by URZZZZ »
19 Jul 2020 00:02
2 world wars, 1 world cup So after Blackburn....
Almost zero service. Meite and Puscas may as well have been playing on a different pitch somewhere.
I don’t remember a single good cross from Richards or Gunter. One of Richards’ went ridiculously too deep other missed 18 yard box I think. I counted one good cross from Swift and one from Blackett.
Then we made the changes and Lo and behold both our free play goals came from crosses. One far out from ‘Obita and one close in after great work by Baldock.
There is almost no point playing srtikers if we can’t put decent balls in for them. And stats show we are worst in the league in that regard as per Ian’s find.
What an absolute breath of fresh air to see football played the way I am used to with Gmac coming on and actually playing like a winger storming down the right.
Instead we are keen to pump long balls up to Joao even if he is not starting. Or try to play it through the middle somehow. I’m getting fed up with it.
But I accept perhaps it’s not necessary these days. It’s not like we are a relegation side, we are comfortably mid table I guess. But should/could we be higher?
In Bowen we trust.
Think genuine out and out wingers are a dying breed in football but if you have them, they’re a useful asset. Fullbacks seem to struggle playing against genuine wingers with pace to burn, Traore at Wolves, Saint Maximin at Newcastle etc
If you trawl back through the last 10 years or so, you’ll find our best seasons have coincided with a consistent use of two out and out wingers (playoff final in one, promotion in another). Since then, we’ve wasted time (and money) asking the likes of J.Taylor, Piazon, Aluko, Blackman (for 90% of the time he was here) to play out wide to very little effect
You look at the most successful teams nowadays, how they play. City use the width well, Liverpool use the width well, even Leeds make the pitch wide. On the contrary, we don’t, and whilst it’s very simple to say make the pitch wider and we may start improving, I think we miss a trick by trying to play so intricately in the middle of the pitch all the time
Obviously Bowen’s hands are slightly tied by the lack of available wingers in the club, but I do hope it’s an area we look to exploit in the window