Just now, Bob stark said:

Actually no, in modern football everyone need to defend. You can get away with 1 or maybe 2 player not defending but it is difficult to defend with only 7 player + gk. 

West Ham isn't attacking with 7 players either. At best it was 4, you don't need everyone to defend against that

His passing is actually pretty dangerous, makes it even more criminal how few times Cucurella gave the ball. 

He is going to take time, considering this is pretty much preseason for him.

9 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Actually no, in modern football everyone need to defend. You can get away with 1 or maybe 2 player not defending but it is difficult to defend with only 7 player + gk. 

Going to have to disagree. The whole point of an attacking full-back is based on the philosophy that the best way to defend is to attack. If we have a fullback pressing up the patch, the opponent's wingers will press back leaving room for both our fullback and winger. Cucu sitting deep just forces Murdyk back and invites the opposition onto us.

Edited February 11, 20233 yr by Frankie8Lampard

28 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Hmmm it is actually a bit of both. Murdyk need to track back more. 

He was solid defensively though; IMO he was isolated on the left, and players were too slow in picking him out before he was doubled up on.

7 minutes ago, ducavis said:

He was solid defensively though; IMO he was isolated on the left, and players were too slow in picking him out before he was doubled up on.

I completely agree that we need to get the ball to him faster but he need to track back more. 

We are defending in 4231 shape which essentially a 442 in 442 you need both of your winger to track back. 

Or you can always ask Felix to track back more

Edited February 11, 20233 yr by Bob stark

This is looking like Timo all over I seen him make runs and what the f**k do we do PASS THE BALL BACK rather that play it in behind.

Just now, ducavis said:

He was solid defensively though; IMO he was isolated on the left, and players were too slow in picking him out before he was doubled up on.

Agreed.

He, like everybody in the ground, everybody at home watching, every player on the pitch, and every person on both benches, bar one, knew exactly where the weak link was and there he had no option but to defend. Just as well on one particular occasion that I can recall.

This already is showing the hallmarks of a fantastic player with great potential being killed by either or poor tactics or woeful management. 

This kid is in pre season. We need to build an effective offensive unit, which now and again today we showed signs of, and then let Mudryk by out outlier, our gem. I see parallels with early Giggs actually.

Playing our slow, tepid football Potter-esque football isn’t going to bring the best out of him unfortunately. We faff about so much with the ball that we just play in front of teams. We’re not utilising his strengths at all. 

I thought he was good up front today, trying to make things happen and linked up well with Felix. I’m looking forward to see more of him. Defensively, in my opinion, he’s got to do more. West Ham overloaded our left flank and it left Cucurella in 1 v 2 situations a fair amount of times. If you rewatch their goal, Mudryck is only arriving to cover the cross once the ball has been crossed. Certainly Cucurella should have been closer to the man, but he was trying to cover a big space in our left side. Overall, I’d like to see Mudryck and Chilwell playing together, but it will take time for the new players to gel whether with Cucu or with Chilwell.

He was good against Pool, but after that, nothing.

Keep saying it doesn't matter who we put in the attack if our mids can't get them on the ball in dangerous situations.

 

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Playing our slow, tepid football Potter-esque football isn’t going to bring the best out of him unfortunately. We faff about so much with the ball that we just play in front of teams. We’re not utilising his strengths at all. 

This is a really important point actually. During commentary Jermaine Jenas (whose name rhymes what what I think of him) said Chelsea have dominated the game but they just don't pay attention to the details. It's a similar point to the one you are making and one I have made a number of times.

Our care of the ball is shocking really. We kind of get away with it because teams drop off when we are in possession,  but the amount of misplaced passes to free players who then have to go and retrieve the ball, the amount of over hit or wayward balls. The amount of under weight passes or passes to the wrong feet. Players taking 2 and 3 touches to get the ball under control.

It's careless, a lack of attention, lazy play from players who lack pride in their work. What I like about Felix already is his care of the ball and the control he exudes. He entertains. Havertz was taking 3 touches just to control the ball today.

It seems minor, but all of these minor elements of untidiness erodes confidence and attritionally wears away at our dominance so that the opposition gain confidence in shutting us down and forcing us into mistakes. You're not going to go in tight on Enzo because he'll mug you off, but Gallagher, absolutely cos he'll probably trip up or miscontrol when under pressure.

