, the CB isn't likely to have a great range of passing... So I'm not sure where you'd expect the ball to go... It has to go to a better ball player, that suggests Modric, but if Modric isn't given time and space, he isn't going to be able to pick anyone out... If Modric does have time and space it means they have at least 10 men marking the 4 people in front of Modric (Bale, VDV, Ade and Lennon), in that situation the only passes forward that are likely to be on are going to be VDV if he comes deep (he'll have his back to goal and will probably have to pass the ball backwards straight away), Ade (long and he'll have a CB on him), Lennon (is likely to have one man on him with one man behind him), Bale (is likely to have one man on him with one man behind him)...

So either way, Modric is likely to be screwed. Not given time and space or not given options. Now sometimes Modric and VDV can work their magic, our movement and passing is excellent and we force our way through, but sometimes there's nothing on and he has to go backwards and the ball will eventually find its way to BAE.

My problem is not with Modric and VDV if they can't magically beat an entire team behind the ball. My problem is with Bale not giving us an option from the wing, Harry's instructions are not helping us at all... "Just run around a bit" would be so much more helpful than what Bale is getting asked to do. To make things even more frustrating, it usually affects at least one more person in the team.

I'd prefer Bale to drop deeper rather than to abandon his wing, if he brings his man to Modric, Modric is more than capable of setting Bale free. When Bale abandons his wing, we lose width, that in turn makes us easy to defend against because we are narrow... When we're narrow against a team that are defending the middle of the pitch, they pack the middle with bodies which makes Modric and VDV have a far more difficult job. Bale is supposed to create space in the middle for Modric and VDV to work.

First ten minutes against Blackburn, plenty of width and Sandro, Modric and VDV getting forward and commiting defenders, we look a lot better all ready, I will look forward to your next fudging essay Fuego.

The first time I read that, I was sure you were referring to my last one, but then I read it again and noticed the "Sandro, Modric and VDV getting forward and commiting defenders" line and figure you were crediting your "full backs should stay back" post...

If you are referring to my last essay, in which I explained 3-5-2 will get fudged against a 4-5-1, as I explained, the full backs effectively had free roaming of the pitch. So yeah, it was funny that a match came along that showed exactly what I was saying... I doubt I'll be lucky enough to have opposition managers prove me right all the time though.


That post cannot possibly be crediting your "full backs should stay back" post... Hoddle was sitting there at half time telling Rose to go even further forward. :p Even if I haven't played at a decent level, he has. :p

I have no clue how that can possibly be aimed at me in a negative way... Blackburn played a 3-5-2 which effectively became a 5-3-2, the midfield 3 was just 3 CMs..... That's an invitation to full backs to go forward.

Blackburn were fudged because they thought they were playing against a 4-4-2, VDV not playing alongside Ade was why Blackburn's formation fudged them, but he got into the box for the goal, which is what he should do... Bale was in there when we crossed as he should have been, at no point did I say "VDV, Modric and the DM should never cross the halfway line", that was actually my issue with Harry playing a 4-5-1 with Modric, Sandro and Parker at Sunderland.

If I said "we should play with a left footed goalkeeper" and then went on to list things like Bale roaming, our set pieces sucking, etc... I wouldn't be able to say "ha ha, I was right, we scored from a free kick and hit the bar from a corner, now tell me why our goalkeeper should be right footed"....


If that quote was you just saying "we disagreed about the full back thing, but you were right about the 3-5-2 being a fudging disaster against a 4-5-1, I'm glad we're playing better against Blackburn", then that's cool and you can ignore the above stuff.
 
Utd, City, Chelsea, Arsenal to name four.

Moonlit Knight, WTF?

United have Rafael and Evra, City have Richards/Zabaletta and Clichy/Kolorov, Chelsea have Bosingwa/Fererra and Cole (they have Ivanovic, who does attack but isn't naturally an attacking fullback), Arsenal have Sanga and Gibbs/Santos...


Rafael, Fabio and Santos are all Brazilian full backs... Literally.

Rafael attacks all the time (Fabio is an attacking full back too), Evra attacks tons, his heatmaps are usually on the halfway line, he attacked plenty of times against City tonight at City, he hit the post against Everton when 4-3 up late in the game... He's attacking.

City have a system designed to give width purely through the full backs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBaDDC6ca08&feature=related

Gary Neville explains this many times, that's one video. He starts about 1 minute in.

