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Lack of goals

Pirate55 said:
West Ham played without a centre forward. They were therefore able to pack central midfield with an extra man. This then nullified our inverted wingers who kept cutting in and at the same time deprived Eriksen of any space.

With two right footers on the left flank and a patently injured/knackered Walker, we just didn't have any natural width and were far too narrow. We thus played right into West Hams game plan.

Plus, we were tired in the second half thanks to taking too many first teamers to Anji. Dembele said as much in his post match comments. Massive mistake IMO and should not be repeated in the EL until at least the QF of that competition.
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Link for the Dembele comments?
 
I have to say though, I really wish we'd just stick a big striker next to Soldado up front and play with two wingers and two central midfielders. Not going to happen, of course, but I think that would make us more dangerous going forward. There's only so much one striker can do to occupy the defensive line of the opponent, with two guys up there stirring it up, you'll create far more space for the players coming in from midfield. At least in theory. Not a big fan of this AVB-formation, to be honest.
 
442 is becoming a dinosaur tactic, it can't win or finds it a lot harder to against a 451 hybrid. Of course, this is a consequence of the reduced number of midfielders.

I think we're entering a stage in football where the top scorers are going to be those players who play with a free role, or in a floating position behind the striker rather than the strikers themselves.

The striker ties up the defenders, giving less space to him than in a two man strike force, therefore it becomes more important that the floating midfielders can contribute towards the goals. The midfielders will be able to run in to space created by the striker's movement and punish opposition defences. We've already seen Sigurdsson achieve this to maximum effect this season.

I think a striker then becomes more about movement, distribution and vision than he does about scoring goals. A weird thing in itself but only based on historical expectations of the position.

So Sigurdsson to out score Soldado this season if both play comparable number of games.
 
El Guepardo said:
442 is becoming a dinosaur tactic, it can't win or finds it a lot harder to against a 451 hybrid. Of course, this is a consequence of the reduced number of midfielders.

I think we're entering a stage in football where the top scorers are going to be those players who play with a free role, or in a floating position behind the striker rather than the strikers themselves.

The striker ties up the defenders, giving less space to him than in a two man strike force, therefore it becomes more important that the floating midfielders can contribute towards the goals. The midfielders will be able to run in to space created by the striker's movement and punish opposition defences. We've already seen Sigurdsson achieve this to maximum effect this season.

I think a striker then becomes more about movement, distribution and vision than he does about scoring goals. A weird thing in itself but only based on historical expectations of the position.

So Sigurdsson to out score Soldado this season if both play comparable number of games.
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Interesting point of view, but not sure I see the reasoning behind it. I am by no means a tactician, but it seems to me that if we have two guys up front able to occupy the oppostion defensive line, they will create far mor "stir" up there than a single striker, holding up defenders, creating room for a player like Eriksen behind them, instead of having a lone striker simply being bossed around by two central defenders and possibly even a defensive midfielder. Of course there's a benefit to be had to having a marauding midfielder like Paulinho in addition to a holding midfielder (ideally Sandro), but it just seems to cram up the space in the middle of the pitch a lot, and it doesn't seem to create all that much space going forward. But again, I'm no tactician, I don't really get these things all that well, I just don't see the logic behind having a lone striker by all means, and therefore forcing people in behind him to chip in with more goals from less beneficial positions (I mean, a player like Sigurdsson drifting in from the left channel isn't automatically going to get more chances than a pair of strikers in a 4-4-2).
 
As has been said 442 is pretty much redundant in modern football. 451 or 4231 or 433 seem to be the flavour of the month, and for me that relies on having a lone striker with some physical presence- a drogba or lukaku type.

Don't get me wrong I love bobby but AVB will need to work out a better system if we are to get the most of him- be that either diffierent personnel or a different style of play ie quicker pass and move rather than slow and controlled. We need to move it about quicker to benefit from Bobby's movement.

Big test for AVB to get the best out of the squad at his disposal- question is is he too inflexible in his style or is he willing to try something different.
 
