SIGNED - Danny Guthrie

[bracksroyal10]

Oh No

Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition!

Besides would you rather stick with Henderson in the middle?! I think not!

[ZacNaloen]

Unfortunatley it's more or less the same interview Rosenior gave

[melonhead]

he's not much defensively and is at his best when allowed to spray passes around. He was ridiculously good in the Championship as he had ample time on the ball to do just that.

u get more time on the ball in the prem imo

[BrockManson]

he's not much defensively and is at his best when allowed to spray passes around. He was ridiculously good in the Championship as he had ample time on the ball to do just that.

u get more time on the ball in the prem imo

Like hell you do. :lol;

[melonhead]

he's not much defensively and is at his best when allowed to spray passes around. He was ridiculously good in the Championship as he had ample time on the ball to do just that.

u get more time on the ball in the prem imo

Like hell you do. :lol;

lol all you like. you do.

[reading_fan]

Guthrie's a player who needs someone like Legs alongside him to do the dirty work and win the ball. He was a bit crap whenever he was played alongside Cabaye or to sit deeper as it severely restricted his game - he's not much defensively and is at his best when allowed to spray passes around. He was ridiculously good in the Championship as he had ample time on the ball to do just that.

Sounds like an improved version of James Harper then.

[BrockManson]

lol all you like. you do.

I'll lol all the more. It's utter bollocks.

I think you're going to be very disappointed next season if you think the team can waltz the ball through teams at a leisurely pace.

[Extended-Phenotype]

lol all you like. you do.

I'll lol all the more. It's utter bollocks.

I think you're going to be very disappointed next season if you think the team can waltz the ball through teams at a leisurely pace.

Melons is right in my opinion. Championship is all about lots of players charging at you. Prem is more about shape.

You also get more time IN the ball, because the football in the top flight is the size of a Gladiators Atlasphere.

[BrockManson]

Melons is right in my opinion. Championship is all about lots of players charging at you. Prem is more about shape.

You also get more time IN the ball, because the football in the top flight is the size of a Gladiators Atlasphere.

The top end premiership players are able to create themselves the time and space needed to ping a perfect ball. The top defenders are able to close down and stop them.

Teams are set up accordingly however to deal with players who can do this, so the chances to find the time to play that killer ball are severely limited. You'll find that the premiership is all about pace - players who can carry a ball at speed towards defenders so that they can create chances from crossed balls and through balls with another player running on. When you get players like Modric for example who are exceptional at finding the space to play perfect passes then the bigger teams pay them obscene wages & transfer fees as it's devestating at that level of football. Don't forget that his first 2 seasons were nowhere near as effective when he first joined Spurs as he had to get used to the way the game works.

Guthrie's a case in point - he was a terrific player in the championship as due to the team around him he had plenty of time to concentrate on the final ball and chipped in with some key attacking moves. Whilst you will get the occasional moment against the shitter teams where this is still possible, the good sides can neutralise passers far more quickly. At Championship level the defenders are far more cumbersome and slow, which makes their movements easy to anticipate, whilst anyone with pace in that league will be able to exploit the defence.

Just sit back and enjoy next season, but at the end of the day I'll be proven right - far less time on the ball in the premiership than the championship.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Melons is right in my opinion. Championship is all about lots of players charging at you. Prem is more about shape.

You also get more time IN the ball, because the football in the top flight is the size of a Gladiators Atlasphere.

The top end premiership players are able to create themselves the time and space needed to ping a perfect ball. The top defenders are able to close down and stop them.

Teams are set up accordingly however to deal with players who can do this, so the chances to find the time to play that killer ball are severely limited. You'll find that the premiership is all about pace - players who can carry a ball at speed towards defenders so that they can create chances from crossed balls and through balls with another player running on. When you get players like Modric for example who are exceptional at finding the space to play perfect passes then the bigger teams pay them obscene wages & transfer fees as it's devestating at that level of football. Don't forget that his first 2 seasons were nowhere near as effective when he first joined Spurs as he had to get used to the way the game works.

