ostrov » 23 дек 2013, 00:30
Превосходное обозрение.
davidmatzdorf said: ↑
Whenever we attacked, there were men in the box and most of time the ball went wide and then went into the box. That's the difference, really, playing 4-4-2.
Whenever Southampton attacked, there was a fucking great hole where one has become accustomed to seeing Sandro or Capoue or Dembélé and the Southampton players, especially Lallana, were able to pass straight through that hole. That's also the difference playing 4-4-2.
If we want one, we have to put up with the other. Today it worked well enough to win because we had a motivated, liberated Adebayor with a point to prove. For those mounting an 'I told you so argument' and berating AVB for not playing Adebayor, I think you're missing the point. Adebayor plays well when he feels comfortable with his manager. By contrast, he drifts about looking lost when he doesn't feel that the manager loves him. He didn't get on with AVB and there would have been little point in playing him, because he probably would have been a waste of space. The relationship had deteriorated too badly for it to be rescued. He does apparently get on with Sherwood - and the fact that Sherwood clearly has confidence in Adebayor will reinforce that - and the result was Ade at his absolute best: not only scoring two very good goals, but closing down, passing, winning and protecting possession, occupying defenders and creating all manner of problems on the wings. He's one of the world's hardest-to-play strikers when he plays like this.
The great question, of course, is how Sherwood can keep him doing this. The second question is how we can organise our defence to deal with playing two strikers. As long as Adebayor keeps generating so much energy, defending from the front and taking up so much bloody space, we might get away with it, although I'd feel more comfortable with Sandro or Capoue in a more defined defensive role. The moment he has a niggle or gets into a bad mood, we'll be as wide-open as we were in the first 20 minutes today.
If Lennon gets fully fit again, the 4-4-2 defensive problem will be minimised further, because he is so useful in slowing down opposition counter-attacks. If Vertonghen and Chiriches can play together in the centre at last, then their mobility and anticipation will also help - I'm an admirer of Dawson, but if we're going to play this way, then we need two swift, ball-playing central defenders to go with our swift, ball-playing goalkeeper.
Today's other big news is Nabil Bentaleb [not 'Bentelab', please], not only because he played calmly, maturely and confidently and passed accurately, but because of what it demonstrates about Sherwood's management skills. If he knows nothing else, Tim knows about our youth players - putting Bentaleb on the bench and bringing him on after only 55 minutes, in preference to Capoue or Holtby, took serious cojones, but he didn't hesitate at all. It was an unlikely substitution and it worked beautifully. I didn't think Dembélé was too bad today, in a very demanding role, but Bentaleb was a clear improvement and slotted right into the presumably-unfamiliar formation.
Let's not underestimate the achievement of scoring three goals today: Southampton were a good team playing pretty well today and we still put three past them at their house. With more accurate shooting from both sides, we could have won that game 5-4 instead of 3-2. It wasn't only Soldado who missed chances, our opponents skied a few good ones as well. But we deserved the win on the strength of the second half show, all pressure and drive and direct attacking play.
I'm not convinced it's the way of the future, but it's a hell of a lot more fun to watch than the endless prowling outside the box, ignoring gaps and delaying through-balls.
It will be very interesting to see how long Sherwood persists with this approach, whether he uses it against top quality opposition, how long it will be before it backfires (it will, eventually) and what will happen then.
"We are always confident because we trust our players, and we never give up,"--- said boss Mauricio Pochettino.