flb said:Rascal said:One little snippet of play last night particularly fascinated me and its obviously worked on. Our full backs were high up the pitch yet both Vinny and Joleon took full back position and javi and yaya dropped into almost centre half. Therefor creating space for nasri and silva to come central. It was casually done but showed to me how fluid we are becoming.
I like it lots
Good article, explains his 4222 system
When we slap someone away 4 or 5 nil I will be fully converted to all things Pellegrini ! I had my doubts early on wether he could implement his system especially defensively so 10 out of 10 to him.
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Rascal said:One little snippet of play last night particularly fascinated me and its obviously worked on. Our full backs were high up the pitch yet both Vinny and Joleon took full back position and javi and yaya dropped into almost centre half. Therefor creating space for nasri and silva to come central. It was casually done but showed to me how fluid we are becoming.
I like it lots
Totally agree, I don't understand the obsession with clean sheets, I really don't. If we let one or two in, and score 4, 5, or 6, who the f**k cares, I don't, it just makes for great entertainment.SWP's back said:You don't average 4 at home every game and expect a clean sheet every game.JoeMercer'sWay said:I wouldn't call West Ham stubborn or defensive, just shit.
Good OP otherwise, not quite there yet defensively as shown by our lack of clean sheets but hopefully that will continue to improve in general feel over the season. The rest you're pretty spot on with.
The highline exposes the defence but in doing so, squeezes the opposition into their half and allows our midfield and forwards to pressure the ball and win back possession. It's a risk strategy but has big rewards. Look at the GD column rather than goals against and judge against the other sides in the league if it is working.
remember arthur mann said:Rascal said:One little snippet of play last night particularly fascinated me and its obviously worked on. Our full backs were high up the pitch yet both Vinny and Joleon took full back position and javi and yaya dropped into almost centre half. Therefor creating space for nasri and silva to come central. It was casually done but showed to me how fluid we are becoming.
I like it lots
Watch the `City today' a couple of weeks back, interviewing the kids from the junior squad, asked about tactics, they replied "When the wingbacks push up, the centre halfs move out to fullbacks position, the midfield then drops back to the central position". From junior to senior squad the teams are now all singing from the same hymn sheet, "now that's a first". BRILLIANT!
Project said:The pressing has improved immeasurably too. Forced west ham into giving the ball up in dangerous areas on so many occasions
remember arthur mann said:Rascal said:One little snippet of play last night particularly fascinated me and its obviously worked on. Our full backs were high up the pitch yet both Vinny and Joleon took full back position and javi and yaya dropped into almost centre half. Therefor creating space for nasri and silva to come central. It was casually done but showed to me how fluid we are becoming.
I like it lots
Watch the `City today' a couple of weeks back, interviewing the kids from the junior squad, asked about tactics, they replied "When the wingbacks push up, the centre halfs move out to fullbacks position, the midfield then drops back to the central position". From junior to senior squad the teams are now all singing from the same hymn sheet, "now that's a first". BRILLIANT!
Vinnie just gave a good interview on talk sport and was asked abt the goals concededcleavers said:Totally agree, I don't understand the obsession with clean sheets, I really don't. If we let one or two in, and score 4, 5, or 6, who the f**k cares, I don't, it just makes for great entertainment.SWP's back said:You don't average 4 at home every game and expect a clean sheet every game.JoeMercer'sWay said:I wouldn't call West Ham stubborn or defensive, just shit.
Good OP otherwise, not quite there yet defensively as shown by our lack of clean sheets but hopefully that will continue to improve in general feel over the season. The rest you're pretty spot on with.
The highline exposes the defence but in doing so, squeezes the opposition into their half and allows our midfield and forwards to pressure the ball and win back possession. It's a risk strategy but has big rewards. Look at the GD column rather than goals against and judge against the other sides in the league if it is working.
Our record of results is as follows, reading backwards.....
WDWWWWWWWDWWWW LWWWLWWWLLWWWDWLW
14 without a loss, after 5 losses in 17.
