Soccer 2014 - 2015

Pks_sl said:

Brando what else they gotta do when they down to 10 men with 15 mins to go? Otherwise they play it out wide and hope the wingers dribble past something, which might have worked if...

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Pks_sl said:

What? Bellerin doesn't deserve red either I'm guessing? Can't say the strat is desperate and look honest when Utd should have scored at least 2 or 3 from those plays... they scored 1, and Young could easily have had another. Fellaini won several headers (if not all? impressively) but wasn't direct in knocking it to anyone or trying too much with a goal attempt. One week you refer to Utd being desperate tactically because they are 1-0 down attempt long direct balls to Fellaini (and yes I don't like those), and the next you pretend this is more of the same?
2nd half Utd should have scored early on, I wasn't complaining until all those errors. Utd only beat themselves again, can't say I'm that worried about spurs. Got Evans banned for several games so it's 1 less mistake prone defender around, Valencia might have earned himself a couple of weeks off (missing a decent RB still), I don't know. I'd love to see Mata start more games instead of Fellaini. While Fellaini does his job exactly well, it's the only job he can fucking do! Not much creatively at all. But, shit. Unbalanced squad and all that. Roll on top4 + next season...

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redcafe_sl said:

He's an odd one this season. He's undoubtably playing well. One of our best performers in fact. Yet I still can't shake the feeling he's holding us back by simply existing.

The defensive subs today, for example, seemed engineered to keep him on the pitch. Bringing Carrick on for the more forward minded of our CMs, to form the most low lying defensive partnership we could, was basically commiting to the idea that Fellaini is our default, go to No10. Which is understandable, albeit a bit worrying, in an away game we're losing, but very concerning in a home game we're doing well in. Doubly so in a squad that has Rooney, Mata, Januzaj and Di Maria all capable of playing in that position. There's no use pretending he's acting as some kind of physical midfield enforcer either when we're playing him in a 3 with Carrick and Blind. The only reason we could possibly need both of them on is to allow him to roam forward with gay abandon. Which he always seems to do anyway.

We're now in a situation where he's playing well, at least by his standards, so on the surface seems a sensible pick. Yet however well he plays, his influence on the team is reductive. He encourages us to seek him out from most of our crosses, and look for high balls when breaking out of defence rather than a potentially cleverer pass.

I can't fault the guy personally, because he's doing everything he can, but his strengths are limited to chesting down punts and then doing little creatively with them. Even the argument that someone like Mata is too easily bullied seems unconvincing considering Fellaini provides little to no cover himself. He basically just fouls people whenever he tracks back beyond the center circle. Which is why neither LVG nor Moyes have used him effectively as a DM, and why we needed to play both our holding CMs tonight to allow him to stay on.

The only thing he provides that none of our more natural No 10s do is an aerial threat in the final 3rd. But you can't help but wonder if the players we have could come up with something better if they weren't instinctively reliant on that tactic as a fall back. It's not like we don't have the options.

I can't blame him, cos he's doing his best, but with the talent we have, playing to the strengths of our least talented players just seems like a completely mad thing to do.

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