Get a grip!

[Matthew 7795]

80 million quid says it shouldnt take time...transitional season...utter utter bollocks

You talk some crap you do . 3 games in ,you need to go back to your rugby and stay there .

 

[BlueAnorak]

I This is markedly worse at the moment because we don't have Vinny bringing the ball from defence: the centre halves are just giving it to Ya Ya. And we ended up on ~Saturday with a massive gap between the holding players and the attacking players, which stymied all of our link play.

I completely agree with this. Without wanting to excuse players playing poorly, I do think that the key to playing a high pressing game with a high defensive line is having centre halves with the ability to step out of defence with the ball and push up into central midfield positions, reducing the gaps for the opposition to work in. If you look at the two most effective teams when it comes to pressing high and playing a high defensive line then they'd currently have to be Dortmund and Barca. Both teams rely heavily on Hummels and Pique, and in Barca's case it's so important that they'll play a midfield player like Mascherano at centre half rather than a pure central defender to make sure that the threat remains.

Frankly, I think we need to overhaul the back 4 in the next two transfer windows. Vinny and and Nasty are the only two who would be guaranteed to stay and I'd be looking for at least one full back for each side and two centre halves. Between Zaba, Richards, Clichy and Kola we don't have a single cultured full back who has the quality of pass or cross required. Other than Vinny we don't have a centre half with the aggression and ball playing ability to step out of defence and close down space, win the ball, and then move forward like a more midfield player.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think Txiki dropped a bollock in not paying the money Roma wanted for Marquinhos.

Why are we playing a high defensive line/high pressing game if we don't (seemingly) have the personnel to play this way? In pre season you would have thought someone would have noticed. Even with Kompany Arsenal sliced through us like we didn't exist. Also I spent all pre season being tweeted by Vinny how great the preparation and training was so why were we so badly prepared for Cardiff and Hull specifically the concept that teams may at some stage put some pressure on us?

More importantly why am I getting the sinking feeling that I am being gently shepherded towards the door marked 'Transitional Season' rather then the door marked 'Major Trophies'?

Why indeed.

 

[Matthew 7795]

All the negative city fans . Go away are club and the real fans . Don't want you .go and support Barcelona .

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

I could have sworn the kids went back today.
Maybe the special schools have an in-service day.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

80 million quid says it shouldnt take time...transitional season...utter utter bollocks

You talk some crap you do . 3 games in ,you need to go back to your rugby and stay there .

I take it you don't understand the word exiled?

Thought not..Matthew....<br /><br />-- Mon Sep 02, 2013 3:25 pm --<br /><br />

All the negative city fans . Go away are club and the real fans . Don't want you .go and support Barcelona .

Have they let you out for the day?

 

[taconinja]

I This is markedly worse at the moment because we don't have Vinny bringing the ball from defence: the centre halves are just giving it to Ya Ya. And we ended up on ~Saturday with a massive gap between the holding players and the attacking players, which stymied all of our link play.

I completely agree with this. Without wanting to excuse players playing poorly, I do think that the key to playing a high pressing game with a high defensive line is having centre halves with the ability to step out of defence with the ball and push up into central midfield positions, reducing the gaps for the opposition to work in. If you look at the two most effective teams when it comes to pressing high and playing a high defensive line then they'd currently have to be Dortmund and Barca. Both teams rely heavily on Hummels and Pique, and in Barca's case it's so important that they'll play a midfield player like Mascherano at centre half rather than a pure central defender to make sure that the threat remains.

Frankly, I think we need to overhaul the back 4 in the next two transfer windows. Vinny and and Nasty are the only two who would be guaranteed to stay and I'd be looking for at least one full back for each side and two centre halves. Between Zaba, Richards, Clichy and Kola we don't have a single cultured full back who has the quality of pass or cross required. Other than Vinny we don't have a centre half with the aggression and ball playing ability to step out of defence and close down space, win the ball, and then move forward like a more midfield player.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think Txiki dropped a bollock in not paying the money Roma wanted for Marquinhos.

