Whats the Answer??

Loads of the ball, absolutely nothing in the way of goals. We're not particularly making chances and when we are we don't look like scoring.

We tried 2 up top to start with today, and it's not worked at all, and had to change it after 20 minutes.

Where do we go from here from an attacking sense.

I would quite like us to go back to playing 4-3-3. Would be tempted to start Long on Tuesday as Tadic and Pelle have been woeful for a good few months now.

Get the solid 3 back in of Wanyama, Morgan and Davis, and then would be tempted to put Long out on the right like the start of the season, he works so hard for the team.

I don't want us to set up with 3 at the back on Tuesday, as Zaha and Bolasie will have a field day against our wide CB's. Mane is too unpredictable for me, but strangely he's the only one who looks like scoring. I'd be tempted to bring him off the bench as an impact sub on Tuesday

-------------VW-------------

-------MS--------SD---------

Long-------Pelle---------Elia

Pelle should be dropped but we have noone else. We could all see we needed another forward in January, and we didn't even go after one, an odd choice IMO.

Interested to hear others opinions on our attacking line up. Expect to see very few people picking Tadic and Pelle for Tuesday atleast!

Long is the obvious alternative to Pelle. It's not fair to say we don't have anyone else when it's Long's favoured position.

Tadic, Mane, Pelle has been our best front 3 over the season as a whole. I would just stick with them get Toby back and Davis in with MS and VW.

Thats our best team.

Playing Long and Elia would just mean a lack of composure.

Mane is miles better than Long.

The answer is to get someone from somewhere within the club who can stick in the 2 tap ins that Pellè fluffed this afternoon, then we won 2-1. Bloke is a liability, few goals against easy opponents and then absolutely fanny all since. Probably since he got his Italian shirt for his collection.

Too realist we are going to finish top 6 and THAT is a MASSIVE achievement.

Too realist we are going to finish top 6 and THAT is a MASSIVE achievement.

7th most likely Glasgow.

Watched Palace at lunch time and compared to them our breaks are so slow and pedestrian not to mention easy to defend against. We really lack pace going forward.

I like Pelle but it has to be worth dropping him on Tuesday and mixing things up a bit.

7th most likely Glasgow.

Dear Charlie.

I am not glasgow. Hint is in picture.

Regards

CabbageFace

Speed it up. It's not that hard is it? Stick a rocket up Mane's arse and get him to stay onside, and can someone wake up Elia as I've not seen him since Newcastle away.

But whilst Pelle has been poor and was particularly horrific today, it doesn't help that the players around him are equally as horrific right now. The rest of the team is fine, but the attack is dead.

I'd throw Long in. Not the most refined footballer, but he'll run channels and run defenses. It'll drag people out of position and create space. We don't do that at the moment, we play at a pedestrian pace waiting to slowly unlock a defense. WBA must have thought all their birthdays had come at once. I don't remember any real terrific defending they had to do, and their back 4 was slow.

So, it sounds simple - but we need to zip it about.

Speed it up. It's not that hard is it? Stick a rocket up Mane's arse and get him to stay onside, and can someone wake up Elia as I've not seen him since Newcastle away.

 

But whilst Pelle has been poor and was particularly horrific today, it doesn't help that the players around him are equally as horrific right now. The rest of the team is fine, but the attack is dead.

 

I'd throw Long in. Not the most refined footballer, but he'll run channels and run defenses. It'll drag people out of position and create space. We don't do that at the moment, we play at a pedestrian pace waiting to slowly unlock a defense. WBA must have thought all their birthdays had come at once. I don't remember any real terrific defending they had to do, and their back 4 was slow.

 

So, it sounds simple - but we need to zip it about.

totally agree

I'd drop pelle for long, He is not great but pelle is that bad at the mo it is worth a try.

Long did more in 10 mins at unsettling their defence than pelle in the last couple of games.

We don't possess the attacking talent to break teams down. Ever since the Leicester game they all know they can sit deep and we'll struggle to score and they can try on the counter. What good are fast attacking wide players that Koeman loves when theres no space to get in behind and our only target is Pelle surrounded by 10 defenders.

Drop Pelle for Long. Get Toby back. Motivate Spider and Clyne. Don't concede first.

Drop Pelle for Long. Get Toby back. Motivate Spider and Clyne. Don't concede first.

Morgan and Clyne don't look demotivated really, hacked off to see so much wastefulness in attack perhaps but they're always trying to drive us forward.

Drop Pelle for a start. His confidence is shot and keeping playing him will not help him.

I think Koeman dropped Long after Leicester at home when he scored 2, and he hasn't featured regularly since. Bizarre decision as he was an important part of how we played.

Need to drop Pelle. I'm sorry, but I just don't rate him. He started atrociously, picked it up and I thought "fair play, I was wrong" but has since dropped down to even worse depths than the start of the season. He holds it up and lays it off very well more often than not, but every other aspect of his game is average at best. People say he's our only option but that's b*llocks. Plenty of teams play without a big striker up top. Put Long up top - who wins more headers than Pelle anyway - and we won't have to change the way we play that much.

