Relatively happy with the point today, 3 would have been great but we did not deserve to win so happy with the 1 point.
My main gripe with harry's team selection today was playing modric on the right. Apart from maybe King we all agree that modric is probably our most important/best player. Therefore i was shocked that harry decided to play him on the right. He clearly plays better in the centre and him and parker had built up a good partnership in the middle recently, especially against liverpool at home.
Therefore i was surprised harry played modders on the right where he clearly did not look comfortable and his poor attempt at a tackle led to the first goal and their 2nd goal came from the right as well. This, coupled with the fact both our centre mids gave the ball away far to easily today and did not give the service bale or vdv needed to thrive.
I know there were not many other options (if any), but i would rather have seen vdv on the right or gio (i know this would not have improved our defence down the right but at least we would have kept the ball in midfield a lot better in midfield.
I know hindsight is a wonderful thing!But just felt we may have got more from the game if we had adopted the approach i suggested.
Anyway, happy enough with a point and bring on rubin and then blackburn.
Why play our best player out of position?
posted on 16/10/11
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 16/10/11
he started modric on the left really which is less out of position for him. but then we had bale out of position on the right.
bale was pretty woeful today to be honest.
i agree on modric though. play your best players in their best positions.
posted on 16/10/11
Bale has been brilliant on the right for Wales so you can't blame him for trying it out. Nor can you blame him for changing it when it wasn't working. But to be frank we just didn't play that well today.
Parker wasn't at his efficient best - not that I'm singling him out by any means but he has been making such a difference lately. But we do have a problem with options in defence (more so if Ledley and Walker are out from today), midfield (without the Lennon option or Sandro to help out Parker with the dirty work) and then we come to the VDV/JD conundrum in attack. Our injuries aren't helping.
posted on 16/10/11
OP - I think you've recognised that we didn't have many options - VDV would've spent all of 30 seconds out on the right, and Gio's not a winger. We should give credit to Newcastle - their midfield in particular stopped us playing our usual game.
As ddd says - one of either Kranjcar, Sandro, Lennon or Pienaar could have made a big difference today. Considering they were all out it was a good result
posted on 17/10/11
Yeah the injuries really did make it hard for harry. I remember someone posting a few weeks back that we had risen up the injury table league... Well that lasted a long time didn't it!!! Back to having half a team injured again i suppose!
posted on 17/10/11
Modric was pretty poor against Arsenal, and 'Arry has said before that he wants to start Parker AND Sandro (or Livermore, now) in some games, and that Modric can play "elsewhere" and "in different ways", so I think he is going to have to get used to it.
The big problem yesterday was using two holding players and one striker, but with two of the three players behind the striker having no pace at all. Doesn't work. I think 'Arry will have to bite the bullet and drop one of VDV and Modric if he wants to play two holding mids.
posted on 17/10/11
It annoys me Rafa drops so deep when he's supposed to be playing "up front". Harry should be havin a word with him and saying that "Luka is the playmaker, you're up front". VDV complains when he's given a deeper role but then spends half the game in midfield when he's supposed to be up top.
He doesn't have the pace to cover the ground quickly either so it's usually left up to Bale to try and support Ade, have a word Arry!!
posted on 17/10/11
Well said Eddievh
At the risk or repeating myself maybe we're starting to see why we got VDV on the cheap - great talent, but not a team player
posted on 17/10/11
Maybe he's expected to drop and help out in the middle - especially when we're away and not keeping possession well.