The Wall - stick or twist?

[Lanolin]

Find some of these comments a bit mad to be honest. You’d think we’d kept 10 consecutive clean sheets and then been shredded today looking at some people’s takes. As it is, we’d kept 1 clean sheet in our last 7 games against PL opposition (against a team on course for the worst ever PL season) and today played pretty similarly to how we usually do, but the set piece goal went against us instead of for us.

 

[Dario Terracotta]

I think we missed a trick today, could understand the requirement to play the more attack minded Coleman and Digne, but the way Newcastle approached it exposed both their defensive flaws and the pair of them didn't get forward to affect the game, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we would have not been any worse off going forward with Godfrey and Holgate and far more secure defensively, Digne in particular was more worried about what Newcastle were doing attacking us and was lost going forward, if he had played in front of Godfrey he would have had more license to attack, at the end of the day you have to credit Bruce and Newcastle for coming and upsetting the applecart I suppose, but that was poor, very poor.

 

[catcherintherye]

Find some of these comments a bit mad to be honest. You’d think we’d kept 10 consecutive clean sheets and then been shredded today looking at some people’s takes. As it is, we’d kept 1 clean sheet in our last 7 games against PL opposition (against a team on course for the worst ever PL season) and today played pretty similarly to how we usually do, but the set piece goal went against us instead of for us.

The last 7 games we have played with the aforementioned back wall it reads;
won 5, drawn 1, lost 1. Scored 9 conceded 4.

It's not 10 clean sheets, but it's very good.

I didn't think moving fromthat back 4 would magically improve our attacking play, and it didn't. There are issues with our attacking play. How many are solved by Coleman at right back, I am less sceptical of.

There is probably some anger from me in the response. I try not to get too angry, and I know the season hasn't been ruined today or anything like that, but it feels a wasted opportunity that. And one can't say we deserved anything from the game either.

 

[Lanolin]

The last 7 games we have played with the aforementioned back wall it reads;
won 5, drawn 1, lost 1. Scored 9 conceded 4.

It's not 10 clean sheets, but it's very good.

I didn't think moving fromthat back 4 would magically improve our attacking play, and it didn't. There are issues with our attacking play. How many are solved by Coleman at right back, I am less sceptical of.

There is probably some anger from me in the response. I try not to get too angry, and I know the season hasn't been ruined today or anything like that, but it feels a wasted opportunity that. And one can't say we deserved anything from the game either.

I just didn’t think it was all that different to some other games personally, just feels like people putting 2 and 2 together to get 5 to me but fair enough if you see it differently.

 

[Dymak]

We were ragged all over the shop today. They could easily have had 4.

 

[TheBigIguana]

We were ragged all over the shop today. They could easily have had 4.

If every decent shot they took went in they'd have actually had 5

 

[overkill]

Definitely thought Gomes done okay when he came on, but it should have been for Sigurdsson, in my opinion.

Yeah was thinking the same, Iwobi was awful but he had some pace and was running at them when he had the chance

 

[TheBigIguana]

I mean it was worse. We played a terrible team, didn't score and didn't create a discernible chance on open play,

Apologies I didn't your question about how we improve. I will be repeating myself a bit but;

1) Get DCL match fit. I think this will take time

2) Get Richarlinson back into form. I dont know how you do that now. It may mean he's rested for a period. There's a reasonable shout Iwobi is more deserving of playing than him.I

You could also try him centrally off DCL. I'm not sure, but thats a puzzle. He's trying but we haven't got him right yet this season.

3) Keep James fit. He makes a big difference.

I'd focus onthose 3 for now. It could be that you play a 4-4-2 but James can play as one of the two, behind an Allan/Doucoure in some games. It would be weakening the team defensively, but hopefully our back 4 could cope with that.

See my thing is we haven't created a discernable chance from open play much recently anyway. Did we against Leicester? James goal was not a chance imo. So to me the answer in that game at least is no. It wasn't any different therefore it definitely wasn't worse.

Fwiw I agree with your three things. But I also think from a tactical standpoint those don't really count. Hopefully we stay healthy isn't a solution. So while yes, we need those guys fit and firing, there still needs to be some kind of solution beyond that. I'm not qualified to be a manager so I'm really not sure what it is, but Carlo is that, and he's got to get us creating chances or we are going to be in some degree of trouble. It doesn't matter what level your defense can hit if you do not create the chances to regularly score you cannot get to the very top of any league.

 

[hktoffee]

The partnership of Mina and Keane works they will head everything away on the occasion that the full backs have the speed and power to cover them. We must need Godfrey and Holgate back at fullbacks and they add pace, aggression, power and height to our defence. With them we will dominate in every corners whether defending or attacking.

 

[arbok]

Play 4CBs for the rest of the season or until it gets found out and until we can bring in better players. They can’t be trusted to rotate the squad that much because these players aren’t that good yet.

