Ratings v QPR

[Rorschach]

I think King is a 5.5 and ditto Modric (who battled well despite lack of quality).

Redknapp is a firm 1: Wrong tactics, no positional discipline hammered into players and no hunger whatsoever. Players are under pressure now and he's not succesfully doing anything supporting them or guiding them.

My present flogging horse is lack of movement attacking. Watching us last night I realised that we must be the easiest team in the league to mark. Only Modric and VdV can ever find themselves some space, and only Bale has the raw pace to make things happen on his own. Now coordinated movement for much of Redknapps managment period, but now no individual movement either. Bale and Defoe spend about three fourths of our entire time in possession being comfortably and easily marked by their back 4. Just standing around waiting for the ball. WTF. That's not just poor. It's darn Lazy.

Here's a newsflash to both THFC lurkers and the defence-slaggers on board: We can't expect to play teams to a zero each game. If we don't start MOVING we won't even get 5th. And if we start next season like this, we'd be bottom 3 after the infamous number of 8 games with less than 5 goals for. If we can't play out (and don't practice for) set plays, then our open play needs to be darn well sharp.

And standing around like 5-6 central attacking midfielders (even BAE and Kyle Walker wanted to go central FFS) ain't gonna score us a single coordinated goal from open play. Strikers will have to drop deep, wingers play on the wing and strikers work the shoulder of the last defender etc.

Sort it out or f*ck right off.

Excellent post. One that I couldn't agree with more, and I made similar comments in the OMT.

Our back to front play has slowed dramatically as each player (in turn) takes too many touches, but that's another conversion. By the time we make the attacking third the opposition are entrenched. We pass it back and forth around the fringes of the penalty area waiting for someone to make a run or some movement at all to open up some space. But it doesn't happen as the entire team is circling the fudging box like it was the Alamo. Nobody is making a run. They're all in Xavi super playmaker mode. We've more static than a 1970 TV set (I'm on the wine).

Sorry to bring up Barca but they're a team that face this problem more than most. The Barca attackers are all constantly in motion and have players making straight and angled runs constantly. It is a bit repetitive if you ask me but it works.

 

[DanishWhite]

Excellent post. One that I couldn't agree with more, and I made similar comments in the OMT.

Our back to front play has slowed dramatically as each player (in turn) takes too many touches, but that's another conversion. By the time we make the attacking third the opposition are entrenched. We pass it back and forth around the fringes of the penalty area waiting for someone to make a run or some movement at all to open up some space. But it doesn't happen as the entire team is circling the fudging box like it was the Alamo. Nobody is making a run. They're all in Xavi super playmaker mode. We've more static than a 1970 TV set (I'm on the wine).

Sorry to bring up Barca but they're a team that face this problem more than most. The Barca attackers are all constantly in motion and have players making straight and angled runs constantly. It is a bit repetitive if you ask me but it works.

Shocking as it may seem, it reminds me of Hoddles team at it's worst: too many "passers" and not enough "runners".

Firstly, I agree about too many touches. I made a provocative remark about Parkers recent form as regards to ball retention recently and was absolutely ripped into by other posters for saying that his many touches slow us down. To be fair, saturday he was amongst the best passers at all as everyone else were SO slow on the ball.

Secondly, as you say nobody are moving. Find hightlights or whatever on the net. Find clips, in particular 2nd half ones, of our players in front of the ball. They are just standing around. Even worse, in particular the ones supposed to be our wide players are constantly standing in the middle third, while Defoe is doing absolutely nothing at all. I do respect his attitude and the work he put into pre-seaon, but as long as he keeps putting in poor performances - out of the blue goals or not - he will never play regularly for a team of our stature. I don't see him getting in ANY of the present top 7 teams anytime soon either. Abuse me if you want, but it's not football tactics that are in the wrong. It's Defoe. We aren't in year 2000 with 4-4-2 rigid formations with little'n'large striker combo's anymore. He's brilliant. And he's not stupid. He needs to adapt. Quickly. Standing around, talking a wee walk from left centre halfs zone to right centre halfs zone just isn't good enough any more.