Men v Boys

[Grick 7]

One picture summed up our problems. Defending a corner we had Gilmour & Placheta marking Palace's centre halves - looked like 2 versions of the Krankies! How are they expected to defend crosses with that set up?

[lake district canary 4,562]

17 minutes ago, Grick said:

One picture summed up our problems. Defending a corner we had Gilmour & Placheta marking Palace's centre halves - looked like 2 versions of the Krankies! How are they expected to defend crosses with that set up?

Yeah, I noticed that little cameo.  The height difference was staggering.  How we have ended up with so many small players relative to other clubs in the PL again I don't know.  I thought lessons had been learned. 

 

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,157]

I was saying this about 8 games into our first crack at the PL under Farke but apparently everyone at the club is (maybe willfully) blind to the issue. I fully expect us to try to fix the problem with more 5ft8 50kg slow, lazy, lethargic midfielders who can only play in nice weather when the opposition is sitting off them, because that's our way or some BS

[Dr Greenthumb 753]

Watch Lees Melou go for a header in any game, it is absolutely pathetic 

[Bovril 222]

[Grick 7]

3 minutes ago, Bovril said:

Pythonesque 'come here and I'll bite yer ankles!'

[Don’t be Krul 401]

The men v boys comparison was as early as the 1st 5 mins or so when Kouyate swatted Gilmour away like a pesky fly when shielding the ball. Set the tone for the game

[corbs 147]

Before the game started I had a glance and felt we looked a small team. I know it’s partly  psychological as I always used to feel that when at school sizing up the oppos. When that guy ran on the pitch the Palace fans chanted “ he’s been your best player “ . Seriously though Jon Rowe was a joy, you could see he actually wanted to be there, and so for me a small flame keeps burning eternal. 

[Beetley Yellow 57]

Yes, I noticed that close up at a CP corner as well. To be fair this was the case on a number of occasions last season too, on a few occasions we got out-muscled by bigger teams (most noticeably by Watford and Bournemouth). We were fortunate that there was enough other teams in the Championship that we could ‘out football’- up into the PL we do not have enough quality to do this, nor do we have strong, physical players to be able to battle and compete with any of the other 19 clubs. It was an obvious issue for us, another that did not get addressed in the summer recruitment.

[Sooty57 406]

1 hour ago, Bovril said:

My missus reckons it looks like two under aged kids trying to get into a nightclub 😂

[Worthy Nigelton 1,090]

Man City were the shortest team in the league last year. Leicester are also on the short side. It's not our height which is the problem it's the fact we move the ball slowly, our first touch isn't good enough, we lack pace, we lose concentration, positionally we are not very good, we miss loads of chances and we dont press with any intensity.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Worthy Nigelton

[Surfer 1,547]

2 hours ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

Man City were the shortest team in the league last year. Leicester are also on the short side. It's not our height which is the problem it's the fact we move the ball slowly, our first touch isn't good enough, we lack pace, we lose concentration, positionally we are not very good, we miss loads of chances and we dont press with any intensity.

Yeah, but other than that, we do have a cool kit. So it isn't all bad. 

[essex canary 516]

5 hours ago, lake district canary said:

Yeah, I noticed that little cameo.  The height difference was staggering.  How we have ended up with so many small players relative to other clubs in the PL again I don't know.  I thought lessons had been learned. 

 

Perhaps the players shrunk when Daniel Farke left the Club?

[Canary Wundaboy 1,360]

3 hours ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

Man City were the shortest team in the league last year. 

Yeah but their squad cost over a billion quid so…..

[Worthy Nigelton 1,090]

8 hours ago, Canary Wundaboy said:

Yeah but their squad cost over a billion quid so…..

Exactly 

[canarybubbles 1,953]

12 hours ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

Man City were the shortest team in the league last year. Leicester are also on the short side. It's not our height which is the problem it's the fact we move the ball slowly, our first touch isn't good enough, we lack pace, we lose concentration, positionally we are not very good, we miss loads of chances and we dont press with any intensity.

Short players are often better than tall ones because of their lower centre of gravity. Part of what we need to do is learn how to buy fouls when these 6ft 3ins try to take the ball off us. Xavi and Iniesta were brilliant at this, although I think they benefitted from being in a league which actually likes technical skill whereas the English tend to prefer size and speed, so perhaps if they had played in England they wouldn't have got the calls as often.

[canarybubbles 1,953]

Deleted: site problem duplicated my post.

Edited December 29, 2021 by canarybubbles

[Hardhouse44 261]

15 hours ago, lake district canary said:

Yeah, I noticed that little cameo.  The height difference was staggering.  How we have ended up with so many small players relative to other clubs in the PL again I don't know.  I thought lessons had been learned. 

 

This is the problem at this club, lesson are not learned. We don’t see what in front of our eyes.

we fail to recognise Hanley, McLean, Gibson, Rupp, not good enough before in the premier league for us and others, not going to be now. Gunn not good enough at this level. 
We failed to learn from the last campaign that you need a presence in midfield, adefensive midfielder who can disrupt and win the ball.

We failed to learn that you need another striker who can score some goals at this level.

lesson we’re not learned and now yet again we’re men against boys!

 

[WD40 724]

15 hours ago, Bovril said:

That is a hilarious picture. There was another one where Gilmour was marking a much taller player that made a run and jump toward front post and got onto the ball, and you think what’s the point in that?

I think I’m zonal marking these small guys are supposed to just get in the way of runners and the bigger players mark the zone to clear the ball out. Does it work for us? Does it f*ck. 

[Worthy Nigelton 1,090]

7 minutes ago, WD40 said:

That is a hilarious picture. There was another one where Gilmour was marking a much taller player that made a run and jump toward front post and got onto the ball, and you think what’s the point in that?

I think I’m zonal marking these small guys are supposed to just get in the way of runners and the bigger players mark the zone to clear the ball out. Does it work for us? Does it f*ck. 

I dont think we've conceded from a corner since Smith arrived have we? It's the in-game defending where we're terrible.