To claim Emirates Marketing Project don't use attacking full backs is completely incorrect/departed. They have 2 DMs and send both full backs forward at once. You'll find Richards more advanced than all the other City players at various points throughout the match.

The only two people in the City team that always give width are the full backs, the rest of City's team is extremely narrow.

I'd say out of everyone in the league, City probably use more attacking full backs than anyone else.


Chelsea have Ashley fudging Cole, if you don't think he's an attacking full back, where the fudge were you when we played them at WHL? As for Ivanovic, he isn't naturally suited to being an attacking full back, but in the home leg against Napoli, he attacked more than Ashley Cole. Here is his average position.

ChelseaaveragepositionsvsNapoli.jpg
(http://api.ning.com/files/6qQj7BcqL...MHcIF0m0H/ChelseaaveragepositionsvsNapoli.jpg It won't become an image for me for some reason)

Here's another. Ivanovic is 2, Cole is 3 for this one:
che-bla.jpg


Arsenal attack with their full backs, their right side is their strongest side and Sanga attacks because Walcott can't cross to save his life. Gibbs and Santos attack all the time too...

Just in case you've forgotten, here is the Arsenal 5-2 against us earlier in the season. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcj_00LQzBI&feature=related

Sanga scores their first goal with a header in our box during open play. During the second goal, he is found on the corner of our box. (This goal is also during open play.) He gets an assist for their third goal from inside our box. (Again open play.) He is their fourth most advanced player during the 5th goal. He's ahead of Song who assists Walcott. (Open play.)

If that isn't an attacking full back, what the fudge is?


If you don't have any idea how our rivals set up, don't just name them and hope.


He chooses his runs so does Evra, ours literally play as wingbacks and leave our two at the back exposed, I know Parker drops in there but when we get caught on the break we have only two players facing play.

Man United usually play with 2 men in centre midfield, recently those have been Scholes and Carrick. He doesn't have 1 DM behind the halfway line at all times to cover for him, but he tends to get forward whenever United have solid possession. Still though, just because he chooses his runs doesn't stop him from being an attacking full back. You can't have both, I can't claim Roberto Carlos wasn't an attacking full back because he picked his runs... By that logic Dani Alves chooses his runs, he runs whenever Barca have possession for a sustained period or are counter-attacking... By that logic which other teams have full backs that don't choose their runs? Marcelo? But Arbeloa does choose his runs and will often allow for Marcelo to go forward first.

Evra choosing 4-3 up against Everton was ok because he chose his run?


Counter attacks are always dangerous, all the best teams are most vulnerable when being counter attacked... We usually have 2 CBs + Parker as you've mentioned. Walker and Lennon are both fast so we have a lot of pace going for us when we lose the ball, Modric isn't usually that far forward, BAE is fairly fast, Bale is very fast but might not always run all the way back. (He does sometimes if things don't look good.) But I can't remember being counter-attacked and being exposed recently... The only times that might have happened was when we were chasing games because we were losing, in those situations overcommiting to try to score is normal and necessary, fundamental rule of football. If you are losing and don't attack, you lose. The only teams that don't attack when losing are teams like Villa, which go into matches hoping to only lose 1-0 or maybe 2-0. But those teams are fudging departed, so I don't want to borrow their spectacularly awful strategies.

The reason Walcott has a career is because when teams are losing, they attack and leave space for him to run into.

Not as much as he is perceived to.

He gets forward about as much as I perceive he gets forward, which is quite often. You can't know how much I perceive he gets forward... Unless you mean by the general population, in which case, you're still wrong because everyone's perception is different... However, that's still a cop out.


Cole's average position for years has been just inside the opposition's half. The revolving door of Chelsea managers means that under some managers, he was ultra attacking and under some he has attacked less, but under AVB and Di Matteo, he has been attacking more than enough to label him an attacking full back. Ivanovic was also told to get forward when Sturridge played in front of him because Sturridge is left footed and cuts inside. Di Matteo didn't particularly like the Ivanovic and Sturridge combo, so he has messed with it lately, but by design, Chelsea attack with their full backs.

Given how narrow their 4-2-3-1 is and their lack of real wingers, attacking with full backs is a good plan for them, especially considering Kalou is right footed but prefers to play on the left, Ramirez is a box to box midfielder rather than a winger, Sturridge is a striker, as is Torres, etc.

Just because he doesn't sprint down the pitch whenever Chelsea get the ball doesn't mean he doesn't attack... He was one of the few people that actually tried to attack against Barca.
 
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