Joycee Banercheck said:
I agree with your last sentence. Ultimately it is a team game and if the whole team doesn't perform then you'll never see the full potential of it bear fruit.
As far as I'm concerned, our defence is sorted. But, and here's where it annoys me, other teams seem to be able to use more than one outlet when they attack. We don't just yet. We do knock it sideways and backwards as if were playing in Serie A. I can't tell you if that is what the players are told to do, or if they do that off their own backs. It's so obvious that it doesn't really get us anywhere when we do it. In fact, the biggest gripe on here (other than Mario at the minute) would possibly be the way we attack teams - some say it is too slow and others say it is patient possession football. I'm of the former opinion, but hope that RM gets another season at least to make this team his own. I do like controlling games, but there is a time and a place for playing square and going for a goal. If we ever find the answer to your second question in the previous post then we'll have cracked it! Fingers crossed we get it nailed asap.
I tend to think Ball possession in the middle and final 3rd of the field is a good thing. It is mentally debilitating for the opposition. However, Ball possession in the initial 3rd of the field isn't. As it tells the opposition, you are bereft of ideas.
Unfortunately we often discuss all 3 together, which muddles the issue. The lack of distinction between the 3 phases is a big part of the disconnect between those who argue that it's good possession, and those who argue it is no bite.
Yesterday, we possessed the ball some in the 2nd and final 3rd of the field. And thus possession was good in that sense. And chances increased due to it. But we also had periods of bereft play (where we were unable to get it out of the first 3rd) it is in that respect, that I faulted De Jong for not being a bit more assertive or decisive in his decision making.
I have made an argument in the past, that their is a difference in how folks in England view football, and how those on the continent and farther off view it. But that is a long and different topic.
It is my opinion that we are constantly disjointed, a problem not necessarily specific to any individual player, but more so one of different players having a different conception of how to play the game. Tevez likes individually dispossessing defenders of the ball from the top by hassling players. Silva likes double teaming. Yaya likes crowding areas and leaving little space. Micah likes squeezing into the middle and leaving space on the outside. Kompany, Zab and De Jong likes closing down early. Lescott likes forcing players to the side line. Our players all have uniquely different tendencies, that continues to cause frictions and gaps in our play both defensively and offensively. So often our discussions barely scratch the surface.
But even within those discussion parameters, it does us no good playing favorites!
