melmacian_saint

Light-hearted and obviously not trying to prove any point but talking about GK coaching:

The problem with Cork is that, while he is one of the best passers in the team and has a very neat touch of the ball, for a holding role in midfield you need to either have pace or be strong. Cork I'm afraid is neither. I am confident Wanyama, despite having way too many lapses of concentration (which Cork does not) would not have lost the challenge that led to Villa's 2nd goal. He has the presence that Cork does not provide. With Schneiderlin on the side things would be different as they complement each other quite well and Cork knows how to cover Morgan's freedom in terms of position in midfield, leaving Davis more attacking-minded, but we've yet to see a Cork/JWP central midfield pairing assuming Davis will be the more attacking minded of the 3 midfielders. And please, no 3-4-3 with our passing game like on Wednesday. The English game is too fast for it. I'd rather have two holding midfielders and go direct.

Send him to Scotland. I'm sure he could get into the starting 11 of some lower-half SPL team which receives loads of shots? He would learn fast and let's face it it's not the same playing most of your games in front of reserve squad attendances than in front of 30k+ and more on TV worldwide.

We seem to love starting Seven Nation Army chants for players who haven't even moved a finger for the club. Osvaldo should be doing much more than a tap-in every 2.5 months to get the appreciation of the stands, let alone having the whole stadium singing his name. As with Ramirez, condescendence and South American players is a dangerous cocktail investment-wise.

His long passes look good, however he seems to lift the ball far too many times in short passes which puts us into trouble. However I think our main problem is that we rely far too many times on passing it back to the keeper. A long kick up the field ever now and then will not damage our perceived game style. Last night I thought he look more composed than last year but the 2nd goal is his fault I'm afraid. It's in the 6-yard box and there isn't a lot pace in the ball nor is it at an incredible height. If he had gone for it he would've collected it easily. Flapping a ball that is going straight at you was not ideal either but I guess it was a result of his initial bad positioning. Overall his reading of the game needs to improve, and I think he should practice keeping those short passes low. Finally, a word for our internal player development method gurus, get him a loan in League One where he can learn and work his way up. A keeper is not a winger from our academy! I still think we will regret this decision of just launching a player with U-21 and League Two match experience onto the pitch for a long run in the side.

Key in all that: Pace. Crucial for little technical players. The Spanish league outside the big 2 can be a frantic affair, with teams often favoring an attacking, perhaps overexposed playing style. The French league, while technically inferior, is more physical, which again is great preparation. Also Cazorla came from a team in the CL and Hazard from a team that had won the league the year before. Bologna are only a bit better than your usual elevator team.

I've just realized my awful mistake. Meant to be "La Liga-signed" Ramirez. Sorry guys, bad evening for all I guess!

After watching tonight's game and the rather disorganized way we played, I can see why Schneiderlin was able to describe things in such detail. He is crucial. Forget about Boruc, Lallana or Lovren. Schneiderlin is the pump that makes our game flow and without him we don't look as good defending or attacking. In midfield we lack support, either when trying to play it forward and when trying to find a gap in the defensive line. Without him we end up passing the ball sideways and resorting to long balls or the occasional cheeky pass from Davis through to the strikers.

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They do if we had one. However, we at least 2 other keepers with a first team number, so no chance.

Gazzaniga for me. Davis is only in the team for his off-pitch role, I don't think he would excel at anything higher than L1 right now. Aged quite badly for a keeper to be honest... Paulo is our best bet and deserves his chance to prove that he is progressing. However, we should be warned that he is still 21, and most keepers won't really be at their top until they're closing in on 25/26 years of age, so we shouldn't write him off if thing don't go too well. However, the coaching staff have shown a lot of efficiency given the low number of muscle injuries we've had, as well as in the resolution of the massive impact any slight changes in defense had, Boruc's fitness and form are also at a high despite injury and mental spasms so I trust Gazzaniga will have changed for the best too. When keepers are so young you need to forget the level of their performances and look at what they've done really well. I remember everyone praising his distribution when he came to the scene, as well as great saves against Fulham and Newcastle. The potential is there, and maybe for a club where it's best academy offspring usually tears everything apart only a few months after their debut it's difficult to have that patience, but we must have. In any case, Cropper doesn't really seem to be in the picture otherwise he would've got a call to the first team at some stage in the last two years. What about that guy from Northern Ireland? He was playing at senior level from an early age, so he might have something in him?

Julio Cesar is a shout! Also can we get over our internal breeding trauma and give Gazzaniga a loan period at some Championship/SPL club to help with his progress??

I'm sorry???

He has been crucial, but hey we could've signed another keeper this summer after last year's early troubles and we didn't, so I assume there was a good reason for us not to. Of course the bedwetting brigade don't even care about who Gazzaniga is and what stage in his career he is at. All they need is someone to bash to show that they know a lot about football. And I know Kelvin deserved to stay in order to finish his career here but let's be honest it's a position in the squad we could do with another alternative in!

Thankfully this one comes soon enough after the last 2 weeks. I wouldn't change the team a lot as we haven't particularly performed terribly against better opposition and in a game where we can have some dominance it's important to give the players the chance to do so.

Are we going to judge a player's ability by a mistake in a mid-week match in a freezing November evening at 19 years of age? Bit harsh I think you'd agree?

This. Remember him from his time at Porto. An amazing talent, but his head does not fit our team mindset.

He wasn't a clear starter with Pochettino for most of his time there and while he is a good player for Espanyol he is certainly not a clear improvement.

Italian football attacking players will always take more time to integrate because of the difference in pace and tactical responsibilities. Strikers don't defend in Italy, nor do they drop down that much into midfield. Same with attacking midfielders.

Maybe Gallagher can refresh things a bit? I certainly wouldn't worry about trying.

I guess you could say that 4 goals should've been conceded instead of 7, with Hull, Stoke and 1-0 yesterday as totally avoidable. Even then the Hull goal does seem to happen quite often in football so 5 and no one would spot it. Things like this do happen more than once in the season to teams though and we do seem quite stubborn about our "play from the back patiently" style even in adverse situations so maybe it's a price we have to pay.

The like of which I've never ever seen given again. This man clearly dislikes us and is happy to show that in most decisions he makes.

Are we talking about someone who has any particular special needs/issues or is it just a tall, Dutch, healthy-appearing centre-back who has had a trouble-free game?? Disgusting, patronizing attitude going round this topic...but we all know that non-bulldozing, composed CBs fall foul of SWF love-ins, who prefer "do or die" spastics with bricks on their feet instead of boots. You just wait until Lovren stops having such a direct input in our games...

Are we going to open a topic every time a player doesn't do much wrong? Double standards are really harming any discussion in this forum.

Agreed, but to be fair both Fonte and Lovren (and Yoshida and Hooiveld) have gone long whenever they couldn't find a pass, however it seems to be highly discouraged.