Osvaldo for Italy, Roma and Pochettino's Espanyol - Tactics

[The9]

With the assistance of the articles on zonalmarking.net and a Google search... a few bits about Osvaldo's roles and formations under his last three managers at Espanyol and Roma, plus a chunk on Pochettino and Osvaldo together getting tonked by Barca...

 

December 2010 : Espanyol 1-5 Barcelona (Osvaldo scored though...)

 

"Mauricio Pochettino played a variation of his usual 4-2-3-1... The key feature of the game was two high defensive lines and lots of pressing. There were two inevitable outcomes from this – there were lots of bookings, and there were lots of opportunities to play balls over the top.

 

Why was Pochettino using this approach, then? We know from the way Barcelona thrashed Real that they love using the pace of their strikers in behind the defence, and we also know from the defeat to Hercules that they struggle when sides sit back behind the ball and park the bus.

 

The reason was because Espanyol have had success against their more illustrious neighbours in recent years by getting into Barcelona, closing down Xavi and Andres Iniesta, and not letting Guardiola’s men play. Their last three results against Barca had been a win, a draw and a defeat – and the defeat was a narrow 1-0 thanks to a Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty.

 

Therefore, whilst it turned out to be counter productive, the offensive tactics from Pochettino made sense – his side had previously used them effectively, and given the atmosphere and the nature of the game, sitting back at home probably wouldn’t have been wise."

 

"Pochettino’s instructions to press Barcelona resulted in Juan Forlin following Messi into deep positions, leaving Victor Ruiz on his own at centre-back with a huge hole alongside him. And, time and time again, Barcelona cut through Espanyol incredibly easily. Messi would move deep, Forlin would follow, the gap would become clear and Villa and Pedro would sprint into it to collect a through ball. The first, fourth and fifth goals all came from simple through balls to find either Pedro or Villa in behind. It was as simple as that. Something similar happened at the other end, when Daniel Osvaldo outpaced the Barca defence to grab Espanyol’s only goal, but the home side were outclassed.

 

Pochettino stayed true to his side’s style – the style that brought a 100% home record before today. “Barcelona played almost perfectly, and what we did today was not enough”, he said. “Theirs is a great team both individually and collectively.”

 

Guardiola was equally complimentary on a night of good-natured rivalry in Barcelona. “We just had our most complicated game of the season so far. They are our city rivals, but more importantly we just beat a very good team.”"

 

Sep 2011 : Dull 0-0 with Inter under Luis Enrique, 3-4-3 Osvaldo on the left : Nothing else to add here but to show he's used out wide too.

 

Oct 2011 : Rome Derby : 4-3-1-2

"When Roma didn’t have the ball, Bojan Krkic and Pablo Osvaldo moved wide near to the Lazio full-backs. Then, when the possession was turned over and they moved into centre-forward positions, the full-backs started to track them, narrowing and leaving space for Angel and Rosi to overlap."

 

Dec 2011 : Luis Enrique Roma v Barcelona Tactics : http://www.zonalmarking.net/2011/12/14/luis-enrique-roma-tactics-barcelona/

"Enrique switching Osvaldo and Lamela against Juve seemed to be to bring more balance to the side – Osvaldo then offered forward runs from the right whilst Lamela came inside and let Jose Angel forward on the overlap"

 

"The draw with Juve showed how far Roma have to come in this respect. The nature of Enrique’s system, generally with forwards deployed on the wings (Pablo Osvaldo, Bojan Krcic) means it’s essential to press high up to let those players work in their favoured zones."

 

"Wide forwards : A mixed bag – Osvaldo has broadly done well but still doesn’t look suited to starting wide – he’s a natural central striker " - this was 2011, though.

 

Sep 2012 : Inter 1-3 Roma (Roma now coached by Zeman)

 

"As the game went on, it became increasingly frantic and lacked shape. There was more and more space in the centre of midfield, and this benefited Roma, who attacked directly through the middle of the pitch (whereas Inter were going down the left or hitting balls over the top). The third goal of the game was the crucial one – Roma played quick passes just inside their own half to get the ball forward to Totti on the halfway line, who immediately hit a glorious ball through to Pablo Osvaldo, who finished beautifully. It was the most obvious example of Zemanlandia so far this season – a thrillingly direct goal that stemmed from vertical running and straight passing."

