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The Defensive Midfielder

Gutter Boy said:
Not keeping clean sheets isn't a problem if we keep winning as many games as we have been. 2-1 victories have seemed to be our thing this season.

It's a big turnaround from most of the last decade, where we've struggled to score

Poch has lubricated our midfield a bit by adopting a higher risk strategy. Quicker, more aggressive passing and high pressing. This means we will score a lot of goals, but are exposed when we lose possession and concede quite a few too.

I think it's calculated and by-and-large works well.
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Of course it is, the more clean sheets we keep the more points we collect. There is no reason we can not score goals and concede less lots of good/winning sides do it.
 
parklane1 said:
Of course it is, the more clean sheets we keep the more points we collect. There is no reason we can not score goals and concede less lots of good/winning sides do it.
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Indeed.... The team who wins the league is often the team with the best defence. If you look at this season's table the two best defensive records are Southampton and Chelsea - so the team considered to be the most overachieving in the league and the Champions elect.

If we really were scoring more goals then I wouldn't mind, but as I showed earlier we were far more prolific under both Redknapp and Sherwood (and even AVB in his first season as manager).
 
Gutter Boy said:
Not keeping clean sheets isn't a problem if we keep winning as many games as we have been. 2-1 victories have seemed to be our thing this season.

It's a big turnaround from most of the last decade, where we've struggled to score

Poch has lubricated our midfield a bit by adopting a higher risk strategy. Quicker, more aggressive passing and high pressing. This means we will score a lot of goals, but are exposed when we lose possession and concede quite a few too.

I think it's calculated and by-and-large works well.
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It is ludicrous to think we can continually rely on Kane and Eriksen to nick a goal or two in the dying moments when we have played terribly.

So you genuinely think it is part of Pochettino's plan to have conceded 46 goals? That's nearly 1.5 a game. Only 5 teams have conceded more.
 
I said the same thing back in the AVB days, this isn't a finished MP system, the Pochettino plan is not to concede any goals, ever, as the opposition will never have the ball in our half due to the high press, the midfield shield and the dominant cb's
 
Gutter Boy said:
Not keeping clean sheets isn't a problem if we keep winning as many games as we have been. 2-1 victories have seemed to be our thing this season.

It's a big turnaround from most of the last decade, where we've struggled to score

Poch has lubricated our midfield a bit by adopting a higher risk strategy. Quicker, more aggressive passing and high pressing. This means we will score a lot of goals, but are exposed when we lose possession and concede quite a few too.

I think it's calculated and by-and-large works well.
Click to expand...

Hey mods

Any chance of adding a WALOB button please? This would be a great post to launch it on!

Sorry GB, but you really have outdone yourself this time :p
 
Bullet said:
Hover on the gifs to see Bentaleb/Mason leaving gaps in front of the defence.

Mason is criticised in the piece, but if Bentaleb is supposed to be holding perhaps he should be in place?

http://cartilagefreecaptain.sbnatio...r-tactics-tuesday-southampton-one-weird-trick
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poch should be reading this article.

and the boys should be watching the recent arsenal vs chelsea game (bore draw) to understand how the team - and especially the midfield - ought to press, create and defend.
 
Certainly a couple of key situations where we should be doing better. Although a couple of those can happen to just about every team as it was either a counter attack or high pressing that didn't quite work out.

What is most evident to me in those gifs is just how exhausted/low energy Mason is looking. It's head down trying to make a high intensity run, instead of proactively staying ahead of the situation.

I think he needs the summer break more than just about anyone. A full pre-season and going into his second PL season and it will be interesting to see how he performs. I do think we need competition for his role at least. Part of his exhaustion might just be a result of how heavily we've relied on him this season.
 
I've been saying it all season, and I'l keep saying it. Our midfield is why we are so so weak. Imagine if we had a proper midfielder instead dog Mason, especially a proper defensive/battling midfielder? Would he have just stopped running and lost Aguer so painfully easily? No.

But maybe gutter is right. Maybe this is the best midfield we've had in 100 years....
 
GrimsbyYid said:
I've been saying it all season, and I'l keep saying it. Our midfield is why we are so so weak. Imagine if we had a proper midfielder instead dog Mason, especially a proper defensive/battling midfielder? Would he have just stopped running and lost Aguer so painfully easily? No.

