Interesting article and a good read, I have been thinking recently the injury to Rafael is causing our attacking play to suffer, but this article indicates what Moyes may be trying to achieve in terms of a playing style/philosophy.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11979/9054909/is-rafael-the-key
Some slightly concerning stats with our short passing/through balls less than last year, however I think this could resolved with a classy ball playing midfielder and more game time to the likes of Nani(when/if he reaches a good run of form)/Kagawa being played in his preferred position(or Moyes manages him to perform effectively from the left).
Looking forward to tomorrow night, I think it is a must win game as well as Newcastle on the weekend, the run is going well, 12 unbeaten, so Moyes has built some sort off stability results wise, performances however need to improve. I think we will see the return of RvP...
De Gea
Rafael Smalling Vidic Evra
Fellaini Giggs
Valencia Rooney Nani
RvP
Thoughts?
Rafael/Everton
posted on 3/12/13
That realy is a high quality article tbh
Thanks for sharing OP
Hopefully Rafa will make it tomorrow night
posted on 3/12/13
We do desperately need Rafael but the boy can't stay fit, he will probably last 2 or 3 games then he is out for another month and we then have to put up with Smalling again
posted on 3/12/13
Viva
And there is the problem with Rafa.
When he does get injured it always seems to be early in the game, which screws our game plan up and forces us to use a defensive substitution.
posted on 3/12/13
Selecting both Smalling and Cleverly really hampers our creativity. Smalling is probbaly only playing in a PL club because of his height otherwise he doesn't really have any ball skills to talk about.
Our main problem right now seems to be that we select too many defensive players (or less attacking ones) and then rightly end up defending more in the game which puts the focus back on defending. I think, if anything, we should be playing under less pressure this season and try to play a more natural attacking game which used to be the united way. But there seems to be real lack of desire on the part of Moyes to go all out. Nani and Anderson could both have been given mroe chances recently. I know Anderson is a bit of an enigma but I have never seen anything in Cleverly (and even Fellaini) to suggest that they can add creativity to our game. Both are relatively happy to play simple passes and keep themselves away from criticism rather than do anything creative by playing killer passes. Giggs at 40 has a better vision than both of them.
posted on 3/12/13
My comment about Smalling was in context of him playing at fullback. He is a decent quality PL center back though.
posted on 3/12/13
Wicked, I was wondering, there. I was about to ask what you are smoking.
posted on 3/12/13
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posted on 3/12/13
crosses from those positions are not very dangerous.
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maybe from a statistical viewpoint... but they are still important and can lead to attacking play.
use your eyes instead of stats... watch everton when baines can get a cross in quickly rather than having to get to the byline, like most LBs... It causes all kinds of problems... even if the stats say it doesn't create many assists,
posted on 3/12/13
Well the obvious reason why this might be a Bad Thing is in the article: crosses from those positions are not very dangerous.
.............
I would have to imagine that they are more dangerous than not crossing at all.
That is just me though.
posted on 3/12/13
even if the stats say it doesn't create many assists,
Assist stats are really meaningless.
Paul Scholes had very few assisits.