Only recently started using post codes and I’d say at least half the population of Ireland don’t know their postcode
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Cameron Manning
Player Valuation: £35m
Well at least your laughing while making a fuss over absolutely nothing.
You’re half righ , I am laughing
Carlito
Player Valuation: £50m
As I remember it, Martinez set up almost exclusively with two holding midfielders.
It worked very well in 2013/14, when McCarthy had the legs to cover both full-backs, and Pienaar and Osman were there to link with Barry; but from 2014/15 onwards, it slowly morphed into more of a 4-2-4, with Barkley and the wingers given licence not to track back, and the gap between them and Barry +1 growing week by week. In the end, there were times when it felt as though I was watching a 6-0-4 in games where the team spent a lot of time under the cosh.
Now that we're far enough removed from 'Plotters' and the like, I find it quite interesting to look at where Martinez lost his way. He seemed to get trapped in transition between the possession-based game he started with, and the counter-attacking one that he seemed determined to implement after walloping Arsenal 3-0, and then finding success away in Europe. To me, that's where the house of cards began to fall down, as we saw instances where the centre-backs and centre-midfielders were overrun in the act of trying to pick a pass, leading to them shipping six to Chelsea, five to Kiev, four to Liverpool, three to United, and just generally finding themselves having to come from behind as a result of avoidable errors on a regular basis.
Barry was a good player with an excellent short passing game, but he was left exposed by Martinez's failure to recruit likeminded replacements for Pienaar and Osman; something that only really makes sense if you agree with the idea that the plan was to switch to a more counter-attacking style, with Tom Cleverley earmarked as Barry's successor. That probably seems an absurd suggestion given how Cleverley's Everton career panned out, but it's worth remembering that Martinez rated him so highly that he probably did see him as being capable of being a Xabi Alonso-esque lynchpin, turning defence into attack with one pass.
So yeah, while I agree that it started out quite expansive, in the end it was just another variation of two stoppers in front of a back four.
Cameron Manning
Player Valuation: £35m
Carry on like that.
Ah I remember watching a midfield containing Kendall , Harvey, Ball , didn’t have the terms attacking mids , central mids , defensive mids in those days but you recognised class when it played in front of you. Nostalgia trip over. As you were.
weltonblue
Player Valuation: £1.5m
Ah yes ... and jumpers for goalposts too!
Just reading through this thread and was about to say that they don't use post codes. When did this happen?
Back on topic - err, what about the midfielders then lads?
Billysgingham.
Player Valuation: £40m
The centre of midfield is the the heart of your side and if we are going to play davies who by the way is nowhere near good enough and schneiderlin who is average then it's not going to end well,and gana by the way gets a free ride with a lot of fans as well.
CRIMHEAD
Player Valuation: £40m
Gana is an automatic.
DRAGONZ_RULE
Player Valuation: £225k
Apologies, but I disagree with you here - not so much Matic, but certainly Kante and Fernandinho.
Neither of the latter two did anything remotely akin to "bringing the ball out of defence in their title winning seasons".
Looking at Fernandinho first, last season Nicolas Otamendi was the key distributor out of defence for City, and whenever Fernandinho got it, literally his only job was to give it to either Silva or KDB. There were rare moments when he would make a late run into the box or sit right on top of the opposition box such was City's dominance, but in general he was the definition of a ball recycler.
This season, EPL TOTY Otamendi can't even make their lineup, and instead they have Stones and Laporte playing centre half - both wonderful distributors of the ball from the back. Fernandinho is touching the ball a lot less this season already, and when he does he is only passing sideways, backwards or to Silva / Gundogan. In fact, I noticed in their game against Wolves he tried to move the ball forwards a few times and it was continually intercepted ... and last game he was straight back to the sideways/backwards ball recycling that he did last season to great effect.
Then there is Kante. In Leicester's title winning season, it was actually Danny Drinkwater who played the forward balls (most often wide to Mahrez or sometimes over the top to Vardy). Kante was almost exclusively a defensive terrier breaking up opposition attacks and immediately recycling to Drinkwater.
In Chelsea's title winning season, whilst yes he did pass the ball forwards slightly more (by virtue of Chelsea being a much more dominant side than Leicester in terms of possession statistics), yet again it was Fabregas who did the majority of the forward passing, often getting the ball wide to Hazard, Willian, Alonso and Azpilicueta.
This newfound belief amongst the populace that Kante and Fernandinho are somehow elite attacking ball distributors is a massive media misconception. What has made them both so good is getting to play with 8s (Drinkwater, Fabregas, KDB) and either 10s (Silva) or wide men (Hazard, Willian, Mahrez, Sterling, Sane) who have been able to create attacking opportunities, meaning they have been left to do their best work which is on the defensive side.
I am very interested to see how Kante goes this season playing as an 8-cum-10 ahead of Jorginho and Kovacic. He will have the benefit of playing ahead of two other truly world class players, but nevertheless I am keen to see how the attacking side of his game really goes ... my early prediction is we will not see an endless highlights reel of defence-splitting through balls, 1-2s on the edge of the box to set players free for shooting opportunities, technical dribbling to beat a couple of men and get shots away etc.
Fernandinho is amazing.
They prefer to use potato codes I believe.
Mutzo Nutzo
Player Valuation: £70m
Careful...or the potato police will be after you.
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