Welcome to Double Maths & Soothsaying For Beginners.
If we rake through what may or may not be going through the minds of our coaching staff for one more blog we’re more liable to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act than to find inner peace or enlightenment.
And so there are still 9 games to go.
Can that one sentence can offer restore the perspective that we’ve had systematically battered beaten out of us since Arry became England’s number one in waiting?
Here are the fixtures and my take is based upon us playing good football, players in their correct positions. If Arry plays Friedel as a lone striker at any stage, all bets are off.
Stoke H Anti football has barely kept them in the top half of the table. Consistently mediocre all season. That said, they did us 2-1. 3 points
Chelsea A This ‘orrible lot are less reliable than us. With a bit of luck Mata will get hit by a bus driven by John Terry before we meet them. 1 point
Swansea H What a season. Premiership fresh meat has rarely been fresher and meatier. With a no frills, no nonsense typemanager 3 points
Sunderland A Rejuvenated under the reserved auspices of the man with the cheapest spectacles working in show business today. 1 point
Norwich H I’m glad this isn’t at Carrow Road, our little cherubs need to play sides who can ‘get messy’ indoors on a proper pitch 3 points
Bolton A Dire all season 3 points
QPR A By the time this game comes round Mark Hughes will have hit DefCon4. Expect a particularly ugly card fest 1 point
Blackburn H Whilst they sensationally beat Marnchesta Yanited they’ve achieved little else this term and if we screw this one up… 3 points
Aston Villa A If the our luxury coach can get past the burning effigies of McLiesh their lack of firepower should just about sink ’em 3 points
Fulham H If the Dutch Napolean’s Russian maintains his current form they will cause everyone problems including little ol’ us 1 point
So I say 22 points. What say you?
Our bad run has coincided with all the England hype. As far as I see it, it’s all getting to him/the squad. And his frequent media musings on the matter are not helping – he either says he wants the England job or he’s staying at Spurs to give some kind of stability to the situation. Levy needs to get tough now, or we could lose out on CL due to the uncertainty – this will cost him more than the money that he will try to fleece from the FA
Robin van Persie’s row with Newcastle keeper Tim Krul shows his desire, claims Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger
Actually, Auntie, it shows he’s a c*nt.
I would have left the U in for that one.
10 point clear in 3rd. All musings apart our coach is a Noddy.
Manshitty were 7 clear in first, have lost that spot, and they haven’t even had the distraction of the media spending 90% of their time unsettling their squad with talk of the manager leaving.
If ‘Arry’s a Noddy, what is Mancini???
If the team is rocked so bad by one guy being injured (lennon) shifting two players out of position, i would just change the formation:
3 5 1 1
I would of played:
——kaboul, king, nelsen
walker parker sandro modders baleh
————–vdv——
——–defoe——–
or BAE for Nelsen. yes BAE at left centre back. why not?
You can’t do that mate, too many players in their best positions, far too sensible!
You don’t honestly consider lone striker to be Defoe’s Best Position, do you? And Bale has seemingly forgotten how to defend, so wing back probably isn’t his best position either.
The other problem with 3-5-X is that it leaves huge space open on the wings. With 2 of the three CD’s in this example actually slower than continental drift, sounds dangerous. Might work in games where we dominate possession but even then leaves us open to fast counter-attacks, which is exactly how the shit teams try to beat us. Against strong opposition I’m afraid it would lead to zonal confusion.
If you were going to do this you would have to put Kaboom on the left of thre three to cover the enormous spaces left by Mr. “Trequartista” Bale (Walker would have more sense in covering back methinks). But that would mean playing King (right) and Younes (left) out of their normal position (I am assuming that Nelsen is best suited to playing in between them).
3 at the back worked well for us the first time we tried it this year, and terribly the second time.
It’s fun to talk about, but I’m not sure it would work very well for us overall, although it could work well in certain games. Particularly think it could do well against teams without much pace on the wings. That is very few teams these days, however (except for us when Bale and/or Lennon are injured).
You make some good points, but how much pace did Everton have on their wings? Defoe holds the ball up better than most people think and i cant remember a situation where Ade held the ball up in the middle of the pitch and it lead to a goal. most of this ‘hard work’ has come from making himself available on the left or right of the pitch.
When Saha came on vs everton, he was picking the ball up in our own half.
Now a lot of hold up play required there..
Generally, i find its not the way we play. (having a ‘target man’)
From not having a decent front man for so long we tend to tiki taka our way to goal or get balls played in from the wing most of the time.
Especially against everton, we even had Friedel up for a corner. we were desperate. Why didnt we change formation sooner? We didnt need 4 at the back.
Just saying..
Everton probably would be a game where this could have worked better than against most. And you’re absolutely right, I also can’t remember us getting a real chance from Ade holding it up in the middle, although he does keep possession and allow us to move our team up/force their team back, which is definitely valuable. Defoe does seem stronger now than ever before, but I still feel he becomes awfully alone without a big bloke somewhere up there with him.
I would have gone 4 4 1 1 with Kaboul at right back, Old Nelsen CB, Walker RM, Bale Left.
No surprise the scum scored a winner in injury time, that is the third time they have done this recently ( Sunderland, Liverpool ) and those 3 late goals give them 6 extra points.
To be honest, Newcastle only have themselves to blame due to dumb thinking by their players.
1 minute to go, they get a throw in by the Arsenal corner flag and commit 5 players forward.
They lose the ball from the throw in and after 1 Arse pass, half their outfield players are out of the game. Having spent the whole of the second half defending you might have thought they would realise the danger of over commiting players.