Bannan, Livermore, Chair 07:50 - Jan 15 with 2309 views | ParkRoyalR | A few times now we have been undone by the best individual player in the opposition's team. Livermore sat deep yesterday but as the game wore on and we crucially dropped too deep mid-point in the 2nd Half he stepped up into the space and won the game. Chair can do this for us, leaving him wide left where he can be easily managed like yesterday (as doesn't like to use his left foot or possess real pace to hurt the opposition) just doesn't make sense. Football's a simple game, the more ball your best player has the more effective your team will be. Now Marti has realised we don't have the players for a 4-3-3 and has reverted to a 4-2-3-1 which suits his players better, play Chair in the middle. We'll have an out-ball from defence, We'll have a player who can half turn + pass forward, We'll have a player who can run with the ball, We'll have a shooting threat from outside the box, Seeing Smyth + Armstrong step up yesterday and offer more goal threat than Chair shows me they are ready to start either side of Chair and we can now get our best player in space to run the game and not isolated on the left touch-line. | | | | |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 08:26 - Jan 15 with 2192 views | stevec | The opposition players you allude to, they play them in the middle of the park. I can’t puzzle the Chair situation, he’s our most influential player and he has to be told to play centre of three men behind the forward whether he wants to or not. Can’t help feeling he’s made his mind up he likes playing where he is and the club go along with it. I’m sick to death of the horseshoe formation. Play it around the back, move it into the full backs and on the rare occasion there’s still room left down the sides of the pitch, move it up to a winger. At that point the horseshoe has run out of metal. Doesn’t really matter if the cross hits the first defender, if by some miracle it gets into the middle they’ll be nobody there. It’s so predictable. All the good sides who’ve adopted passing out from the back, and that’s most of them, hurt you most through the middle. Our centre of the park is almost exclusively a defensive mechanism, they give us nothing going forward. Play Chair centre of a three, Armstrong/Smyth/Willock an any two from three either side. We need to be a threat down the middle which will give Paal and Cannon a lot more space when overlapping. | | | |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 08:39 - Jan 15 with 2158 views | ParkRoyalR |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 08:26 - Jan 15 by stevec | The opposition players you allude to, they play them in the middle of the park. I can’t puzzle the Chair situation, he’s our most influential player and he has to be told to play centre of three men behind the forward whether he wants to or not. Can’t help feeling he’s made his mind up he likes playing where he is and the club go along with it. I’m sick to death of the horseshoe formation. Play it around the back, move it into the full backs and on the rare occasion there’s still room left down the sides of the pitch, move it up to a winger. At that point the horseshoe has run out of metal. Doesn’t really matter if the cross hits the first defender, if by some miracle it gets into the middle they’ll be nobody there. It’s so predictable. All the good sides who’ve adopted passing out from the back, and that’s most of them, hurt you most through the middle. Our centre of the park is almost exclusively a defensive mechanism, they give us nothing going forward. Play Chair centre of a three, Armstrong/Smyth/Willock an any two from three either side. We need to be a threat down the middle which will give Paal and Cannon a lot more space when overlapping. |
SteveC, you've articulated this better than I could, We're in the last chance saloon as WIllock is just not match fit or not up for it (former for me, I'm not in the know otherwise) So if I'm an opposition Manager I'm thinking stop Chair and you nullify their attack and nullify their out-ball from the back, Marti has shown he's learning this squad (4-2-3-1, defending set pieces on Sunday) but he needs to see this + make this change now as for me it's likely the last throw of the dice. | | | |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 10:06 - Jan 15 with 1979 views | NorthantsHoop |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 08:26 - Jan 15 by stevec | The opposition players you allude to, they play them in the middle of the park. I can’t puzzle the Chair situation, he’s our most influential player and he has to be told to play centre of three men behind the forward whether he wants to or not. Can’t help feeling he’s made his mind up he likes playing where he is and the club go along with it. I’m sick to death of the horseshoe formation. Play it around the back, move it into the full backs and on the rare occasion there’s still room left down the sides of the pitch, move it up to a winger. At that point the horseshoe has run out of metal. Doesn’t really matter if the cross hits the first defender, if by some miracle it gets into the middle they’ll be nobody there. It’s so predictable. All the good sides who’ve adopted passing out from the back, and that’s most of them, hurt you most through the middle. Our centre of the park is almost exclusively a defensive mechanism, they give us nothing going forward. Play Chair centre of a three, Armstrong/Smyth/Willock an any two from three either side. We need to be a threat down the middle which will give Paal and Cannon a lot more space when overlapping. |
Superb post you are spot on all the best teams play through the middle and we see it regularly at Loftus Road. Chair would be more effective in a central role but for whatever reason plays wide left. Players like Livermore and Bannen really do make those central midfield tick and whereas they ooze experience and quality at Championship level, we have Colback who frankly has been a disappointment, goes missing and spends a lot of his time trying to get sent off, again yesterday was lucky not to get a straight red for the challenge in the first half. It is a shame that Johansen faded with injury in his last year at the club because he was miles ahead of what we have got now. [Post edited 15 Jan 10:07]
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Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 14:24 - Jan 16 with 1582 views | robith |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 08:26 - Jan 15 by stevec | The opposition players you allude to, they play them in the middle of the park. I can’t puzzle the Chair situation, he’s our most influential player and he has to be told to play centre of three men behind the forward whether he wants to or not. Can’t help feeling he’s made his mind up he likes playing where he is and the club go along with it. I’m sick to death of the horseshoe formation. Play it around the back, move it into the full backs and on the rare occasion there’s still room left down the sides of the pitch, move it up to a winger. At that point the horseshoe has run out of metal. Doesn’t really matter if the cross hits the first defender, if by some miracle it gets into the middle they’ll be nobody there. It’s so predictable. All the good sides who’ve adopted passing out from the back, and that’s most of them, hurt you most through the middle. Our centre of the park is almost exclusively a defensive mechanism, they give us nothing going forward. Play Chair centre of a three, Armstrong/Smyth/Willock an any two from three either side. We need to be a threat down the middle which will give Paal and Cannon a lot more space when overlapping. |
Agree, the left side also brings out the worst in Chair's ambition to do everything/ Through the first half he was dropping so deep he was basically playing left back | | | |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 14:46 - Jan 16 with 1504 views | ParkRoyalR |
Bannan, Livermore, Chair on 14:24 - Jan 16 by robith | Agree, the left side also brings out the worst in Chair's ambition to do everything/ Through the first half he was dropping so deep he was basically playing left back |
We all agree on Chair's work-rate, desire and technical ability, If Dykes knows he has Chair in that area 10-15 yards behind him he has to pin back the Centre Halves and give first time lay-offs and knock-downs to Chair ie give the ball to your best player, Chair is now picking the ball up in space (the zone where Bannan & Livermore play) with the pace of Armstrong & Smyth to hit with quick ball, The respective performances & desire of Armstrong & Smyth on Sunday compared to the marginalized Chair and ineffective Willock tells me we have to now take these risks and gamble on Armstrong & Smyth coming of age on Saturday, with these two alternating sides and working over the Millwall fullbacks, We cannot afford to waste Chair on the Left and in the absence of Wing-Backs and if we are not playing Willock and Chair close together we are not getting the best out of them, so we have to use the pace in our squad and play a different way. | | | |
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