BFTG - Stokies

[3points]

I was impressed with Loader’s first touch. Found some good areas today. Would be happy to see him alongside Meite next Saturday.

I think Bacuna and Rinomhota have enough energy and quality to play as a 2 in midfield, allowing the second striker. Would be the,Pete to play both with Ezra when he’s fit.

Felt very sorry for Gunter today. Received no protection at all. Blackett didn’t do much wrong though looked to be caught out for their first.

Overall I enjoyed that and am warming to this team and Clement

[tee peg]

Yes, but not today

Beg to differ.Better than Swift tho.......

Gunts was fine today. Stoke targeted our left flank in the first half and it meant that Gunter was outnumbered with Swift and GMac not backing him up. . He also drifted infield leaving the flank exposed but that would have been because he was playing under instruction. He did get caught upfield fairly early on when Stoke counter attacked but by and large he did enough defensively.

He didn’t do enough going forward. He won a corner in the first half but in the second put in a poor cross which went straight into the hands of the keeper. Overall though he was solid.

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

[Zip]

Beg to differ.Better than Swift tho.......

Gunts was fine today. Stoke targeted our left flank in the first half and it meant that Gunter was outnumbered with Swift and GMac not backing him up. . He also drifted infield leaving the flank exposed but that would have been because he was playing under instruction. He did get caught upfield fairly early on when Stoke counter attacked but by and large he did enough defensively.

He didn’t do enough going forward. He won a corner in the first half but in the second put in a poor cross which went straight into the hands of the keeper. Overall though he was solid.

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

Shrugs shoulders. What serious mistakes did he make?

[tee peg]

Gunts was fine today. Stoke targeted our left flank in the first half and it meant that Gunter was outnumbered with Swift and GMac not backing him up. . He also drifted infield leaving the flank exposed but that would have been because he was playing under instruction. He did get caught upfield fairly early on when Stoke counter attacked but by and large he did enough defensively.

He didn’t do enough going forward. He won a corner in the first half but in the second put in a poor cross which went straight into the hands of the keeper. Overall though he was solid.

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

Shrugs shoulders. What serious mistakes did he make?

Turning up?

[Zip]

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

Shrugs shoulders. What serious mistakes did he make?

Turning up?

Good to have such an in-depth analysis mate.

[EverHopeful]

Beg to differ.Better than Swift tho.......

Gunts was fine today. Stoke targeted our left flank in the first half and it meant that Gunter was outnumbered with Swift and GMac not backing him up. . He also drifted infield leaving the flank exposed but that would have been because he was playing under instruction. He did get caught upfield fairly early on when Stoke counter attacked but by and large he did enough defensively.

He didn’t do enough going forward. He won a corner in the first half but in the second put in a poor cross which went straight into the hands of the keeper. Overall though he was solid.

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

Must have a really big cheek, i reckon. Gunts was fine today and then you critique his failures........he wasn't fine he was merely adequate and slows down any attacking impetus we ever generate and thats pretty rare. not sure we have many others options until players are off the ever expanding injury list but nobody should be satisfied with his performance - his has been indoctrinated by the Stam style and with now young and quick players coming into the team (thanks god), needs to go as soon as possible

[Zip]

Gunts was fine today. Stoke targeted our left flank in the first half and it meant that Gunter was outnumbered with Swift and GMac not backing him up. . He also drifted infield leaving the flank exposed but that would have been because he was playing under instruction. He did get caught upfield fairly early on when Stoke counter attacked but by and large he did enough defensively.

He didn’t do enough going forward. He won a corner in the first half but in the second put in a poor cross which went straight into the hands of the keeper. Overall though he was solid.

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

Must have a really big cheek, i reckon. Gunts was fine today and then you critique his failures........he wasn't fine he was merely adequate and slows down any attacking impetus we ever generate and thats pretty rare. not sure we have many others options until players are off the ever expanding injury list but nobody should be satisfied with his performance - his has been indoctrinated by the Stam style and with now young and quick players coming into the team (thanks god), needs to go as soon as possible

I critiqued his failures going forward. Apart from being caught upfield once in the first half he was fine defensively. He is first and foremost a defender.

[tee peg]

Shrugs shoulders. What serious mistakes did he make?

Turning up?

Good to have such an in-depth analysis mate.

No point in prolonging the agony .

