1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

Reece lost us the game today. For a professional footballer to casually loft a pass to the Leicester player like he did for the goal is inexcusable. Say whatever we like about offside goals, ineffectual forward play, wrong selections - but the fact is that it was down to Reece that they scored when they did. The man needs to sharpen the f**k up, and stop making braindead decisions.

He played very well. His pass was intercepted by Perez's hand.

As with the Arsenal game, the defence was actually excellent 99.9% of the game

 They didn't have a single shot on target other than the goal, which Kape went for with the wrong hand.

Thought James was fine, but we lost his rampaging runs down the wing for sure. Azpi wasn't at it offensively. 

9 hours ago, turnyitb said:

Played well today but wasted in that position. Be interesting to hear Tommy’s reasoning behind it.

Couldnt disagree more, infact the fact he hasn't played this hybrid RCB position is the only serious consistent gripe I've held against TT so far, it's was the position that he played in today that elevated him to star prospect and as a result our first team in the first place.

If 3atb is our long term formation then that is 100% the position he belongs.

21 minutes ago, Argo said:

Couldnt disagree more, infact the fact he hasn't played this hybrid RCB position is the only serious consistent gripe I've held against TT so far, it's was the position that he played in today that elevated him to star prospect and as a result our first team in the first place.

If 3atb is our long term formation then that is 100% the position he belongs.

It is the ideal evolution of this system. It is what Chris Wilder did with much poorer players and suffered when his key backline got injured.

With our resources you have that one centerback general Silva (Egan) and the side centerbacks offering the ability to get up and down, James (Basham) and Chilwell (O'Connell), and support to break down deeper defences or to sit in more against more offensive teams. 

Silva is getting on and questions will be ask if James and Chilwell could person those roles well.

The theory is sound though. We are struggling to break sides down and, in the main, Christensen, Dave, Zouma and Ruidger are useless at providing any attacking threat bar attacking setpieces for the latter too.

So imagine it against a parked Wolves, or Brighton or whoever:

 

Mendy

 

James

Silva

Chilwell

 

CHO

Kovacic

Kante

Pulisic

 

Havertz

Abraham

Mount

 

Change players with whoever you feel we could get in the market but now you have here Chilwell and Pulisic combining down the left, James and CHO down the right all the while having Mount, Tammy and Kai more central and not needed out wide, while both sets of wide players have the pace and energy to get up and down.

Lots of bodies to attack and defend together.

We are failing so dramatically up front not just cause our strikers are poor at finishing, but we lack bodies getting forward to create too. Our problems offensively are that regularly picked Dave, Rudiger and Christensen offer us nothing going forward.

 

 

Edited May 16, 20215 yr by axman2526

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Couldnt disagree more, infact the fact he hasn't played this hybrid RCB position is the only serious consistent gripe I've held against TT so far, it's was the position that he played in today that elevated him to star prospect and as a result our first team in the first place.

If 3atb is our long term formation then that is 100% the position he belongs.

But I’m not so sure 3 at the back will or should be our long term formation. 

8 hours ago, Backbiter said:

He played very well. His pass was intercepted by Perez's hand.

I thought he played well as well. Nullified vardy all game...
 

...but all that was undone when he passed the ball directly to the Leicester player. Inexcusable brain fart and lack of concentration that cost is the cup. 

Just now, nonotnowjim said:

I thought he played well as well. Nullified vardy all game...
 

...but all that was undone when he passed the ball directly to the Leicester player. Inexcusable brain fart and lack of concentration that cost is the cup. 

Yes, he was the one that made the mistake leading to the winning goal, but let's face it, if it hadn't been James, it would have been somebody else. And the entire team were too insipid to step up and fight our way back in. This loss is on the team and on the manager together.

1 minute ago, Valerie said:

Yes, he was the one that made the mistake leading to the winning goal, but let's face it, if it hadn't been James, it would have been somebody else. And the entire team were too insipid to step up and fight our way back in. This loss is on the team and on the manager together.

