Tactical Analysis

[BLionheart 516]

Here is some analysis to some points that i think need clarification :

1- AVB : A great manager by all great means , can only imagine his half time talk today , how he challenged his players who were trailing by 3 goals to get in the 2nd half and give it their best shot , while most teams would have had a disappointing more insulting 2nd half we have actually been very impressive , him subbing lamps was a superb move which proved what kind of a manager he is .

He IMO outsmarted Ferguson as Man utd on paper had a much better and an in-form team but we were the better side , i can only criticize him for two things : Not starting Luiz who was much needed today and Malouda (unfortunately) should have came instead of lukaku .

2- Lampard : I am one of his greatest admirers and his biggest fan but as mush as it hurts has obviously lost it and he certainly shouldn't be starting as i don't think he adds anything to the team right now but he should only be replaced by a play-maker or McEacheran.

3- Torres : you can talk about his miss all day long but the man is getting back to his former self game by game , give him the time and service he needs and by december you have yourself one of the best strikers in the world , The man actually lead the team to what could have been a historic come back.

4- Defence : high defensive line or any defense should include David luiz in it , our defense without him looks more of an individuals that of a unit , Iva , Terry and Alex have the same strength and weaknesses and they are not much of a pair but Luiz complements Terry and Iva better than they suit each other , with all his controversial tackles he should be in the starting XI next to JT , with Iva on the right in big games.

5-Ramires : he adds an enormous amount of drive and pace to our midfield but his lack of technical ability and ball control is one on the main reasons our midfield looks that bad , he has moments where he just disappears as he losses possession in critical moments of the game and can lose you your control of the field very easily .

McEacheran and/or another CM is much needed and untill AVB fix our midfield enigma , we will lose some midfield battles .

Mata and Sturridge : only a great future awaits ahead

[eldo 868]

Josh is too young.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Points 4 & 5 were very good in the OP here.

Luiz is a must in the high-defensive line. Even if it's at the expense of Terry..

[Guest justin_3d]

I hate to say i told you so, but the Lampard thing i been saying since the pre-season!

Got so much stick for that, and now everyone and their mamma sees this as clear as day light.

Well, good cause we need to improve, not moving backwards.

David Luiz coming back into starting 11 will be a great plus.

At one time i mention of having David Luiz-Ivan as main CB, and i scrap that for this game.

But after seeing Ivan-Terry in this game, then it's back to the David Luiz-Ivan partnership i had in mind!

Agreed with everything else.

Edited September 18, 2011 by justin_3d

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

Sturridge was quite poor today. But it's ok, it was his first start against a big team and Evra was amazing really, would have shut down anyone there.

[coolhead23 1,146]

Here is some analysis to some points that i think need clarification :

1- AVB : A great manager by all great means , can only imagine his half time talk today , how he challenged his players who were trailing by 3 goals to get in the 2nd half and give it their best shot , while most teams would have had a disappointing more insulting 2nd half we have actually been very impressive , him subbing lamps was a superb move which proved what kind of a manager he is .

He IMO outsmarted Ferguson as Man utd on paper had a much better and an in-form team but we were the better side , i can only criticize him for two things : Not starting Luiz who was much needed today and Malouda (unfortunately) should have came instead of lukaku .

2- Lampard : I am one of his greatest admirers and his biggest fan but as mush as it hurts has obviously lost it and he certainly shouldn't be starting as i don't think he adds anything to the team right now but he should only be replaced by a play-maker or McEacheran.

3- Torres : you can talk about his miss all day long but the man is getting back to his former self game by game , give him the time and service he needs and by december you have yourself one of the best strikers in the world , The man actually lead the team to what could have been a historic come back.

4- Defence : high defensive line or any defense should include David luiz in it , our defense without him looks more of an individuals that of a unit , Iva , Terry and Alex have the same strength and weaknesses and they are not much of a pair but Luiz complements Terry and Iva better than they suit each other , with all his controversial tackles he should be in the starting XI next to JT , with Iva on the right in big games.

5-Ramires : he adds an enormous amount of drive and pace to our midfield but his lack of technical ability and ball control is one on the main reasons our midfield looks that bad , he has moments where he just disappears as he losses possession in critical moments of the game and can lose you your control of the field very easily .

McEacheran and/or another CM is much needed and untill AVB fix our midfield enigma , we will lose some midfield battles .

Mata and Sturridge : only a great future awaits ahead

1. AVB great manager in the making, no doubt on that. The part i liked is that he is ready to chop the player if he is not performing no matter who he is. But i didnt think his strategy was any different than the ones that we have seen till now. Yes it was more of a free flowing football but then understand that we played into Fergerson's plan. Allowing us to come to them and then counter.

