Two up Top?

[singaporeblade]

It's not 60 minutes a week though, if he plays roughly 60 minutes against Plymouth on Saturday, that's on average 180 minutes of football (three 60 minute games) in 7 days, plus the intensity of your training and your travel, it's a big schedule.

I know looking at it like that does make it seem a bit puzzling as to why players are exhausted sometimes, but most of us on here (I'm not an athlete and I'm assuming most people on here aren't either) would probably be exhausted or maybe even burnt out after a week like that in professional football.

What a load of tosh! He is a young man and 180 minutes (2 full games) is hardly busting a gut. Oh sorry the poor little lamb has to rough it by commuting around England once every two games. Jesus wept.

 

[Torrix1889]

I can’t say I’m a great fan of inverted wingers, but I could be persuaded if we had a bit more variety about us. It would be nice to see the wide men swap flanks and go orthodox from time to time…Defenders do hate that uncertainty. Also as an old Sunday league striker I always preferred proper wingers getting crosses into the box than coming inside, I think in someways this is why Cannon can’t get himself established, as he’s used to getting the ball into the area a lot quicker. At the moment he’s receiving it a lot deeper and I don’t think that’s his game.

Cannon was a pointless signing for the way we play. He likes playing off the shoulder, looking for through balls from midfield, something we just don't do!

 

[The Fox]

What is this heresy you speak of !
2 strikers ! ..have you lost your mind.
Clearly in need of a residential course at the modern football academy where the books are passed out from the back and you'll learn the values of false No9's and the mantra of pocession and xg .

 

[bakeblade]

Cannon was a pointless signing for the way we play. He likes playing off the shoulder, looking for through balls from midfield, something we just don't do!

Trouble is he's not quick enough to play off the shoulder.

 

[Torrix1889]

Trouble is he's not quick enough to play off the shoulder.

possibly, but look at his goals for Stock, get's shots off early. At least he was being played in a system that suited him more.....God knows what Wilder was thinking....

 

[BangorBlade]

possibly, but look at his goals for Stock, get's shots off early. At least he was being played in a system that suited him more.....God knows what Wilder was thinking....

Torrix1889 was he(cannon) not playing in a 4-4-2 formation at the time ?
I just think our formation doesn't suit him and tbh it's happend to other players that have come to the Lane and took a good while to settle.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Stuck in a timewarp I know but 4-4-2 has always been my preferred option. 2 pacy wingers, 2 strikers working together and full backs not afraid to come forwards too.

 

[Torrix1889]

Torrix1889 was he(cannon) not playing in a 4-4-2 formation at the time ?
I just think our formation doesn't suit him and tbh it's happend to other players that have come to the Lane and took a good while to settle.

Either as a 2 or on his own but Stoke were playing through the middle rather than side to side like we tend to do. Completely agree our formation does not suit him, Wilder should have known that before he got the chequebook out.

Go up or stay down Cannon will be out on loan at least next season.......unless Wilder remains in charge and he will continue to play him because his ego can't take being wrong!

 

[Youngand70]

What a load of tosh! He is a young man and 180 minutes (2 full games) is hardly busting a gut. Oh sorry the poor little lamb has to rough it by commuting around England once every two games. Jesus wept.

Couldn't agree more, young, allegedly fit athletes some of them earning more in a week than some people earn in a year. Provided with top level medical care, although looking at our constant number of "sick notes" it makes you wonder.

 

[Maidenhead]

Alex Neil said after the game "we knew that SU don't put many crosses in, so that if we kept our defence really tight and narrow that we would have a good chance of winning the game" or words to that effect.

It's pretty much what every other team do against us, which is why we don't score many goals, and when we do they tend to be as a result of a bit of individual quality rather than any sort of game plan.

I know that I'm a bit of a dinosaur but my belief is that the more early balls you put into the box, the more likely you arte to score.

Tuesday night was crying out for more of a Warnock approach but Wilder may change individuals but his approach to the game never changes.

Very recently he said there's three ways to win football matches.

You can either go round them, over them, or through them, but when teams set up like Millwall you can't do any of them if you pass the ball as slowly as we do.

 

[Youngand70]

I can’t say I’m a great fan of inverted wingers, but I could be persuaded if we had a bit more variety about us. It would be nice to see the wide men swap flanks and go orthodox from time to time…Defenders do hate that uncertainty. Also as an old Sunday league striker I always preferred proper wingers getting crosses into the box than coming inside, I think in someways this is why Cannon can’t get himself established, as he’s used to getting the ball into the area a lot quicker. At the moment he’s receiving it a lot deeper and I don’t think that’s his game.

