Second half at 2-0, very good defensively and set piece defending was excellent that I would say are probably the differences.
Saying Villa are a poor side after bigging them up after 5 wins, they have just beat Man City and had a week off.
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Where do you get them from?
Sofascore, a nice app/site from Croatia (their offices are actually not far from me!). I think theyāre in colaboration with CBS. Can be a bit messy at times with the amount of stuff they have, but it does have some nice features, including this one. Normally just for results and teams when I need basic info and speedy navigating, Flashscore is still my first go to. But then it sometimes gets on my nerves when you see a random XI, not knowing which player played which position, formations, shapes, etc. Thatās why I also combine it extra stuff from Sofa, to get a clearer picture.
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With the way Wirtz played yesterday and how Ekitike has been linking up play, holding the ball, drifting on left we might as well see a front 3 of Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak long term. Itāll need a performance similar to what Bradley and Robbo produced from our full backs and a strong midfield like yesterday to let the front 3 play freely as we did with Salah, Mane and Bobby.
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I can not see how Isak gets in the line up from what Iāve seen. Small sample yet EkitikĆØ does all we want the way we need it to be done. Moving EkitikĆØ to make room for Isak seems foolish to me.
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This way. And with front 3 very fluid. Itāll be fun if we can get Isak firing all cylinders and settled in.
Right now itās very easy to like Ekitike and very easy to dismiss Isak.
But letās not rush with conclusions, letās not forget we have another quality striker who hasnāt shown yet what he can do. But is proven in this league and should be at the peak of his powers at this stage of his career.
It might take a bit more time for him to get there and for sure I have questions since the last transfer window how it will all work, but things in football change and weāll see how this evolves.
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Itās different to our famous front 3 because then we had a clear central false #9 and two very prolific wide forwards.
Obviously that front 3 wasnāt formed over night. Bobby progressively became what he did and we signed Salah after Mane had a very good first season on his favourite side.
In the current 3 you mentioned, we have a decisive between the lines type of player and 2 strikers. One of which is good at combining and dropping.
So there are more questions how to make it work, itās less clear than it was when we were forming the famous 3.
The last two performances have been improvements, but they didnāt give us answers how it would look if we had Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak all together on the pitch.
Iām all for using time I was talking about now.
We really have to be aware of the number of players we carry.
ATM getting Salah to make the effort is easier than teaching Isak how to press.
Yeah, well, of course Ekitike right now is or should be ahead of Isak.
We havenāt seen Isak since the Frankfurt game, but heās definitely needed in the squad and hopefully he gets himself in good shape as soon as possible. We finished last nightās game with Chiesa up top.
Our squad size is pretty good Iād say, considering that in the first 22 players on paper we have someone like Leoni and Ngumoha. But in certain areas we have more quality (or reputation?) than in others. Itās a very good group of 22, but now we have to prove weāve found a way or ways to field very good 11ās.
Iām just saying that right now itās like all the love is towards Ekitike (easy to like his style and character, looking from the outside, which might not be said about Isak). We havenāt seen an in shape and in form Isak yet, so that could influence or change things if he seriously gets goingā¦
In a few weeks or months, it could be different. And longer term, who knows. I still have question marks whatās the future like with them two thinking like in the next couple of years.
He has to get fit first. Itās rare that a player misses the whole pre-season and then has a quick start (or a great season overall). Newcastle cut off their nose to spite their face and pretty much every party involved in that deal suffers because of it.
If he was fit, heād be on the bench, rotating with Ekitike. I donāt think that either of them should play any other role than their best one, i.e. centre forward. Unless Slot changes the system to play some form of 4-4-2, I donāt think the two of them should be in the same XI.
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We might try that again (like in Frankfurt) when Salah is away in Africa. But yeah, only if they deserve so, or that combination imposes itself to Slot.
Do you have this from the games against Palace and Utd in league? Palace was one of our worst games this season I felt. The line up was pretty similar except Kerkez and Isak instead of Robbo and Hugo. But the positioning seem so off for the rest glaringly for Macca.
Yes very compact down the left leaving Bradley exposed on the right which showed. Good job Bradley has a motor and did an excellent job.
Would be nice if others could see how difficult that position is.
Almost a Diamond in midfield although it wasnāt at all due to Szoboszlaiās positions. His average is very misleading and you can see it clearly there.
I mean, the best clue is actually watching the game.
Especially if weāre well organized, you see immediately what weāre trying to do and in which shapes, how it changes in and out of possession.
Thatās what I said in the pre-Real game, that the box midfield shape is an option and Iād like us to try it more, but then we would likely need to have one full back (Bradley in this case last night with Wirtz off the left) being a bit more reserved.
We canāt take the Palace defeat and say judging by that day that Wirtz shouldnāt play anywhere but #10 or that it was the main reason we lost that game.
Wirtz will still end up in more or less the same areas, regardless whatās his starting position between the lines.
This doesnāt tell me that Bradley was isolated, in fact it shows me overall that we managed to enforce our game plan to the opponent.
Iāll show you what reverse isolation isā¦ #6 here is a genius called Dejan Lovren, at HT in the 2nd leg of that 2018 semi-final in Rome.
Sorry you what?
Your post jumps all over the place.
Surely you can see what I can and watched the RM match?
Dom exists in a quantum state. You can measure where he is in any moment but his position is best depicted in a wave function describing his probability of being at any position on the pitch.
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