The small details are the most important!

Edited February 11, 20233 yr by WhiteWall

I hope mudryk kicks on , I really do. I'm getting nervous that he might have been a political signing and for the record, I hope he isn't   ...

That reverse pass for Kai, who should have stayed onside for the goal, was really tasty. I just think we can't have both him and Madueke right now as they're both a bit soft tactically. Sterling in the right, rotating with Madueke would be good. 

And so it continues. Apparently the Metro are now reporting that Mudryk liked a tweet criticising Cucurella.

This is the campaign right here.

The boy has only just joined. Firstly it was all the Arsenal bollox. Then the racism rubbish about repeating a song lyrics, then it was him being dragged at half time. Now this.

He's only been here for three games and is playing in front of the weakest player in the team, on today's showing.

To$$ers. Leave the kid alone.

It frustrates me that nobody has picked up on this campaign against us. Maybe we should do one of those All or Nothing series, with over hyped narrative,  over exuberant and totally false celebrations , and a massive PR campaign. Nah, fck em all

5 minutes ago, venom2011 said:

That reverse pass for Kai, who should have stayed onside for the goal, was really tasty. I just think we can't have both him and Madueke right now as they're both a bit soft tactically. Sterling in the right, rotating with Madueke would be good. 

Still not totally convinced by Madueke.  Jinking runs and a decent enough  shot, put cannot physically pass the ball. Gets turned over constantly. 

4 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Still not totally convinced by Madueke.  Jinking runs and a decent enough  shot, put cannot physically pass the ball. Gets turned over constantly. 

Yeah, Looks to me like a chicken with his head cut off, kind of like another Cucaracha

We all got a bit too excited about that cameo at Liverpool, back to the daily grind of against teams park the bus around their box. I don't think those comparisons of him to Robben helps, he needs time to learn his trade an adjust to a much better league, even he carries a huge price tag

9 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

We all got a bit too excited about that cameo at Liverpool, back to the daily grind of against teams park the bus around their box. I don't think those comparisons of him to Robben helps, he needs time to learn his trade an adjust to a much better league, even he carries a huge price tag

You also need to either buy players that fit into an already system, or you have a specific pattern that you can go to when these types of players are on the pitch to utilise their strengths.

Playing a slow, passing game in front of a team that backs off and a full back that isn't even lifting his head and looking for you, is just never going to work.

10 hours ago, Phillip said:

Yeah, Looks to me like a chicken with his head cut off, kind of like another Cucaracha

I thought he was quite good to be honest.

The guy has to play on the same side as Cucurella  

everytime fraud brings on Chilwell he takes him off FFS

Until we start moving the ball quicker and playing balls in behind we will not see the best of this. Get the ball to him quickly so he can use his pace or better yet stop the slow sloth style of football.

This is on potter really, he isn’t using him to his full ability.

The reason he  look fantastic against Liverpool was the space and how quickly we balled the ball into him.

20 hours ago, venom2011 said:

That reverse pass for Kai, who should have stayed onside for the goal, was really tasty. I just think we can't have both him and Madueke right now as they're both a bit soft tactically. Sterling in the right, rotating with Madueke would be good. 

I thought he did say inside. Swarbrick was completely corrupt in multiple VAR instances. This one, he drew the line at Havertz’s elbow. If he draws it higher up where he should have, he’s inside and it’s a goal.

The broadcast here in the US never showed a clear replay of the offside Felix goal, either. It looked very close on the 2 second still frame.

3 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

I thought he did say inside. Swarbrick was completely corrupt in multiple VAR instances. This one, he drew the line at Havertz’s elbow. If he draws it higher up where he should have, he’s inside and it’s a goal.

The broadcast here in the US never showed a clear replay of the offside Felix goal, either. It looked very close on the 2 second still frame.

Felix was more offside than Rice, who was clearly off and did not need 2 monute review, unless you are looking for ways to allow the goal of course.

Kai was very, very close.

Hair like Torres, position like Werner. Something about this transfer just feels off to me, as good as a player as he might be