 

"The tactics of the two coaches – particularly Zeman – influenced the style and feel of the game, but the result tonight was more down to good individual performances, particularly from Totti (who played more passes than any other player, including the best one of the night for Osvaldo’s goal) and Osvaldo (who picked up a goal and an assist, but also was dismissed in stoppage time)."

Jan 22 2013 : Roma v Inter

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2013/01/22/roma-1-1-inter-bradley-guarin-sum-up-serie-as-obsession-drivers-rather-than-creators/

 

Osvaldo starts as lone central striker : "Roma’s front three played different roles. Francesco Totti was left-sided but came towards the ball, turned and played passes for midfield runners (and the other two forwards), Pablo Osvaldo drifted across the line and made runs in behind the defence, sometimes switching with Totti, while right-sided Erik Lamela started deeper and tended to run with the ball."

 

"as Totti brought Ranocchia up the pitch and Osvaldo darted in behind, Inter encountered problems in that zone, as Osvaldo was marginally flagged offside early on."

There are lots of promising-sounding snippets that tie in with the way Saints already play, a striker who can play across the front 3 or in behind someone else, in a high pressing game. What it also suggests is that we'll have a new element with some runs from deep, and maybe this will tie in with our slightly longer passing as seen in the West Brom game.

 

If nothing else this brings home some of the huge teams Osvaldo has already scored against, and that doesn't include him and Papa Waigo turning over Juve !

Edited 20 August, 2013 by The9

[The9]

Guh, add a "c" to the title, keyboard failure... also turned out there were no Italy games in the recaps... soooo...

Edited 20 August, 2013 by The9

[Lazlo78]

Very nice compilation

[Giordano]

Quite interesting how despite having apparently so many very valuable players that Roma did not so good last year - with lamela, de Rossi, Destro, Totti, Osvaldo, and marquinios (sp) in your team you'd think they'd have been challengers. Those six must be worth around £100m+...

[Torres]

Didn't realise Pompey's Sonny Bradley used to play for Roma. Wow.

[skintsaint]

Guh, add a "c" to the title, keyboard failure... also turned out there were no Italy games in the recaps... soooo...

 

Done..Nice analysis also

[Bucks Saint]

Thanks, interesting read

[The9]

What is it about these kind of football-based threads that makes them so unpopular ? Is it that the trolls have to work hard to make a point, or that there's too much effort involved to actually have any kind of discussion ?

 

I've already seen Barry Sanchez saying stuff like "why do you think Osvaldo will play wide/central/make runs in behind/has pace" etc. as a way of diminishing his possible impact and making it look like he won't be a good signing, and I've seen others say he's not a replacement for Lambert/Rodriguez/Lallana/Puncheon. Here's the evidence that he could be any of those things, but why no discussion ? Too much like hard work ?

[Lazlo78]

What is it about these kind of football-based threads that makes them so unpopular ? Is it that the trolls have to work hard to make a point, or that there's too much effort involved to actually have any kind of discussion ?

 

I've already seen Barry Sanchez saying stuff like "why do you think Osvaldo will play wide/central/make runs in behind/has pace" etc. as a way of diminishing his possible impact and making it look like he won't be a good signing, and I've seen others say he's not a replacement for Lambert/Rodriguez/Lallana/Puncheon. Here's the evidence that he could be any of those things, but why no discussion ? Too much like hard work ?

 

I've made a few of these threads myself, and while I readily concede that they probably sank without a trace because I made no attempt so stimulate discussion other than provide data, I too felt puzzled that any random thread involving anything remotely controversial could flag up pages of posts in a few hours.

 

But I guess you answered it yourself; it takes too much effort to post anything in this thread, and there is too little opportunity for point scoring.

 

Personally, I didn't really have anything meaningful to add to your observations (was 1.20am here ) so I kept to a rather bland "very nice compilation" because I thought the thread deserved some more attention.

 

Now if you'll have me excused, I'm off to start a thread titled "will saints be better than chel$ki" and maybe follow it up with a dose of "would Rupert have been able to get osvaldo" - no capital letters just to signal that extra bit of effort...

