dubai_phil

Cam - that maybe why we see LB playing with his back to goal so much, he has to turn around and wait for the pass. The "World Cup Stylee' of possession percentage stops the ball being pinged in quickly. Then with us the "final ball" into LB is coming from further away. Dogg - think the last part is what I was getting at - that playing off the shoulder rather than with his back to goal. LB's first touch is 1 and a quarter touches, most of the rest (Lallana Lambert & Fonte excluded are probably 1 and a half) just that the CB's get that little glimmer and go straight through him, LB has been fouled and 99% of refs don't give it So, back to my premise, the STYLE we are playing gets the ball to LB with his back to goal outside the box looking to lay it off. IMHO you should have your best goalscorer picking up that layoff FACING the goal. ie perhaps we should set up so someone else does that bit and LB comes ONTO the ball rather than say Chaplow....? On the subject of the chasing down and defending from the front, no brainer of course he does. However that tends to happen when we DON'T have possession. So again, the way he is being made to play that I saw in the last two games is NOT playing to his strengths, ergo our two best scorers are outside the box.... And lo, our goals from Open Play have (as many have commented) dried up of late as a percentage we score from set pieces or "all over the team" Oh and Turkish. I know you are all knowing, which is why I made the point that I was commenting on what I had noticed in the last TWO matches SW & CAFC I attended. It was also why I asked others for opinions on formations and styles in games I had NOT seen. Thanks for adding to the debate

Saw that coming Phew

You have mail

To all those coming to Dubai, PLEASE pack a case of Old Speckled Hen in your suitcases Eric pays good rates. Me Mate's Wedding in Bournemouth Future (maybe) In laws in Krakow Abruzzo in Italy checking out wedding venues for/with daughter Glasto all in a crazy 3 weeks (thanks to Ryanairs' no tax sale 17.99 each way to Krakow) - bargain will drink the savings in Zwiec'y beer & Zubrowka Hoping for another US trip in October man I did a conf last year in New Orleans, if you like music & drink beer, GO! Oh & hope to get to Bangkok again for New Year But the biggest holiday - The Forum Match

Now Kathleen Turner instead of Jerry Hall would have been a moment Whatever happened to her couple of great movies and she became old Boo

TSW member in NOT ITK shocker. Forum crashes in shock

Busy day, had 100's of call outs to Yarpies to perform the Heimlich manouvere. Good thing is we lasted longer than the Aussies or the Yarpies even when we get to fly home tomorrow after turned into mincemeat by the 3M's The slinger Murali & Mendis Gonna spend the day stalking maids locally, ONE of them will have TV feed from SL

Is this a good time to mention that we seem to have better results from the teams around us when we don't pla.... OOps sorry, back to biting finger nails

Was listening to S&G's Mrs Robinson tonight, which reminded me... Have you ever had the (fortune) or horror of seeing a naked celeb? me - yep I admit it, 2nd row at some theatre in London to see all of Jerry Hall in The Graduate complete with bead of sweat on the brow as it built up to THAT moment. And then arrgh, being dragged to see Equus and discovering that Harry Potter really does NOT have a magic wand. (Mind you I think I was the ONLY bloke in the sold out theatre and the "how to put this politely?" floor was a torrent of running juices. (oops sorry but guys it WAS worth going as the chick he prances around with was REALL fit and also naked) So, anyone else? And no, Megan Fox (or for the girls some Geezer) in your bed and splashed pics of her on FB don't count

OK his biggest mistake. He only found ONE Ivan Golac... My God what a team we could have been..... On a side note, my GF went to a Baby Shower today, turns out one of the girls there was David Peach's niece. Sounds like a new source of tales

Bloody typical NA OUT Why the hell didn't he send our entire back room staff and groundsman and all our fans up to Brizzle to help them out Hope we boo the moron who is a posh fan and gifted them an OG Oops sorry - jetlag kicked in, for a moment I thought I was Alpine arrgh, off for a shower

Not having seen him play with Guly, would be interested to know the answer to this question. With LB, Lee plays tight on the CB's with RL roaming and tending to drop deep (sort of like a 4-4-1-1) shape With Guly, does RL play on the CB shoulder or is it Guly?

My feelings too - which lead me to think that the regulars will continue to get frustrated by our ineffective style at the moment. There was a moment towards the end of the Charlton game where they (Charlton) were pressing forward roared on by their fan and were playing on instinct, emotion and passion, it was the best 5 minutes of football I saw in 180. No doubt whatsoever that in those situations LB is who we need in the box. Just I think the STYLE overcomes the passion. Modern football has become like that it's why England were (apart from Capello's crap inputs) rubbish at the WC, our passion was stifled by organisation. I think we need to have a style and it is why I commented to my mates that I had NEVER seen such an organised (hell even OVER coached) Saints team, and that is was sterile football.

