Training Ground work bearing obvious fruit

[Didsbury Dave]

Last year had to happen for this year to happen. If Fergie would have gone early, Mancini had more luck and we'd managed to scrape it last year, we wouldn't be what we are becoming this season.

Pellegrini is in a different class to Mancini and is perfect for this stage of our evolution. I'm not discounting the big one either. If it doesn't happen this time, it will in the next couple of years.

Time for the old "Cabal" cliche: We are finally becoming greater than the sum of our parts.

Tolmie's point about 10 of those players being around last season wasn't lost on me either. I'm bored with making backwards comparisons so I won't - but moving forward you'd have to say that we look now like the absolute real deal. There's a mental strength, a strength of character (where is Blusterin Bob Kowalski???), a determination to not just beat the opposition, but to fucking PLAY from minute 1 to the last minute. It's a sight to behold with the quality we have.

It made me laugh how even after getting up to 5 so early in the second half Nasri, Silva, Negredo, everyone just kept piling forward and creating chance after chance.

My instinct was to leave after the last goal, but I thought. "No. We'll score again here", and we almost did too.

6-0 up in the cup, key players substituted, weird line up, stoppage time, and we were still going for it.

 

[fbloke]

Haha i agree about 'long shot Edin'. That was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect performance. Dzeko does that too often. As soon as the other striker scores a goal, he starts shooting from anywhere. He needs to realise that both his goals came from great team play and were scored from inside the box, not from 35 yards out.

I'll counter that by saying a shooting Edin Dzeko is a confident Edin Dzeko, so I hope he keeps it up, he'll score a few and miss a few, but if he's happy and playing with a smile on his face then its only to our benefit, he certainly played with a smile last night.

Disagree. I think it's pretty disgraceful that in a team where every one of our attacking players is drilled in looking for the pass and taking it when it's on, Edin regularly hammers long shots into nowhere (much like Kolarov). Last night I counted eight I think with not a single one hitting the target and most of them being way off.

I realise it sounds like I'm being over harsh - but for me the easiest thing to do playing in our team is picking the right option because fellow attackers provide so many of them. For him to so regularly take the wrong one speaks to his continued need to try and prove something to someone when he should play like Negredo - ie. for the team.

Apologies for the Dzeko interlude.

If you get a chance to watch the game again keep an eye on Nasri's reaction to poor passes and a couple of his shots.

I think it's best summed up with "FFS".

And that comes from the appreciation within the team that they can and do play sublime football so there is no need to hit and hope.

 

[FantasyIreland]

There's a mental strength, a strength of character (where is Blusterin Bob Kowalski???)

It would be lovely to hear his take on the current situation,however,seen as he last posted on the 22nd......it seems he isn't too eager.

 

[Anonymous]

If you get a chance to watch the game again keep an eye on Nasri's reaction to poor passes and a couple of his shots.

I think it's best summed up with "FFS".

Saw it. The French tv coverage is always Nasri obsessive so you get to see his reaction to most things!

The one in the second half where Nasri had made the run off the centre half on the break, and Dzeko just hammered a long shot into row Z. Even the French commentators were groaning to the point where I thought they were going to break into a "boo". :)

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I'll counter that by saying a shooting Edin Dzeko is a confident Edin Dzeko, so I hope he keeps it up, he'll score a few and miss a few, but if he's happy and playing with a smile on his face then its only to our benefit, he certainly played with a smile last night.

Disagree. I think it's pretty disgraceful that in a team where every one of our attacking players is drilled in looking for the pass and taking it when it's on, Edin regularly hammers long shots into nowhere (much like Kolarov). Last night I counted eight I think with not a single one hitting the target and most of them being way off.

I realise it sounds like I'm being over harsh - but for me the easiest thing to do playing in our team is picking the right option because fellow attackers provide so many of them. For him to so regularly take the wrong one speaks to his continued need to try and prove something to someone when he should play like Negredo - ie. for the team.

Apologies for the Dzeko interlude.

If you get a chance to watch the game again keep an eye on Nasri's reaction to poor passes and a couple of his shots.

I think it's best summed up with "FFS".

I cannot believe Samir Nasri. He's shoved all of my criticism right up my arse this year. Last night he was involved in everything. He's become so direct all of a sudden, and he seems popular and detirmined. Everything I thought he wasn't.

I'm going to have to say it.

Well done Pellegrini.