Why are we playing a high defensive line/high pressing game if we don't (seemingly) have the personnel to play this way? In pre season you would have thought someone would have noticed. Even with Kompany Arsenal sliced through us like we didn't exist. Also I spent all pre season being tweeted by Vinny how great the preparation and training was so why were we so badly prepared for Cardiff and Hull specifically the concept that teams may at some stage put some pressure on us?

More importantly why am I getting the sinking feeling that I am being gently shepherded towards the door marked 'Transitional Season' rather then the door marked 'Major Trophies'?

We have the personnel to play it. I'm liable to take flak over this but the issue with our high line starts at the front. Playing Newcastle our starting forwards pressed very, very well. Cardiff dropped very deep and it wasn't really a problem. We lost that due to baffling errors on corners. Additionally, our fowards weren't linking well until Negredo came on. That is not an inherent criticism of Dzeko! Sorry for the bold but some fans can't grasp the concept that he might not be divine in nature and therefore infallible. For whatever reason, Negredo and Aguero seem to link better. You could also see a huge difference in how we played once Negredo came on against Hull and actually helped out with pressing. It was the difference between night and day.

 

[BobKowalski]

I completely agree with this. Without wanting to excuse players playing poorly, I do think that the key to playing a high pressing game with a high defensive line is having centre halves with the ability to step out of defence with the ball and push up into central midfield positions, reducing the gaps for the opposition to work in. If you look at the two most effective teams when it comes to pressing high and playing a high defensive line then they'd currently have to be Dortmund and Barca. Both teams rely heavily on Hummels and Pique, and in Barca's case it's so important that they'll play a midfield player like Mascherano at centre half rather than a pure central defender to make sure that the threat remains.

Frankly, I think we need to overhaul the back 4 in the next two transfer windows. Vinny and and Nasty are the only two who would be guaranteed to stay and I'd be looking for at least one full back for each side and two centre halves. Between Zaba, Richards, Clichy and Kola we don't have a single cultured full back who has the quality of pass or cross required. Other than Vinny we don't have a centre half with the aggression and ball playing ability to step out of defence and close down space, win the ball, and then move forward like a more midfield player.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think Txiki dropped a bollock in not paying the money Roma wanted for Marquinhos.

Why are we playing a high defensive line/high pressing game if we don't (seemingly) have the personnel to play this way? In pre season you would have thought someone would have noticed. Even with Kompany Arsenal sliced through us like we didn't exist. Also I spent all pre season being tweeted by Vinny how great the preparation and training was so why were we so badly prepared for Cardiff and Hull specifically the concept that teams may at some stage put some pressure on us?

More importantly why am I getting the sinking feeling that I am being gently shepherded towards the door marked 'Transitional Season' rather then the door marked 'Major Trophies'?

We have the personnel to play it. I'm liable to take flak over this but the issue with our high line starts at the front. Playing Newcastle our starting forwards pressed very, very well. Cardiff dropped very deep and it wasn't really a problem. We lost that due to baffling errors on corners. Additionally, our fowards weren't linking well until Negredo came on. That is not an inherent criticism of Dzeko! Sorry for the bold but some fans can't grasp the concept that he might not be divine in nature and therefore infallible. For whatever reason, Negredo and Aguero seem to link better. You could also see a huge difference in how we played once Negredo came on against Hull and actually helped out with pressing. It was the difference between night and day.

I'm all in on the idea of Negrado for Dzeko and I say this despite being fond of Edin albeit in a way that you feel for the soft lad in the corner at parties. We lost at Cardiff because we committed the heinous crime of taking the lead in the 60th minute and then letting in 3 goals. I repeat this point because its the mental application or lack of it that will fuck us up far more than any of the tactical and formation discussions that rage on here. Championships are won and lost in the head and that more than anything is my overriding concern.

But back to this 'new system'. Is it any good, will it be effective for us and is it worth the pain? And if it is...why? This isn't aimed specifically at taconinja...

 

[Anonymous]

Why are we playing a high defensive line/high pressing game if we don't (seemingly) have the personnel to play this way? In pre season you would have thought someone would have noticed. Even with Kompany Arsenal sliced through us like we didn't exist. Also I spent all pre season being tweeted by Vinny how great the preparation and training was so why were we so badly prepared for Cardiff and Hull specifically the concept that teams may at some stage put some pressure on us?

