The Post-Neville Monday Night Football Era & Analysis

FC Ronaldo

Posts stuff that's been said before in tweet form
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In the spirit of death to megathreads and all.

Henry is pulling Martial's positioning in the attacking phase apart with his own instructions while playing for Barca. Egotistical but good.
 
Not really pulling Martial apart, pulling Van Gaal apart.

Its interesting stuff.
 
Spot on about Martial, instead of waiting on the wing he should be making a run into the box. When you have got front four doing the same thing it becomes obvious they're being instructed to do this.
 
Spot on. Bring in Pep already.
 
Might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that about 10-15 minutes ago Thierry Henry said that winning the double means nothing nowadays. Anyone else hear this?

If so then fecking hell Thierry, really?

#BringBackNev
 
Van Gaalacticos said:
Might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that about 10-15 minutes ago Thierry Henry said that winning the double means nothing nowadays. Anyone else hear this?

If so then fecking hell Thierry, really?

#BringBackNev
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He didn't mean it like that. He meant it's not enough to save a manager's job.
 
Bob Loblaw said:
He didn't mean it like that. He meant it's not enough to save a manager's job.
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Ah...didn't really hear what they were on about. Shocking that it doesn't these days. Back int' day they'd have kept the manager and got rid of players, I presume.
 
I liked Henry's analysis there (surprisingly so). In the clip they showed, I'd assumed Martial was going making an inside run and Mata to play a sideways pass or something. I was stunned to see him run towards the touchline instead. Obviously he had been instructed to stay wide but surely you cannot put on the account tactical instructions. Henry actually made a good point about how it was the manager's job to get the team into the final third but from then on the onus is on the players to show their creativity. At a certain point a player has to know that making a certain run will give him the best chance to score and not doing so would clearly be illogical. The Martial run made no sense whatsoever but he is only young so I'd put it on not fully understanding the role. I also thought it was a bit unfair that Henry compared Martial's run to himself and David Villa. That's two of the best strikers of all time being fed by two of the best midfielders of all time.
 
Who was right about the De Bruyne to Silva pass? I'm going to assume Henry would know a little bit more about making decisive passes than Jamie Carragher...
 
Titi can be pretty good when he's arsed, which he really should be every time considering how much they pay him.
 
Attila said:
Who was right about the De Bruyne to Silva pass? I'm going to assume Henry would know a little bit more about making decisive passes than Jamie Carragher...
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Henry was.
 
Attila said:
Who was right about the De Bruyne to Silva pass? I'm going to assume Henry would know a little bit more about making decisive passes than Jamie Carragher...
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Carra was trying to praise Mertesacker's defending; Henry was making the point that a better attacking decision could have lead to a goal.

They're not polar opposites - you can defend flawlessly in a 2 on 1 but still leave an opportunity for the attacking team to score. Carra made the mistake of taking Henry's point as an affront to his own personal stance and tried to critique Henry's statement - before agreeing to disagree. I think both of them made valid points - Mertesacker did do well, but that pass could have been made.
 
It was an interesting watch. If Giggs can keep LvG's defensive shape in place and bring in a little bit of Fergie's cavalier attacking, we could be on to a winner.
 
Dante said:
It was an interesting watch. If Giggs can keep LvG's defensive shape in place and bring in a little bit of Fergie's cavalier attacking, we could be on to a winner.
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When was this announced?
 
steve zizou said:
I liked Henry's analysis there (surprisingly so). In the clip they showed, I'd assumed Martial was going making an inside run and Mata to play a sideways pass or something. I was stunned to see him run towards the touchline instead. Obviously he had been instructed to stay wide but surely you cannot put on the account tactical instructions. Henry actually made a good point about how it was the manager's job to get the team into the final third but from then on the onus is on the players to show their creativity. At a certain point a player has to know that making a certain run will give him the best chance to score and not doing so would clearly be illogical. The Martial run made no sense whatsoever but he is only young so I'd put it on not fully understanding the role. I also thought it was a bit unfair that Henry compared Martial's run to himself and David Villa. That's two of the best strikers of all time being fed by two of the best midfielders of all time.
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Yeah I've just finished watching the analysis and you'd expect Martial to know to make that run towards the box. I imagine there was an instruction to provide width, but when you can pose a threat in behind and the fullback is nowhere to be seen then surely you should be taking it.

I find it very hard to believe LvG wouldn't have wanted him to make that run yet Henry and Carra seemed insistent on blaming him.
 
MannyB said:
Yeah I've just finished watching the analysis and you'd expect Martial to know to make that run towards the box. I imagine there was an instruction to provide width, but when you can pose a threat in behind and the fullback is nowhere to be seen then surely you should be taking it.

I find it very hard to believe LvG wouldn't have wanted him to make that run yet Henry and Carra seemed insistent on blaming him.
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Exactly my thought also. I know blaming LVG for everything has become trendy but surely not for a player not making obvious runs or not seeing a pass.
 