[The9]

Now if you'll have me excused, I'm off to start a thread titled "will saints be better than chel$ki" and maybe follow it up with a dose of "would Rupert have been able to get osvaldo" - no capital letters just to signal that extra bit of effort...

 

Made me laugh, anyway.

[Lazlo78]

On topic again: the problem with playing Osvaldo as anything but front man is that Pochettino demands a lot of running and defensive work from the three offensive support players (for me the reason why Rodriguez has proven quite effective there - he runs and tackles for 90 minutes) and that could be a bit of a waste of Osvaldo's scoring talents. I'm not sure how useful Osvaldo is in the build-up, but we know Rickie is excellent in setting up others. So for that reason I'd have Osvaldo stay as close to goal as possible and Rickie trying to do what he does best be it in the centre or by drifting wide/tracking back...

[The9]

Will be interesting to see how we choose to deploy him, and which of the front 4 steps down. More interesting as Gaston is also preferred at home. What's good to know is that Osvaldo is already used to playing either side of a "front 3", which our 4-2-3-1 often looks like, that he can also play in the hole (though this seems less likely given Lallana/Ramirez/Lambert's ability there), or up top, knowing he can rotate into the wide positions as we have seen from our front 4 already.

 

In fact, the only restrictions on our "front 4" from Osvaldo/Ramirez/Rodriguez/Lallana/Lambert seem to be Lallana not playing up top, the others are all capable of playing any of those positions (even Ramirez up front has already happened, though I'm not sure it's a preference). The movement alone makes us a sod of a team to track, ally that to the high pressing and hitting on transitions and the added pace Osvaldo gives, and we're looking like a far greater attacking threat - which is great news as we were already creating plenty of shots, just not converting them into goals.

[Lazlo78]

The movement alone makes us a sod of a team to track, ally that to the high pressing and hitting on transitions and the added pace Osvaldo gives, and we're looking like a far greater attacking threat - which is great news as we were already creating plenty of shots, just not converting them into goals.

 

Made me think about SC Freiburg who is now getting a lot of attention for their strikerless tactics:

 

http://bundesligafanatic.com/freiburgs-spinning-top-and-the-brain-behind-it/

 

"Spain did well to publicize and popularize the strikerless formation this summer at the EUROs and more and more teams are beginning to experiment with formations that exclude traditional strikers. Freiburg may very well be the most bold and interesting in German football in that sense. Over the course of the season Streich moved closer and closer to a system that resembles just that. Out of the four registered strikers in the squad, only Sebastian Freis has featured in the majority of the games so far and most have come as a substitute. Another striker, Garra Dembele, meanwhile was not even included in their trip to the team’s winter training camp

 

Instead, Streich has chosen to line up with essentially a strikerless formation that utilizes two versatile attacking midfielders in Jan Rosenthal and Max Kruse in interchangeable roles up front with two similarly versatile supporting wide players in Daniel Caligiuri and Jonathan Schmid. Rosenthal and one of the great revelations of the season, Kruse, have normally been used in midfield positions, either playing off the striker or out wide. Neither have defined positions under Streich but are encouraged to roam and interchange in and around the box. Freiburg haven’t been the most prolific scoring side as a result but the goals have been spread around pretty evenly which speaks to a well functioning and effective system. 16 of the team’s 24 goals were scored by their four attackers.

 

As explored in this statistical analysis, Freiburg are only behind Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke in chances created this season. They’ve created 10.5 chances a match, well above the league average and another indicator of the team’s growing chemistry. Kruse in particularly has excelled and created more scoring opportunities than any player in the league with 52. The productivity of the team a whole has gone up despite the absence and use of a prototypical striker.

 

Freiburg’s real formula for success on the pitch then lies in the team’s synergy. Kruse, Schmid, Caligiuri and Rosenthal are all comfortable covering for each other. Many times this season, Caligiuri or Schmid came inside while Kruse covered for them and it’s all done seamlessly and disciplined enough not to compromise their shape. If anything, Freiburg hold their shape better than most teams in the league but they enjoy a degree of flexibility and freedom that others simply don’t have. As we’ll see though, that freedom is as much physical as it is mental and that’s due in large part to the great management of the team’s coach.

