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lake district canary

Wide players

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Wildschut and Murphy don''t cut the mustard for me. Wildschut is a limited kind of player - can run and gets through to dangerous areas, but rarely does anything useful with the ball once there. Murphy is knocked off the ball too easily and on the rare occasion he gets through, misses too many chances.  Watkins looked good when he came on against Sheff Utd, but haven''t seen much else from him.  So what are the alternatives?  Regular posters will know I''ve long been an advocate of putting normal midfielders in wide positions, as they are generally better all round footballers - wingers tend to be a bit more blinkered, unless they are top players too.  We put Johnson on the left and he tore up the division. My views on Dorrans were widely ridiculed, but the principle there would have been the same - a more rounded footballer out wide is better than a mediocre one trick pony of a player who rarely delivers. Howson was sometimes used out wide to good effect by all our managers, so it is seen as an option by those in the know. A mobile and skilful attacking three midfielders behind the striker is what is needed imo, with extra width provided by full backs running forwards. That would mean playing players like Maddison and Pritchard in wider positions with a player like Vrancic or Wes in the middle where they are most effective.  Fundamentally you have to get your best players on the pitch - and that is the difficulty when you have less than top class wingers - unless you decide to dispense with them in the interests of overall quality.   Our best attacking players are Pritchard, Maddison and to a lesser extent Wes (because he doesn''t score enough goals) with Vrancic being a Crook kind of player in terms of setting them up to do their stuff.  Playing less than effective wide players lessens the overall quality of the team.  Better to have good all round players on the pitch that consistently deliver quality. Imo.

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Wildschut either needs better instruction or just can''t be coached. You just need to tell him to do one thing when he gets forward, let him react to a situation when it happens and he''ll almost certainly fluff it. Carry the team up the pitch when needed, when you beat your man look for a low cutback, that''s all he should be asked to do attacking wise. There''s a really useful player there but Farke needs to simplify his game for him.

Murphy has been a huge disappointment for me to be honest. Seems like it''s his attitude and work rate letting him down. I heard a few times with the Murphy twins, one needs encouragement, the other needs a kick up the ar5e. Pretty obvious to me which one is which and I don''t think that suits Farke''s management style. I think he will be a good Championship level winger in a couple of years, but he''s not there yet and needs a smaller role, shame we have so many injuries. Used sparingly he''d be good, he''s not good enough for a regular place yet imo.

Onto your point Lakey the main problem with playing number 10''s or 8''s in wide positions is the team ends up being much more lightweight and predictable, you need direct runners in a team to give the opposition problems, otherwise all they have to do is stay compact and sit deep, everyone bar Man City would have a lot of trouble passing through any deep, organised defence.

Too many technical players up top tend to get in each others way as well and try to play a final ball between them instead of having the natural instinct to be the one breaking into the box to finish the move off.

Our main problems attacking wise stems from our predictability and slow build up. If anything I''d be looking at getting more strong, fast, direct players into the team at the expense of someone more technical, if possible

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I''ve said for a while that Wildschut is an exceptionally one dimensional player- his running is great but there is zero end product. Also disappointed in the failure of Josh to kick on- he is so inconsistent at the minute.

I entirely disagree with your idea about putting central players out wide though. We have seen this season with Vrancic and Howson last season that it just imbalances the side, makes us very narrow and lets teams defend against us too easily.

I''d be tempted to look a switch back to a back three and use wingbacks to provide the width. Having three central defenders can free Pinto and Steiperman up to get forward more, especially with someone like Trybull in central midfield to cover more.

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Murphy hasn''t pushed on at all and I fear this is as good as he will get. Still worth a place in our squad though for now as one of the few players we have with genuine pace. I suspect he isn''t on Webber''s long term list depending on his wage demands.

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@Capt pants

I think he signed a 4 year deal last season so he''ll be around for a bit unless he kicks on enough to be sold.

I agree he''s a useful squad player and impact sub. Just a shame as I truly believed he''d become a key part of the first team this season.

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[quote user="king canary"]@Capt pants

I think he signed a 4 year deal last season so he''ll be around for a bit unless he kicks on enough to be sold.

I agree he''s a useful squad player and impact sub. Just a shame as I truly believed he''d become a key part of the first team this season.[/quote]Yes he did actually. We want him to be good enough to do job for us but not that good that we have to sell, which is probably going to be the case with the likes of Maddison. To be fair to him our build up is so slow that he is constantly receiving the ball to feet with his back to goal. That''s not his strength. He needs it played in front, in space. Josh needs to make those runs and the rest need to make those passes.

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