1 hour ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Pep is ripping rewards this season by playing a defensive focused fullback, I doubt he will buy a Chiwell or Davies. As good as Cancelo going forward, his poor defence has cost City in the first part of the season. Even Pep is playing a bit safe in the second half of the season. It's a back 4 on paper, but easily turn to a back 3 when defending.

For me Chilwell, like James, are excellent defensively in an actual organized defence.

A bit unfair to lump Ben in with Davies, unless we are talking injury comparison...

On 31/05/2023 at 10:30, El regreso said:

Tactics haven’t moved on coaches are still using philosophies from the 70/80/90’s it’s just that some coaches have the ability to exploit other coaches players/systems better than others which is what makes them elite.

If tactics have moved on Jose wouldn’t be reaching finals anymore nor Carlo. 
There is some evolution in tactics but it’s still essentially the same make people outperform the opposition.

 

I do agree with that. The major change in tactics and it is a deliberate FA guideline down to grass roots level (which I am involved in)  is playing out from the back. Which to me you have to have the ball playing modern defenders to be able to do that. Personally I have too many heart in mouth moments watching it ! 

Essentially you are right, how many teams resort to a punt down the field needing a goal in the last 5 mins.

7 hours ago, axman2526 said:

For me Chilwell, like James, are excellent defensively in an actual organized defence.

A bit unfair to lump Ben in with Davies, unless we are talking injury comparison...

Not the Spur Davies, Alfonso Davies from Bayern. I wouldn't say Chiwell and James excellent defensively, they are good. If you want protect a lead in the second leg of a CL tie, I'd pick Ake and Azpi ( from 2-3 seasons ago)

James is excellent defensively.

2 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

James is excellent defensively.

Absolutely.

25 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

James is excellent defensively.

Of course he is, where has this strange notion that he cant defend come from?

23 hours ago, evissy said:

Football itself is the same. The way players want to play is different. Managers biggest problem still lies in getting his message through to players. 

 

This. 

If you read twitter, everyone is obsessed with player need to be in position a, b n c. You will often read why this manager is clueless, why not do this and this?

Knowing the problem is by far the easiest part. Teams employ analyst that watch the game from better angle than us. They know the problem more than us. 

How do you solve it and as you said how do you deliver the message to your player is by far the hardest part.

That is why most of the time the solution is to sign better player. 🤣🤣🤣

 

2 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Not the Spur Davies, Alfonso Davies from Bayern. I wouldn't say Chiwell and James excellent defensively, they are good. If you want protect a lead in the second leg of a CL tie, I'd pick Ake and Azpi ( from 2-3 seasons ago)

Davies is decent defensively and immense going forward. Imo both Ben and Reece are excellent defensively.

I would have Ashley Cole ahead of both Ake and Ben though.

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

This. 

If you read twitter, everyone is obsessed with player need to be in position a, b n c. You will often read why this manager is clueless, why not do this and this?

Knowing the problem is by far the easiest part. Teams employ analyst that watch the game from better angle than us. They know the problem more than us. 

How do you solve it and as you said how do you deliver the message to your player is by far the hardest part.

That is why most of the time the solution is to sign better player. 🤣🤣🤣

 

That's the thing, I do believe the average fan does have a good idea on what to do in laymans terms.

Where the coaches come in is implementing it on the training ground which is the hard part, many fans think the players are more important than the coaches and ofcourse not even the best coaches can perform their magic without the right tools but there's a reason you have to go through multiple courses and collect the appropriate badges to be able to coach even lower down the pyramid. If it was as straight forward as picking 11 players and telling them to score more than their opponents the coaches would be ten a penny and on a similar wage to the "normal" staff.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Where the coaches come in is implementing it on the training ground which is the hard part, many fans think the players are more important than the coaches and ofcourse not even the best coaches can perform their magic without the right tools but there's a reason you have to go through multiple courses and collect the appropriate badges to be able to coach even lower down the pyramid. If it was as straight forward as picking 11 players and telling them to score more than their opponents the coaches would be ten a penny and on a similar wage to the "normal" staff.

 

8 minutes ago, just said:

 

No manager would ever allow their detailed talks/sessions to be filmed, if they did every other manager on the planet would go over it with a fine tooth comb.

23 minutes ago, just said:

 

Great character Cloughie, I love listening to his old players describing their times playing for him,Mark Crossley has some great stories.The game lacks these characters now.

13 minutes ago, Argo said:

No manager would ever allow their detailed talks/sessions to be filmed, if they did every other manager on the planet would go over it with a fine tooth comb.

I wonder which tactics Pochettino will use? We have certainly seen a lot of tactical plan 3 from this coaching video.

 

5 hours ago, Bob stark said:

This. 

If you read twitter, everyone is obsessed with player need to be in position a, b n c. You will often read why this manager is clueless, why not do this and this?

Knowing the problem is by far the easiest part. Teams employ analyst that watch the game from better angle than us. They know the problem more than us. 

How do you solve it and as you said how do you deliver the message to your player is by far the hardest part.

That is why most of the time the solution is to sign better player. 🤣🤣🤣

 

Who the f**k reads twitter?

5 hours ago, Backbiter said:

James is excellent defensively.

He's good, but I think he still has a lot to learn. He tends to have games where he's not switched on. 

6 hours ago, Backbiter said:

James is excellent defensively.

Lets just say he has far more room to improve defensively that offensively!!!

I don't think there is a fullback that's amazing at both ends. Marcelo was one of the best attacking fullbacks I've seen but even he had his flaws defensively, just like many other fullbacks who are good at attack. James is actually very good defensively, he's going to make errors with how far he gets himself up the pitch but that's just how it goes. Overall he's an amazing player, unfortunately, he's made out of glass, that's the only problem I have with him. 

Imo James and Chilwell both offensively and defensively were immense from when Tuchel took over til when they got injured. Since then they haven't reached the same heights but tbf to them the whole team struggled. Chilwell and Rudiger had a solid partnership on the left as did Azpil and James. With the decline of Azpil I think we've needed to restructure the defense for a long while. 

Will be interesting to see if Pochettino can get us working in a back 4. Can he can get James and Chilwell performing at similarly high levels when they play fullback like when they played wingback. 

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Davies is decent defensively and immense going forward. Imo both Ben and Reece are excellent defensively.

I would have Ashley Cole ahead of both Ake and Ben though.

In fairness he's getting on a bit now though 

2 hours ago, Kev56 said:

Who the f**k reads twitter?

about 30.000 fans each game..a lot 🙂

12 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

. 

Will be interesting to see if Pochettino can get us working in a back 4. Can he can get James and Chilwell performing at similarly high levels when they play fullback like when they played wingback. 

That's arguably the mos exciting detail of Pochettino.

Walker and Rose (until his injury) were genuine world class fullbacks on his watch and they started at a much lower level (than James/Chilwell) when he inherited them. Them and Dembele were the three players I'd have added to Conte's title winning team if I had the chance.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

In fairness he's getting on a bit now though 

I would take a 50 year old Ashley Cole over Cucurella though. 

Messi's available

I think Pochettino will plan for a team without James. I would. Just too injury prone. And he does switch off in defence in a way that Ashley Cole did not. But that doesn’t matter the injuries do. 

The biggest thing I have against James is that he can be lazy quite often with his decision making and defending. Apart from that, he’s absolutely brilliant.