The Summer 2020 Transfer Window Now Closed: Zungu signs on loan with option to buy

[JFK-1 1,671]

Barisic crosses may become even more productive when he has Itten in there lurking. I expect to see more than one ball fly off the head of Itten and into the net from a Barsic cross.

[JFK-1 1,671]

 

[craig 5,195]

16 hours ago, der Berliner said:

Where they more often than not play don't change their status, but you know that. We could easily play with a right winger in games like today and have more fun than Tav's medicore shooting and crossing. Only the heavens know how many assists and goals a mediocre winger would have given us. 

You can call them defenders all you like but if they are playing on the opposition 18 yard line they most certainly are NOT defending.

 

Saying “we have 4 defenders and 2DM’s” makes it sound Uber defensive when the REALITY is far from it when the full backs are playing very, very high.  But you should know that.

 

and you should know better than to simply say “we could have played a winger and had more success”.  Playing an out and out winger would have seen them get virtually zero space as St Mirren played so deep.  Instead what we did, and it worked, was used a narrow front 3 where there was tons of fluidity.

[der Berliner 3,240]

50 minutes ago, craig said:

You can call them defenders all you like but if they are playing on the opposition 18 yard line they most certainly are NOT defending.

 

Saying “we have 4 defenders and 2DM’s” makes it sound Uber defensive when the REALITY is far from it when the full backs are playing very, very high.  But you should know that.

 

and you should know better than to simply say “we could have played a winger and had more success”.  Playing an out and out winger would have seen them get virtually zero space as St Mirren played so deep.  Instead what we did, and it worked, was used a narrow front 3 where there was tons of fluidity.

What we see ... and have seen throughout these last few months with a 4-2-3-1 is that we have 2 fullbacks who play more or less in a winger slot, one with good defending and crossing ability, and one who comes up with the odd assist ever other game that papers up the fact that he is no winger and an - by his own standards - average defender. We do play 2 DMs now, more or less to destroy any threats against our CHs, as well as covering the area vacated by our fullbacks. The latter does hamper their ability to go forward, yet if they do, you clearly see that they are both exactly excelling at the productive end. Every now and then Jack an Kamara try a shot, but you can count those by one hand. Of course, it is not their job. 

 

THUS, in games like yesterday, when the opposition hardly threatens, why do we need both for so long? Or at all? IF our fullbacks essentially play winger, why not use a winger instead? At least in Tav's case? Because of his odd assists here and there? As I said, a decent modern day winger will provide more assists and even goals, as well as tracking back if need be. And BTW, both Stewart and Jones did the latter, as did Candeias. Yet, we persist with two fullbacks attempting t be wingers, which one does, and 2 DMs who usually do a job one could do as well.

 

Against St. Mirren, we simply could have gone 3 at the back, freeing one fullback slot and 1 DM who does what DMs do, freeing a midfield slot. Send Barasic as a left winger if need be, so he can drop back as a defender in times of need, but use the right fullback slot for a "modern winger" (if Tav poses as a "modern fullback"). That would leave us with a "modern" 3 at the back, 1 DM and 4 other midfielders and 2 strikers. At home, against St Mirren et al. As it stands, we have essentially 3 guys on the park in such games who contribute rather little to the offensive or whose slots can be used for players who can do more.

 

+++

 

Back on the topical end, some chap in Nigeria says that Lille are seemingly looking at Umar Sadiq instead of Alfredo now, though that should be taken  with a spoon of salt.

[Malangsob 1,196]

18 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

Barisic crosses may become even more productive when he has Itten in there lurking. I expect to see more than one ball fly off the head of Itten and into the net from a Barsic cross.

I'm tellin you man this Swiss dude is exactly what the doctor ordered. When these tin pot clubs form their ten man Maginot Lines it will be death from above...header city.

I firmly believe he will be the difference in turning a lot of draws, into wins.

 

[stewarty 1,876]

1 hour ago, craig said:

You can call them defenders all you like but if they are playing on the opposition 18 yard line they most certainly are NOT defending.

 

Saying “we have 4 defenders and 2DM’s” makes it sound Uber defensive when the REALITY is far from it when the full backs are playing very, very high.  But you should know that.

 

and you should know better than to simply say “we could have played a winger and had more success”.  Playing an out and out winger would have seen them get virtually zero space as St Mirren played so deep.  Instead what we did, and it worked, was used a narrow front 3 where there was tons of fluidity.