On a side note... Did we really need to sign a CM? Seems to me we've had a perfectly capable CM playing the last two games - Rickie - he sure didn't spend THAT much time up front winky smiley sortta thingy

No I want him in the team - doh! But watching the build up play his main role seems to be the most forward player hodling the ball and laying it off to whoever is running in to support. So, we have our best scorer playing outside the box with his back to goal, sort of think that isn't the right place for him - my example was - like playing Ted McDougall as an AM.... BUT I can see why Guly (and to an extent) Forte give something different. So in his current role our moves break down around him, so either give him a different role (ie scoring GOALS) or Guly will be back And yes agree about the pace of the ball - it just seems to bounce off him at times, allowing the CB to hoof it

Shouldda read it mate I precis for you. I think in our style of play that LB is a liability because he plays with his back to goal and he allows the CB's to get tight to him and so he keeps getting bundled off the ball and our passing moves break down. There was a load of explanation in there and some questions

OK so I've watched two matches. I've put a QUESTION MARK in the title so bear me out, andI keep the ideas simple in the OP for debate. LB strengths - predatory goal scorer, battler, 120% effort, makes a nuisance of himself and creates chances for others. LB weakness (like I said bear with me on this) compared to RL he needs 1 and a quarter touches to get the ball under control, lack of killer pace over the first 5 yards So, what I noticed. In the past 2 games we have played what seems a clearly defined passing pattern RL getting the ball wide etc. Everyone has told me that's how we've been playing for ages and it is frustrating the hell out the regulars, but it clearly is what we work on in training. For me we play like all the teams in the World Cup (bar England) working the ball around, looking for angles and keeping possession (as much as possible) until a final ball into the edge of the box. The moves kept breaking down in ShefW & Charlton (AOC having a mare with his touch did not help), because the ball was coming in to LB with his back to goal between his feet & his chest. the lack of pace meant the CB's were able to keep VERY tight to him and the ball kept bouncing off him. In fact LB spent a large part of both games with his arms out appealing for (rightly) fouls. Opta stats may be interesting, but his pass completion up tight to the defenders was IMHO not high. Now, compare that to when Forte came on, he seemed to play sideways to the defender, he can't play with his back to goal he looks to make the CB turn which as others commented forced their defence to drop deeper. So. LB is not working in the current style of play, a style that most leading teams try and play and I think will serve us well as we move up the pyramid. So LB & NA needs to tweak his role or I finally understand why NA preffered Guly in the striker role. So lose our most committed player and goal scoring threat or continue to have the play break-down. Taxi for Barnard. IMHO not quite but I see where we are going wrong and why everyone is hacked off AOC & Chaplow also fall into the passes breaking down area. (oh and gang? RL is a FAR better footballer than many on here give him credit for, his touch and control is superb, ok so he ain't a Ron Davies in the air but his touch in the last two games is up there with Crouchy's)

You're joking right? I mean the most important parts of the whole affair are the post match interviews you'll sound like thoshe Dusch Boysh. A day at the cricket and then 90 mins on the "Gatorade" you'll be more blind than that Lino in year one. Some talk about it, some get their backside in gear and send emails, others are just earning airmiles at the wrong time but we can but hope

Anywhere else in the world, in any other business or situation, you couldn't make this up, but us regulars somehow knew this was coming and more gems will still follow Poopey the gift that keeps giving

Changed it so it describes all 12,000 of the fans who attended last season's game. Nickg in the stand with the opta stats computer thingy, that works Simo - may have a plan B, I got told off last year for guzzling Magners in the technical area, so this year thinking of digging out one of those Isostar/Gatorade half litre advertising bottles and filling it with Zub & Apple juice

Oh look, that is Soooo not true. I won't bore them with Tiger Tales. I'll talk about my Beach BBQ at The Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi with Casey, W******d, Poulter & Mickelson, while you go on and on (AGAIN) about your Mars Bar in the Showers moment. Yawn

Yep, good start, and after you've paid me the "being on my team fee" (the demand is just Soooo high, one has no choice) make sure you budget enough to be able to pay the match fees.

Well.... If you'd been at Charlton (woo hoo got one in at last) you'd have seen Chaplow doing a great headless chicken impression at times and Hammond parked mostly in front of our defence, and a rousing inability throughout the team to seemingly string more than two passes together. Now I am hugely in agreement with you that we need to bring the kids through, however, we had little space at Charlton and that really is expecting one hell of a lot for a nipper to come into that environment on debut and try and make his mark on a game. Apart from Alan Shearer I don't recall many debutants being match winning game changers on debut. The thing is those kids SHOULD have been on the bench in rotation all season so they could have come on when we were winning 3 or 4 - nil to get some feel for the pace and noise of the first team. They haven't done that so possibly the management think they aren't ready yet. Gobern was a bit wobbly in his first game back as sub I recall. So we have 10 REALLY important games coming up. Seems we couldn't find/afford (within our Wage structure) a Paul Wotton (with ability) to cover a VITAL position for us, so we've gone and got a highly promising goal scoring midfielder in who seems to have a "bit about him", is young and seems talented enough to "move up through the leagues" with us. I think it's a real crock of sh1t that we did not get Clarence Seedorf or equivalent in on loan to the end of the season, but can see there may have been reasons that happened and think this is FAR better - he is NOT a bench warmer, he will be match fit (unlike Forte & to an extent N'Guessan when they arrived) and ready to play up to 90 minutes next week

And surely Alpine is a shoe-in as ref.

Nick, you gotta cut back on that J2O stuff mate, it ain't doing you any good.