Darren Higgs
Player Valuation: £1.5m
probably the question Roberto needs to ask him self.
I was thinking about it and its difficult to pin point a specific time. We have been poor in the league for 2 years.
in the last year Moyes was manager we played some great football with the direct ball to fellini and him bringing it down and then passing it to Osman and Piennar who had the foot balling brains to hurt the opposition. they also had Baines interplay with the 2 of them. in RM first season we had that creative trio but we upgraded the defensive midfield with Gibson and Neville gone out and replaced by Barry and McCarthy and we upgraded Anichabe with Lukaku. Mirallas was given competition from Gerry on the right hand side. Ross was often rotated with Osman to keep Ossie fresh and did give ross the exsposure he needed. the result being the best season we have had in along time.
Season 2
Piennar and Osman another year older and the injures are taking tole. Gerry has gone Home
Barkley injured before the season starts and Baines is starting to have recurring injures.
Mcgeedy is now playing instead of Piennar and we start to suffer from a lack of goals. Lukaku is found isolated in games as Mcgeedy and Mirallas cant find the bit of skill to open a team up. The opposition have wised up and have started to press our full backs in there own half and have the strikers drifting in to the space left by our fullbacks ready for the counter attack.
Ross comes back from injury and we are now playing Naismith and Ross as the No 10 and Left Winger. they both try to occupy the same space on the pitch which leaves them no where to more and make it easier for the opposition to defend. we dont have the width to stretch teams.
at the end of Jan the penny has dropped with Mcgeedy and lennon is brough in and gives us a bit more width down the right but we are now one sided.This remains the pattern for the remainder of the season with excuses of playing in the europa used to try and cover up the deficiencies
Season 3
Baines still suffering from recurring injures
Positive Gerry has come back.
we start the season Playing 8 of last seasons top 10 in the first 10 games and expectations where low. we pull off a couple of good results with the win away a Southhampton and the home game against Chelsea playing a counter attacking style.
are season then splits in to 2
away form and cup football
The Away form through and the one off cup games go well playing the same style of counter attacking football. especially in the early part of the season with Gerry providing a massive threat down the right and Kone used to hold the ball up on the left and enabling the start of many counter attacks.
Home Form
The Home form had the same problems from an attacking perspective with a serious lack of creativity leading to the crowd frustrations with the lack of penetration. an the opposition and now worked out that our defence have a mistake in them when put under pressure. the result being are worse home form in many a year.
so where did it go wrong? for me its not having replacements for Piennar and Osman. We dont have a creative spark. Ross doesn't seem to have that football intelligence and we havent had anyone playing in a creative role on the left hand side. id like to see Ross moved further back and play with a proper 3 man midfield so that he can get on the ball and run at the defence and get a shot away. in his number 10 role he isn't able to use the pitch aswell. We need some one for the left hand side that offers some creativity that can pick a pass. I think RM realized this last summer and tried to get players in such as yarmolenko but as it didnt happen we suffered for it. I wonder if it was down to funds that it didnt get pushed through. would we have been better to cash in on stones or McCarthy last summer in order to have bought the left sided player we have needed.
I was thinking about it and its difficult to pin point a specific time. We have been poor in the league for 2 years.
in the last year Moyes was manager we played some great football with the direct ball to fellini and him bringing it down and then passing it to Osman and Piennar who had the foot balling brains to hurt the opposition. they also had Baines interplay with the 2 of them. in RM first season we had that creative trio but we upgraded the defensive midfield with Gibson and Neville gone out and replaced by Barry and McCarthy and we upgraded Anichabe with Lukaku. Mirallas was given competition from Gerry on the right hand side. Ross was often rotated with Osman to keep Ossie fresh and did give ross the exsposure he needed. the result being the best season we have had in along time.
Season 2
Piennar and Osman another year older and the injures are taking tole. Gerry has gone Home
Barkley injured before the season starts and Baines is starting to have recurring injures.
Mcgeedy is now playing instead of Piennar and we start to suffer from a lack of goals. Lukaku is found isolated in games as Mcgeedy and Mirallas cant find the bit of skill to open a team up. The opposition have wised up and have started to press our full backs in there own half and have the strikers drifting in to the space left by our fullbacks ready for the counter attack.
Ross comes back from injury and we are now playing Naismith and Ross as the No 10 and Left Winger. they both try to occupy the same space on the pitch which leaves them no where to more and make it easier for the opposition to defend. we dont have the width to stretch teams.
at the end of Jan the penny has dropped with Mcgeedy and lennon is brough in and gives us a bit more width down the right but we are now one sided.This remains the pattern for the remainder of the season with excuses of playing in the europa used to try and cover up the deficiencies
Season 3
Baines still suffering from recurring injures
Positive Gerry has come back.
we start the season Playing 8 of last seasons top 10 in the first 10 games and expectations where low. we pull off a couple of good results with the win away a Southhampton and the home game against Chelsea playing a counter attacking style.
are season then splits in to 2
away form and cup football
The Away form through and the one off cup games go well playing the same style of counter attacking football. especially in the early part of the season with Gerry providing a massive threat down the right and Kone used to hold the ball up on the left and enabling the start of many counter attacks.
Home Form
The Home form had the same problems from an attacking perspective with a serious lack of creativity leading to the crowd frustrations with the lack of penetration. an the opposition and now worked out that our defence have a mistake in them when put under pressure. the result being are worse home form in many a year.
so where did it go wrong? for me its not having replacements for Piennar and Osman. We dont have a creative spark. Ross doesn't seem to have that football intelligence and we havent had anyone playing in a creative role on the left hand side. id like to see Ross moved further back and play with a proper 3 man midfield so that he can get on the ball and run at the defence and get a shot away. in his number 10 role he isn't able to use the pitch aswell. We need some one for the left hand side that offers some creativity that can pick a pass. I think RM realized this last summer and tried to get players in such as yarmolenko but as it didnt happen we suffered for it. I wonder if it was down to funds that it didnt get pushed through. would we have been better to cash in on stones or McCarthy last summer in order to have bought the left sided player we have needed.
