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That's got more to do with WBA being 3 goals ahead and cruising.
Their whole team was sitting 15-20yrds further back for that last half hour.
Whiteman
That's got more to do with WBA being 3 goals ahead and cruising.
Their whole team was sitting 15-20yrds further back for that last half hour.
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Had the argument the other week that Whiteman is our best player so he should be playing and I'm baffled that it's still a discussion.
Like has been mentioned above, Ferguson wouldn't keep an average player in the side when Keane was back fit, and Guardiola wouldn't keep Kalvin Phillips in the side when Rodri is back from suspension (even if they win the next 2 games 7-0).
It's about playing your best players and I'm fed up of seeing Ledson pass the ball to the opposition. He averages 58% passing success rate this season. Whiteman averages 76%.
You can argue that Whiteman has spent less time on the pitch and therefore is going to have a higher completion rate, but on Saturday, he was on the pitch for 30 minutes and completed 14 more passes than Ledson did during his 63 minutes.
Everything goes through Whiteman, he is arguably our most creative player and he is certainly our best passer of a football.
I don't expect us to get anything on Wednesday night, but if we want too, Whiteman has to play. To say the result would have been worse if Whiteman played on Saturday is both silly and ridiculous.
Like has been mentioned above, Ferguson wouldn't keep an average player in the side when Keane was back fit, and Guardiola wouldn't keep Kalvin Phillips in the side when Rodri is back from suspension (even if they win the next 2 games 7-0).
It's about playing your best players and I'm fed up of seeing Ledson pass the ball to the opposition. He averages 58% passing success rate this season. Whiteman averages 76%.
You can argue that Whiteman has spent less time on the pitch and therefore is going to have a higher completion rate, but on Saturday, he was on the pitch for 30 minutes and completed 14 more passes than Ledson did during his 63 minutes.
Everything goes through Whiteman, he is arguably our most creative player and he is certainly our best passer of a football.
I don't expect us to get anything on Wednesday night, but if we want too, Whiteman has to play. To say the result would have been worse if Whiteman played on Saturday is both silly and ridiculous.
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The same goes for Millar really (obviously apart from the value aspect as he's on loan). He isn't a wing back and I don't think he has the physicality to be a central striker. He's a winger - a very good one - but unfortunately we don't play with wingers.
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Mads has been benched because he’s need to work harder in games. Holmes has come in and up until Saturday has done a decent job. Mads will be a big player for us but he also needs time to adapt to the system and the way we play.
Completely and utterly agree.
However, to say Whiteman is our best player you’re doing a disservice to Ben Woodburn.
Jokes aside it would be like playing Woodburn over Browne because we’d won our games.
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Maybe in this particular sense, But we have 2.5 season's worth of evidence to show that Whiteman is a far more progressive player than either Ledson or McCann.
Should be starting next to McCann against Leicester, otherwise we might have single figure possession
RL is I think quite sensible easing injured players back in. Players are usually too keen to get back and generally need to be held back. I doubt for example Keane will start on Wednesday. Whiteman though is a bit further ahead so maybe he’s ready ?
There’s the old adage ‘you don’t change a winning team’. Now we’ve suffered our first league defeat, perhaps now is the time to change things.
Completely agree Kathryn.
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This is the risk of buying foreign players. Quite apart from the natural issues you're going to get when moving a player to a new country (Osmajic doesn't even speak the language although he's had a varied career so far so should get up to speed soon) you have the issue that neither player will have been particularly well known to the coaching team before being signed compared to a player signed from the same league. They need to get used to the English game and the coaching team need to understand more about what their strengths are and how to use them.
That's part of the reason there's a premium attached English players and why there are potential bargains abroad, if you're prepared to do your homework well and give them the time they might need. You're paying a bit more for some certainty.
Liberation
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What do you think we are doing wrong with the players we have at our disposal ? Genuine question when you've been championing the crusade to close down those that were critical after our walloping.
I expect you know now - but just in case -it's
Wednesday.
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That would be the same Sir Alex Ferguson who would choose to play Darren Fletcher or Park Ji Sung for the biggest of games on those rare occasions when United were the underdogs...
It's been a long time since Citeh were the underdogs in any game.
Agreed. And the perma-injured Nick Powell, now of Stockport, completely man-marked him out of the Stoke game last year and we had no plan B to cope with it.
One of the negative things about playing both of them together, is that they operate in the same areas to do the same jobs.
On Saturday they were often the nearest-other-player to receive the ball from -
- and in the first half McCann did a great 'imitation' of someone who actively Did Not Want to receive the ball - ( & sometimes it was from- Ledson ). I could see McCann of activity backing-out of a receival - a receival sometimes from Lesson .
So the ball just went back to someone in our backline . Again, etc
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In fairness to McCann (and Ledson) that's the "box midfield" system though. Those two deep midfielders are intended to be bypassed and the ball is supposed to go straight to Browne and Holmes at "10" to then set up attacks
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I might be giving lowey too much credit but one defeat and the whiteman debate is ignited but ledson and McCann are doing a job in this formation/tactical approach.
Neither of them are picking it up off the back three pointing and dictating play, cause we're not playing like that. Most our goals have come from swift smooth direct motion plays. The demands on the centre mids are different this season. More disruptive to opposition than creative. I can't honestly recall a single direct goal contribution to come from them two.
I don't disagree what whiteman can bring to us in the ball retention perspective, but we're not necessarily set up to capitalise on his main strength.
I've been critical of Ledson even when we were winning, he needs to be a backup and that is it.
Otherwise the players have earnt the right to be supported through the next few games.
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We aren’t doing much wrong with the players considering we are third in the league. Saturday is the first time
In 9 games we completely fucked it up. Lessons to be learned. Hopefully it’s bodes well for Wednesday and Saturday.
There is being critical and then there is acting like our entire season so far has been
Shocking after our first defeat when it has actually been the opposite.
Of course all players are different with timescales but Brady missed pretty much all of pre season aswell and then the first month. Within a week he was starting at Rotherham.
It will be logical when Riis is involved, that is someone you need to ease back in with 4-5 sub cameos first.