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Number 9

why?

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I''ve had a couple of days since watching the Fulham game & its been nagging at me, have I got it all wrong?

Several occasions during the game Wolfswinkel was on his toes level with the line of defenders waiting for a forward pass to run onto. I sat there thinking that we were about to have Ricky one on one with the keeper, a really good scoring opportunity. Each time it seemed like a fantastic position, you could almost see Ricky licking his lips at the opportunity.

Sadly, each time this happened, the ball was pinged out to the touchline by the midfielder, with a variety of wide players lobbing the ball in for the keeper to catch or the defense to clear.

On occasion Ricky started to go looking for the ball himself & played a couple of good passes which weren''t taken advantage of.

A simple ball between the defenders seemed so simple sitting there watching, have I got it wrong? Why cross the ball in constantly to a lone striker, surrounded by beefy defenders?

It made me quite annoyed that we could easily have put a few past them, I could see how Hull made it look so easy.

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I hope we see a player come in who can be on the same wavelength as him. Not sure any of our creative players have done enough this season, not that RVW has done much, I just think he''s been massively let down by supply. Hooper seems like a more rounded player, but RVW looks like the more natural striker.

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It would be good to see Leroy or Howson slotting a few balls through for Wolfswinkel, The passes did seem to be going to the wings a lot though, would have needed Hooper on as well to try to have more bodies to aim for in the box.

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It was one of those situations which looked glaringly obvious to me sat there, I''m happy for someone to prove me wrong.

I just got the impression that the centre midfielders had been told to hit the winger with the ball whenever they got it, not Rickys game though.

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I noticed that too, he was even pointing to where he wanted the ball passed to for him to run onto. Maybe it''s partly down to him not having been playing and the team don''t yet fully ''get'' his game. The key thing though is that he looks like he could be very dangerous innthose situations if he can click with the team and get better service.

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Given that City had a makeshift midfield and makeshift wide players as well, aren''t you expecting a bit much? As it happens, RvW had some good shots on goal,including an excellent header that would have been a goal in many games. Also, the cut-back from the by-line by Murphy was tailor made for RvW except that Snods was in front of him and put it in himself.

RvW will come good, just exercise a bit of patience.

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Yellow since 72,

It looked to me that RVW was good, makeshift midfield included

Snoddy, fox, Olson, Redmond, Elmander, garrido, Murphy, Murphy.

All of the above were popping balls to the wings often when RVW was on the sprinters blocks ready for a pass through the defense. The defense which although being a bit pedestrian, seemed quite happy nodding crosses away.

Players are not stupid, I only suppose that they were following instructions. If they weren''t following instructions, why wasn''t Hughton sorting it?

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Something like...

 

"Out you go lads and if you see RVW making runs into the box don''t forget to pass to the wing....."

 

 

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This has been the case in pretty much every match he has featured this season. He gets in brilliant positions but does not get the passes needed. It''s normally through poor decision making coming from players attacking the wings.

Simple, feed the wolf and he will score.

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Number 9. Your views are quite correct. We rarely work a ball through the middle to score and the basics of playing a ball in to space for someone to run on to are just not understood by this management. The times a short pass is made to a colleague who is already closely marked happens time and time again. Even worse is the square passing in midfield and then ultimately it is put back to a defender or Ruddy who hopefully thumps a high ball forward to a lone striker who has little chance of bringing it under control and progressing the attack. As regards the wingers they cut inside rather than take the ball to the byline and the eventual cross is much easier for the defenders to deal with. More frustrating is that when the cross does come over there is usually only one person in the box. Most "wise old supporters" see these deficiences week after week. The management do not seem to be aware of these basics, even after 18 months, that is why I have little confidence in Hughton. Last season we did succeed in scoring many of our goals from set pieces. It is not happening this season - hence the depressing statistic of our average of less than one goal a game.

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[quote user="Number 9"]I''ve had a couple of days since watching the Fulham game & its been nagging at me, have I got it all wrong?

Several occasions during the game Wolfswinkel was on his toes level with the line of defenders waiting for a forward pass to run onto. I sat there thinking that we were about to have Ricky one on one with the keeper, a really good scoring opportunity. Each time it seemed like a fantastic position, you could almost see Ricky licking his lips at the opportunity.

Sadly, each time this happened, the ball was pinged out to the touchline by the midfielder, with a variety of wide players lobbing the ball in for the keeper to catch or the defense to clear.