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

I agree val that the team looked toothless, and share your concerns about trajectory and lack of action to remedy it. But we can't rewrite the game.

Without that lapse of concentration, the score is 0v0. We may or may not have let in a different goal, and we may or may not have scored the winner. But his error lost us the cup. The same as jorgis error lost us the game against arsenal. 

James, for a player wanting to play at the highest level makes some shockingly bad decisions, mostly around his offensive passing. Yesterday his passing from defence was what cost us. 

3 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

I agree val that the team looked toothless, and share your concerns about trajectory and lack of action to remedy it. But we can't rewrite the game.

Without that lapse of concentration, the score is 0v0. We may or may not have let in a different goal, and we may or may not have scored the winner. But his error lost us the cup. The same as jorgis error lost us the game against arsenal. 

James, for a player wanting to play at the highest level makes some shockingly bad decisions, mostly around his offensive passing. Yesterday his passing from defence was what cost us. 

However we look at it, it's not getting any better or hopeful, is it...

Decent performance by him in the hybrid position again.

Hopefully if this is the formation going forward we sign a natural RWB (Lamptey back?) and put him there permanently. 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Decent performance by him in the hybrid position again.

Hopefully if this is the formation going forward we sign a natural RWB (Lamptey back?) and put him there permanently. 

I hope we play a back 4 next season despite the fact that we look good defensively with this back 3 formation so basically my opinion goes against the logic here but I think as much as this helps our defenders it doesn't help our attackers, I think Werner and Havertz would be better in a different formation...

Otherwise can see if Conte would like to sell Hakimi he looks pretty good in that position but I doubt he would want to sell him.

Defensively been excellent these past 2 games. Especially on the physical side of winning headers and winning one vs one battles.

Dont see the need for him to start RCB again last night, surely Azpi, Silva and Rudiger can deal with Jamie Vardy. Vardy has only scored 2 goals in about 25 games.

Reece was class in midfield today

5 hours ago, rtwelch said:

Reece was class in midfield today

He was, but he did start off a little iffy at first; after that he was great.

I find Kovacic and Jorginho quite a boring midfield pairing, and we need to improve on that next season to be able to challenge.

7 hours ago, rtwelch said:

Reece was class in midfield today

Longterm I would like to see him get a run there, he has all the tools needed would be just a case of seeing if he develops well enough there.

There is talk he could get the cut from this 33 man England squad in favour of TTA, Walker and Trippier, I know the competition for that place is high but that would be mad.

3 minutes ago, Term_X said:

There is talk he could get the cut from this 33 man England squad in favour of TTA, Walker and Trippier, I know the competition for that place is high but that would be mad.

That would be a shame for him as he offers versatility and has had a good season.

However I would drop him form the starting 11 for Saturday. 

A  big game saturday in the right position hopefully and he will be undroppable by Southgate!

People claiming that Pep has made a mistake with Sterling, I think in this match he could put every player and James was stopping him.

What a performance in the CL final! What a feeling for academy player to lift that trophy and starting in the final!

He came of age tonight defensively. Will only improve from now on. 

Excellent tonight, absolutely f**king excellent. I’ve had doubts about Reece defensively before, understandable given his age. Performances like that though are that of a seasoned pro. He pocketed Sterling which isn’t easy with his pace, even the couple of times it looked like he’d been beaten he managed to get back and recover to stop him. That was such a mature performance from a young lad in a Champions League final.
 

Truly incredible, the sky truly is the limit for him if he can consistently deliver performances even close to that, I thought he was faultless.

A fantastic game from him tonight.😀

Every time Sterling had the ball and attacked down his side I worried. Ha, why though? Reece not only tracked his every movement but on the occasion where Sterling got passed him, Reece simply stepped across and used his incredible strength to hold him off and rob the ball. 
It’s a simply game when it comes down to it eh? 

Brilliant tonight, what a star!