[Snowflake Royal]

I was impressed with Loader’s first touch. Found some good areas today. Would be happy to see him alongside Meite next Saturday.

I think Bacuna and Rinomhota have enough energy and quality to play as a 2 in midfield, allowing the second striker. Would be the,Pete to play both with Ezra when he’s fit.

Felt very sorry for Gunter today. Received no protection at all. Blackett didn’t do much wrong though looked to be caught out for their first.

Overall I enjoyed that and am warming to this team and Clement

You know something is wrong when Barrow does more defensively in 25 minutes than Swift does in over an hour. And Barrpw did almost no defending.

We do have a tactical problem and it's that we're vulnerable on the flanks due to our shape, but I think it's the lesser of two evils.

Basically, playing 4-3-3 means it's hard for the wide forwards to Do all of the following:
- press high
- be available to attack
- link with the striker
- support their fullback in defence.

The answer is 4-4-2 / 4-5-1 with conventional wingers or 3-5-2 with wing backs. But there are problems with this.

4-4-2 - We only have one winger who can defend. McCleary. Barrow can't really, Aluko can't and Sims has done very little to suggest he can. Not only this, but our midfield already isn't great, dropping one isn't going to do us any favours. Bacuna is too hit and miss. Maybe when Eza is fit, but that doesn't solve the wingers.

4-5-1 - This has the same winger problem, but solves midfield by leaving us with one utterly isolated striker and will almost certainly harm our ability to score.

3-5-2 - This allows a CB to support which ever wingback is under attack. But then your wing backs are more likely to be AWOL and none of them are reliable enough as forward creative outlets. Plus it makes our forwards quite narrow.

Leeds and Stoke were particularly bad examples of this vulnerability because of the total lack of support given by a frankly abominable Swift, either as left forward v Leeds or LCM v Stoke. Loader also helped out little v Stoke and I think it was Bacuna who was often too busy getting forward to be there v Leeds.

You look at our other flank, and it works much better, because we had GMac helping out a bit and Rino putting in a lot of support. Not perfect by any stretch but better.

I don't think it's the full backs at fault at all, they have to tuck in to support their centre half and get out wide quick when it's spread. They may be a touch narrow, but it's not the main problem.

Put Baldock back in for Loader and either move Swift to just behind Meite or dump him out of the XI for Kelly (or preferably Eza) And you'll see our flank problems significantly improve.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Hail Clements replacement there ^

[muirinho]

Tbf either Bod or Méïté are a big part of our game and neither were fit

Once Bod, Baldock and Meite are all fully fit with have a lot more threat

Missing some seriously important players and getting a draw against a side of Stoke’s quality is a reasonable result really

These players plus Ezatolahi back and we'll be fine. When you think how many first choice players were out today, it was a decent showing of grit and determination to claw back that point.

A lot of those on the pitch today are squad players, not first choices.

Those short corners are woeful though, please get rid.

[EverHopeful]

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

Must have a really big cheek, i reckon. Gunts was fine today and then you critique his failures........he wasn't fine he was merely adequate and slows down any attacking impetus we ever generate and thats pretty rare. not sure we have many others options until players are off the ever expanding injury list but nobody should be satisfied with his performance - his has been indoctrinated by the Stam style and with now young and quick players coming into the team (thanks god), needs to go as soon as possible

I critiqued his failures going forward. Apart from being caught upfield once in the first half he was fine defensively.

Wasn't to blame for the goals (although to be fair i missed their second, as beer was more important) but i want fullbacks to defend in a full blooded way, tackle (gunts rarely does this) and then charge forward. He did put a brilliant cross into the box today which no-one was there to convert but it was nevertheless done. my problem is he slows everything down far too much and disrupts the way i think Clement wants to play. we are not good enough to sit deep and play out as Bacuna also showed today on many occasions. we need to be absorb pressure and break quickly team - look at the difference when Meite came on and if we can replicate this type of approach with Loader (who on first impressions looks decent) together with the pace of Rinomhota we could surprise quite a few i think

[Zip]

Must have a really big cheek, i reckon. Gunts was fine today and then you critique his failures........he wasn't fine he was merely adequate and slows down any attacking impetus we ever generate and thats pretty rare. not sure we have many others options until players are off the ever expanding injury list but nobody should be satisfied with his performance - his has been indoctrinated by the Stam style and with now young and quick players coming into the team (thanks god), needs to go as soon as possible

I critiqued his failures going forward. Apart from being caught upfield once in the first half he was fine defensively.

