Trying to be too clever

[Making Plans 957]

Due to unforeseen circumstances I missed the first half and got the stream just as the penalty was being taken. At that point I didn''t know what the score was. Therefore I can only comment on the 40 minutes or so that I saw.My impression from that is that we are trying to be like Arsenal were a few years ago - we are trying to walk the ball into the net, being far too pretty and trying to score the "perfect" goal. The fact that we had in excess of 60% possession but only 10 shots would seem to confirm that theory. Nobody, except Murphy when he came on, appeared to want to have a shot from outside the box. Playing pretty football is fine if you can do it but invariably with us the final pass is rarely having an impact & we hardly ever create what you would call a clear cut chance, let alone a tap in. Even though we dominated, I thought we looked sloppy. There was a lack of concentration, too many unnecessary touches and far too many simple straightforward passes that went astray when there was no pressure.I thought Murphy looked very positive when he came on & must be in line for a start soon.Clearly we need to find a new penalty taker as Grabban has now missed 2 out of 2 which is not good enough.

[York Canary 29]

From the sounds of it, it looks like Murphy will have to start on Tuesday anyway. Hoolahan could be out for a little while. Maybe a blessing in disguise? More direct and attacking. Murphy certainly has a goal in him. If he gets injured then we''ll need to switch Redmond to the left probably or have that 4-2-3-1 with Lafferty on the left again or Jerome (or even Olsson?). Agree about Grabban. Needs a rest from penalties methinks, but if he if confident enough to take them what do you do? Depends who else wants one I guess. If  Hooper was on, I''d pick him to take them. I''d like to see Howson in for Johnson against Leeds and Lafferty and Hooper up front ideally to freshen it up and hopefully take their chances

[canarydan23 4,761]

Grab ban needs a rest from the starting eleven, and has done for the last two or three games.

[Felixfan 53]

We all like the "gung ho" football but not at the expense of giving away soft goals at the back. A better balance is needed.

[ZLF 335]

Murphy has flashes of brilliance and far too many moments where he runs the ball out of the pitch or a poor quality cross .    In short he is being a typical talented youngster in his first season pushing for a start.   Together with his dubious fitness to last 90 mins he firmly remains an impact sub for me.

 

What we do need is natural left sided width - we are too predictable attacking wise and illogically so.   Its either through wes in the middle (very easy to crowd out when there is no left option) or increasingly through redmond - where we are developing a snodgrass like dependency and predictability.   The over reliance on crosses is even more bizarre given we do not have a strong aerial presence - we are a long way down the table in terms of success in aerial challenges - so why create chances to a weakness??

 

Lafferty was excellent at that left sided role at the start of the season,  with elliott B the alternative,  who is yet to show any inspiration.

 

While wes (who I thought was probably the best player - again - before his injury) may be injured we do have two other alternatives for that role in either Jonny Howson or VOO.   They are senior players and should be trusted.       It does also give us the chance to play a genuine 442 - but my preference remains for  4231. 

 

Grabban and Johnson deserve a rest,  with a front four of   Lafferty,  VOO, Redderz;  Jerome sitting in front of  Howson and Tettey.

 

I am more worried about the constant chopping and changing at the back - the shape for the goal yesterday was shocking and committment to get back from Olsson and Johnson questionable and Turner again well out of position.  At least Martin and Whittaker were in teh right position but easily evaded.   We need a partnership to be formed at CB and better from the full backs.    We look disjointed here.

 

I have no idea what the best CB partnership is - Turners performances (primarily positioning) appears to be suffering with the circulating partners - and it may be time for turner too to be rested with cuellar or Iggy getting the chance alongside Hooiveld - that may prove a better partnership than we are seeing now, even though turner has been our best cb so far.     This experiment  with Martin at cb has to desist - not once has he been the better player in the partnership,   hooiveld (blackpool) has outplayed his partner at least.     I remain unconvinced by whittaker this season and olsson is not last seasons player - is that should playing him up more than we know?  Get it fixed?    Back four for leeds?   Martin,  Turner,  Hooiveld, Garrido.    

 

I

 

[ZLF 335]

Murphy has flashes of brilliance and far too many moments where he runs the ball out of the pitch or a poor quality cross .    In short he is being a typical talented youngster in his first season pushing for a start.   Together with his dubious fitness to last 90 mins he firmly remains an impact sub for me.

 

What we do need is natural left sided width - we are too predictable attacking wise and illogically so.   Its either through wes in the middle (very easy to crowd out when there is no left option) or increasingly through redmond - where we are developing a snodgrass like dependency and predictability.   The over reliance on crosses is even more bizarre given we do not have a strong aerial presence - we are a long way down the table in terms of success in aerial challenges - so why create chances to a weakness??

 

Lafferty was excellent at that left sided role at the start of the season,  with elliott B the alternative,  who is yet to show any inspiration.

 

While wes (who I thought was probably the best player - again - before his injury) may be injured we do have two other alternatives for that role in either Jonny Howson or VOO.   They are senior players and should be trusted.       It does also give us the chance to play a genuine 442 - but my preference remains for  4231. 

 

Grabban and Johnson deserve a rest,  with a front four of   Lafferty,  VOO, Redderz;  Jerome sitting in front of  Howson and Tettey.

 

I am more worried about the constant chopping and changing at the back - the shape for the goal yesterday was shocking and committment to get back from Olsson and Johnson questionable and Turner again well out of position.  At least Martin and Whittaker were in teh right position but easily evaded.   We need a partnership to be formed at CB and better from the full backs.    We look disjointed here.

 

I have no idea what the best CB partnership is - Turners performances (primarily positioning) appears to be suffering with the circulating partners - and it may be time for turner too to be rested with cuellar or Iggy getting the chance alongside Hooiveld - that may prove a better partnership than we are seeing now, even though turner has been our best cb so far.     This experiment  with Martin at cb has to desist - not once has he been the better player in the partnership,   hooiveld (blackpool) has outplayed his partner at least.     I remain unconvinced by whittaker this season and olsson is not last seasons player - is that should playing him up more than we know?  Get it fixed?    Back four for leeds?   Martin,  Turner,  Hooiveld, Garrido.