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Post by Lakeland Potter on Oct 20, 2013 17:02:27 GMT
I think it isn't all down to central midfield. More and better crosses from the wings would help when we have players like Crouch, Jones or Walters leading the line. Assaidi yesterday put in very few crosses. When Pennant isn't playing most of our crosses from the right have been down to Geoff Cameron and crossing is the most inconsistent part of his game.
The other thing we lack to make the best use of any creative play in central midfield is genuine pace in the lone striker. If we had Jerome, he might not have scored a hatful but he has the pace to reach the through balls and he'd certainly have had himself a shed load of chances - at least that would have shown Sparky that a pacey striker who could finish would be a good investment.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2013 17:05:38 GMT
I think it isn't all down to central midfield. More and better crosses from the wings would help when we have players like Crouch, Jones or Walters leading the line. Assaidi yesterday put in very few crosses. When Pennant isn't playing most of our crosses from the right have been down to Geoff Cameron and crossing is the most inconsistent part of his game. The other thing we lack to make the best use of any creative play in central midfield is genuine pace in the lone striker. If we had Jerome, he might not have scored a hatful but he has the pace to reach the through balls and he'd certainly have had himself a shed load of chances - at least that would have shown Sparky that a pacey striker who could finish would be a good investment. Just being saying on another thread Forner that it shouldn't be the wingers' job to cross it in but to get into goalscoring positions themselves. Too often we're crossing in to one heavily marked striker and I can't for the life of me understand why we're persevering with that when it was clear six weeks ago that this was a problem.
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Post by Kjones9 on Oct 20, 2013 17:08:23 GMT
There was also that chance for Ireland off the arnautavic free where he played it on the ground.
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Post by Lakeland Potter on Oct 20, 2013 17:11:19 GMT
I think it isn't all down to central midfield. More and better crosses from the wings would help when we have players like Crouch, Jones or Walters leading the line. Assaidi yesterday put in very few crosses. When Pennant isn't playing most of our crosses from the right have been down to Geoff Cameron and crossing is the most inconsistent part of his game. The other thing we lack to make the best use of any creative play in central midfield is genuine pace in the lone striker. If we had Jerome, he might not have scored a hatful but he has the pace to reach the through balls and he'd certainly have had himself a shed load of chances - at least that would have shown Sparky that a pacey striker who could finish would be a good investment. Just being saying on another thread Forner that it shouldn't be the wingers' job to cross it in but to get into goalscoring positions themselves. Too often we're crossing in to one heavily marked striker and I can't for the life of me understand why we're persevering with that when it was clear six weeks ago that this was a problem. I agree that in a 433 (or a variant of it) the "wingers" are really wide strikers. But the leader of the line (be it Walters, Crouch or Jones) are not really mobile enough to make that system work properly. Until we get a new striker I'd be wanting one of my wide men to be a winger. I'd like to start Pennant even though he doesn't score many - although I accept he failed a fitness test yesterday.
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Post by stokiejoe on Oct 20, 2013 17:17:13 GMT
Just being saying on another thread Forner that it shouldn't be the wingers' job to cross it in but to get into goalscoring positions themselves. Too often we're crossing in to one heavily marked striker and I can't for the life of me understand why we're persevering with that when it was clear six weeks ago that this was a problem. I agree that in a 433 (or a variant of it) the "wingers" are really wide strikers. But the leader of the line (be it Walters, Crouch or Jones) are not really mobile enough to make that system work properly. Until we get a new striker I'd be wanting one of my wide men to be a winger. I'd like to start Pennant even though he doesn't score many - although I accept he failed a fitness test yesterday. Pennant is our best player at taking free kicks at the moment and he "wins" plenty of them. I agree that we should play with an old fashioned winger given the players we have. One lone striker is fairly easy to mark and we then have no other options.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2013 17:32:17 GMT
If we're doing that then we need to get more players in the box from midfield. Putting a few low crosses in as well as continual high balls that can be easily headed away would be a good move as well.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2013 18:55:36 GMT
According to the BBC stats the op is using we've averaged 12 attempts on goal of which only 3 were on target per game. So that would suggest we are creating chances it's just we aren't very good at taking them
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