Originally Posted by
ianlfc
That was another thing Real did well tonight. They switched play and used the whole pitch really well. We were chasing shadows at times.
You don't have to tell me Ian, most exceptional European teams do it, the main thing I was banging on about in last summers transfer thread was bringing in a couple of midfielders who can play switches so comfortably and accurately, especially given how much our forwards and full backs thrive and have thrives of the switches
Last summer we only had Henderson in our entire midfield who could play them, which was absolutely woeful considering how vital they are to the strength of our players, and we had Virgil and Matip who could both play excellent accurate long diagonals and balls over the top from deep too
Put Hendo in CM in that game tonight and playing the switches and attempted balls over the top it looked like he'd been instructed not to play when we tried to go tappy crappy earlier this season, with the greater organisation and keeping everyone around him on point and focused and driven and it's a totally different proposition
For whatever reason, to me it always seemed through instruction, we stopped doing a few things this season they were a huge part of what made us so formidable
Switches and attempted balls over the top with the constant runs in behind from Mo and Mane and the midfielders taking up great positions to win second balls from those attempted passes was the main one, I have no fucking idea whatsoever which genius decided to try and play like City played in the season we handed them their arse, but I said very early this season it was a fucking shit idea and it was
People whining about Mane and Robbo, well doing those things was absolutely key to how both played, so bash them all you want lads, but for me you need to be looking at whoever stopped us doing those things
"If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”
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