Seriously? Referees aren't interested in time wasting, unless the result spoils their accumulator. They'll book the odd token player to show they're "in command", but that's it. I remember one match last season when we took the lead near the end and (ahem) "slowed the game down", and the referee was telling our players to get on with it! For the previous 75 minutes he was quite content to let them do the same thing without saying a dicky bird.Clatt's might just have been the boy to make that controversial decision methinks!!!
Used to scare the shit out of me!Bollocks, in my day the Kippax used scare the shit out of away team :-)
Makes sense to meI'm no tactical genius but dosnt playing 3 at the back just give bravo one less option /target when he wants to play out from the back?
Thinking as stones passed back central for the goal instead of to the right back
Also why has fernandinho stopped dropping to pick the ball from bravo ?
The mini slump seems to have coincided with giving sane and gundaguan more game time and dropping nolito who has been one of our better players ?
It seems you are questioning the idea that we will correct this, is that the case ?
We are fucked basically ?
If not, why the question ?
The players are yet to leave the dressing room over 40 minutes after full time. Pep not happy with their performance. [@StuBrennanMEN]What's this in the news about a lock in the dressing room post game? Bollocks?
I'm no tactical genius but dosnt playing 3 at the back just give bravo one less option /target when he wants to play out from the back?
Thinking as stones passed back central for the goal instead of to the right back
Also why has fernandinho stopped dropping to pick the ball from bravo ?
The mini slump seems to have coincided with giving sane and gundaguan more game time and dropping nolito who has been one of our better players ?
Bravo was definitely in the game a lot less yesterday than he is when we have 4 at the back.I'm no tactical genius but dosnt playing 3 at the back just give bravo one less option /target when he wants to play out from the back?
Thinking as stones passed back central for the goal instead of to the right back
Seriously? Referees aren't interested in time wasting, unless the result spoils their accumulator. They'll book the odd token player to show they're "in command", but that's it. I remember one match last season when we took the lead near the end and (ahem) "slowed the game down", and the referee was telling our players to get on with it! For the previous 75 minutes he was quite content to let them do the same thing without saying a dicky bird.
Agree with that yesterday bravo had 3 options of playing it out ,with nothing on the right side,where as with the back 4 he was getting 5 options with fern dropping between the centre half's.not sure many English teams have won anything playing with a back 3 tho quite a lot have tried it and ditched it after a few games.Quite like Gundogan as a player but him coming into the team does seem to have had a detrimental effect in some regards. When Fern was on his tod it was working perfectly with him dropping into the middle as the centre halves split and the full backs came in-field. It made the pitch appear massive with loads of space all over the shop. Both Silva & De Bruyne were also playing brilliantly when deeper. Having an extra body in the field makes the pitch suddenly appear cluttered.
Given the players we have I also don't think three at the back works for us. Our back four was basically a back two + Fern at the start of the season. A back three negates the need for Fern to drop so again leaves less space in the mid, which is especially exacerbated if Gundogen starts in there as well.
A back three works well with attacking wing-backs coming from deep, our back three has wide men who are too far forward too soon.
Go back to a back four / two, let Fern drop in, bring back Silva & De Bruyne, and Robert's your proverbial uncle