I detest seeing players who are undroppable. Rooney for the last 3-4 years with England, even being taken to a tournament injured. We currently have that with Pelle and it's totally wrong.

I thought Gallagher was fit again? Put him up front ffs.

I think we need to do some more jumping over each other at training, pretty sure that will help us score some goals.

Belle must be dropped and one of our youth players given a chance. Defensively we are still pretty good, but I wonder where the next goal is coming from.

I think we need to do some more jumping over each other at training, pretty sure that will help us score some goals.

what do you mean by that?

what do you mean by that?

He means the leapfrog as portrayed in a video on Wednesday or thereabouts.

I think Koeman dropped Long after Leicester at home when he scored 2, and he hasn't featured regularly since. Bizarre decision as he was an important part of how we played.

 

Need to drop Pelle. I'm sorry, but I just don't rate him. He started atrociously, picked it up and I thought "fair play, I was wrong" but has since dropped down to even worse depths than the start of the season. He holds it up and lays it off very well more often than not, but every other aspect of his game is average at best. People say he's our only option but that's b*llocks. Plenty of teams play without a big striker up top. Put Long up top - who wins more headers than Pelle anyway - and we won't have to change the way we play that much.

 

I detest seeing players who are undroppable. Rooney for the last 3-4 years with England, even being taken to a tournament injured. We currently have that with Pelle and it's totally wrong.

 

I thought Gallagher was fit again? Put him up front ffs.

Gallagher looks miles off in the U21s. Not really an option.

I think we are pretty sound defensively

3 out of the last 4 goals we have let in have been pretty excellent goals. One of which was a pure worldy

we are creating chances, QPR, West Ham, Liverpool to a lesser degree and today. we do not work the opposition keeper no where near enough. we miss loads

Pelle is the worst culprit from the forward line. He is by no means alone.

ahh, didn't see that

Long is the obvious alternative to Pelle. It's not fair to say we don't have anyone else when it's Long's favoured position.

I agree. Long should start with Pelle coming on in the last 15 mins. How long until Jay Rod returns?

Managers can't do everything right, but RK has to give serious thought to his love affair with Pellè and Tadic.

Neither of them looks a patch on what they were before Christmas. Pelle's confidence has totally left him and he looks really dispirited.

We should start with Long (and/or) even Seager (to see what they can deliver) and let GP have a spell on the bench.

We're creating more chances / having more possession in almost every game, but no-one can put the chances away.

Tadic, Mane, Pelle has been our best front 3 over the season as a whole. I would just stick with them get Toby back and Davis in with MS and VW.

 

Thats our best team.

 

Playing Long and Elia would just mean a lack of composure.

 

Mane is miles better than Long.

Agree.

We need to be prepared to shoot and hit the target from the edge of the box not try to be too intricate. We ought to be practising this - our midfield players do not score enough goals. We should be prepared to sub Pelle off and try a different approach every now and again. The top sides do not all play all the time with a great big centre forward.

Our whole attacking strategy seems to be horrendously ponderous and devoid of creativity. Time and time again, Mane, Tadic or Elia recieve the ball with their back to goal and shunt the ball out wide for Clyne or Bertrand to overlap, put in a cross which is easily defended. Ad infinitum till 90 mins are up. No one ever seems to make a run from central midfield.

Guess thats just Koemans strategy, and to be fair it has worked brilliantly most of the season, but with Pelle of the boil and opposing teams working out they just need to defend narrow, it makes for tedious and ineffective football.

Surely a different strategy can be used? Dare I say a "Plan B?"

We need to be prepared to shoot and hit the target from the edge of the box not try to be too intricate. We ought to be practising this - our midfield players do not score enough goals. We should be prepared to sub Pelle off and try a different approach every now and again. The top sides do not all play all the time with a great big centre forward.

But Koeman does, jeez it's what he does, hoof to Pellè, it's nothing new.

The answer is to stop playing the likes of Elia, Mane & Tadic together. Players like that rarely do it week in, week out. They tend to have 1 good game in 5 or 6 outings. I'd go with Long, Davis and 1 from, Mane, Tadic or Elia behind Pelle. Long and Davis may not have the flair that Mane, Elia and Tadic do but they give 100% every time they play and both have a decent shot on them.

The answer is to stop playing the likes of Elia, Mane & Tadic together. Players like that rarely do it week in, week out. They tend to have 1 good game in 5 or 6 outings. I'd go with Long, Davis and 1 from, Mane, Tadic or Elia behind Pelle. Long and Davis may not have the flair that Mane, Elia and Tadic do but they give 100% every time they play and both have a decent shot on them.

Good point, our best form came with Davis, Long and Tadic playing behind Pelle.

Do you know what, we could sit back and park the bus. This would draw teams out a bit and then we could hit on the counter punch !