 

I'm not suggesting that we play without strikers - far from it - but maybe we can draw strength from the flexibility of our offensive players to create a more fluid and unpredictable forward line. I'll concede it's all a bit abstract but it could be an alternative to discussing 4-2-3-1 vs. 4-4-2...

[The9]

Didn't know about that, I'll have to keep a closer eye on BTSports this season than I did on ESPN.

 

Obviously given my username I have a suspicious eye on false 9 and 4-6-0s... though it's sort of amusing and a tad postmodernist that one of the major tenets of modern football coaching is to revert to the kind of vaguely regimented flexibility that is the antithesis of coaching...

[Bartosz Bialkowski]

Im unsure if this was teh case with Espanyol, but our front 3 or 4 tend to rotate throughout the game, its seamless and would mean PDO would find himself in any of the front three positions

[Sour Mash]

Im unsure if this was teh case with Espanyol, but our front 3 or 4 tend to rotate throughout the game, its seamless and would mean PDO would find himself in any of the front three positions

They do rotate at times, but there are still clear positions and roles for them to play.

 

I think the big question everyone wants an answer to is can Lambert and Osvaldo play together, most would hope so, but I've got a feeling it might end up with one or the other most of the time.

[mulletsaint]

Im unsure if this was teh case with Espanyol, but our front 3 or 4 tend to rotate throughout the game, its seamless and would mean PDO would find himself in any of the front three positions

 

This is kind of my take on things. While undoubtedly each player has a defensive remit based on their starting position, going forward we tend to be much more flexible. I'd image Rickie will start up top but will regularly drop deep and/or pull out wide to make space for Osvaldo and others to exploit. While the wide forwards are expected to support their fullbacks defensively, they're not expected to supply the majority of our width, that comes from Clyne and Shaw. I'd imagine the reason some believe we looked toothless on the right last Saturday, was more down to Chambers playing safety first than JWP not hugging the touchline.

[Bartosz Bialkowski]

Couple of good points there. Can Osvaldo and Lambert play together? Well time will tell, but I'd like to think that this would have been a significant consideration in the pursuit of his signature. Personally I think that the will compliment each other well and I'd be shocked if both dont start on Saturday.

 

The lack of width on the right more a slight on chambers than JWP? I'd have to agree here. Chambers was assured and capable against WBA and his extra height gives us more strength in the air. But he's no Clyne going forward and I expect him to come in and give us that balance back.

[Giordano]

Good OP thread mate cheers.

 

I think the best when fit line up currently is this using 4231 :

 

Boruc

Clyne Lovren Yoshida Shaw

 

Big Vic Morgan

 

Jrod Osvaldo Ads.

 

SRL.

[CanadaSaint]

Good discussion.

 

I also found this link interesting, relating to Fulham's interest:

 

http://www.eplindex.com/epl-news/35952/fulham-chase-pablo-osvaldo-deal-stats-analysis-roma-striker.html

 

Although his brief spell in Italian football has mainly been disrupted by arguments and criticism, Osvaldo has shown on many occasions that he is a quality striker on his day and would be a fantastic acquisition by Martin Jol and the Fulham board this summer.

 

Last season, Osvaldo scored 17 goals in 26 games as Roma finished sixth in Serie A and were also runners-up in the Coppa Italia final. His best strength is scoring different types of goals, whether that be with an acrobatic strike or lifting the ball over the goalkeeper when running onto a through ball, and his anticipation in and around the box is sometimes overlooked.

 

Osvaldo is also very strong in the air, scoring five times with his head last season, and often likes to play one-twos with team-mates and drift into the box for deep crosses or pull-backs from the by-line. He is an intelligent footballer but much depends on how he could link-up with Dimitar Berbatov should he choose to follow Maarten Stekelenburg from Rome to West London this summer.

 

Like Berbatov, Osvaldo doesn’t like to drift out wide and run the channels, nor does he put many crosses into the box, with just 5 of his attempted 24 last season being accurate. However, he does like to play short passes and drop inside on his right-foot, therefore the build-up play through the centre, along with Bryan Ruiz, sounds fruitful and that could be something Martin Jol might want to establish up top.

