repman

I thought Sorensen signed to be the more defensive midfielder, with the plan for him and Skipp to battle it out there. But he got an injury at the start of the year I believe, and then had the prolonged spell at left back. However I think people who were advocating for him alongside Skipp were also probably saying that Kenny could play further forward instead of Vrancic.

Cantwell 2 seasons ago?

Sorensen moved into that position when we were looking for a goal against Sheff Wed I believe, and looked incredibly comfortable doing so. However in regards to receiving the ball at left back, I always though he looked fine receiving it, it was more the fact that struggled to play with his body facing forward, which is understandable given he is right footed and something most full backs on the wrong side struggle with. Its just a body shape thing though, nothing to worry about (for the same reason that Hanley will always go to the left of the 2 CB's when Zimmermann plays)

The fact is that he passes the ball into the final third roughly 7 times per 90 mins played.

Yes I agree. There is an edge to be gained from set pieces but we don't seem to be trying to exploit it, the only variation on an attacking corner I can remember was Hanley against Coventry recently, which was well worked and should have resulted in a goal. Also were he still in the side, I think Placheta would be on corners (certainly inswingers from his left), his delivery has looked superb whenever he has taken them.

Funnily enough I think Emi's set piece delivery on wide free kicks is often superb, however his corners do seem to be lacking. I do think its likely he is told to whip the ball near post, due to us not being the most dominant side in the air, and a header on the near post is probably the easiest chance to score from a corner.

One thing that I think has been ignored so far is that Farke did end up using 3 subs, as many as he could unless he brought on more than one player at once. He used all these subs after the board for added time had gone up (I think, if not it was certainly close to it), this is something he has done a few times before and it seems to work in breaking up the game. If he had used the subs earlier, and ran out by that time then we would have had 4 or 5 minutes of constant pressure, unless the ball went out for a goal kick or Krul claimed it. This way he is giving his players a breather in the very last minutes, as well as neutering any possible opposition momentum.

I don't think it was a foul on Krul, but the Rotherham player clearly grabbed his arm, and as soon as you do something like that you make it easy for the ref to give a foul.

Although we were poor second half, it never really felt to me that they would score at any point. The only hope they had was winning something from a high ball into the box, and we don't have anyone on the bench who could have done much better than what we had on already.

My feeling with why the team struggles without Emi is that he is the biggest risk taker in the side, whereas the rest of our creative players tend to be a little safer and go for the easier option (this includes giving it to Emi when he is playing). However, Todd is young and can improve plenty, and he took quite the risk last night chopping the ball past the man on the edge of the box, but the reward was clear as we went flying up the pitch on an attack.

For me, Skipp is very good at defending a big space, which is vital for us as when your full backs play as high as ours do it can be easy to counter attack. Tettey no longer has the legs, and Trybull didn't have much athleticism about him either. You can see what the club were trying to do in bringing in Amadou for that role but circumstances led to him at centre back initially.

Of course it would be fair to say that him being so high up for that is impressive, and having someone who is more capable of dribbling with the ball when a side is sitting in blocking any passes through to attacking players. Also it won't be lost on Webber and the recruitment team that Rupp and Mclean are both 30 and 29 respectively.

Considering Skipp plays the slightly more defensive role in our midfield 2, with Kenny/Rupp often breaking forward a lot, I would say he does a pretty fine job. In our side he is tasked with recycling possession for the most part, as well as cleaning up and making tackles defensively. However looking at this image, it appears that Skipp does pass the ball forward with regularity, as well as carrying it too. Maybe he could add more goals and assists, but considering he is often starting from very deep, that wouldn't be too easy.

Signing Toney should have been a no brainer for any championship side who could afford to do so, in fact I'm surprised that a lot of prem clubs didn't take a punt on him as now they will be paying 3x what they would have done before he joined Brentford. As for us, as good as it would have been to sign him, it surely would have required letting Pukki go, as it would not have been easy to convince Toney that he would be 1st choice if he was still around. If you combine that, with the £10m fee and decent wages its not a surprise why we didn't go for it.

Weren't Fulham interested in taking him? Anyhow is there any proof that a year in the Prem where he might not play every game is any better than a year in the Championship? Look at how a full season for Derby benefitted Mount and Tomori. The other obvious point is that he is 20 years old, and footballers improve as they play games, Skipp had been training with the Spurs first team for the best part of 2 seasons, but his development was held back due to the fact he wasn't playing games (didn't play at youth level either).