2. Completely agree with u on the Lampard

3. The thing with Torres would now be that everyone would remember the miss and make him a laughing stock but no one would remember the goal he scored which i thought was classy

4. Our Defense has been in shambles this season, the confidence of one of the best defense has gone for a real toss. I agree that we needed Luiz today, why? because he is the street smart kind of a player who can help u in the offense (lot of similarity in what Phil Jones did for United). Seriously i would not mind him playing as the CDM (in case we need one) as he can bring lot of dynamics in our midfield. Maybe it is time to bench Terry in a few games now.

5. Ramires: Too good. I would really want Josh to start in the 11 going forward. because if he is our future let's throw him into pool of sharks, no point in saying he is young and not ready.

[Peace. 4,352]

I hate to say i told you so, but the Lampard thing i been saying since the pre-season!

Got so much stick for that, and now everyone and their mamma sees this as clear as day light.

LOL

No no, you weren't getting the stick for the things you were saying on Lampard, you were getting the stick because you were boring.

[Guest justin_3d]

LOL

No no, you weren't getting the stick for the things you were saying on Lampard, you were getting the stick because you were boring.

And was i right? or wrong?

[neel 257]

And was i right? or wrong?

you are always right

[Peace. 4,352]

And was i right? or wrong?

The issue isn't about whether you were right or wrong. It was that you were posting the same thing in each and every post, again and again.

And you know, you are no genius. You weren't the only one to say this, huh....

[Guest justin_3d]

The issue isn't about whether you were right or wrong. It was that you were posting the same thing in each and every post, again and again.

And you know, you are no genius. You weren't the only one to say this, huh....

As my good friend Mourinho would have it put:

[Madmax 9,219]

I expected real analysis when I read the title, Blionheart is great at that.

My 2 cents -

1. I was very impressed with the pressing. We gave them next to no time or space on the ball. No surprise then that they couldn't play their high tempo passing game. If you see the match again, you'll find Rooney has to drop deeper and deeper as the game goes on because they couldn't get him on the ball. But there are a few individual culprits here. Sturridge and Bosingwa didn't close down well enough on the right and it allowed them to shift flanks with long diagonal balls. While most of the blame for their second goal has fallen on Mata, Meireles and Terry were the bigger culprits imo. They should have been breathing down his neck but allowed him to continue his run and Nani took his chance.

2. I wonder if it would be beneficial for Sturridge and Mata to exchange flanks. Once Sturridge picks up the ball on the right you know he's going to cut inside, makes it predictable. Mata on the other hand can drift inside or beat his man on the outside.

3. I picked up on this pre-match and it was validated yesterday - Ivan shouldn't be a CB. He is reckless and has a tendency of going to ground to easily. Him and JT will be exposed by pace all day long so makes no sense to pair two identical defenders against the paciest forwards in the league.

4. Meireles yesterday had too much of his game taken away from him in the first half. He did alright in that position against Sunderland but he needs to be played in a slightly advanced role if we're to get the best out of his attacking talents. Ramires for all his industry and enthusiasm is shocking on the ball. Mikel is more suited for that DM role but he was little more than a slow paperweight after he came on yesterday, doing his cause no good. Yoiu could see Meireles was immediately more threatening and influential as soon as we switched to 4-2-3-1 at HT.

5. If there's one criticism that I can think of against AVB yesterday, it would have to be the Lukaku substitution. I expected us to go 2 upfront but Lukaku was stationed on the right wing and he looked awful.

6. We did our best to get Torres firing yesterday. Balls played between their centre-half and full-back which Nando used his pace to latch onto (twice - for the Ramires chance and the goal). Nice to see.

[Blue Armour 4,158]

I expected real analysis when I read the title, Blionheart is great at that.

My 2 cents -

1. I was very impressed with the pressing. We gave them next to no time or space on the ball. No surprise then that they couldn't play their high tempo passing game. If you see the match again, you'll find Rooney has to drop deeper and deeper as the game goes on because they couldn't get him on the ball. But there are a few individual culprits here. Sturridge and Bosingwa didn't close down well enough on the right and it allowed them to shift flanks with long diagonal balls. While most of the blame for their second goal has fallen on Mata, Meireles and Terry were the bigger culprits imo. They should have been breathing down his neck but allowed him to continue his run and Nani took his chance.

2. I wonder if it would be beneficial for Sturridge and Mata to exchange flanks. Once Sturridge picks up the ball on the right you know he's going to cut inside, makes it predictable. Mata on the other hand can drift inside or beat his man on the outside.