 

[arbok]

See my thing is we haven't created a discernable chance from open play much recently anyway. Did we against Leicester? James goal was not a chance imo. So to me the answer in that game at least is no. It wasn't any different therefore it definitely wasn't worse.

Fwiw I agree with your three things. But I also think from a tactical standpoint those don't really count. Hopefully we stay healthy isn't a solution. So while yes, we need those guys fit and firing, there still needs to be some kind of solution beyond that. I'm not qualified to be a manager so I'm really not sure what it is, but Carlo is that, and he's got to get us creating chances or we are going to be in some degree of trouble. It doesn't matter what level your defense can hit if you do not create the chances to regularly score you cannot get to the very top of any league.

we haven’t created anything like when we beat Brighton 4-2.

 

[Lloydystark]

IMO perhaps try the 3cbs again

Mina Keane Godfrey

coleman and digne wing backs

 

[catcherintherye]

See my thing is we haven't created a discernable chance from open play much recently anyway. Did we against Leicester? James goal was not a chance imo. So to me the answer in that game at least is no. It wasn't any different therefore it definitely wasn't worse.

Fwiw I agree with your three things. But I also think from a tactical standpoint those don't really count. Hopefully we stay healthy isn't a solution. So while yes, we need those guys fit and firing, there still needs to be some kind of solution beyond that. I'm not qualified to be a manager so I'm really not sure what it is, but Carlo is that, and he's got to get us creating chances or we are going to be in some degree of trouble. It doesn't matter what level your defense can hit if you do not create the chances to regularly score you cannot get to the very top of any league.

We scored a goal in open play against Leicester though. And we posed far greater threat if set plays. And with respect, Leicester are miles better than Newcastle,so to some extent we were always going to struggle against Leicester, but whoever played I'd expect a lot more chance creation than against Newcastle.

I think we have to be realistic about where we are as a team. We are a mid table team who have found a particular quirk that elevates us.

I'm not saying you can't improve attacking play and that we shouldn't look too. However I would say it needs be done over a longer period, without immediately breaking up the defensive stability we have.

I said in a recent front page post we did here. Of the 7 games we have played this seasn with said back 4, we have scored 9 and got 16 points from 7 games. Had that goals conceded been 1 per game we would have picked up 12 points from those games, having scored 9. In all honesty, that would be fine. We would finish top 6 with that, we could even finish top 4 (this is assuming they move from 4/7 goals per game to 1 goal per game) and we merely maintain our scoring record.

I appreciate we won't win leagues doing it, and it can't be done forever, but it will satisfy objectives for this season and we can then rebuild in the summer.

Our disagreement is in essence a case of when the change occurs. I don't think doing so in the midst of a busy run, with our of form and at times partially fit players makes sense.

Get Digne fully fit, get an attacking right back in, and we have a very different conversation next season.

 

[TheBigIguana]

We scored a goal in open play against Leicester though. And we posed far greater threat if set plays. And with respect, Leicester are miles better than Newcastle,so to some extent we were always going to struggle against Leicester, but whoever played I'd expect a lot more chance creation than against Newcastle.

I think we have to be realistic about where we are as a team. We are a mid table team who have found a particular quirk that elevates us.

I'm not saying you can't improve attacking play and that we shouldn't look too. However I would say it needs be done over a longer period, without immediately breaking up the defensive stability we have.

I said in a recent front page post we did here. Of the 7 games we have played this seasn with said back 4, we have scored 9 and got 16 points from 7 games. Had that goals conceded been 1 per game we would have picked up 12 points from those games, having scored 9. In all honesty, that would be fine. We would finish top 6 with that, we could even finish top 4 (this is assuming they move from 4/7 goals per game to 1 goal per game) and we merely maintain our scoring record.

I appreciate we won't win leagues doing it, and it can't be done forever, but it will satisfy objectives for this season and we can then rebuild in the summer.

Our disagreement is in essence a case of when the change occurs. I don't think doing so in the midst of a busy run, with our of form and at times partially fit players makes sense.

Get Digne fully fit, get an attacking right back in, and we have a very different conversation next season.

I think the timeline is a lot shorter than what you've said though. I think we've already gone as far as this will take us and unless we find some attacking play soon we could very easily be looking at a cup exit and a poor point return over the next month. I don't think doing this is guaranteeing us anything like 6th.

 

[messymascot]

The problem with the 4 CBs is it invites teams on and eventually like Leicester did they will score. We need to be able to play further up the pitch to allow the midfield to support DCL. Godfrey needs to start for me and after that fit the rest round him depending on the opposition. I hope we go Holgate Keane Godfrey Digne against Leeds. This will give us pace in the centre and strength. Mina is due a rest and after what happened against United earlier in the season I want him back in for that one.