Ex Sunday league striker/winger here. One of the teams I played for had 3 really good promotion seasons and the guy who managed us favourite tactic was to swap both wingers round very often every 10/15 minutes. Fullbacks used to get really pissed off but it worked. As Dave Bassett used to say "the more times the ball is in the box the more times there's a chance of a goal". Common sense really. Bring back Morris, Bryson, Deane and Agana. More ball in the box worked for Bassett at Wimbledon and for us and for Graham Taylor at Lincoln City and Watford.

 

[ATL Recs]

What a load of tosh! He is a young man and 180 minutes (2 full games) is hardly busting a gut. Oh sorry the poor little lamb has to rough it by commuting around England once every two games. Jesus wept.

What a load of tosh - you have no idea of conditioning and managing injury risk in elite sports

 

[Maidenhead]

Ex Sunday league striker/winger here. One of the teams I played for had 3 really good promotion seasons and the guy who managed us favourite tactic was to swap both wingers round very often every 10/15 minutes. Fullbacks used to get really pissed off but it worked. As Dave Bassett used to say "the more times the ball is in the box the more times there's a chance of a goal". Common sense really. Bring back Morris, Bryson, Deane and Agana. More ball in the box worked for Bassett at Wimbledon and for us and for Graham Taylor at Lincoln City and Watford.

Couldn't agree more.

The way we play now Brian Deane would look shit in this team.

 

[Champagneblade]

What is this heresy you speak of !
2 strikers ! ..have you lost your mind.
Clearly in need of a residential course at the modern football academy where the books are passed out from the back and you'll learn the values of false No9's and the mantra of pocession and xg .

It felt like a not particularly well researched signing.

Who is scoring goals and available? Cannon at Stoke has 9. Get him in!

If you wanted someone with a bit of pace as more of the same as Campbell then may as well have gone for Iheanacho.

It feels a bit like when Sharp wasn’t scoring for United in his earlier years because the style didn’t suit him.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Ex Sunday league striker/winger here. One of the teams I played for had 3 really good promotion seasons and the guy who managed us favourite tactic was to swap both wingers round very often every 10/15 minutes. Fullbacks used to get really pissed off but it worked. As Dave Bassett used to say "the more times the ball is in the box the more times there's a chance of a goal". Common sense really. Bring back Morris, Bryson, Deane and Agana. More ball in the box worked for Bassett at Wimbledon and for us and for Graham Taylor at Lincoln City and Watford.

It just makes it a little more difficult for traditional strikers to time their runs into the box, when wide players favour coming inside.

 

[Youngand70]

What a load of tosh - you have no idea of conditioning and managing injury risk in elite sports

Well it's quite obvious that we don't have a clue how to manage it looking at our number of "sick notes" and lethargic performances.

 

[robbiez666]

Couldn't agree more, young, allegedly fit athletes some of them earning more in a week than some people earn in a year. Provided with top level medical care, although looking at our constant number of "sick notes" it makes you wonder.

If we stay down we'll lose BBD and JRS so won't have wingers and I think he'll change it

 

[robbiez666]

Alex Neil said after the game "we knew that SU don't put many crosses in, so that if we kept our defence really tight and narrow that we would have a good chance of winning the game" or words to that effect.

It's pretty much what every other team do against us, which is why we don't score many goals, and when we do they tend to be as a result of a bit of individual quality rather than any sort of game plan.

I know that I'm a bit of a dinosaur but my belief is that the more early balls you put into the box, the more likely you arte to score.

Tuesday night was crying out for more of a Warnock approach but Wilder may change individuals but his approach to the game never changes.

Very recently he said there's three ways to win football matches.

You can either go round them, over them, or through them, but when teams set up like Millwall you can't do any of them if you pass the ball as slowly as we do.

If teams go narrow the way to combat it is to go wide but we're incapable of playing wingers who might actually go round a man and pull the ball back across. We rely on FB for that but it's then so obvious it's quite easy to counteract.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

If we stay down we'll lose BBD and JRS so won't have wingers and I think he'll change it

Once Souttar got injured I’m very surprised Wilder didn’t revert to a back 5, especially when we got Rob Holding in. Anel and Robbo together are sometimes an accident waiting to happen. Holding in his little cameos seems to have a calming influence at the back when he comes on. It would be a shame not to use him more in this campaign…Especially if we keep conceding daft goals.

