marty mcfly
Player Valuation: £40m
No
What I'm saying is that if we are going to knock it long, like we were against Lille, we should do it quicker as opposed to waiting and giving the opposition a chance to prepare, like we were doing against Lille
But that doesn't make sense. We play the ball long only whenever we're being pressed so that means that their team is further up the pitch leaving more room anyway. Teams don't both press and get players behind the ball.
As I've said passing for passing sake is boring and tedious but what we try to do which is the same as every passing team which is to pass to open spaces in other parts of the pitch. e.g. We regularly draw them over to the left to then switch it to the right where we can punish them or we draw them in to press us and then hit it long.
When it doesn't work it's normally because the passing isn't crisp or fast enough or players aren't able to do it under pressure (not looking at you McGeady). Against Lille the pitch made a big difference plus it's hard if teams don't come out of their shape and simply defend in and around their box. All passing teams struggle with that.
I'm not saying we shouldn't move it up the pitch faster, we definitely should but look how Real do it. Along the ground using the pace of their players and not the ball.
We have Mirallas, Atsu, McGeady, Lukaku and Barkley. Maybe not quite as quick as Deulofeu but that's some serious pace.
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