3. I picked up on this pre-match and it was validated yesterday - Ivan shouldn't be a CB. He is reckless and has a tendency of going to ground to easily. Him and JT will be exposed by pace all day long so makes no sense to pair two identical defenders against the paciest forwards in the league.

4. Meireles yesterday had too much of his game taken away from him in the first half. He did alright in that position against Sunderland but he needs to be played in a slightly advanced role if we're to get the best out of his attacking talents. Ramires for all his industry and enthusiasm is shocking on the ball. Mikel is more suited for that DM role but he was little more than a slow paperweight after he came on yesterday, doing his cause no good. Yoiu could see Meireles was immediately more threatening and influential as soon as we switched to 4-2-3-1 at HT.

5. If there's one criticism that I can think of against AVB yesterday, it would have to be the Lukaku substitution. I expected us to go 2 upfront but Lukaku was stationed on the right wing and he looked awful.

6. We did our best to get Torres firing yesterday. Balls played between their centre-half and full-back which Nando used his pace to latch onto (twice - for the Ramires chance and the goal). Nice to see.

Considering the double threat of Evra and Young I think Bosingwa did pretty well to be honest. Mata and Sturridge have to improve on their defensive work. Both full-backs were needlessly exposed.

Agree on using a more versatile CB combo when playing teams like this. Probably AVB felt Luiz didn't have much match practise..Question is who do you drop JT? Ivanovic?

And Valencia's a thug...As soon as he came on he was using his physique to bulldoze into our wingers on the left flank.

[Bear-Felix 16]

1) what the hell is wrong with Cole? That's twice now he's been bossed at OT by both Valencia and Nani. Good players no doubt but not world class, i really shudder to think what will happen if we ever come up against Di Maria or Robben in the CL. He's almost becoming a weak link now against any half-decent winger.

2) this game really should how important Mikel is to us, good analysis on MOTD2 about how RM just left too much space between the lines, things that wouldn't be exposed with Mikel.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I hate to say i told you so, but the Lampard thing i been saying since the pre-season!

Got so much stick for that, and now everyone and their mamma sees this as clear as day light.

Well, good cause we need to improve, not moving backwards.

David Luiz coming back into starting 11 will be a great plus.

At one time i mention of having David Luiz-Ivan as main CB, and i scrap that for this game.

But after seeing Ivan-Terry in this game, then it's back to the David Luiz-Ivan partnership i had in mind!

Agreed with everything else.

Meh, we've all been saying it since before he went down with that hernia in October 2010.

Mata has to play in the CAM role with Malouda or Anelka on the left wing. If it isn't working out, then you have the option to bring on Lampard and put Mata into a wing position.

I also must say that Meireles is continuing to impress me.

[BLionheart 516]

I expected real analysis when I read the title, Blionheart is great at that.

I am flattered

I was actually going to have a real analysis for our start of the season and AVB approach mainly focusing on the Man utd game ... but i ended up writing an incredibly huge article , and i feared it might be boring for some so i wrote only the conclusions.

[BLionheart 516]

For Lampard's case , now it's 100 % clear that he is becoming more of a liability but one point i would like to highlight is that a midfield of Mikel - Ramires - Miereles will suffer badly !! unfortunately we don't have many good options in midfield as for each player there is at least one very big weakness in his game :

Mikel : lacks any kind of drive and pace , also slows down our much needed quick tempo .

Ramires : the opposite of mikel but lacks any kind of technical ability , his passing game is abysmal , he costs us possession at critical moments .

McEacheran : A huge risk ( the risk is not his inexperience but risking him at such young age could block his development )

Lamps : discussed already

Miereles : good at a lot of things but very good at nothing

Essien : Injury prone , during last seasons he raised many questions about whether he will be able to cope with injuries maintaining his level .

3 of them are described as defensive midfielders as they contribute way more defensively than offensively ( Mikel - Essien - Ramires) any midfield we use should only contain one of those if we are to play attacking football .

so unfortunately due to lack of options we better get used to the fact that lampard with all his lost abilities , should be a starter untill we get a new CM or unless we are willing to risk McEacheran .

[dodojojo 510]

1. AVB great manager in the making, no doubt on that. The part i liked is that he is ready to chop the player if he is not performing no matter who he is. But i didnt think his strategy was any different than the ones that we have seen till now. Yes it was more of a free flowing football but then understand that we played into Fergerson's plan. Allowing us to come to them and then counter.

You're right. Man United are happy to play fast counter attacking football and not have some much emphasis on their central midfield. Playing without a DM and with Lampard only encouraged their biggest strength and glossed over their biggest weakness.