Sure, our striking has been woeful but by the time the chance comes the defence is usually well set, or all we've created is a split-second, "snatch at it" chance. The whole concept of "early ball" seems foreign to us because we spend too long playing laterally across the midfield. Most of Pelle's time is spent shuffling across the edge of the box in response to the shifting pattern of midfield. He seldom gets the chance to attack a space as he was earlier in the season.

It's great to see Clyne and Bertrand pushing forward but if we do it every time - and do it early rather than late - we lose the surprise factor, we kill our own chances of a Mané or Elia using his pace against the full back, we force ourselves to play back or inside due to the lack of space out-wide, and then the lateral passing starts again. We've become easy to defend against, so we can look good without achieving anything. We've opted for ball retention over incisiveness and it's killing us.

We've lost our early-season goals from midfield, in part, because we crowd ourselves out of the danger areas.

Not only have we killed our own offence around the opposition "D" - we've become vulnerable around our own defensive "D". Coutinho and Berahino had time and space they shouldn't have been granted, and that weakness alone may well have cost us six points in two games.

The answer is to stop playing the likes of Elia, Mane & Tadic together. Players like that rarely do it week in, week out. They tend to have 1 good game in 5 or 6 outings. I'd go with Long, Davis and 1 from, Mane, Tadic or Elia behind Pelle. Long and Davis may not have the flair that Mane, Elia and Tadic do but they give 100% every time they play and both have a decent shot on them.

Agreed.

Too much fancying about at the back. We need to be able to up the face suddenly and switch things around more. I can't remember the last time we tore a team apart with our movement. Sunderland maybe?

Tadic, Mane, Pelle has been our best front 3 over the season as a whole. I would just stick with them get Toby back and Davis in with MS and VW.

 

Thats our best team.

 

Playing Long and Elia would just mean a lack of composure.

 

Mane is miles better than Long.

Could not agree more with Charlie here. Have to allow themselves to play their way into form.

Could not agree more with Charlie here. Have to allow themselves to play their way into form.

@mattletiss7: The players need the fans on their side more than ever v palace, lets show them how proud we are of them and roar them to victory tues #coyr

@mattletiss7: The players need the fans on their side more than ever v palace, lets show them how proud we are of them and roar them to victory tues #coyr

Exactly.

when Long is considered the best attacker you know your team is in trouble

Shoooooooooooooooot

when Long is considered the best attacker you know your team is in trouble

Since when has that been then ? Long is a 12 million £ question waiting for an answer.

@mattletiss7: The players need the fans on their side more than ever v palace, lets show them how proud we are of them and roar them to victory tues #coyr

Will he be there?

Too much fancying about at the back. We need to be able to up the face suddenly and switch things around more. I can't remember the last time we tore a team apart with our movement. Sunderland maybe?

Sunderland did give us a helping hand though with a bizarre OG to kick us off.

Will he be there?

I don't know, I'm not his PA.

Will he be there?

With his boots I hope.

Bloody hell. There's a first. I've actually suggested something that one or two people agree with. lol

Do you know what, we could sit back and park the bus. This would draw teams out a bit and then we could hit on the counter punch !

Given our current position and upcoming schedule this would ensure lots of 0-0 draws with bottom half teams.

I don't know, I'm not his PA.

It just Irks me being told how I should support my team by people not going themselves! (No I'm not anti mlt)

Mane is miles better than Long.

Not today he wasn't!!!

Loads of the ball, absolutely nothing in the way of goals. We're not particularly making chances and when we are we don't look like scoring.

 

We tried 2 up top to start with today, and it's not worked at all, and had to change it after 20 minutes.

 

Where do we go from here from an attacking sense.

 

I would quite like us to go back to playing 4-3-3. Would be tempted to start Long on Tuesday as Tadic and Pelle have been woeful for a good few months now.

 

Get the solid 3 back in of Wanyama, Morgan and Davis, and then would be tempted to put Long out on the right like the start of the season, he works so hard for the team.

 

I don't want us to set up with 3 at the back on Tuesday, as Zaha and Bolasie will have a field day against our wide CB's. Mane is too unpredictable for me, but strangely he's the only one who looks like scoring. I'd be tempted to bring him off the bench as an impact sub on Tuesday

 

-------------VW-------------

-------MS--------SD---------

Long-------Pelle---------Elia

 

Pelle should be dropped but we have noone else. We could all see we needed another forward in January, and we didn't even go after one, an odd choice IMO.

 

Interested to hear others opinions on our attacking line up. Expect to see very few people picking Tadic and Pelle for Tuesday atleast!

Ok so we know Pelle is terrible and wrecking and cohesion plus not scoring so let's persevere!!!

No - let's not... Great teams don't play with target 'centre forwards' it's outdated... Play with smaller faster players like all the great teams do and get hung up on tradition...

 

 

-------------VW-------------

-------MS--------SD---------

Long-------Pelle---------Elia

 

That's a horrible line-up.