Firstly, great performance yesterday. Thought the team were excellent throughout.
I think it showed the team are buying into TC tactics and he very deliberately setup to nullify Forest from playing out at the back.
The issue with this type of pressing is the sheer physical exertion required. It is ok if you are doing it in short bursts and then keeping the ball for a long period but we didn't do this and haven't for a while.
Therefore I would prefer us to invest the Wood money in 2-3 players capable of playing as part of the top 4 as these lads really put the miles in. If we had a couple of options for each position it could allow us to keep the early season aggression in our play to hunt the opposition down.
Interested to know what you all think or reasons for spending big on a talisman up top.
MOT
Cover
posted on 27/8/17
Excellent post. Couldn't agree more. Love watching us press like that. Every single one of the team put in a mammoth defensive shift these past two games. But it will take its toll over the season.
posted on 27/8/17
Agree
I'd go three £5m quality players
posted on 27/8/17
Agree that quality and quantity needed when playing a high intensity game and that's already being quietly addressed with signings and with certain players looking like completely different players to last season - the 3 subs we brought on yesterday - Dallas, Grot, Vieira - certainly didn't look downgrades on the players they replaced. That's with Berardi and Pennington injured and Wood gone in the week.
Really hope we look to build from a position of early strength something we've failed to do in the past.
posted on 27/8/17
It's the Barcelona 6 second rule for pressing... works great when you can play keep ball like they can, harder for everyone else. I felt yesterday we were great for 20-25 mins then lost our way a bit, stopped keeping possession, started going longer... it could be we were catching breath.
Second half we exploited the space as they chased the game.
Agree you need legs, a footballing brain and team discipline to do it. With bridcutt going are we now actually short if cover in central mid... after having a glut... don't think klich is mr mobile.
posted on 27/8/17
... meant to say and agree another front 3 player plus striker would be good... though may be hard to keep them all happy.
posted on 27/8/17
Good article. Personally, I think we already have good cover and my preference would be a quality striker who we can rely upon to hit over 20 goals. Add a striker who can make the difference in those tight games or ones where the midfield isn't clicking.
That would leave us with 4 centremids (+ Anita), 6 players who can play across those 3 attacking positions, and 4 strikers if you include Roofe in both those sets. TC is going to rotate a bit I imagine, he's already said that against Fulham with those changes.
posted on 27/8/17
Whilst I agree with the OP, imo when we get the ball we slow things down to play at our pace which is no bad thing, yesterday we had to close the trees down quickly as they were trying to play a high intensity game against us, we had to nullify that threat, I thought we used the ball well.....yeah there maybe a danger of burn out, but I can't ssre many other teams playing withw the kind of intensity forest did....
posted on 27/8/17
We are assuming we have £15m to spend here.......
It seems we knew Wood was probably leaving a while back.
We have brought in £15m Wood, £5m Taylor, £1m Bridcutt £0.5m Silvestri =£21.75M
We have bought Sacko £1.5m, Alioski £1.5m, Saiz £3.0m, Wiedwald £0.5m, Ekubam £0.5M, Klich £1.5m, Jansson £3.5m, Grot £0.75m = £12.75M
Elland Road = £20M
Terminating contracts - Diagouraga,Green, Bellusci, Doukara usually costs some money
Possible Loan fees Pennington and Jackson
Have we already spent up?