05 Oct 2025 10:38:01
I just think currently we are massively too attacking . We've bought some of the best attacking talent and trying to throw them all in, changing the style is causing problems .
What it's achieved is nothing, there is no options for a forward ball . Everyone is stood almost together being marked . Watching VVD past to konate all game is boring
If you think about our better periods we had mo and mane streaming forward on the counter .
Ekiteke likes to drop deep, but is wondering into the space that wirtz, macallister and dom would usually have .
Football has changed this season . Look at palace, look at palace against us . 28% possession, 1/ 3 of passes compared to us, only attempted 30 passes in our half for the whole game, and did something like 70 long balls . Stats wise, horrific . but in truth could of beat us by 4 or 5
Forest v Sunderland later that night was exactly the same
It's all about creating XG now
I'd much rather us play much deeper, allow space for our attacking players to attack space
Maybe have grav and endo infront of our centre backs to give us a spine
I've said go a long time grav isn't a 6, and dom and macallister are not 8s
The in balance is insane . As soon as we loose the ball we are wide open and look like conceding.
05 Oct 2025 10:50:58
Endo would be a good shout. Gravenberch needs to hold his run and hold his position. We have bought Wirtz to unlock the front three. The club missed a trick in not signing Wharton.
Our front three ain’t pressing anymore. Diaz and Nunez were pressing monsters which acts as your first line of defense.
{Ed001's Note - Wharton was not available.}
05 Oct 2025 11:08:32
That's weird, because grav played the best football of his life as a 6 and Dom as basically an 8 though technically in the 10 position. Macca is also absolutely an 8 and not a 6.
I also think your reading of the palace game might be a bit simplistic, the long balls in behind were simply sound good sense from glasner looking at our lack of a press from the front and high line in other games. Long balls are especially effective against us for that reason. Also I have to add the obligatory objection to the suggestion that they could have beat us by 4 or 5.
05 Oct 2025 11:18:58
Right but you cannot go and buy world’s most offensive full backs and then shoulder all the mopping work on Alexis McAllister. With front three not really pressing the midfield is exposed. Not able to win the second ball and defenders showing their Bums more than actual defending.
Sorry but Gravenberch can be a Messi of player but he ain’t a DM.
There is a reason why Kerkez is inverting because Gravenberch is never in his place.
05 Oct 2025 11:22:26
Wasn’t Endo on the pitch last night when Chelsea cut through us and scored.
Endos last start was against a bottom half championship Southampton and they gave him the run around.
05 Oct 2025 11:29:07
Playing at 6 and being a DM are two different things @Patrik. Zubemendi and Jorginho plays at number 6, neither could defend to save their life. Just because Gravenberch receives a pass from Allison doesn’t make him a DM. He is a terrific player make no mistake about it. If you want to let Kerkez, Frimpong, and Gravenberch to attack then you need a Fabinho in there.
05 Oct 2025 11:34:08
There's a reason why Endo isn't a regular starter, that's because he's bang average. And Nunez was a pressing monster? Is that another way of saying a headless chicken?
05 Oct 2025 11:41:44
Spot on, PB. Also, long balls are the best way to beat the press esp. after you win the ball when in transition. No need to be a manager to figure that out. And we were never going to pay near 100m for Wharton so not trick was missed hence, the topic is not relevant.
05 Oct 2025 11:41:58
Really don’t think it’s helpful speaking about individuals, unless we’re talking about Mo who is having an absolute laugh on his 400k/ week lol :p
In each game we make so many changes and tinker with the system. You could get away with it last season with a settled squad who all knew each other.
05 Oct 2025 11:57:32
Am I missing something? I could've swore that we won the league with Gravenberch at number 6.
05 Oct 2025 12:00:33
Nunez was more of a headless chicken than a monster.
05 Oct 2025 12:27:25
Then you have to be more precise, and say that you are talking about getting a dedicated DM, which Slot has never used and probably never will, at Feyenoord his deepest midfielder was Wieffer, who played a role similar to Gravenberch, next to Kokcu, who is very similar in profile to Macca.
I don't think we need a DM, we just don't need to have all the midfielders scrambling over each other trying to get forward leaving Konate and Virgil behind to deal with everything themselves. True, last time we won the league our center halves were also dealing with everything themselves with Fabinho sitting in front of them doing the work of two or three players by himself. But we can effectively do something similar with Dom and Grav being more conservative in their positioning when we are in possession.
05 Oct 2025 12:37:42
Last year we didn’t have Wirtz (a dedicated playmaker) .
05 Oct 2025 12:41:09
Ok not for one second saying that endo is the saviour, his hearts in the right place, but he’s not a strong player by any means . I was thinking more about the shape
And last season we got by with dom, macallister and grav in a midfield three . Now that’s not there
All three individually are great players . But see grav as a good 8, and dom / macallister are more attacking, more like 10s than 8s.
05 Oct 2025 14:27:44
We definitely need a player more mobile than Macca, yes I know that he is coming back from a serious injury but even the old Macca can't sprint, come to think of it, Salah, once one of the best players in the world, can't sprint anymore, sad really,
I have said it couple of weeks ago, macca Konate and Salah won't be here next season, but we will have a much better team.