But maybe gutter is right. Maybe this is the best midfield we've had in 100 years....
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We just dominated one of the most expensively assembled teams in history! Mason and Bentaleb were awesome
 
Gutter Boy said:
We just dominated one of the most expensively assembled teams in history! Mason and Bentaleb were awesome
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You never change do you? "Awesome" LOL :D

We only improved when one of your pet hates - Paulinho - come on instead of your undying love. He created more in 20 minutes than Mason did in 70!

But then you would never see that
 
Maltese Falcon said:
You never change do you? "Awesome" LOL :D

We only improved when one of your pet hates - Paulinho - come on instead of your undying love. He created more in 20 minutes than Mason did in 70!

But then you would never see that
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I don't hate Paulinho at all. It was the perfect time to make the sub. Mason had covered about 12 miles and was popped.

And I just watch games with my own eyes. I don't get influenced by poisonous commentary from tacos like Alan Smith, Henry and Carraghar
 
Gutter Boy said:
We just dominated one of the most expensively assembled teams in history! Mason and Bentaleb were awesome
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Dominate? want to try counting the number of attacks that broke down as Mason couldn't find a simple pass to an open player? How he loses the ball putting us on the back foot? Bentaleb is a bit better, but not much to be honest. I get these are Academy players, so we all want them to do great - and they do have good games from time to time, but never expect to finish above 5th with these 2 in the middle - they create nothing, the can't tackle or track runners - they DO work hard however so I guess that's something.

They are young, they will get better but right now, these 2 are not the option - poor Eriksen gets played into a tight space every single pass from them, no wonder he can't seem to do anything.
 
Gutter Boy said:
We just dominated one of the most expensively assembled teams in history! Mason and Bentaleb were awesome
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Awesome? fudge me what is wrong with you. There is literally no point in discussing anything with you as you are simply unable to have an objective opinion.
 
Gutter Boy said:
I don't hate Paulinho at all. It was the perfect time to make the sub. Mason had covered about 12 miles and was popped.
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Actually the time to do that should have been half time

Maltese Falcon said:
Know it won't happen but I'd change Mason for Paulinho at half time and get him to sit in front of the back four.
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Why does he need to run 12 miles? Maybe because his awareness of play is rather restricted and therefore is constantly running to keep up with play. Ironically, the only time he needed to keep on running in the game, he stopped :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
 
braineclipse said:
I take it you didn't watch the first half then?
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Do you mean the first 5 minutes when City were a shambles at the back with Mangala floundering? Once they settled down we did absolutely nothing of note - other than ironically Mason fluffing a one on one.. but creatively we were poor and defensively constantly being exploited through gaps left in our middle
 
Maltese Falcon said:
Do you mean the first 5 minutes when City were a shambles at the back with Mangala floundering? Once they settled down we did absolutely nothing of note - other than ironically Mason fluffing a one on one.. but creatively we were poor and defensively constantly being exploited through gaps left in our middle
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I thought we were the better team in the first half.

According to whoscored we had 59% possession and 13 shots to their 7 in the first half. Stats do not tell the full story, but that really doesn't add up with your description.

demotw said:
Dominate? want to try counting the number of attacks that broke down as Mason couldn't find a simple pass to an open player? How he loses the ball putting us on the back foot? Bentaleb is a bit better, but not much to be honest. I get these are Academy players, so we all want them to do great - and they do have good games from time to time, but never expect to finish above 5th with these 2 in the middle - they create nothing, the can't tackle or track runners - they DO work hard however so I guess that's something.

They are young, they will get better but right now, these 2 are not the option - poor Eriksen gets played into a tight space every single pass from them, no wonder he can't seem to do anything.
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Bentaleb really was excellent today. Again standing out against a top team and showing real class.

Strangely Eriksen looked great earlier in the season playing ahead of those two. And Lamela managed to do just fine today with their passes.
 
metalgear said:
pace and power - seems like we only have pace from our fullbacks and the strength from kane. the rest are wimpy (eriksen, mason, davies) or just can't bother using their physique and size or just don't dare (paulinho, bentaleb, chadli).

poch talked about quick transitions - recently i see the same no pace no power football that got AVB sacked, only difference being that its now being played by youngsters!
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Same old, same old in terms of the midfield unfortunately. No pace, no power, no conviction and no drive. Unless we find a decent midfield leader and Alli miraculously morphs into Kane mkII I fear we are going to remain very much threading water, at best...
 
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