 

In 2012/13, Osvaldo attempted an average of 21 passes a match, totalling in 662 with 442 (71.1%) of those being successfully executed. He also showcased his overall team-play by creating 18 chances and although he was playing alongside world-class stars such as, Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi and Miralem Pjanic at Roma, Osvaldo would work well playing alongside the likes of Ruiz and ensure the goalscoring touch that has brought 39 league goals in the last three years of his career with both Espanyol and Roma respectively continues.

 

We can speculate all we like about how Osvaldo will fit in, but I'm sure of one thing. If Osvaldo was up front last year instead of Rodriguez, our intricate build up around the box, and the angled passes through the defence by Lambert, Lallana and Ramirez, would have ended in a goal more often. And probably much more often.

 

And, taking this a little farther, if we had managed to convert a one goal lead into a two goal lead more often, we wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad for "losing points from winning positions". In a tight middle-third, that would have catapaulted us upwards.

 

We have a lot of potential permutations - not just for starting line ups, but also for phases within the game - and we're going to be very, very difficult to defend against.

 

If we can do better at keeping them out at the other end, this season could be a hell of a ride.

[Joensuu]

I think there are two reasons that few people have commented so far - firstly it's a long OP without a direct question, so lot's of potential discussion points, but nothing to focus people's thoughts [NB, intended as an observation, not in any way a criticism]; secondly the trolls on here would quarterise anyone getting a 'football' factoid wrong - perhaps many are scared off by the numpties?

 

Anyhow, very interesting post IMO. It certainly looks as if Osvaldo has moved to a more central position over the past few years. I'm interested to see whether he starts out wide, or if Lambert is pushed back, or even dropped to the bench to make space. I certainly can't imagine we'd start the game with Osvaldo, Lambert and Rodriguez all playing (with what, Mayuka as cover on the bench?). I would expect Rodriguez will be the player to miss out, as while we lack pace, our pressing game seems to me to require players with higher levels of fitness, imagination and ball control, rather than raw pace. But where pace often makes a difference is when a game has become stretched - and when stamina levels are beginning to flag. Could Rodriguez become our impact specialist?

 

 

My guess is that Rickie will start up front, mainly to hold the ball up and allow players like Osvaldo to make runs. I'm probably wrong though. As soon as the game begins all 4 players will swap positions - making a mess of the oppositions marking. I'm sure for much of the game Osvaldo will be central, and Lambert will be dropping back, irrespective of their allocated starting positions.

 

I wonder if Osvaldo has been promised a position - I mean, whether Maurico has told him that he will always get the lone striker position when he's fit. I wonder if he would be concerned if he were played on the left or right side of our attacking unit. Big fish, smaller pond - will player demands actually dictate our formation? I have no idea.

 

I wonder if Lambert is really suited to sitting behind Osvaldo.

 

So many questions. So few answers.

[derry]

I've not seen Osvaldo play however I get the drift. One of our big complaints last year has been the number of chances missed by our forwards, especially early on in games. It may well be that Osvaldo is seen as a more incisive finisher and will be the primary in play striker, whilst Lambert will play as usual and look to play him in, in the meantime Rodriguez, Lallana, Ramirez etc, whoever is in will provide movement, alternatives, and back up. I can't see the system changing and just think that Lambert will be the catalyst to get the best out of the other three forwards whilst picking up his quota of in play goals.

[notnowcato]

It is a proper conundrum. At home I would expect the 4 attacking options to consist of DO / RL / GR and AL. Spearheaded in the main by DO with RL in behind. DO's stock goals come from threaded balls and set pieces / crosses into the box. Wing backs to supply the crosses in open play. The threaded ball is tougher to supply - GR and RL definitely have an eye for the through ball, more so than AL (who isn't that far behind). VW could also be a supplier from a little deeper.

 

IF I'm right (doubtful) in this then it does question how a Scott Sinclair would fit in to how we could play at home. Ever Banega on the other hand.... (drool...)

 

Anyway, back on track. I think the WBA game shows that we will set up more defensively when away from home, therefore reducing the number of attacking players picked. We are less likely to see GR and RL from the start would be my guess. Scott Sinclair would fit nicely here and I think we will see more of JR.

 

Can't believe I'm even thinking this way considering where we were a few years ago.

