by Ted Hughes » Mon May 20, 2013 9:06 am
Even though yesterday resembled a school yard kickabout at times for both teams, I think there were areas of genuine concern which imo show that it's not going to be piss easy for Pellegrini or whoever to automatically change the style of play from Mancini's method.
At Reading, we were much better from an attacking point of view, but when we lost the ball we were wide open. Reading were shit.
Against Norwich, we were also a shambles in midfield when we lost the ball. Ok, it was an experimental team & the players were clearly running on empty, but Rodwell for instance, even though he himself had a great game, does not offer the same kind of cover & protection for the defence as Barry or DeJong. Yaya was a fucking joke, but he is useless in that area too.
The third option, as some people were asking for when he signed; Nasri went in there & was like a ghost. Garcia appears not to be an option (& Pellegrini binned him immediately last time their paths crossed).
Rodwell & Yaya played together v Dortmund & Dortmund ran straight through them. They played to gether v Norwich & Norwich ran straight through them.
It's all well & good saying we should have a deep lying playmaker here & a box to box player there, but if we have no fucker actually protecting the defence, on occasion you get goals like Norwich's third.
The next manager is going to have to solve this problem if we are to play the all out attacking football people crave & also compete for the league etc.
Mancini found a method that worked for a season, then we were sussed. We will never know what he would have done next but if it just involved bunging Jack Rodwell next to Yaya, I don't think it would have worked for very long.
The pissartist formerly known as Ted
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