Power struggle

Pughnichi

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Nov 27, 2016
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Remembering when teams like Stoke and Bolton had very physical teams and I would look on with sympathy as their technical abilities just didn’t quite match up and subsequently, they weren’t as good.

Fast forward 10 years and you just can’t escape the need for both. Technical ability and physical attributes (which I’ll define as) pace, stamina and core strength

We are so weak it’s actually laughable.

Sarr on at least two occasions casually wondered into our half swatting Bruno off like he was an 8 year old. Mainoo had a go. Yep…brushed aside with ease.

Mateta dominated our defence with pure power. And let’s not even get started on Chris Richards…who could still be playing now and Garnacho wouldn’t have got past him…he was absolutely bullied yday.

It was as close to men vs boys as you’ll see.

I switched over to watch the Arsenal City game and it looked like a different sport. Both teams in general looked massive.

Out future signings of course need to be technically sound but above anything else they have to have strong physical attributes.

It was obvious as far back as opening day (last season) vs Wolves. And not much has changed
 
The only player in the entire squad in my opinion who has elite acceleration is Amad, hence why he's so good at pressing/nicking the ball. Though he's not that fast in an out and out sprint.

Hojlund is very fast but takes a while to get up to speed, same for Dalot.

There's literally no one else. Hopefully Dorgu is quick.
 
Bolton used to have players like Okocha though, at least when Big Sam was there. It wasn't all brawn.
 
Pughnichi said:
Remembering when teams like Stoke and Bolton had very physical teams and I would look on with sympathy as their technical abilities just didn’t quite match up and subsequently, they weren’t as good.

Fast forward 10 years and you just can’t escape the need for both. Technical ability and physical attributes (which I’ll define as) pace, stamina and core strength

We are so weak it’s actually laughable.

Sarr on at least two occasions casually wondered into our half swatting Bruno off like he was an 8 year old. Mainoo had a go. Yep…brushed aside with ease.

Mateta dominated our defence with pure power. And let’s not even get started on Chris Richards…who could still be playing now and Garnacho wouldn’t have got past him…he was absolutely bullied yday.

It was as close to men vs boys as you’ll see.

I switched over to watch the Arsenal City game and it looked like a different sport. Both teams in general looked massive.

Out future signings of course need to be technically sound but above anything else they have to have strong physical attributes.

It was obvious as far back as opening day (last season) vs Wolves. And not much has changed
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City's players have struggled with athleticism this season.
 
There is absolutely no need for Harry to be that weak, that slow to react and look like a disaster about to occur on every play. For his size, I thought we will be dominant. We managed to buy a lot of wrong players just about everywhere. It is not the coaching alone.
 
The Mitcher said:
Bolton used to have players like Okocha though, at least when Big Sam was there. It wasn't all brawn.
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Now there’s a player. An absolute joy.

He was also a big guy though. He too would trample all over Antony, Mount, Bruno etc
 
Pughnichi said:
Now there’s a player. An absolute joy.

He was also a big guy though. He too would trample all over Antony, Mount, Bruno etc
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I don't remember him being particularly big? Besides, it wasn't what he relied on.
 
Spot on thread!
It's men against boys in every game.
Seems like powerhouse players the likes of Joelinton etc, who are more strength than skill, playing as AM or FW, are the in thing nowadays. Most teams have at least a couple of these in their line-ups. We are screaming for this type of player. We've missed out on the Jan window but should be a priority in the summer definately.
 
Not to mention a half fit Eze waltzing through our midfield with ease.

He'd be our best player after Amad.
 
The Mitcher said:
I don't remember him being particularly big? Besides, it wasn't what he relied on.
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Correct actually. He wasn’t tall. But he was certainly strong. I’d back him heavily if for example he was 50/50 (or just tussling with) the players listed earlier.

We have a bit of speed in Amad, Garnacho and even Hojlund when he gets up to top speed (which is hard to do playing back to goal all game every game)

We have zero speed in central midfield though to carry and progress the ball

Strength and power is the main issue. It needs addressing

Dorgu is a promising start.
 
simplyared said:
Spot on thread!
It's men against boys in every game.
Seems like powerhouse players the likes of Joelinton etc, who are more strength than skill, playing as AM or FW, are the in thing nowadays. Most teams have at least a couple of these in their line-ups. We are screaming for this type of player. We've missed out on the Jan window but should be a priority in the summer definately.
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People were complaining about McTominay but he had that profile.
 
It was pretty noticeable against Palace yesterday, but it's not like Crystal Palace are some sort of behemoths. They are a terrible, terrible side @Pughnichi . I felt, watching the game, that if our level of bravery was better overall then we wouldn't be talking about any of this today, because we really did have plenty of chance to -bury- them but we just forever made it look easy.

We had a number of free kicks on the edge of the box - nothing happened with them. 57 touches in their box. 57!!!! And that resulted in 2 shots on goal.

They made some chances on the break which you'd expect us to defend better, but it's goalscoring which is killing us
 
GazTheLegend said:
It was pretty noticeable against Palace yesterday, but it's not like Crystal Palace are some sort of behemoths. They are a terrible, terrible side @Pughnichi . I felt, watching the game, that if our level of bravery was better overall then we wouldn't be talking about any of this today, because we really did have plenty of chance to -bury- them but we just forever made it look easy.

We had a number of free kicks on the edge of the box - nothing happened with them. 57 touches in their box. 57!!!! And that resulted in 2 shots on goal.

They made some chances on the break which you'd expect us to defend better, but it's goalscoring which is killing us
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I understand your point…and we should be more clinical.

Personally I just feel the physical aspect of the game has been falling short for a while. As suggested in original post…we were physically well below at the start of last season.

But I guess that’s our problem. There’s too many of them

We’re weak.
We can’t do anything from set pieces
We can’t create chances from open play
We can’t get shots off even with that amount of touches in oppo box
We’re just a bit of a mess
 
We're always second to everything. It's like our players hesitate in the hope somebody else might react first. Palace waltzed through our midfield because our players always let them get a yard on them and then can't catch up. I don't know if it's confidence but nobody in our team appears to want the ball, or to be the one to lose it.

You don't need to be strong and quick if you're first to everything.

The only ones who don't hesitate are Garnacho and Bruno and they have other problems to sort out.
 
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