Fullbacks

[robbiez666]

Probably good enough at this level but the fullback quartet of Lafferty, Freeman, Brown and Hussey are probably the weakest area of the team. Freeman is beginning to give his man far too much room again. fine as wingbacks, not great as fullbacks.

 

[SwissBlade]

Probably good enough at this level but the fullback quartet of Lafferty, Freeman, Brown and Hussey are probably the weakest area of the team. Freeman is beginning to give his man far too much room again. fine as wingbacks, not great as fullbacks.

Which is the point.... they're played as Wingbacks, so you can't assess them with Fullback criteria.

 

[Karaoke Blade]

I was impressed with Lafferety today, he's definitely getting better with games. He played the odd loose pass but a generally strong performance in my opinion.

I agree, he looked a classy player, calm, comfortable on the ball. And seems to know how to defend. Thought it was his best game for us so far.

 

[Boxer Blade]

Yeah I read what you wrote, you titled the thread 'fullbacks' and then stated that you never like freeman and laferty might be good enough, but both were poor yesterday.

Because of the title of the thread i stated that they were both wing backs. From your post i wasn't sure if:
a) you wanted to abandon the system playing with wing backs
b) you wanted to find new wingbacks
c) didn't understand the role of a wingback v fullback.
d) all three of the above
e) none of the above, you just don't like freeman

You didn't explain why you didn't like freeman nor what they did to warrant an immediate need to replace them. The system which has pretty much brought us to the 11th game undefeated won't always work perfectly, however suggesting that we need fullbacks instead of Lafferty and Freeman is a puzzling one because they aren't really defensive fullbacks, they're attacking wingbacks and they fit the system

Part of the 3-5-2 is that sometimes you will spend longer defending with more attack minded players, but the three centre halves and the deep midfielders should be dealing with most attacking threats.

From what i have seen of Lafferty (mostly on highlights and one game) and from what i've read on him, theres certainly no reason to complain. And as for Freeman, my only complaint previously under Adkins and Clough was that he wasn't a fullback, but i would've played him down the right or as a wingback, which is really his strength.

Again, 11 games unbeaten and whilst we're always going to be looking to improve in positions, i don't really see that by upsetting the system we're playing would be of benefit...

I really like the system and it actually suits Freemans game better than a flat back four, I dont think I have ever stated I dont like Freeman (no doubt you will prove me wrong)! I definitely do not want to change the system, my original point, maybe not clear is that the two places that look the weakest is the two players, not the worst players but for us to move forward in January they are the players I would look to improve on, certainly Freeman, Lafferty I may be a little unfair on, hope this clears it up swiss

 

[SwissBlade]

I really like the system and it actually suits Freemans game better than a flat back four, I dont think I have ever stated I dont like Freeman (no doubt you will prove me wrong)! I definitely do not want to change the system, my original point, maybe not clear is that the two places that look the weakest is the two players, not the worst players but for us to move forward in January they are the players I would look to improve on, certainly Freeman, Lafferty I may be a little unfair on, hope this clears it up swiss

That makes more sense...although you still haven't said what the weakness is: Defensive, attacking, following instructions to tuck in when defending etc? If you expect them to man mark a winger or something similar. I'm not arguing by the way, just trying to understand what the problem is with the two of them.

Anyway as you insist....

I have never been a big fan of Freeman

come January I would definitely be wanting a replacement fir Freeman

 

[Boxer Blade]

That makes more sense...although you still haven't said what the weakness is: Defensive, attacking, following instructions to tuck in when defending etc? If you expect them to man mark a winger or something similar. I'm not arguing by the way, just trying to understand what the problem is with the two of them.

Anyway as you insist....

With Freeman definitely defensively, I realise a wing back needs to be both but I do not think Freeman is particularly great at either, after saying all this about him I dont get upset when I see his name on the team sheet, works hard and is ok, my point is come January I would like to see us bring in a higher calibre player, I look around the rest of the team and I see quality, this is not a witch hunt regarding Freeman.

 

[SwissBlade]

With Freeman definitely defensively, I realise a wing back needs to be both but I do not think Freeman is particularly great at either, after saying all this about him I dont get upset when I see his name on the team sheet, works hard and is ok, my point is come January I would like to see us bring in a higher calibre player, I look around the rest of the team and I see quality, this is not a witch hunt regarding Freeman.

I think whilst were in this division Freeman definitely has enough going forward, defensively i don't think its 'that' important, but he certainly gets forward quickly and can put a decent ball in.

 

[Hodgyman]

From my viewpoint, I think that the team would be much stronger with Basham playing right wing back, Hussey playing left wing back now that we have a solid back 3 of EEL Wright and O'Connel.

I did have concerns about Hussey playing left back but with having a back 3 nowadays, that gives him license to go forward more. Lafferty's distribution yesterday was not up to the standard we need. I counted at least 9 passes going astray from him. Hussey puts some great crosses in.

Perhaps the next 2 relatively unimportant matches will give a chance to experiment a little. One thing for sure, I trust Chris's judgement to get it right.

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

From my viewpoint, I think that the team would be much stronger with Basham playing right wing back, Hussey playing left wing back now that we have a solid back 3 of EEL Wright and O'Connel.

I did have concerns about Hussey playing left back but with having a back 3 nowadays, that gives him license to go forward more. Lafferty's distribution yesterday was not up to the standard we need. I counted at least 9 passes going astray from him. Hussey puts some great crosses in.

Perhaps the next 2 relatively unimportant matches will give a chance to experiment a little. One thing for sure, I trust Chris's judgement to get it right.

Hussey is injured

 

[Hodgyman]

I knew that he wasn't in the playing or subs squad yesterday but didn't know he was injured. I hope that it is not serious to keep him out for long.