 

[fbloke]

Disagree. I think it's pretty disgraceful that in a team where every one of our attacking players is drilled in looking for the pass and taking it when it's on, Edin regularly hammers long shots into nowhere (much like Kolarov). Last night I counted eight I think with not a single one hitting the target and most of them being way off.

I realise it sounds like I'm being over harsh - but for me the easiest thing to do playing in our team is picking the right option because fellow attackers provide so many of them. For him to so regularly take the wrong one speaks to his continued need to try and prove something to someone when he should play like Negredo - ie. for the team.

Apologies for the Dzeko interlude.

If you get a chance to watch the game again keep an eye on Nasri's reaction to poor passes and a couple of his shots.

I think it's best summed up with "FFS".

I cannot believe Samir Nasri. He's shoved all of my criticism right up my arse this year. Last night he was involved in everything. He's become so direct all of a sudden, and he seems popular and detirmined. Everything I thought he wasn't.

I'm going to have to say it.

Well done Pellegrini.

Remember under Mancini when Silva and NAsri simply didnt work? Seems like a life time ago that.

I got a bit of abuse when I said that Nasri might be more influential than Silva over the whole season.

Who'd have thunk that?

 

[Anonymous]

Well done Pellegrini.

Careful mate - if the thought police catch wind that this thread is about Pellegrini it'll get locked before you know it. ;)

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Not sure how much more Isco would be giving us in his first season that Nasri is currently delivering?

Nasri has become the player I thought we were buying in the first instance. It's great to see him playing with a smile on his face and he has a lovely arrogance about his play in possession.

He's come a long way from the two yard sideways.

Pellegrini has an interesting dilemma this present window.

He has shown he trusts the present squad, even if it's clear a couple of top class additions would surely push us over the top.

 

[TCIB]

Great post DD.

 

[fbloke]

Not sure how much more Isco would be giving us in his first season that Nasri is currently delivering?

Nasri has become the player I thought we were buying in the first instance. It's great to see him playing with a smile on his face and he has a lovely arrogance about his play in possession.

He's come a long way from the two yard sideways.

Pellegrini has an interesting dilemma this present window.

He has shown he trusts the present squad, even if it's clear a couple of top class additions would surely push us over the top.

I think its pretty fair to say that the buys made under Pellegrini have been great (Jovetic will turn out to be a top player for us) and now that he has had a chance to work with the squad I reckon we can trust his judgment for this Jan'

;-)

 

[Deleted member 58678]

Not sure how much more Isco would be giving us in his first season that Nasri is currently delivering?

Nasri has become the player I thought we were buying in the first instance. It's great to see him playing with a smile on his face and he has a lovely arrogance about his play in possession.

He's come a long way from the two yard sideways.

Pellegrini has an interesting dilemma this present window.

He has shown he trusts the present squad, even if it's clear a couple of top class additions would surely push us over the top.

It wouldn't be Nasri or Isco though, it's about options. Rather than it be Nasri and Silva and, err, mnobody else in the whole squad like them...it would be any combination of Silva Nasri and Isco, or even all three plus hopefully in the future a young lad we've produced ourselves through the Academy.

That is the biggest difference between us and the very top elite clubs. And there isn't a great deal else missing.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Not sure how much more Isco would be giving us in his first season that Nasri is currently delivering?

Nasri has become the player I thought we were buying in the first instance. It's great to see him playing with a smile on his face and he has a lovely arrogance about his play in possession.

He's come a long way from the two yard sideways.

Pellegrini has an interesting dilemma this present window.

He has shown he trusts the present squad, even if it's clear a couple of top class additions would surely push us over the top.

He's aware of the players that will improve us,i cant imagine he will be signing anyone unless they are on that list,i guess it boils down to when they will be available which,although money talks.......to a degree,takes things out of his hands.

 

[clarkie_ni]

IT looks to me like the evolution of this wonderful team of ours is being incubated directly on the training ground. You can see the progression in so many areas as the season progresses.

1) Corners - We are an enormous threat from corners. We are looking for the short one less, and putting it into the same front post area every time. There are big players are winning headers and the others make clever runs to the back post. Then, even if the header isn't "middled", we have lads arriving to convert at the far post. Ya Ya did this against United. Negredo at Blackburn, loads of others. Not hugely compilcated, but devastatingly effective this season.

2) Free kicks - Ya Ya has his technique perfect for those on the left side of the box, Kolorov from the right. Even Silva has taken one or two dangerous ones.

3) Penalties - I keep reading on the training reports how we practice penalties every session, and we have had three takers and havent come close to missing one yet.