 

[robbiez666]

Once Souttar got injured I’m very surprised Wilder didn’t revert to a back 5, especially when we got Rob Holding in. Anel and Robbo together are sometimes an accident waiting to happen. Holding in his little cameos seems to have a calming influence at the back when he comes on. It would be a shame not to use him more in this campaign…Especially if we keep conceding daft goals.

The problem with a back 3 is that we don't really have any cover. If a CB gets injured we're down to Baptiste.

 

[ancientblade]

Alex Neil said after the game "we knew that SU don't put many crosses in, so that if we kept our defence really tight and narrow that we would have a good chance of winning the game" or words to that effect.

It's pretty much what every other team do against us, which is why we don't score many goals, and when we do they tend to be as a result of a bit of individual quality rather than any sort of game plan.

I know that I'm a bit of a dinosaur but my belief is that the more early balls you put into the box, the more likely you arte to score.

Tuesday night was crying out for more of a Warnock approach but Wilder may change individuals but his approach to the game never changes.

Very recently he said there's three ways to win football matches.

You can either go round them, over them, or through them, but when teams set up like Millwall you can't do any of them if you pass the ball as slowly as we do.

absolutely correct its nonsense the way we play when we get in good areas out wide all these tippy tappy triangles do is allow the opposition defence to get set and this style of play has to be down to wilder its as though were trying to score the perfect goal with every attack and its just not good enough weve nothing to lose now odds are against us finishing top 2 so just go 442 for the remainder of the season play moore and campbell up front and get those crosses in early its never over till its over utb ftp

 

[Houston_Blade]

I'd go with that. Play Hamer and O'Hare instead of Peck and Choudhury/Souza. We'd be more positive in possession and still able to break up attacks. Hamer doesn't get his yellow cards for nothing and O'Hare chases anyone with the ball.

No, no, no. You need to get with the programme and realise that it’s essential to have a defensive midfielder at all times. Even when we’re in a game that we should be dominating!

 

[wak1889]

Campbell hasn't played a full 90 for quite a while, mainly due to his fitness/injuries over the last few years.

60-70 minutes is what we usually get out of him and he manages to keep himself fit doing it.

Sometimes it's just better with a player like Campbell to not risk them for 90 minutes and potentially get them injured.

He's already missed quite a few games at the mid point of the season (late November to early January) with what was apparently a back injury, during that time we rotated between Moore, Brewster and Oné.

Maybe in preseason we might be able to get Campbell up to full 90 fitness, Ndiaye didn't often play the full 90 minutes in that first season he had with us, whereas in his second season he did 90 minutes most games.

Moore started the season playing 90 minutes nearly every game, and eventually it caught up to him where he had 2 lengthy spells on the sidelines (1st with injury, 2nd for his surgery).

I keep telling my boss at work Its best for me not to risk working a full 7.5 hours and I'm better if I can get off after about 5 and half but he insists I do my full hours

 

[jt64]

Playing one up front in football generally is why it has very often become a negative/boring sport world wide.

At the same time there is no point in playing two up top if it weakens you so much in midfield/possession you can provide nothing in terms of decent chances to either of them and you are left with two passengers

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

At the same time there is no point in playing two up top if it weakens you so much in midfield/possession you can provide nothing in terms of decent chances to either of them and you are left with two passengers

And yet for decades playing up top was standard in football and created strike partnerships. But now all of a sudden it's an alien concept? Go figure!

Deane/Agana
Deane/Fjortoft
Sharp/McGoldrick

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Always been an advocate of two up top , I would like to see BBD down the middle instead of wide , he scored at the level above down there so I’m sure he would be more than effective at this level .
I agree with the comments re partnering Moore with Cannon , it’s the only way we’ll get a tune out of Cannon .

 

[Cheeky Blade]

Never too late to change but I suspect we’ll stick with the plan that got us into this position.

 

[jt64]

And yet for decades playing up top was standard in football and created strike partnerships. But now all of a sudden it's an alien concept? Go figure!

Deane/Agana
Deane/Fjortoft
Sharp/McGoldrick

It is as almost as if analysis has stepped out of the dark ages and worked out what is actually effective at winning games!