Guthrie's a case in point - he was a terrific player in the championship as due to the team around him he had plenty of time to concentrate on the final ball and chipped in with some key attacking moves. Whilst you will get the occasional moment against the shitter teams where this is still possible, the good sides can neutralise passers far more quickly. At Championship level the defenders are far more cumbersome and slow, which makes their movements easy to anticipate, whilst anyone with pace in that league will be able to exploit the defence.

Just sit back and enjoy next season, but at the end of the day I'll be proven right - far less time on the ball in the premiership than the championship.

Why, what is happening at the end of the day? Are we meeting up somewhere?

[pea]

+1 to the Brock is wrong crew

Played FIFA with him in the Reading side yesterday and dribbled past 8 out of 11 England players from my penalty box to theirs before finishing low to Joe Hart's right so I think this might be Reading's best signing everrr

[Simon's Church]

Melons is right in my opinion. Championship is all about lots of players charging at you. Prem is more about shape.

You also get more time IN the ball, because the football in the top flight is the size of a Gladiators Atlasphere.

Just sit back and enjoy next season, but at the end of the day I'll be proven right - far less time on the ball in the premiership than the championship.

rofl, struggling to thing of a more patronising line I've seen on the list.

[melonhead]

lol all you like. you do.

I'll lol all the more. It's utter bollocks.

I think you're going to be very disappointed next season if you think the team can waltz the ball through teams at a leisurely pace.

i said nothing of the sort.
im still expecting us to be lumping balls when pressurised, and relying on hitting teams on the break like last year. but you still get a little more time on the ball in the prem. its all a little less frenetic.

and theres no need to swear you rude little man.

[melonhead]

Melons is right in my opinion. Championship is all about lots of players charging at you. Prem is more about shape.

You also get more time IN the ball, because the football in the top flight is the size of a Gladiators Atlasphere.

Just sit back and enjoy next season, but at the end of the day I'll be proven right - far less time on the ball in the premiership than the championship.

rofl, struggling to thing of a more patronising line I've seen on the list.

its not a list

[Extended-Phenotype]

It's not a list, dear.

[Hoop Blah]

I think it's a misconception that you get more time on the ball the higher you go.

As Brock said, it often seems that way because players make it look that way with better touch and better movement, but put the same player doing the same things in both the Championship and the Premier League and I think you'd notice them getting closed down quicker in the Premier League.

[melonhead]

no

[Extended-Phenotype]

I think it's a misconception that you get more time on the ball the higher you go.

As Brock said, it often seems that way because players make it look that way with better touch and better movement, but put the same player doing the same things in both the Championship and the Premier League and I think you'd notice them getting closed down quicker in the Premier League.

No, you'd notice the opposite. And I back this up with data shown here.



Red = time on the ball in Championship
Green = time on the ball in Premier League
Blue = something else

[melonhead]

cemented as FACT

[BrockManson]

I think it's a misconception that you get more time on the ball the higher you go.

As Brock said, it often seems that way because players make it look that way with better touch and better movement, but put the same player doing the same things in both the Championship and the Premier League and I think you'd notice them getting closed down quicker in the Premier League.

That's exactly what i was trying to say - you watch players like Fabregas when he was at Arsenal, Scholes, Modric etc, who excelled in the premierleague. It's not because teams stood off them in awe, it's because they've had years to hone their skills to adjust to the pace of the league. It looks like they have so much time and space because they know exactly how to make it for themselves.

Take one of those and play them in the Championship and they'll get double figures in assists. Blackburn have made a great signing in Danny Murphy - arguably finished at Prem level but he'll rip the Championship apart with ease. He'll look like Xavi in that league (no disrespect to Murphy, he's a good player who Liverpool let go of far too soon).

There are countless numbers of foreign players who've failed to make it at the top level because they can't cope with the pace of the game and can't manipulate the game to find that extra bit of space. Look what happened when Spain who comfortably tapped it around the pitch all tournament long play Portugal - they were pressured all over the pitch at a high tempo and as such they couldn't break the Portuguese defence until very late in the game.

You also have the fact that most Premiership teams now operate a Makelele role which is solely to stop players who can dictate games Xavi/Iniesta/Pirlo-style. That's something that doesn't really happen in the Championship. Incidentally that belgian chap who plays for Middlesborough gave the best performance in that role at the Mad Stad last season. Looked quite a tidy player in the admittedly few other Boro games i saw.