BillyShears said:OB1 said:However, I saw plenty of their early season games and I do think that we have a good chance of beating them over two legs but we should not for one moment under estimate them; especially with Messi back.
It's not about underestimating them for me. If anything I've always been a little in awe of the current generation of Barcelona players and their team. I just think that right now they're coming to the end of a cycle whereas we're beginning one. Yes Messi will be dangerous. But frankly, if you look at the makeshift nature of Barca's back 4 ... they should be absolutely shitting themselves at the prospect of our attacking players running at them.
On your post above ... for me our best CB pairing is MD and VK. Harsh on nasty and lescott I know but the fact MD slotted into midfield last night is exactly why he should be picked ahead of the other two. He's a footballer with a footballer's brain.
I take everyones points about Edin. I've definitely got a downer on him at present - although last night improved that to some degree even if his potshots from range did bother me.
BTW ... not sure if anyone else caught but for Edin's last goal ... he goes running to Kola to celebrates and on the French coverage you clearly saw him say "I thought you were going to shoot". Made me laugh.
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:I don't know if it's been mentioned before but I liked the way Demichielis came on and stepped into midfield. He's quicker than Garcia and very comfortable with the ball at his feet. Could be another option to throw on next to Fernandinho and push Yaya further up if we need to press for a win or close up and be solid to see out a game. So are we going for this city being better than that of autumn 2011 then?
Didsbury Dave said:feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:I don't know if it's been mentioned before but I liked the way Demichielis came on and stepped into midfield. He's quicker than Garcia and very comfortable with the ball at his feet. Could be another option to throw on next to Fernandinho and push Yaya further up if we need to press for a win or close up and be solid to see out a game. So are we going for this city being better than that of autumn 2011 then?
The football was great for a while in the Autumn of 2011 but proved to be one-dimensional and injury-dependant.
This team has more strings to its bow, is more dynamic and is developing the ability to play the same way regardless of personnel. And unlike the 2011 team, it's delivering the goods on the European stage too.
Infirmus Cygnus said:The play I saw on Weds was breathtaking at times. Fast, crisp, well timed and executed. Like Arsenal in the Henry era. It helped that West Ham gave us the space to play like we did of course. Other sides will squash it and deny us the time on the ball.
It's a totally different set up to this time last year. Flat and uninspired at times.
We aren't missing Aguero at the moment, but I was a bit worried when Yaya looked like he was off. That said we have so many attacking options to vary our playing plans, we are blessed. I predict we will see even more progress over the season as Pellers shapes the play, and there's an almost instinctive feel to the performances.
alky313 said:The passing between Silva-Yaya-Nasri has been exquisite.anyone else noticed that Negredo drops way off for much of the match vs WestHam? I noticed this several times:
--------------------Hart-----------------
-----Kompany------------Lescott--Clichy
-----------------------Garcia-------------------
---------------Nasri----------Yaya------------
Zabaleta---------------Silva----------Negredo
-----------------Dzeko--------------------------
We press so well. Winning the ball back in such dangerous areas.
Didsbury Dave said:Project said:The pressing has improved immeasurably too. Forced west ham into giving the ball up in dangerous areas on so many occasions
When I did the original post I meant to put 'pressing" on there but forgot. We press cleverly, rather than relentlessly. If there's an opposition player on the ball In his own half who's a bit isolated, we are all over him like a rash and that's created us some goals this year too. The second half against Liverpool is a good example, although we didn't convert any that day.
blueinsa said:Didsbury Dave said: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.
*doffs cap at such a magnificent post*
Yep clearly worked on the training ground. I much preferred it when we lumped it into the box hopefully (last 30 odd years), and found ourselves defending 30 seconds later ;o) At least you knew what was happening.....Millwallawayveteran1988 said:A couple of new plays at corners and a free kick today too. Good to see us working on these.
Negredo was close with one and Silva with the other both from clearly practised set plays.