On occasion Ricky started to go looking for the ball himself & played a couple of good passes which weren''t taken advantage of.

A simple ball between the defenders seemed so simple sitting there watching, have I got it wrong? Why cross the ball in constantly to a lone striker, surrounded by beefy defenders?

It made me quite annoyed that we could easily have put a few past them, I could see how Hull made it look so easy.[/quote]There were a few occasions first half where the midfield attempted a through ball to RVW but as he had run beyond the defence these were easily cut out or as with his shot in the first half his touch and average pace meant the defenders recovered their positions by the time he gained possession. His "great" movement and positioning seem to be at odds to the available passing options for the player on the ball meaning Dan Burn, the 21 year-old defender RVW struggled against, could easily intercept the passes. He also seemed to not fancy a physical tussle with the lad either so as the game wore on he began to drop further and further into midfield looking for the ball.If we had stuck Elmander on Burn it would have allowed him to compete physically and aerially, held the ball up, brought Snodgrass, Fox and Garrido further up the pitch and then made it easier for diagonal passes to RVW to have been played.

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Yep the 6 foot 6 inch Dan burn, who was part of the defence intercepting crosses.

I can tell you that I sat near 18 yard line towards river end so although I couldn''t see with great detail where Ricky was in first half, I had an excellent view for the second half.

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I''m guessing that Elmander played where he was told to play, same as fox, suggest that was Hughton or the coaching team.

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[quote user="Tony Cottee Woz Ere . . ."]The answer is bad coaching.[/quote]
Or a more aggressive or vocal player would be shouting ''PASS ME THE ******* BALL!''
Maybe if Ricky had half of Holt''s jibber jabber he''d assert himself more on demanding the ball when he wants it.  

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[quote user="lowlyfendweller"]Confidence mainly, also chasing through balls down can lead to pressing too high and vulnerability to a counter attack...seems a bit risky for us these days.[/quote]eh ?what a load of nonsenseit is attacking, something you have do to score, not ''pressing too high (whatever that is)confidence ! these are professional footballers not some primary school kids at a nativity playcounter attack !yes that is what the opposition does when it has the ball, nothing counter about it, merely something that is called football

the OP has correctly identified another failure in the tactics being employed ie no variation, no attempt to adapt the play during the game merely some mechanical adhering to robotic playor perhaps the apologists will tell us it is all the fault of the players as Hughton has no say in such matters - which were it to be true would beg the question, why is he here ?

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Re the Op it''s something iv thought about also for a long while.

Listen to Hughtons interviews, always talking about "getting it wide and crosses into the box" , "we didn''t get enough crosses into the box today", " we got plenty of crosses into the box but the quality wasn''t there". It''s like it''s the only way he thinks we can and should attack. Doesn''t benefit our forward men at all.

Rvws unnoticed or unplayed runs have been happening since the Real Sociedad friendly. For me the alarm bells rang that early.

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The memorable goals for me have been the two from defence splitting passes threaded through by Leroy - two so simple and sublime. There is no answer by a defence because it happens so quickly. A square ball passed out to the wing takes time, gives the defence a chance to turn and get in position. Then it becomes a heading battle against big central defenders.

To judge from earlier reports that Hughton was inquiring about wingers, and the new interest in Zaha, suggests that the manager likes to play like this, especially as recently fullbacks have been encouraged to get forward. Apart from any other deficiencies in this, neither of our two strikers are exceptionally tall, heavy or score heavily with their heads. Hughton seems to have missed this.

Perhaps I am doing him a disservice, however. Perhaps they do train sliding balls between defenders for nippy strikers to steal a march on slow turning big defenders. Perhaps his players ignore their training very week for some reason, and go for the safer square ball to the wings.

What is unmistakeable is that both Hooper and RvW again and again vainly position themselves for the through ball. Sadly, it does not come, and we fail to use their strengths.

Little wonder that we are scoring so few goals.

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I agree with the OP.  It seemed to me that Fulham routinely left a huge gap down the middle which we never took advantage of in attack.  Whether this is usual for them, or was a response to our predictable wing play I don''t know, but it emphasises why we need to keep (and play) Hoolahan - he likes to go into that gap, and isn''t averse to playing the odd through ball instead of out to the wings.  That often seems to make things happen.

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