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Could be a Coincidence...

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[quote user="lowlyfendweller"]Wisdom is a good horses for courses option for when we need to tighten up it seems. Maybe a case for Whitaker if we look to be more expansive. At the moment Wisdom for me, but I cannot venture who is the overall better player.[/quote]

 

I kind of think all three options are good depending on how we play. I remember back in the day where we''d only have oned good option.

 

Alex Neil got us up through fearless full back play. We''d see both full regularly running with the ball in the opposition penalty area. With often the other fullback getting up to support the attack. In many of the early games this season he had the same tactic. I loved it but Newcastle was the real wake up call. I''d be interested in how many touches our fullbacks had in Swansea''s penalty area yesterday. And how many times they got into the opposition box to support the attacks.

 

If there is a downside to yesterday then it is that we became so defensive against beatable opposition. As Miggo will know Hootun would have been on the end of so much stick by half-time. But it isn''t the rigid Hoots and we can take hope from the fact that we are averaging a point a game whilst the manager and players are learning to play many different ways. This can stand us in good stead for the second half of the season. Other teams won''t "find us out" as easily as the did Hoots and even Lambert in that second 19 games.

 

 

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My beef with Whittaker (and to an extent Martin in the same position) is that the percentage of time he stops the player or ball getting past him is minimal. More so when the winger has a bit of pace and trickery about him. So many times this season I''ve been frustrated by how easily players have gone past him like he wasn''t there. The alternative for him seems to be to stand off of the player a bit more but then he''s not close enough to stop the cross or shot (see either the 5th or 6th goal for Newcastle).

Wisdom seemed solid in that position yesterday and Bass/Bennett looked a lot more secure than any partnership involving Russell Martin has this season. I know a more defensive set up helped but i dont recall any individual mistakes which you seem to regularly get with Martin.

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[quote user="BarclayWazza"]My beef with Whittaker (and to an extent Martin in the same position) is that the percentage of time he stops the player or ball getting past him is minimal. More so when the winger has a bit of pace and trickery about him. So many times this season I''ve been frustrated by how easily players have gone past him like he wasn''t there. The alternative for him seems to be to stand off of the player a bit more but then he''s not close enough to stop the cross or shot (see either the 5th or 6th goal for Newcastle).

Wisdom seemed solid in that position yesterday and Bass/Bennett looked a lot more secure than any partnership involving Russell Martin has this season. I know a more defensive set up helped but i dont recall any individual mistakes which you seem to regularly get with Martin.[/quote]But thats the point NN is making above, there will always be compromise. None of the three players are world class, or good enough to always cover Redmond''s lack of tracking back.If you want attacking full backs then you have to be prepared for them getting caught out on occasion. Yes Saturday was solid, required and effective, but my God it was dull.

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[quote user="morty"][quote user="BarclayWazza"]My beef with Whittaker (and to an extent Martin in the same position) is that the percentage of time he stops the player or ball getting past him is minimal. More so when the winger has a bit of pace and trickery about him. So many times this season I''ve been frustrated by how easily players have gone past him like he wasn''t there. The alternative for him seems to be to stand off of the player a bit more but then he''s not close enough to stop the cross or shot (see either the 5th or 6th goal for Newcastle).

Wisdom seemed solid in that position yesterday and Bass/Bennett looked a lot more secure than any partnership involving Russell Martin has this season. I know a more defensive set up helped but i dont recall any individual mistakes which you seem to regularly get with Martin.[/quote]But thats the point NN is making above, there will always be compromise. None of the three players are world class, or good enough to always cover Redmond''s lack of tracking back.If you want attacking full backs then you have to be prepared for them getting caught out on occasion. Yes Saturday was solid, required and effective, but my God it was dull.[/quote]I was for large parts, yes. But I''m OK with it as long as it''s the exception and not the rule.Neil has shown the world another dimension on Saturday. I''ve never seen us play like that at home under Neil. Swansea were in no way expecting us to play like that - something that was clear in Garry Monk''s BBC interview. Monk believed that they were in control of the match, when in reality it was us in the more control, albeit without the ball for large parts.I''m going to be interested in the knock-on effect of this. Teams used to come to Carrow Road knowing how we were going to play. Now they might think twice, and they may be less sure on exactly how to set up against us.

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I''m not really talking about the trade off between attacking and defensive, more the inability of Whittaker to deal with players running at him.

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[quote user="The ghost of Michael Theoklitos"][quote user="morty"][quote user="BarclayWazza"]My beef with Whittaker (and to an extent Martin in the same position) is that the percentage of time he stops the player or ball getting past him is minimal. More so when the winger has a bit of pace and trickery about him. So many times this season I''ve been frustrated by how easily players have gone past him like he wasn''t there. The alternative for him seems to be to stand off of the player a bit more but then he''s not close enough to stop the cross or shot (see either the 5th or 6th goal for Newcastle).

Wisdom seemed solid in that position yesterday and Bass/Bennett looked a lot more secure than any partnership involving Russell Martin has this season. I know a more defensive set up helped but i dont recall any individual mistakes which you seem to regularly get with Martin.[/quote]But thats the point NN is making above, there will always be compromise. None of the three players are world class, or good enough to always cover Redmond''s lack of tracking back.If you want attacking full backs then you have to be prepared for them getting caught out on occasion. Yes Saturday was solid, required and effective, but my God it was dull.[/quote]I was for large parts, yes. But I''m OK with it as long as it''s the exception and not the rule.Neil has shown the world another dimension on Saturday. I''ve never seen us play like that at home under Neil. Swansea were in no way expecting us to play like that - something that was clear in Garry Monk''s BBC interview. Monk believed that they were in control of the match, when in reality it was us in the more control, albeit without the ball for large parts.I''m going to be interested in the knock-on effect of this. Teams used to come to Carrow Road knowing how we were going to play. Now they might think twice, and they may be less sure on exactly how to set up against us.[/quote]Oh definitely.If Alex Neil can command the middle ground between Lambert''s all out attack, and Hughton''s all out defence, then we''ll be fine.We have to be streetwise, forget all that tripe about sticking to principals etc, first and foremost the football has to be effective. Alex Neil sussed Swansea out a treat on Saturday.

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Any of our right back''s performances have a lot to do with who is playing in front of them. With Howson there on Saturday, they were able to stifle Montero (and yes, he did get past him early in the first half and Bennett deflected it out for a corner).

For me, our weakest pairing would be Whitaker and Redmond, however, I don''t think Neil would ever pick them if he wanted to use the same tactics again.

Redmond gets a lot of stick for his lack of defensive duties, but Huckerby never defended well. I know he''s nowhere near that level of sainthood yet!

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