WARNING THIS THREAD CONTAINS LANGUAGE THAT MAY BE DEEMED BLASPHEMOUS AND CONTAIN PHRASES THAT GO AGAINST PROPER FOOTBALL GEEZER GRAIN.
IF THIS KIND OF THING PUTS A BUG UP YOUR ARSE, WORDS LIKE FORMATION, TACTICS, METRICS, STATS ETC MAKE YOUR SPHINCTER CLENCH, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FUCK OFF AND LEAVE US THOSE OF US WHO ENJOY THIS SHIT TO IT.
So I made a post in the match thread about our formation last night - and, inevitably, I was told "How very fucking dare I question Poch as we'd won" and to get over myself.
So, seeing as Admin has given us a lovely "tactics" topic tab, I figured I'd run the "cunthood gauntlet" and use it, start a thread where some of us sad bastards who want to talk about this kind of shit can, and those that don't, don't have to have their match threads impregnated with heinous talk of tactical titivation.
I just thought I'd put up a thread where we can discuss all things tactical, technical, statistical about games (pre or post match), Poch in general, Spurs in general, so we are not clogging up match threads etc and being called soulless cunts who don't understand the beauty of football.
Any fucking hoo, last night.......I think our energy was good last night (but then, it was always going to be wasn't it) and it was refreshing to see us press better collectively than we have been lately, but tactically that was still a but of a dogs dinner wasn't it?
We seemed to be playing a completely lopsided structure, heavily loaded on our left/ their right - bizarrely as this is possibly their stronger side? - in a kind of 42112:
I thought Sissoko (56/69 81%) had a good game by his standards (especially recently), and though Alli got through shitloads of the ball (74/86 passes 86.1%) there were way too many times when he turned backwards when he had grass in front of him, which I found a bit frustrating at times. And neither him or Sissoko zipped the ball quick enough, often enough. I know Sissoko's touch is a bit clunky, but I also thought Alli's was also too often last night, so many times a heavy first touch meant what he did subsequently was hurried. And this pretty much set a tempo for much of last night, lots of huff and puff and plenty of effort, but a definite shortage of quality, all over the pitch.
Rose also typified this, in his new forward role, lots of energy but so little composure and quality when it mattered, culminating in him pretty much wasting an almost identical situation to Sissoko's against Liverpool, if anything Rose was even worse, as he probably had more options.
We had the ball in good areas at times, good situations, but didn't really convert that into clear cut chances. 26 shots, 10 on target, an X/G of 2. And I think Eriksen's goal and Eriksen's ball for Moura accounted for about 1.5 of that.
We've got to get some more craft, intelligence and composure into this team.
It's also hard to evaluate too much when the occasion was clearly a factor, energy was always going to be high and Palace are endemically such a passive team, and not even passive aggressive last night. Just passive. This is Hodgson's default MO, and I think it's pretty pathetic, he's actually got some half decent footballers at his disposal, but every game, just about every opposition it's pretty much the same old schtick. Sit deep, hump the ball up to Zaha. Every season they do just enough. Is that really great management?
It was good to see Winks back, our midfield has desperately missed his metronomic qualities, someone constantly looking to get and give, pass the ball with a bit of fucking vim. Hopefully bodes well for the run in.
I think Trippier was OK last night, but wouldn't mind seeing Aurier or KWP get a little run now.
And it was great to see Eriksen twinkle a bit again. Not everything came off, but back in the 10 role, he was lively throughout, got on the ball plenty (50/59 passes, 5 chances created) pressed and won the ball before finding Son for the first goal, scored the second and played a lovely ball for Moura which could have been another assist.
IF THIS KIND OF THING PUTS A BUG UP YOUR ARSE, WORDS LIKE FORMATION, TACTICS, METRICS, STATS ETC MAKE YOUR SPHINCTER CLENCH, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FUCK OFF AND LEAVE US THOSE OF US WHO ENJOY THIS SHIT TO IT.
So I made a post in the match thread about our formation last night - and, inevitably, I was told "How very fucking dare I question Poch as we'd won" and to get over myself.
So, seeing as Admin has given us a lovely "tactics" topic tab, I figured I'd run the "cunthood gauntlet" and use it, start a thread where some of us sad bastards who want to talk about this kind of shit can, and those that don't, don't have to have their match threads impregnated with heinous talk of tactical titivation.
I just thought I'd put up a thread where we can discuss all things tactical, technical, statistical about games (pre or post match), Poch in general, Spurs in general, so we are not clogging up match threads etc and being called soulless cunts who don't understand the beauty of football.
Any fucking hoo, last night.......I think our energy was good last night (but then, it was always going to be wasn't it) and it was refreshing to see us press better collectively than we have been lately, but tactically that was still a but of a dogs dinner wasn't it?
We seemed to be playing a completely lopsided structure, heavily loaded on our left/ their right - bizarrely as this is possibly their stronger side? - in a kind of 42112:
Trippier------TA----------JV-------BD
Sissoko---------Alli
-----------------------Eriksen------------Rose
Kane----------Son
I just don't understand why we needed Rose and Davies. Why not just play an orthodox 4231 and have Rose as LB, Moura, Son and Eriksen behind Kane. Let Moura be the inverted AM, let Rose provide an overlap. Instead of having two FB's going the same direction, whilst also leaving one of our sides totally exposed?Sissoko---------Alli
-----------------------Eriksen------------Rose
Kane----------Son
I thought Sissoko (56/69 81%) had a good game by his standards (especially recently), and though Alli got through shitloads of the ball (74/86 passes 86.1%) there were way too many times when he turned backwards when he had grass in front of him, which I found a bit frustrating at times. And neither him or Sissoko zipped the ball quick enough, often enough. I know Sissoko's touch is a bit clunky, but I also thought Alli's was also too often last night, so many times a heavy first touch meant what he did subsequently was hurried. And this pretty much set a tempo for much of last night, lots of huff and puff and plenty of effort, but a definite shortage of quality, all over the pitch.
Rose also typified this, in his new forward role, lots of energy but so little composure and quality when it mattered, culminating in him pretty much wasting an almost identical situation to Sissoko's against Liverpool, if anything Rose was even worse, as he probably had more options.
We had the ball in good areas at times, good situations, but didn't really convert that into clear cut chances. 26 shots, 10 on target, an X/G of 2. And I think Eriksen's goal and Eriksen's ball for Moura accounted for about 1.5 of that.
We've got to get some more craft, intelligence and composure into this team.
It's also hard to evaluate too much when the occasion was clearly a factor, energy was always going to be high and Palace are endemically such a passive team, and not even passive aggressive last night. Just passive. This is Hodgson's default MO, and I think it's pretty pathetic, he's actually got some half decent footballers at his disposal, but every game, just about every opposition it's pretty much the same old schtick. Sit deep, hump the ball up to Zaha. Every season they do just enough. Is that really great management?
It was good to see Winks back, our midfield has desperately missed his metronomic qualities, someone constantly looking to get and give, pass the ball with a bit of fucking vim. Hopefully bodes well for the run in.
I think Trippier was OK last night, but wouldn't mind seeing Aurier or KWP get a little run now.
And it was great to see Eriksen twinkle a bit again. Not everything came off, but back in the 10 role, he was lively throughout, got on the ball plenty (50/59 passes, 5 chances created) pressed and won the ball before finding Son for the first goal, scored the second and played a lovely ball for Moura which could have been another assist.