4) High tempo passing - the bedrock of our game. Every single player looks to keep the ball moving and to bang it into feet. The continual movement which accompanies this is what keeps posession and leads to chances.

5) Off the ball movement and running - Look how many times our forwards make clever, diverting runs when we drive down on goal. Again, simple stuff but we are doing it really effectively

6) Breaking down stubborn teams - Last night was the culmination of a progressive improvement in our ability to break down defensive teams. What we do is play our little triangle passes a little deeper, draw a player or two out, then ruthlessly exploit the space that has created. And we vary things all the time - occasional ball from deep, occasional overlap, etc. This drags the opposition all over.

7) Using the width of the park - Our fullbacks and Navas and to a lesser degree Milner are adept at overlapping and running at the full back. This is creating us a lot of corners, from which we are a threat, and a lot of goals as well

8) Effective defending. Whilst we stuttered at the beginning of the season, we have learnt to play the high line when necessary. We don't look vulnerable to corners/setpieces either, and the individual errors which blighted the early games have all been ironed out. Whilst we will always conceed goals due to our killer instinct, last night again was another rock solid display from the back line.

All of this progression is clearly down to technical training ground work and you have got to give enormous respect to the manager and his coaching staff for this. It's been a joy to see this evolve over the course of the last few months, and a joy to see how our player are responding to this.

number 6 is the one which i still feel is the acheilles heel as such, especailly away from home.
palace is a great example, they were fearing an drubbing and were impressive in there 11 men behind the ball tactic for the final third of the game.
but even away from home i sense teams defend for their lives coming into the last third.
if we can solve this small niggle, we will piss the league easy, get to semi even in the CL and the cups should be ok :-)

 

[dancity19]

Not sure how much more Isco would be giving us in his first season that Nasri is currently delivering?

Nasri has become the player I thought we were buying in the first instance. It's great to see him playing with a smile on his face and he has a lovely arrogance about his play in possession.

He's come a long way from the two yard sideways.

Pellegrini has an interesting dilemma this present window.

He has shown he trusts the present squad, even if it's clear a couple of top class additions would surely push us over the top.

I think its pretty fair to say that the buys made under Pellegrini have been great (Jovetic will turn out to be a top player for us) and now that he has had a chance to work with the squad I reckon we can trust his judgment for this Jan'

;-)

It also highlights how well a good relationship between Manager and DoF can work. Pellegrini of course has a large say in which players he needs, but the importance of having someone of Txiki's ability to then push this through cannot be underestimated.
It is folly to suggest this can't work in England, as so many do.
For those two to share that responsibility not only allows the very best players to be identified, but also allows Pellegrini so much time to then get the very best out of these players.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Not sure how much more Isco would be giving us in his first season that Nasri is currently delivering?

Nasri has become the player I thought we were buying in the first instance. It's great to see him playing with a smile on his face and he has a lovely arrogance about his play in possession.

He's come a long way from the two yard sideways.

Pellegrini has an interesting dilemma this present window.

He has shown he trusts the present squad, even if it's clear a couple of top class additions would surely push us over the top.

He's aware of the players that will improve us,i cant imagine he will be signing anyone unless they are on that list,i guess it boils down to when they will be available which,although money talks.......to a degree,takes things out of his hands.

He was hinting in a post-match interview last night that things could happen.

But I'm assuming it will only be upgrades to top drawer players.

I've a feeling we might upgrade Lescott, but I'm relaxed about it. I've never been in the "squad isn't good enough" camp. As they gel and understand the system better the deficiencies become less important.<br /><br />-- Thu Jan 09, 2014 1:44 pm --<br /><br />

number 6 is the one which i still feel is the acheilles heel as such, especailly away from home.
palace is a great example, they were fearing an drubbing and were impressive in there 11 men behind the ball tactic for the final third of the game.
but even away from home i sense teams defend for their lives coming into the last third.
if we can solve this small niggle, we will piss the league easy, get to semi even in the CL and the cups should be ok :-)

Palace did a good job but it was a hugely weakened team and we'd only played two days earlier. Sunderland is the other game where were couldn't break them down.

But I think games like last night prove that we have all the tools to break these teams down: setpieces, movement, width, variety.

 

[Gabriel]

When we play, you can see the sense in allowing the team to train on the pitch the day before the game. You can see how we drag opposition midfielders to a particular point on the pitch, and then Silva or Nasri drift into the vacated space and we suddenly attack their exposed defence in numbers. It feels as if the players can mentally measure the distances and are just waiting for the opponent midfield to advance to a particular landmark in the ground and then, well, tally ho! Happened two or three times in the first half last night.