More importantly why am I getting the sinking feeling that I am being gently shepherded towards the door marked 'Transitional Season' rather then the door marked 'Major Trophies'?

We have the personnel to play it. I'm liable to take flak over this but the issue with our high line starts at the front. Playing Newcastle our starting forwards pressed very, very well. Cardiff dropped very deep and it wasn't really a problem. We lost that due to baffling errors on corners. Additionally, our fowards weren't linking well until Negredo came on. That is not an inherent criticism of Dzeko! Sorry for the bold but some fans can't grasp the concept that he might not be divine in nature and therefore infallible. For whatever reason, Negredo and Aguero seem to link better. You could also see a huge difference in how we played once Negredo came on against Hull and actually helped out with pressing. It was the difference between night and day.

I'm all in on the idea of Negrado for Dzeko and I say this despite being fond of Edin albeit in a way that you feel for the soft lad in the corner at parties. We lost at Cardiff because we committed the heinous crime of taking the lead in the 60th minute and then letting in 3 goals. I repeat this point because its the mental application or lack of it that will fuck us up far more than any of the tactical and formation discussions that rage on here. Championships are won and lost in the head and that more than anything is my overriding concern.

But back to this 'new system'. Is it any good, will it be effective for us and is it worth the pain? And if it is...why? This isn't aimed specifically at taconinja...

Answers to all those questions and more will be available at the next MCFC end of season review!

 

[samharris]

Did the rags win the title last season?? yes.

Did they play particularely well ?? No.


Dont panic, Pelle is the man..

 

[taconinja]

Why are we playing a high defensive line/high pressing game if we don't (seemingly) have the personnel to play this way? In pre season you would have thought someone would have noticed. Even with Kompany Arsenal sliced through us like we didn't exist. Also I spent all pre season being tweeted by Vinny how great the preparation and training was so why were we so badly prepared for Cardiff and Hull specifically the concept that teams may at some stage put some pressure on us?

More importantly why am I getting the sinking feeling that I am being gently shepherded towards the door marked 'Transitional Season' rather then the door marked 'Major Trophies'?

We have the personnel to play it. I'm liable to take flak over this but the issue with our high line starts at the front. Playing Newcastle our starting forwards pressed very, very well. Cardiff dropped very deep and it wasn't really a problem. We lost that due to baffling errors on corners. Additionally, our fowards weren't linking well until Negredo came on. That is not an inherent criticism of Dzeko! Sorry for the bold but some fans can't grasp the concept that he might not be divine in nature and therefore infallible. For whatever reason, Negredo and Aguero seem to link better. You could also see a huge difference in how we played once Negredo came on against Hull and actually helped out with pressing. It was the difference between night and day.

I'm all in on the idea of Negrado for Dzeko and I say this despite being fond of Edin albeit in a way that you feel for the soft lad in the corner at parties. We lost at Cardiff because we committed the heinous crime of taking the lead in the 60th minute and then letting in 3 goals. I repeat this point because its the mental application or lack of it that will fuck us up far more than any of the tactical and formation discussions that rage on here. Championships are won and lost in the head and that more than anything is my overriding concern.

But back to this 'new system'. Is it any good, will it be effective for us and is it worth the pain? And if it is...why? This isn't aimed specifically at taconinja...

It's the same style of defending that Dortmund play. Same that Barcelona play. I'm not defending the debacle at Cardiff, but that wasn't due to playing a high line. That was a baffling period against corner kicks. Still inexcusable I agree. We seem to have remedied that looking at how committed players were against corners whilst playing Hull.

Here's the thing about a high line because it bears repeating. It is vulnerable to long balls through the middle. Very vulnerable. That's why it's so dependent on having the forwards committing to the pressing game. Otherwise, the deep midfielders of the opposition can pick out runs from their forwards. And honestly not even world-class CBs can handle that the entire game. I don't dislike Dzeko. I think he's a quality player. He has to buy into 90 minutes of pressing, though. He has to do that or we have to look elsewhere.