Holmes_and_Watson

Some passing thoughts... AA offers work rate and closing down. He's often the best in any press, harrasses like Long did, and tracks back. Moi is a link between a midfield that can;t string apsses togetehr and an attack that has already dropped back almost behind him, and isn;t very effective. Agian, it's workrate and positioning the opponents to stop their momentum. Bedders offers international standard pointing, while not taking up any of the vulnerable poistions he's pointing out himself. Possibly keeps Baz's flapping down to what we saw. There were others shanking the ball and losing possession a lot more than he was today. He wasn't put under to much personal pressure and we had dropped deep enough where pace was brought into play. They ahd lots of free headers, so would need to rewatch them to see where he, and others, should have been. But generally looked a fairly solid performance by his standards (such as they are) It's not a tactic I like to watch, and all of them have limitations (fairly noticable ones), some of which that tactic helps shine a light on. But they are better than a lot of the other options in our squad. Not in all situations, but across more areas than the others. For example, you could play Edozie. He will look to attack his opponent. But that's not going to work often, we don't have attackers waiting often on him getting apst anyone, and if he loses it, we're under pressure. Ely offers a bit more solidity, if less flair there. Sulemana offers pace and width, but in a narrow tactic and he tired and didn;t press as effectivly as the game went on. Ely again offers a broader range of things. SDo, he might not start, but is useful. Like AA. Bella-Kotchap and Salisu's form waver a bit, and I'm not sure what's going on with DCC. I can see why the manager would prefer Bednerak to Lyanco.

Haivng seen Baz come out and flap at that last chance again. Does he put their player off? Had he not at least come out for a flap, would they have had another free header that could have gone right in. Should he have always got something on it, when coming out, or is that harsh?

Selles:- Lots to improve on. Work on the performance. Lucky with that last one. Working as a unit and a group. Will be putting it to him, regarding Alcaraz celebrations. Looking for the penetration in that central position, on Alcaraz. Adams managign the game and calmness pluses and great for us. expect to continue working,a dn to be better in some aspects. Will look to win at Old Trafford.

It's a hard habit to break! 🙂 Lots of venting relief in there too.

That and "home truths" were the recurring JWP comments. You do wonder how many home truths you can tell each other and how many turnign points can happen before it just becomes hollow.

RalphBall 2.5 gets us a win. It's not an entertaining watch. We contain and stop without imposing or controlling. If it goes well, we get some chances in the space and get the points. We rely on mistakes not costing us, or the opposition just not being clinical. Today, it was Baz's turn to have 2 very dodgy moments, and Iheanacho not taking advantage of chances. We didn;t create too much, and that win came from a good bit of work from Che and a strong finish by Alcaraz, who promtly crocked himself to rob us even of full enjoyment of that. We ended up dropping back deeper than we started, to keep that narrow lead. The pen going in would have helped for sure. We have missed Che. He, and Walcott, was involved in a lot of our best stuff. It would have been nice if we'd had more than a passing spell in charge of the game. But at this stage, the points are really all that matter. If we were to somehow stay up, it can be looked at in the summer. Lots of unforced errors to look at, where we need to hold the ball and pass it better to take the sting out of the opposition.

YEEEEEES!!!!

ah. as much confidence I had in him coming out for that one. Jeez Baz!

Not sure how much fiath I was having in Baz coming out for that one. Cleared anyway >whew<

Eeeps! Free kick!

Mobility for whichever one is "Mr useless". AA has offerend lots of work, closing them down as we drop back. Mara did for a while, when he came on too. I think at this stage. we're working with scraps to mobile attackers, rather than being able to lump up to a target man. Not that we couldn;t just hoof the thing, it's just not something we've had an option for for such a long time.

Hey! look everyone! We;re up the park!

Mara not quite pressing as quickly as AA. If you're going to be dropping back, you need to get at them.

yay! poor from Maddison. Good to see another sub. We need some extra work out there. Sulemana not been that noticeable this half. Mara and AA not pressing so high now either, allowing Leicester more movement.

enegy dropping a bit. Getting scrappy.

Hmmm. Lavia offered nothing leading to us giving it away with a riskier pass.

Oh dears AA. But then, he was looking for it to go across to him first time, which was the better option.

Mara putting in an AA level of work rate. Good to see.

He lost it, but a direct AA run. Weirdly I'd have liked to have seen what he'd offer in JM's direct, pressing tactic.

Baz does deserve credit for taking Janny B's calamatous error per game off him this week (I hope)

"He could easily have ahd a hat trick today" says the commentator. More about just quite how effective saints containment is. But he didn;t, so today it's been effective enough so far.

hecks! Baz!

theo and Che did well for us today, making the most of what we got out from the back of Leicester's possession.

One given away by JWP. That's a few unforced errors in quick succession. Che got booked on the way off? Attacking switches.

Ely got into good space to pick up a pass and he'd hav espace. We choose to give it away, inviting an attack.