[Red Alert]

To my eye SRL always seems to want to drift out to the left anyway. With Shaw being very capable up and down all game long in left back, could we not see a SRL playing the left of our forward 3, with J-Rod on the right, Osvaldo up top and Gaston in the middle of the three? As we have seen countless times last season we have plenty of possession, but struggled with the killer ball.

 

Having SLR on the left would not give us much defensively but against teams we could expect to dominate for possession would give us huge goal scoring opportunities.

 

Thats how I could see us working at home anyway.

[Convict Colony]

Osvaldo v Lambert v Roriguez - Decent article.

 

 

Link: http://www.eplindex.com/epl-news/37397/osvaldo-15m-switch-southampton-osvaldo-lambert-rodriguez.html

 

Pablo Osvaldo has made a £15 million move to St Mary’s from Serie A side AS Roma. Although jokes are flying around about his move to Southampton and his resemblance to Johnny Depp, the South Coast side means business in their acquisitions this summer, with Osvaldo joining Victor Wanyama and Dejan Lovren in their summer spending spree.

Osvaldo Osvaldo Makes £15m Switch To Southampton || Osvaldo vs Lambert vs Rodriguez

 

Osvaldo previously played under Saints boss Mauricio Pochettino at Espanyol, where the Italian played some of the best football of his career. During Pochettino’s managerial stint in La Liga for Espanyol, Osvaldo scored 20 goals in 44 league appearances before moving to AS Roma in 2011.

After an impressive opening day victory against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns, it seems Pochettino feels his squad can still be improved on, especially in the attacking third.

Pochettino’s persuasive powers seems to have lured the Italian international to St Mary’s, but how does the former Espanyol and Roma striker compare to current Southampton strikers Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez?

In 35 Premier League appearances, Lambert scored 15 goals – joint with Frank Lampard for the most goals scored by an Englishman in the Premier League last season. Jay Rodriguez, while also having an impressive campaign for Southampton, only netted 6 goals in 24 Premier League starts, albeit playing as a left-winger at times. Like Rodriguez, Pablo Osvaldo can also play as an attacking left-winger, but is primarily a striker. In last year’s Serie A campaign, Osvaldo scored 16 goals (of which five were headers) in 25 Serie A appearances.

Osvaldo and Lambert seem to be the most incisive in goal out of the three, in terms of clear-cut chance conversion. Lambert heads the conversion rate of the three players, (56%), interestingly, Rodriguez has a better clear-cut conversion rate (46%) than Osvaldo (40%). Although, in terms of shooting accuracy, Osvaldo falls short of Lambert and Rodriguez, (53%) and (46%) compared to Osvaldo’s (44%).

In terms of chance conversion, Lambert converted 19% of his chances, Osvaldo 16% and Rodriguez just 9%.

In terms of minutes per goal, Osvaldo tops that particular statistic over his new Southampton teammates, with a goal every 144 minutes compared to Lambert (209) and Rodriguez (363).

One trait that is important for Pochettino’s high pressing side is the ability to win possession high up the field, while Lambert and Rodriguez both won possession 17 times and 16 times during the course of the season, Osvaldo averaged only 11 times per possession won. If the Italian were to stake a claim in the Southampton side, ideally Pochettino would like him to press the ball more.

The newly capped England striker, Rickie Lambert, had an all round brilliant season in 2012/2013 – with 15 goals and 5 assists. While Rodriguez couldn’t keep up with Lambert’s goals, he was more than adequate in the creativity department, also bagging 5 assists. Osvaldo, on the other hand, contributed only 2 assists to his team last campaign.

Dribbling with the ball seems to be a more comfortable trait with Rodriguez and Osvaldo compared to Lambert, Lambert totalled 15 dribbles, with only 9 being successful – whereas Rodriguez attempted 70 dribbles, with 30 of those being successful, while Osvaldo attempted 79 dribbles, 26 were successful.