 

[fbloke]

Not sure how much more Isco would be giving us in his first season that Nasri is currently delivering?

Nasri has become the player I thought we were buying in the first instance. It's great to see him playing with a smile on his face and he has a lovely arrogance about his play in possession.

He's come a long way from the two yard sideways.

Pellegrini has an interesting dilemma this present window.

He has shown he trusts the present squad, even if it's clear a couple of top class additions would surely push us over the top.

He's aware of the players that will improve us,i cant imagine he will be signing anyone unless they are on that list,i guess it boils down to when they will be available which,although money talks.......to a degree,takes things out of his hands.

He was hinting in a post-match interview last night that things could happen.

But I'm assuming it will only be upgrades to top drawer players.

I've a feeling we might upgrade Lescott, but I'm relaxed about it. I've never been in the "squad isn't good enough" camp. As they gel and understand the system better the deficiencies become less important.

-- Thu Jan 09, 2014 1:44 pm --

number 6 is the one which i still feel is the acheilles heel as such, especailly away from home.
palace is a great example, they were fearing an drubbing and were impressive in there 11 men behind the ball tactic for the final third of the game.
but even away from home i sense teams defend for their lives coming into the last third.
if we can solve this small niggle, we will piss the league easy, get to semi even in the CL and the cups should be ok :-)

Palace did a good job but it was a hugely weakened team and we'd only played two days earlier. Sunderland is the other game where were couldn't break them down.

But I think games like last night prove that we have all the tools to break these teams down: setpieces, movement, width, variety.

The games we struggled in would have ideally had a fully fit and in form Jovetic to subtly change the focus.

 

[OB1]

I know what you mean. He gets a desperation about him at times . But I thought he had a good game last night overall. He does strike it well when he's confident, and he took his goals well. His touch was good last night, and that's been missing for much of the season

I thought he did well overall last night. Think he worked hard and didn't let his porno touch bother him too much. He played the pass to Negredo which was very big of him. But I felt like once Alvaro had scored two, Edin just shifted into "hit and hope" territory to try and catch up.

As someone else said, he scored two cracking goals from team play. He should stick to that and forget about the hollywood goals from outside the area.

He actually played two great through balls to Negredo last night but only one was converted.

I was very critical of Dzeko at Blackburn but he had a much better game last night. He did have one glaring miss in the first half and he definitely tried too many long shots but when he makes one, scores two and we hammer in six, I can forgive him.

 

[Blue Theatre]

I think the point about us scoring from corners is a good one.

In previous seasons we were arguably the worst in the Premier League for scoring from corners - we could get 15 in a single game and still nothing from it. But now we are suddenly looking dangerous from them.

Same could be said for crosses / headers - we must have scored more headed goals under Pellegrini already than in all the time under Mancini ?

And as for Yaya's free-kicks ... last couple of seasons he was awful at them (row Z every time) but now he can hardly miss (last night an exception but even that was closer than he ever used to manage).

How much of all this is down to the training ground, I don't know ... but it just feels like lots of things are coming right at the same time, this season ?

 

[OB1]

I'm getting mighty mighty mighty sick of the comments from various corners about how "poor" West Ham were. Make no mistakes, we would've played every team in the PL off the park playing as we did last night. How poor they were simply didn't even come into the equation, we were that good.

Said the same several pages ago, I'm fed up hearing that club x were awful, its not how poor the other team are, its how poor we're making them look.

West Ham started confident last night, and (unlike a normal allardyce team) tried to come at us, we allowed them for a short time, sucking them in, and then ironically hit them with the sort of route 1 goal that allardyce himself would have been very proud of, and from that moment on they never got a look in, at half time as they trudged off you could see they were a bit shell shocked We then scored 2 more in the first 15 minutes of the second half and completely demoralised them. It wasn't just our pass and move football but the quality of the goals scored as well. As performances go it was pretty well perfect, we may match it again, but I'll be surprised if we can play better as a team, and when you look who we were missing last night, that says an awful lot.

Exactly mate. It was the perfect performance. And we managed to rest Fernandinho who must need it more than anyone. Nastasic is fresh, Silva and Yaya have not been overplayed, Hart's back, and best of all...Sergio to come.

If we are full strength anything could happen against Barca. They won't live with passing and movement like that.

Have we actually fielded our best team yet this season? The answer to that depends in part on what you think our best team is; although I think the only positions in the best 11 that are debatable are the left side of the defence.