Oldham

[Rembrandt]

Teams dont need a 20 Goal a season striker anymore. You just need to shore up your defense.

 

Cahill obviously doesn't work with Zat Night, mak a change their. Defenders are easier to come by than Strikers.

 

Build your solid back line, and solid midfielders, and your can easily get 10 a season from Petrov, Lee Chung, KD, and even Elmander.

 

Good common sense, Pablo.

Would that we could shore up the defence. No-one seems to know how to do that so far, over the last 3 seasons or so.

[magic legs]

4-2-3-1 with Muamba and Davis in front of the back 4 should do a lot towards shoring it up. Half the problem is the fact that we turn the ball over so quickly when we have it.

[Pablo]

Good common sense, Pablo.

Would that we could shore up the defence. No-one seems to know how to do that so far, over the last 3 seasons or so.

 

Just move Cahill to the midfield, if you need to get AOB or Sh?ttu with Zat night, see how that goes.

 

I think with Cahill AND Muamba in front of them, with 3 or Petrov, Chungy, Taylor, Elmander, with KD uptop. I know he has been laughed at, but Nugent could do a job from the bench when KD is injured or Suspended, Any half decent striker can play uptop on his own, with decent attackers behind him.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Pablo

[jules_darby]

Just move Cahill to the midfield, if you need to get AOB or Sh?ttu with Zat night, see how that goes.

 

I think with Cahill AND Muamba in front of them, with 3 or Petrov, Chungy, Taylor, Elmander, with KD uptop. I know he has been laughed at, but Nugent could do a job from the bench when KD is injured or Suspended, Any half decent striker can play uptop on his own, with decent attackers behind him.

Cahill is a ball playing centre-half, but he's not gonna be half as much use as a midfielder and I don't think he could play there.

 

I also thought that Knight and Cahill were getting better together - the defensive weakness was from the full-backs and the gap between them and the centre-halves, which you would hope could be fixed given some coaching.

 

Agree with the idea that the midfielders will chip in with the goals in a 4-2-3-1 formation - very much like happened with Allardyce's interchangable front 3 / 4-5-1

[marple whites]

I went last night and sat in the main stand.

I can honestly say that we looked lethargic all over the park apart from Muamba and Obrien was alright.

 

Defensively we looked disorganised, certainly weak at left back (Robinson)

Knight not comminicating with Jussi a couple of times.

 

Midfield - Holden looked weak and gave the ball away. Petrov looked quick and skilfull when given the ball

but no-one could keep up with him. He raced down the wing and had no one to cross to.

 

First half we played Davies up front alone and as quite correctly pointed out, lumped balls to him. He was marked very

tightly, but noone was supporting him.

 

2nd half when Elmander came on, his first touch was dreadful, I can remember at least 4 occassions when the ball bobbled off

him and we lost it. He did bring a save from the goalie late on from a defensive mistake.

 

It is the age old problem that we all know, we need a potent striker.

 

We have got to remember, Oldham kick off next week - but hats off to them they looked sharp and ready to run through walls for the manager. Maybe worth a few quid for promotion ??

 

Taggart kicked every ball on the touch line.

[Eavesy]

After reading all the posts and looking at the team, im not convinced the ellusive potent striker is what we need. If we where constantly creating chances and constantly missing them, then its obvious we need a finisher. The problem is we arent creating chances. Im confident that if we got in good positions, lee, petrov and lee would all be able to finish off moves. Im also confident that if we got in crosses that could be attacked, davies would get on the end on the majority of them. Its also clear that elmander isnt being used correctly. Looking at the matches in which he has scored and played well in, all the goals were generally when he gets the ball to feet, when he isnt required to hold up the ball and wait for others to get near him, and when he is used at the end of an attacking move, not in the middle of it.

If we play with one striker for the rest of the season, we can cope with just having davies and elmander as stikers, and possibly blake as an emergency stiker if needed. Rather than spending time looking for a top draw striker, we should be concentrating on getting the most out of the players we have got already. Our squad is the largest we've ever had and is imo the most talented we have ever had. Imo, the key to our success would be to maintain the long ball tactics, as our full backs/ def midfielders arent comfortable enough on the ball to build, but change it so that its towards davies to hold up, rather than flick on. He can then lay off to either mark davies/ holden/ blake/ wilshire/ taylor, who are all comfortable on the ball and can pass and possibly take on a player and we can then get the ball out wide and create some chances, or have petrov and taylor looking for through balls. It all sounds pretty simple i guess.

[Adlington Trotter]

Due to the fact that I had no idea where Boundry Park was in Oldham (and I only set off at 7:15!) I only got into the ground at half time. But from the 45 mins I saw it looked as though are crying out for a Wilshere type player. By that I mean someone who can provide the link between midfield and the strikers. Our game plan at Oldham looked to me to be either a reliance on SKD flick ons or a smart through ball to Petrov, apart from that we had nothing. Especially through the middle. Hence why I would be delighted if we got Wilshere back for another loan spell. We lack creativity at the moment, something I'm sure Wilshere could provide.

 

The concern is though, with Fabregas unsure whether he is staying with the gooners and Ramsey out, Wenger might want to use the lad next season.

 

I agree with what has been said above about Elmander, I'm sure he would be better with the ball at his feet, but I can't see that supply coming from any of the players we have at the moment.