Yeah I posted in the lvg out thread about this, I thought it was an excellent analysis to show what's wrong with us.
 
steve zizou said:
Exactly my thought also. I know blaming LVG for everything has become trendy but surely not for a player not making obvious runs or not seeing a pass.
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Certainly not for one or two but if it's regular and across players then it's a coaching issue.

For me it seems like our attacking players never know what they're doing. It's why I find LvGs comments on being clinical irksome as he needs to work on the attack so we make more and better opportunities. Still because of him we have the not ready and the has been as options so maybe that's the bigger issue.
 
Attila said:
Who was right about the De Bruyne to Silva pass? I'm going to assume Henry would know a little bit more about making decisive passes than Jamie Carragher...
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Henry was definitely wrong. Silva has no pace and is not clinical, he had a man (Flamini?) closing him down, passing to Silva early was a certain way of killing the attack. The best option was the one he chose, getting closer and running with it. He then either had to play in Silva slightly earlier than he did or shoot if the option was closed, he should have done better but passing it as early to Silva as Henry suggested was the worst possible option, I've watched Silva for long enough to know that in those situations he is lacking.

Edit - Will also add Carragher was equally confusing on what he said about Toure. I'm not defending Toure's faults, but Carragher getting genuinely irate at Toure playing well in the last 20 minutes was baffling. Ok, he does not always work hard, but suggesting Toure can influence games like he did near the end when he actually tries is ludicrous. If that were the case he'd be the world's best player, it was simply a matter of him having a poor game then scoring a goal that gave him momentum and confidence.
 
Smores said:
Certainly not for one or two but if it's regular and across players then it's a coaching issue.
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What are they being coached out of though? Shooting or off the ball runs? As often as this is said I find it hard to believe that a manager can stand in front of the players and actively encourage them not to try and score goals. There's a myth the players are scared to try stuff in case they give the ball away. Then don't fecking give the ball away then. How come Suarez, Messi, Ozil, Ronaldo, Aguero Silva and co can all try stuff without giving the ball away as much as our players do?


RedStarUnited said:
http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/10107277/guardiola-preached-the-3-ps

Everyone shoild probably watch that. Everyone seems to think Pep is very "free" spirited in his approach.

I actually see whats wrong with us, we are great with the ball up to the 18 yard line. The exact same place that Pep instructed his team to do whatever they wanted is the place where we are awfully short.
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I thought it was good insight from Henry. Clearly Pep's Barca's setup is very similar to how LVG is setting us up. Fortunately he's had Eto, Messi, Henry, Pedro, Villa et al to call upon when he needed some magic in the final third. The best we can muster this season is Martial, Lingard and Mata. There's your difference. Also their frontline was being supplied by Xavi and Iniesta. Ours is constantly relying on Carrick.
 
RedStarUnited said:
http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/10107277/guardiola-preached-the-3-ps

Everyone shoild probably watch that. Everyone seems to think Pep is very "free" spirited in his approach.

I actually see whats wrong with us, we are great with the ball up to the 18 yard line. The exact same place that Pep instructed his team to do whatever they wanted is the place where we are awfully short.
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That is why I have doubts about Pep's suitability at a club which doesn't have absolutely top players at the top of their game. Can anyone see this system working with any set of players? Is it surprise that VG is failing with us?
 
Suedesi said:
http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/...t-football-premier-league-round-17-full-show/

This should be required watching for all armchair pundits - starts around 20 minutes or so
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The issues Henry shows with Martial there, that is not a Van Gaal problem. That is a classic case of the player not understanding the tactics properly. You could see the same kind of positioning with players making runs last season.

For example, Fellaini's run and goal vs Spurs:



He keeps his positioning on the inside left channel, lets Young keep the width and occupy the fullback and all of a sudden he has a 1 on 1 with the defensive mid.

Mata's run and goal from the left wing against Liverpool



Same here with Mata, Herrera takes the ball and Mata keeps the width on the right wing until then, Moreno goes to sleep and bang in the next fraction of second, Mata is run in behind him to latch onto the through ball.

So its not like the manager has told him not to make runs but the players are not in-sync with the attacking part of the game. I'd like to see him play the same attacking unit he played last season with Fellaini, Young, Mata and Herrera behind a striker, either Rooney or Martial and see if those players do the right things.

Now when I see these clips, I kind of want to change my tune on Van Gaal here. These new players seem to be going through the same tough transition the older players had to go through last season and it all started to click around christmas period. He's not had the same players he had last season to carry it forward and he's also changed the system a bit by introducing an additional DM and things have not exactly gone to plan but it makes me wonder if we can have the same come to Jesus moment again this year albeit after a few tough knocks that inevitably come with a lack of consistency.
 
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