Wasn't to blame for the goals (although to be fair i missed their second, as beer was more important) but i want fullbacks to defend in a full blooded way, tackle (gunts rarely does this) and then charge forward. He did put a brilliant cross into the box today which no-one was there to convert but it was nevertheless done. my problem is he slows everything down far too much and disrupts the way i think Clement wants to play. we are not good enough to sit deep and play out as Bacuna also showed today on many occasions. we need to be absorb pressure and break quickly team - look at the difference when Meite came on and if we can replicate this type of approach with Loader (who on first impressions looks decent) together with the pace of Rinomhota we could surprise quite a few i think

I can certainly agree that he slows us down and I find it infuriating. However he was getting abuse today for playing narrow when he was clearly doing so under instruction.
He managed to do enough defensively today.

[Zip]

Got to say Ian that’s an excellent in-depth analysis. Have you been on the sauce?

[Zip]

Tbf either Bod or Méïté are a big part of our game and neither were fit

Once Bod, Baldock and Meite are all fully fit with have a lot more threat

Missing some seriously important players and getting a draw against a side of Stoke’s quality is a reasonable result really

These players plus Ezatolahi back and we'll be fine. When you think how many first choice players were out today, it was a decent showing of grit and determination to claw back that point.

A lot of those on the pitch today are squad players, not first choices.

Those short corners are woeful though, please get rid.

I’m sick of the short corners. I think we had three with none of them ending up with a cross into the box.

[tee peg]

Got to say Ian that’s an excellent in-depth analysis. Have you been on the sauce?

Agree with AS . A manager in waiting.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Might need a booster cushion in his dug-out seat,mind.

[Lower West]

Must have a really big cheek, i reckon. Gunts was fine today and then you critique his failures........he wasn't fine he was merely adequate and slows down any attacking impetus we ever generate and thats pretty rare. not sure we have many others options until players are off the ever expanding injury list but nobody should be satisfied with his performance - his has been indoctrinated by the Stam style and with now young and quick players coming into the team (thanks god), needs to go as soon as possible

I critiqued his failures going forward. Apart from being caught upfield once in the first half he was fine defensively.

Wasn't to blame for the goals (although to be fair i missed their second, as beer was more important) but i want fullbacks to defend in a full blooded way, tackle (gunts rarely does this) and then charge forward. He did put a brilliant cross into the box today which no-one was there to convert but it was nevertheless done. my problem is he slows everything down far too much and disrupts the way i think Clement wants to play. we are not good enough to sit deep and play out as Bacuna also showed today on many occasions. we need to be absorb pressure and break quickly team - look at the difference when Meite came on and if we can replicate this type of approach with Loader (who on first impressions looks decent) together with the pace of Rinomhota we could surprise quite a few i think

Stoke appeared to tire as the game wore on. Fresh legs often appear to stand out. As was the case of Meite and Barrow today. Given the players available. Today was a credible performance.

Swift is still only 23. Years of football ahead of him yet. Will get better.

[Longhorn1970]

Gunts was fine today. Stoke targeted our left flank in the first half and it meant that Gunter was outnumbered with Swift and GMac not backing him up. . He also drifted infield leaving the flank exposed but that would have been because he was playing under instruction. He did get caught upfield fairly early on when Stoke counter attacked but by and large he did enough defensively.

He didn’t do enough going forward. He won a corner in the first half but in the second put in a poor cross which went straight into the hands of the keeper. Overall though he was solid.

How far is your tongue in your cheek...........

Must have a really big cheek, i reckon. Gunts was fine today and then you critique his failures........he wasn't fine he was merely adequate and slows down any attacking impetus we ever generate and thats pretty rare. not sure we have many others options until players are off the ever expanding injury list but nobody should be satisfied with his performance - his has been indoctrinated by the Stam style and with now young and quick players coming into the team (thanks god), needs to go as soon as possible

Gunter is not a left back. For the most part he's out of position and unable to win a 50/50 because he's too far away. Get a left back in from Div 1 if needs be or a kid from the PL on loan.

[tidus_mi2]

The first thing that stood out to me was in the first half how exposed Gunter was, he was constantly left 2vs1 as the supporting winger had cut inside and hadn't bothered to get back out to do defensive duties.