If Osvaldo can adapt to the pace change from Serie A to the Premier League, the Italian will improve the attacking third of the Southampton side with six players that Pochettino can choose from – Lambert, Osvaldo, Ramirez, Lallana, Puncheon and Rodriguez. Not bad that, not bad at all. A top ten finish is on the cards

[JPTCount]

 

 

the classic 'go left' tactic, look at that space blazaretti has

[The9]

The comments about successful dribbles above make me think we'll have Rodriguez on the right and Osvaldo on the left with Lambert in the middle... and all of them rotating. Whether it's Lallana or Ramirez in the hole is the next question.

[CityRanger]

They do rotate at times, but there are still clear positions and roles for them to play.

 

I think the big question everyone wants an answer to is can Lambert and Osvaldo play together, most would hope so, but I've got a feeling it might end up with one or the other most of the time.

Rotation could be on the cards with the strength in depth this squad is developing.

 

I noticed Mourinho at Chelsea, playing a lone striker in each of there first two games, started tonight with Ba after starting Torres on Sunday.

Torres and Ba both came off with roughly 20 mins to go giving Lukaku a run in each game.

Ultimately the three strikers have only played between 45 and 75 mins football so far. This will keep them fresh and also create healthy competition.

With our high intensity tactics could it be rotation for Saints this year?

[The9]

Rotation could be on the cards with the strength in depth this squad is developing.

 

I noticed Mourinho at Chelsea, playing a lone striker in each of there first two games, started tonight with Ba after starting Torres on Sunday.

Torres and Ba both came off with roughly 20 mins to go giving Lukaku a run in each game.

Ultimately the three strikers have only played between 45 and 75 mins football so far. This will keep them fresh and also create healthy competition.

With our high intensity tactics could it be rotation for Saints this year?

 

I think that's why people have started referring to a front 4 and discussing all available attacking midfield and striker options, instead of just discussing the attackers.

[lloydie]

I think one way we could look to get the best out of Osvaldo and still play Lambert, would be to have Lambert drop deeper and play a role similar to how Totti worked at Roma.

 

The two both have similar strengths (good touch, eye for a pass, ability to hold the ball up and win headers) as well as the same weakness (lack of pace) and whilst I accept they are not the same player in every aspect I think they both share a good enough collective of skills to imply that Lambert could be used in a similar partnership with Osvaldo for SFC.

[CityRanger]

An interesting article along the lines of this thread:

http://squawka.com/news/2013/08/22/lambert-osvaldo-have-the-complimentary-skills-to-form-a-lethal-partnership/2013082218410

[The9]

An interesting article along the lines of this thread:

http://squawka.com/news/2013/08/22/lambert-osvaldo-have-the-complimentary-skills-to-form-a-lethal-partnership/2013082218410

 

I struggle to get past the misuse of "complimentary" in the title, or the use of "less" rather than "fewer" for the number of games played compared to others. Really basic written errors which make me question the value of any of the rest of it.

[CityRanger]

I struggle to get past the misuse of "complimentary" in the title, or the use of "less" rather than "fewer" for the number of games played compared to others. Really basic written errors which make me question the value of any of the rest of it.

OK mate

[Matty's Caddy]

I struggle to get past the misuse of "complimentary" in the title, or the use of "less" rather than "fewer" for the number of games played compared to others. Really basic written errors which make me question the value of any of the rest of it.

 

What a weirdo

[mulletsaint]

I struggle to get past the misuse of "complimentary" in the title, or the use of "less" rather than "fewer" for the number of games played compared to others. Really basic written errors which make me question the value of any of the rest of it.

 

You can have a decent point without having a good grasp of the English language.

[Minty]

I struggle to get past the misuse of "complimentary" in the title, or the use of "less" rather than "fewer" for the number of games played compared to others. Really basic written errors which make me question the value of any of the rest of it.

 

Oh get over yourself you pedantic arse.

 

The whole tactical issue is an interesting one and this thread, and the article, were good reads. It will be interesting to see how they play together as they surely will, and I suspect Osvaldo can fill any of the front three positions (up top, and either of the wide supporting roles), while Lambert would play either of the central positions. It may well lead to different options depending on the opposition, but I honestly can't remember the last time I felt we had two top class strikers who can lead the line, and it does start to give us that strength in depth that top sides need.

[studentsaint]

How many times will Osvaldo get on showboat this year? Looking forward to his first chip of the season too, lovesthem and already trying it in training.

[The9]

Sorry thickoes, but that's how it is.