I saw a heat map of touches on the ball from yesterday's game and it showed that Barisic was high and wide, but Tav was the opposite and most of his touches were in his half, with some pushing forward.

For me it shows we are playing to their natural abilities - Borna whips in a better ball for the most part, whereas Tav is better in transition.  Also, the opposites thing is for me just about balancing the team and not having both full backs playing high and wide, thus exposing the back line.  However thats one of the reasons I suspect we often play with a double pivot in the 4-2-1-3 type formation.  

[craig 5,195]

1 hour ago, stewarty said:

I saw a heat map of touches on the ball from yesterday's game and it showed that Barisic was high and wide, but Tav was the opposite and most of his touches were in his half, with some pushing forward.

For me it shows we are playing to their natural abilities - Borna whips in a better ball for the most part, whereas Tav is better in transition.  Also, the opposites thing is for me just about balancing the team and not having both full backs playing high and wide, thus exposing the back line.  However thats one of the reasons I suspect we often play with a double pivot in the 4-2-1-3 type formation.  

Indeed.  My point wasn’t so much that they BOTH get high at the same time (although yesterday they did with Borna’s cross being challenged at the back post by Tav which resulted in a. Corner and our 2nd or 3rd goal).

 

But if one of them is generally consistently playing higher up the pitch - Barišić was higher up the pitch against Aberdeen than the midfield 3 and the same applied for large swathes of the match yesterday..... then IMHO you cannot legitimately claim we are playing with 4 defenders and 2 DM’s.

 

in name they may be as those are their “natural” positions but Borna in particular has been more a left winger than a left back domestically this season.  That’s NOT a back 4.

 

and completely agree regarding having the 2 DM’s.... they, or at least one of them, pivots and drops allowing either Tav or Borna to bomb on.  Again this makes sense to me because Barišić can be lethal with his crossing.

Also agree we seem to be learning in that Tav gets forward but is better through the defensive to offensive transition... so let Borna be the constant attacking danger and Tav does it when the ball is in transition.

 

i think it’s very smart of the management team.

 

[stewarty 1,876]

6 minutes ago, craig said:

Indeed.  My point wasn’t so much that they BOTH get high at the same time (although yesterday they did with Borna’s cross being challenged at the back post by Tav which resulted in a. Corner and our 2nd or 3rd goal).

 

But if one of them is generally consistently playing higher up the pitch - Barišić was higher up the pitch against Aberdeen than the midfield 3 and the same applied for large swathes of the match yesterday..... then IMHO you cannot legitimately claim we are playing with 4 defenders and 2 DM’s.

 

in name they may be as those are their “natural” positions but Borna in particular has been more a left winger than a left back domestically this season.  That’s NOT a back 4.

 

and completely agree regarding having the 2 DM’s.... they, or at least one of them, pivots and drops allowing either Tav or Borna to bomb on.  Again this makes sense to me because Barišić can be lethal with his crossing.

Also agree we seem to be learning in that Tav gets forward but is better through the defensive to offensive transition... so let Borna be the constant attacking danger and Tav does it when the ball is in transition.

 

i think it’s very smart of the management team.

 

Agreed.  Its an evolution of our style.  A throw back to Walter's days where if one FB gets ahead of the ball, the other sits and looks to cover if one of the centre backs gets dragged wide.

 

 

[Frankie 8,148]

Just updating our first team squad page on our main site earlier and strikes me how short we are now in terms of midfielders. Perm three from Jack, Kamara, Aribo, Davis & Arfield with backup from Docherty, McCrorie and Barjonas. At least one more now has to be a priority.

 

Some suggestions from a Motherwell supporting chum that Allan Campbell may form part of a deal for Greg Docherty which I like the general idea of but I'd fancy he wouldn't be the first XI quality player that Gerrard will have his eye on. Future of Morelos again perhaps a factor.

[craig 5,195]

52 minutes ago, Frankie said:

Just updating our first team squad page on our main site earlier and strikes me how short we are now in terms of midfielders. Perm three from Jack, Kamara, Aribo, Davis & Arfield with backup from Docherty, McCrorie and Barjonas. At least one more now has to be a priority.

 

Some suggestions from a Motherwell supporting chum that Allan Campbell may form part of a deal for Greg Docherty which I like the general idea of but I'd fancy he wouldn't be the first XI quality player that Gerrard will have his eye on. Future of Morelos again perhaps a factor.

Gerrard said in his presser earlier that there are some teams in England interested in Docherty.