Pirate55 said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...Dembele-following-West-Ham-United-defeat.html

"In the second half we looked very tired and not too much passion".

... "Its a shame we weren't better prepared ....."
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"It’s easier to play against the top teams for the motivation but, if we want to be a top team, we need to be concentrated for these kind of games. It’s a mental thing.

“In the second half we looked very tired and not too much passion. These kind of games you have to win if you want to have a good season so it’s a shame.”

"I've played a few times against these kind of teams,” said Dembélé. “You have to know how to play and that we should be very careful with these kinds of teams, because they are good teams as well. They have a different kind of style.

“There are a lot of teams who do it – we’ve won a lot of times against these kind of systems. You have to be used to these kinds of days so it’s a shame we weren’t prepared.."
 
I don't think 4-4-2 is redundant. Manchester United play 4-4-2 most of the time.

I think we need 4-4-2 at home at least.
 
onlyme said:
"It’s easier to play against the top teams for the motivation but, if we want to be a top team, we need to be concentrated for these kind of games. It’s a mental thing.

“In the second half we looked very tired and not too much passion. These kind of games you have to win if you want to have a good season so it’s a shame.”

"I've played a few times against these kind of teams,” said Dembélé. “You have to know how to play and that we should be very careful with these kinds of teams, because they are good teams as well. They have a different kind of style.

“There are a lot of teams who do it – we’ve won a lot of times against these kind of systems. You have to be used to these kinds of days so it’s a shame we weren’t prepared.."
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And your point is?
 
onlyme said:
I don't think 4-4-2 is redundant. Manchester United play 4-4-2 most of the time.

I think we need 4-4-2 at home at least.
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And haven't they been fantastic this season? Lighting up the Premiership with their dominating displays.
 
superfaisty said:
As has been said 442 is pretty much redundant in modern football. 451 or 4231 or 433 seem to be the flavour of the month, and for me that relies on having a lone striker with some physical presence- a drogba or lukaku type.

Don't get me wrong I love bobby but AVB will need to work out a better system if we are to get the most of him- be that either diffierent personnel or a different style of play ie quicker pass and move rather than slow and controlled. We need to move it about quicker to benefit from Bobby's movement.

Big test for AVB to get the best out of the squad at his disposal- question is is he too inflexible in his style or is he willing to try something different.
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Lennon and Townsend on the wings, switching during the game will give Soldado a much better service in my opinion. Their pace will give Soldado's excellent movement far more opportunities than the way we currently play.
 
Twitter / experimental361: Latest Premier League attack graphic: @SpursOfficial creating the most (but wasteful so far), @MCFC the most clinical :-k

BWjIaFlCQAA9xKU.png:large
 
Not surprising considering how many shots we take on from distance. I think if you take those away it wouldn't be so extreme.
 
I thought Liverpool was the team in the league with the most shots, doesn't really fit with that chart.
 
Daisuk said:
I thought Liverpool was the team in the league with the most shots, doesn't really fit with that chart.
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Twitter / OptaJoe: 131 - Tottenham Hotspur have fired in the most shots in the @premierleague this season. Peppering.

Liverpool are down in 10th spot with a mere 91 shots so far this season.

Although they have had only 1 fewer on target than us with 40 compared to our 41, L'ARSEnal have had 42 (from 101 attempts) and Emirates Marketing Project top the league 43 shots on target (from 109); according to Premier League Team Statistics | WhoScored.com
 
Liverpool haven't had Suarez until now. Watch their 'Shots off target' tally skyrocket in the coming games.
 
Twitter / colinttrainor: Giroud (27) and Townsend (26) have taken the most shots in EPL this season. But huge difference in shooting locations
Andros Townsend's average shot distance this season in EPL is almost 26 metres. Ronaldo's average in La Liga is just over 20m.
3 of Townsend's shots were greater than 30m, but 18 of his 26 shots were from more than 25m.
:-k


https://twitter.com/colinttrainor/status/391104984030261248/photo/1
http://www.squawka.com/players/andr...ue#8#season-2013/2014#64#all-matches#1-7#zone
 
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