Pace, power , athleticism and crosses.

[trickydicky73]

Watching MOTD I can't help but notice how virtually every team looks far quicker than us, and seem to move forward, at pace, together. We seem to plod forward in comparison.

This, coupled with our reluctance to cross the ball quickly compared to most teams is the main reason none of our strikers can find the net regularly. The amount of goals that came from crosses this week was noticeable. Why is such an obvious tactic being ignored by the management?

[iglugluk]

Mark Hughes seems to think passing a team to death ( or if pushed , long punts up pitch ) is the most effective style of play. Not easy to see why he believes this to be the best approach as our goal tally seems to indicate something else.
I must say, I wonder if he's stuck in the times when Spain dominated World football playing intricate passing football?

[moz]

The problem is as team we are too slow when it come to making decisions and executing them. Most of our players keep the ball for far too long that we give the other team time to reform and close the game.

[heworksardtho]

We need to sign 10 outfield greyhounds that should sort it

[StokeTudoGuy]

What was blindingly evident yesterday was that the players causing trouble for the opposition were hungry forwards who seemed to be constantly pushing the defence and breaking at every opportunity.

Mounie, Vokes, Vardy, Okaka, Mane and Lacazette... They all excelled for their teams, they were constantly asking questions of defenders and making space.

Honestly as supportive as I want to be for our players, Berahino and Joselu dont do this. Diouf is the only player I think is capable to do it regularly. Choupo-Moting might do it, but thats yet to be seen.

Options

1: We need a RWB to free up Mame and Mame needs to be playing up front, ideally with one of those other guys as a partner to fill in the blanks Mame creates.

2: we accept Mame is now a right winger, so we need to bring in a Strong, Fast and Hungry striker.

3: we give Choupo-Moting a run as a striker with either Berahino or Joselu as his strike partner.

[trickydicky73]

Aug 13, 2017 6:23:15 GMT StokeTudoGuy said:

What was blindingly evident yesterday was that the players causing trouble for the opposition were hungry forwards who seemed to be constantly pushing the defence and breaking at every opportunity.

Mounie, Vokes, Vardy, Okaka, Mane and Lacazette... They all excelled for their teams, they were constantly asking questions of defenders and making space.

Honestly as supportive as I want to be for our players, Berahino and Joselu dont do this. Diouf is the only player I think is capable to do it regularly. Choupo-Moting might do it, but thats yet to be seen.

Options

1: We need a RWB to free up Mame and Mame needs to be playing up front, ideally with one of those other guys as a partner to fill in the blanks Mame creates.

2: we accept Mame is now a right winger, so we need to bring in a Strong, Fast and Hungry striker.

3: we give Choupo-Moting a run as a striker with either Berahino or Joselu as his strike partner.

There is also a reluctance to cross the ball, as if we think it's beneath us. Look at the service Vokes and Morita got yesterday.

You are dead right about movement and our lack of it.

[heworksardtho]

We need to show hunger and desire , I will give him ten games and if we are struggling by then I think Hughes will be gone , we've still got the transfer window so who knows who we might get in

[terrorofturfmoor]

Aug 13, 2017 5:37:12 GMT heworksardtho said:

We need to sign 10 outfield greyhounds that should sort it

That would just be "barking" mad!!!

[harrysburrow]

Looking back to the TP era, we had all those?

[lee1982]

Its so frustrating because everyone can see that webe lacked pace for nearly two seasons and that both full back positions require upgrading. Unfortunately we seem intent on chasing the same type of midfielder window after window and strikers that are polar opposites of one anoher.

[alster]

Aug 13, 2017 3:39:14 GMT moz said:

The problem is as team we are too slow when it come to making decisions and executing them. Most of our players keep the ball for far too long that we give the other team time to reform and close the game.

Nail on the head. We try to play far too safe and don't take enough risks the players won't gamble. Surely thats the way they are told to play we can't simply have a squad full of very conservative players can we?

[march4]

Aug 13, 2017 7:00:11 GMT harrysburrow said:

Looking back to the TP era, we had all those?

We had Ric, we had Ethers, we had Lenny, we had Pennant.

So the answer is YES.

[milky]

What is noticeable is when we do put in crosses from open play.how few men we actually have in the box.

And those there are actually in there are usually static.

[johnnysoul60]

Thought this for a long time now , the game seems to be passing us by in some ways . Agree we are way too slow and lack power and energy .

[moz]

Aug 13, 2017 8:14:32 GMT alster said:

Aug 13, 2017 3:39:14 GMT moz said:

The problem is as team we are too slow when it come to making decisions and executing them. Most of our players keep the ball for far too long that we give the other team time to reform and close the game.

Nail on the head. We try to play far too safe and don't take enough risks the players won't gamble. Surely thats the way they are told to play we can't simply have a squad full of very conservative players can we?

That's right sure moving the ball fast could result on miss pass and some uncomfortable situations but it will also give us more opportunities to score. We never take any risks and We need to either run fast or move the ball fast but we don't have fast players with good pace and we don't pass fast enough to catch the opposing team out of position. No risk No gain.

[Deleted]

Yes, but T.P. threw it away with two turgid seasons. Hughes is nearly in the same boat. Needs a miracle not to get the push IMHO!