Useful Idiot

This ref is obviously a racist and dislikes Japanese people.

That was pretty crap from Gunn.

They think any self propelled vehicle with four wheels is a weird, magical device powered by witchcraft. You can't expect them to be able to tell a bus, a taxi or an ambulance from each other.

I wouldn't. Barnes is a dirty, cynical piece of crap who should pick up more cards than he does. I have no idea how he gets away with half of the stuff he does on the pitch. I'd hate to have him anywhere near the team.

If Ralph picks what he considers to be his strongest available side, I'd expect it to be: 4-2-2-2 ----------------McCarthy--------------- Cedric--Bednarek--Vestergaard--Bertrand -------Hojbjerg-------Romeu------------ ----JWP----------------------Boufal---- ----------Ings---------Adams---------- Subs: Gunn, Yoshida, Danso, Armstrong, Redmond (?), Long, Obafemi Not sure if Redmond will even be on the bench if he needs to rest his ankle. It'd be typical if he tries to do too much too soon and tears a ligament.

I agree, Pusey showed impressive technique to guide that in from outside the box.

Congratulations on winning the most important game of the season for you, you must be very happy! I'll always have a soft spot for Bournemouth. To be honest, I'm glad you put three past our ramshackle defence, might finally get our manager to see the light and play our better players in the positions they belong in when we play more important matches. Must be nice to finally beat us at our place after countless attempts, though... sort of like a bullied little brother who has finally grown up.

Pretty much that for me, too. Alternatively, looking at another way to shield the defence by retaining the ball in midfield better with a 4 ATB fotmation, this might work: -----------------Gunn----------------- Cedric----Bednarek---Yoshida--Bertrand -----------------Romeu---------------- -----------JWP---------Hojbjerg------- -----------------Boufal---------------- ----Redmond---------------Adams----- Depending upon how the game is going, the front 3 could swap to Adams down the middle and Boufal/Redmond playing behind him and wide. You could even play it as a 4-2-3-1 if you wanted, with Hoj playing deep alongside Romeu (although I think we'd struggle to keep the ball as much then).

Poor team selection. Poor performance by the players selected. Playing our two slowest central defenders against pacy forwards doesn't help and Hojbjerg seems to be believing his own hype. He has been pretty terrible so far this season. Very sad that we're miles off Bournemouth in quality. Still think we're going to struggle this season. We've had two lucky wins and put in half a performance against Liverpool and UTD. We have yet to control the majority of a game and our defence is too fragile to frequently get away with that.

What a bunch of tools our defenders are. Utter bullcrap.

Exactly this.

0-0 it is, then!

That's not usually the case in a modern 4-2-3-1 when in transition to attack. Full backs bomb on to provide the width while one of the central midfielders drops back between the centre backs who then split wide. While that happens, the wider players in the 3 attacking midfielders drift inside to create overloads. The average position heat map of a 4-2-3-1 when attacking looks a bit like a sort of a 3 at the back formation, with the defensive central midfielder in the middle of the back 3 while the other central midfielder and the central attacking midfielder move to create passing angles further up the pitch. Similarly, the wider players of the 3 often drop back to defend in a sort of 4-4-1-1 shape, which can drop even deeper into a 4-5-1. That's why we sometimes got hammered on the counter under Poch's 4-2-3-1 by having our fullbacks advanced and being vulnerable to long diagonals.

When those 2 midfielders are the same pair that play in front of 3 centre backs in the formation Ralph used on Saturday (5-2-2-1/3-4-2-1) rather than 2 in a 4-2-3-1, the formation has less security, not more. Hope this helps.

He was poor, yes. First goal came about as a gust of wind took that over Vestergaard's head at the last minute (as he stepped out of the line of defence to win the ball - his role in the formation) and he fell over, but then Stephens failed to get back on the cover which is his main role as the middle centre back in a three. He should have already been dropping into the space behind Vest to cover for him. Main fault is Stephens, and Vest was unlucky with that one and it made him look particularly clumsy. Second goal Vest dropped back in line with Stephens and Barnes got a free run as Bertrand let him move into space while he picked up the winger instead (if Cedric had done that he'd have got roasted). Poor body shape from Vest. as he lost sight of Barnes and ball watched, though. Again, the channel behind him is his biggest weakness. This goal he was particularly at fault for, though Bertrand should have given him or Romeu a call to pick up Barnes when he left him to pick up the winger. Third goal Vest was too slow to get back into position after Bertand messed about letting the ball bounce and got robbed, and Gunn didn't exactly cover himself in glory conceding from that angle, either. So he had a bad game, but the rest of the team didn't precisely cover themselves in glory, either and none of the goals were exclusively his fault. #mypoicscapegoating

Vestergaard had a bad game on Saturday, but overall he's been pretty good this year. He's definitely improved over his performances from last year. I think he needs a proper full back playing on the same flank though, someone who is primarily defensively minded. When he gets isolated he's a liability. He wasn't quite as bad when he had Cedric playing next to him instead of Djenepo.

That's not really the point I'm making, though. Your original post said that picking Djenepo alongside Boufal and JWP didn't stop us from creating loads of chances. My point was that to do that, Ralph had to play one of those players in a defensive role. We created a lot of chances against Sheffield Utd, but they created even more against us. It was their lack of quality in front of goal that let us win. If we had been playing a better team, then we would have drawn (at best). If we play an even more open formation against better teams than Sheffield Utd, we'll probably concede more than we score. I also think that Ralph would probably prefer to have one of the three as an impact sub towards the end of the game to run at tired defenders.

When JWP played beside Boufal, Djenepo was playing left wing back and our flank was completely open with the channel alongside Vestergaard continuously exposed. When Boufal played alongside Djenepo, JWP was playing right wing back. Which do you want if JWP is dropped, Redmond at right wing back or Djenepo at left wing back?

Any handball which results in an attacking advantage = free kick to the defending team (even if it is unintentional). Defensive handballs only count if they are intentional.

Agree with this entirely. I think Djenepo has better close control and a more tricks than Mane. I think Mane is a more natural finisher and his movement off the ball is in another league to Djenepo, though.

Statistically, we've won two games that according to expected goals we should have drawn. We have yet to be the better team for over half of a match. I am delighted that we have won the games that we have, and excited that we have players capable of scoring goals out of nothing, but our defence still looks shaky and our midfield tends to get overrun when we play against three central midfielders. Still, the confidence that the team will have picked up from winning a couple will hopefully make them perform even better over the next few matches.

In other words our lack of financial clout is an ongaoing concern.

Great goal and great result! I was totally wrong about Djenepo being a luxury signing, at the moment I'd have him in the team over Redmond, he looks far more of a goal threat.

Hojbjerg's forward passing has been terrible so far. Hope he has a better second half.

http://www.livetotal.tv/c/football/england-premier-league/14-09-2019/sheffield-utd-vs-southampton/1/ Pretty low res, though.