25 Oct 2019 08:51:12
So, what did people make of last night's game? I thought we were a little disjointed in that formation and very vulnerable in defense which is strange considering the 3 central defenders, quite odd compared to the Liverpool game. I also think AWB should be tried as a right CB on this formation because he is very solid and physical in defence but offers little in attack. Dalot would be ideal, he can play RWB and Young/ Shaw/ Williams at LWB with Maguire, Lindelof and AWB in the centre.
Shout out James Garner who had a difficult match in a hostile environment but reasonably held his own. And Brandon Williams was MOTM no doubt even though he was a little suspect defensively.
Anyway its not all doom and gloom, roll on Sunday and let's see what we can do.


1.) 25 Oct 2019
25 Oct 2019 09:01:57
The issue I have with this formation is that it can clearly work against a side who pose a threat and will have a lot of the ball naturally. We saw it work pretty well v Liverpool.

Last night we had 3 CB's on the pitch against a team which was clearly going to see little of the ball, in these type of games you want to pin the other team back so far that it's impossible for them to get out of their own half. You need to pack the midfield and wide areas so you have plenty of options in a crowded pitch. Chip away and find pockets of space where you'd hope the likes of Mata could then create chances from.

Essentially, playing 5 defenders just allows the opposition to attack you and we're not exactly the most confident team right now in defence. It seemed silly to just use the same formation as we used on the weekend because these are two very different opponents.

We're quite lucky they didn't score last night, because we looked like we couldn't even hit the target minus the penalty.


2.) 25 Oct 2019
25 Oct 2019 10:00:36
We can't pack the midfield though as we don't have enough midfielder to do it.


3.) 25 Oct 2019
25 Oct 2019 10:13:05
Very true Mort.

We've gone into this season with such a thin squad, should have saw this coming.


4.) 25 Oct 2019
25 Oct 2019 11:50:02
positives from last night 3 points, garner finally getting a game and brandon williams who had a decent night and doesn't look fazed at all. other than the above it was a poor performance and we could of very easily conceded especially in the second half when romero was a busy man.


5.) 25 Oct 2019
25 Oct 2019 11:55:43
3 CBs is fin assuming you have 3 decent CBs. Perhaps if wed played Harry, Lindelof and Tuanzebe, or as has been suggested used AW|B as he is pretty poor going forward.

I thought Williams was brilliant and Garner sis pretty well too. I'm enjoying seeing the B team playing int he Europa League, not sure why people are upset they didn't see free flowing attacking football, what did they expect. Let's give youth a chance and also bring injured players back. Williams had a great game and I saw enough from Garner to be positive about him, Martial got a game to gain fitness.

It wasn't great, we won, kept a clean sheet, top of the group.


6.) 25 Oct 2019
25 Oct 2019 17:57:44
Williams was very good again garner was pretty average to be honest. In fact he was quite poor on the night imo. Big occasion for him he did not do himself justice. But he was in a team that was being outplayed and he had no snr players around him to turn too bar Mata who was even worse.