With Aguero and Sterling breaking forward, there is going to be a need for teams to put 3-4 players back at all times, which opens up the midfield and makes their lazy fucker centre forwards work too hard. Therefore, the longer any game goes, we will be wearing teams down with our possession and creating a hatful of chances. Silva drifts in as Sterling moves out, Kolarov moves in as Silva slips a ball through the last line. Lather, rinse, repeat!
The movement from 30-20 yards from the opponents goal is fucking brilliant, and at times we have all 4 attacking midfielders looking to make a through ball, while the other 5 or 6 "attackers" are looking to latch on to one. It's like trying to play Whack-A-Mole with one arm tied behind your back!! And, as the opposition get sucked deeper and deeper, it opens up the edge of the box shot. So, if they come out, we nip in, and if they sit back, we shoot from outside or get it wide and pull it in behind them.
Now, if we can just make sure WE dont all get sucked into that last 30 yds of the field, and make sure we have 2 or 3 players defending from the half way line to 30 yds out, we should be in good shape.
As usual tonight, Fernandinho put in a mighty shift, shutting down breaks and forcing them wider and slower. Got a yellow for his troubles in the end, but as long as he doesn't miss too many games for accumulation or an occasional red card, I'm well pleased knowing he is patrolling back there. Once Delph gets himself fit, we will have three players that can play in that "break down the attack" role, and in some games (Top Four away?) I think we should play with two of them across the back four, with Yaya sitting in front, flanked by two of Sterling, Silva, Nasri, Navas, KDB. And, in tight games, I would use my subs to help shut up shop by using that 2-3 in front of the back four, instead of giving multiple attackers a break with a like for like. In fact, I think 2 midfielders and 1 forward sub is Pelle's MO. However, he doesn't always do it in the straightforward manner one might expect, and often follows one sub with another to reshuffle the pack more than once in the last 30 mins.
There was a very telling stat that the vast majority of our goals against are given up in the 60-75 min range (search 4-4-2 magazine online, I think it was). This is exactly the time we are making our subs and disrupting our own game plan. If Pelle really wants to cut down on Goals Against, he needs to be judicious in making those subs. Tonight, for example, Sterling for Nasri was a fairly straight forward one, even though they are both very different players. Sterling had a good first game and almost capped it off with a goal. Too bad for the lad, but even in his first few pre-season games, he has shown what he can do for us, and he adds a scary new dimension to our attacking prowess. All in all, a solid 7.5/10, with at least 1 point of that being his willingness to track back and do a shift!
