You could see Mourinho's eyes light up

[markbmcfc]

I'll have to watch it again to double check my initial thoughts. I was too busy trying to hide most of the time. From what I remember, Kolarov was very deep to be playing in midfield, Silva wasn't deep enough to be playing right midfield, and Maicon wasn't deep enough to be playing right back. Clichy looked far more central than he did minutes earlier when Nasri was on the pitch. I need to watch it again, I could be wrong.

I saw Zabba signalling, but that can be taken two ways. As an instruction, or others asking him if they were going back to four at the back and he corrected them. There is no real way of us knowing that.

Don't worry mate, I saw it the same as you.

When AK replaced Nasri we went to 5 at the back as Clichy definitely tucked in.

We didn't, Rammy. It looked like we would but we didn't. Kolorov went to left midfield. Watch it again.

I'm not being facetious, but would you mind jotting down the players in the formation you feel we played when AK came on.

It just isn't adding up, or we spent the 36th-75th minute totally unbalanced.

 

[Sky Blue]

Zabaleta was all over the place when he came on. His 20
Minute cameo was poor.

Clichy and kolorov did well on the other side.

The worst I've ever seen off him....discipline went completely out of the window. He was virtually a centre forward at times. No way can you blame Mancini for that.

 

[LongsightM13]

I've already watched it again mate, Clichy definitely tucks in the minute AK came on the pitch.

The Zab signal was just to continue the 3-5-2.

Cox is normally spot on with his analysis and he saw the switch as being Kola going to left midfield with Silva basically moving inside and nobody on the right at the beginning of the second half.

Speaks volumes that there's so much confusion about who played where and what our formation was.

No he isn't. As evidenced by his embarrassing but thankfully brief spell posting on here.

 

[Anonymous]

I've already watched it again mate, Clichy definitely tucks in the minute AK came on the pitch.

The Zab signal was just to continue the 3-5-2.

Cox is normally spot on with his analysis and he saw the switch as being Kola going to left midfield with Silva basically moving inside and nobody on the right at the beginning of the second half.

Speaks volumes that there's so much confusion about who played where and what our formation was.

No he isn't. As evidenced by his embarrassing but thankfully brief spell posting on here.

Michael Cox from Zonal Marking posting on this forum is news to me. He's pretty well respected in footballing journalistic communities and I don't recall ever reading his report of a game and thinking he was hugely wrong about anything. Very baffled by your post tbh.

 

[brian the blue]

I thought we went 5-2-1-2 when Dzeko came on for Silva?

It looked like he wanted the wing backs to get balls in to Dzeko and have Yaya in the hole, looking like this:

----------Dzeko--------Tevez----------

-----------------Yaya------------------

----------Barry--------Garcia----------

Kolarov-------------------------Maicon
------Clichy---Nastasic--Kompany------

But then that's just me and to be honest once we went 1 up I spent the rest of the game bricking it about conceding rather than focusing on our shape or whatever.

Either way, i'd much rather us "sure up" by bringing on "defensive" wingers rather than go to 5 at the back.

Something like:

Kolarov---Barry--Garcia---Milner

Clichy--Nastasic-Kompany-Maicon

If we're sitting deep and trying to hold on then it's inevitable teams will try to go round us as we'll have the middle of the pitch nicely congested. Last night we let players cut inside all to easily and then had no one there to cover when they came in (Marcelo and Ronaldo goals) because we weren't doubling up on their wingers.

 

[LongsightM13]

Cox is normally spot on with his analysis and he saw the switch as being Kola going to left midfield with Silva basically moving inside and nobody on the right at the beginning of the second half.

Speaks volumes that there's so much confusion about who played where and what our formation was.

No he isn't. As evidenced by his embarrassing but thankfully brief spell posting on here.

Michael Cox from Zonal Marking posting on this forum is news to me. He's pretty well respected in footballing journalistic communities and I don't recall ever reading his report of a game and thinking he was hugely wrong about anything. Very baffled by your post tbh.

He posted on here for quite a while. He is just another one of of a myriad of online bedroom 'tactics experts', whose judgements are no more valid or backed by qualifications, achievements or experience than anyone else's. Everything is taken from TV and we all know how the bigger picture can be missed when the camera is following the ball.

 

[Anonymous]

He posted on here for quite a while. He is just another one of of a myriad of online bedroom 'tactics experts', whose judgements are no more valid or backed by qualifications, achievements or experience than anyone else's. Everything is taken from TV and we all know how the bigger picture can be missed when the camera is following the ball.

I think his website is excellent as are most of his analysis as I said just before. As for him posting on here, what was his username. Shouldn't be hard to get tot he bottom whether it was him or not...

 

[trotsky]

I thought a lot of the problems Real caused us were far more basic than the elaborate formations being discussed.
When playing against a predominantly right footed player on the left, the player acting as right back allowed him to cut inside instead of showing him the line. Maicon and Zabba both guilty :-(
Lessons learned I hope

 

[taconinja]

I've already watched it again mate, Clichy definitely tucks in the minute AK came on the pitch.

The Zab signal was just to continue the 3-5-2.

Cox is normally spot on with his analysis and he saw the switch as being Kola going to left midfield with Silva basically moving inside and nobody on the right at the beginning of the second half.

Speaks volumes that there's so much confusion about who played where and what our formation was.

I asked him last night and I'm of the opinion that he shares which is we were in a hybrid formation with a wingback on the left and a straight fullback on the right... which is a bit perplexing as to why precisely we did that to be honest.

 

[jay_mcfc]

What the fuck has formation got to do with anything? We were 2-1 up with 3 mins to go and thereafter we sat deep to try to protect what we had, thus cancelling out whatever the formation was at the time. Ultimately we weren't able to see the game out through some pretty lacklustre defending. Shame really because we deserved a point.<br /><br />-- Wed Sep 19, 2012 3:09 pm --<br /><br />What the fuck has formation got to do with anything? We were 2-1 up with 3 mins to go and thereafter we sat deep to try to protect what we had, thus cancelling out whatever the formation was at the time. Ultimately we weren't able to see the game out through some pretty lacklustre defending. Shame really because we deserved a point.