I honestly feel that one of our biggest limiting factors is a lack of pace. When we play against teams that put pressure on us when we have the ball, but also try to keep 10 men behind the ball (Wigan, Stoke, etc) we lack the pace on the outside to really take advantage of the counter attack opportunities when we get them. We do alright against some of the bigger teams because they only defend with 7 or 8 behind the ball, and our players are given more space to play in.
I saw a few times against Stoke and Wigan when we would pick up the ball in midfield and look to start a counter, only for it to break down because our flanks (Maxi and Raul) don't have the pace or ability to take the ball on a 40 yard run and find Dirk or Nando in the box. They hold the ball up and try to build an attack, but that just gives those teams that extra bit of time to get all of their players back into position.
I know Jovanovic doesn't have the skill on the ball that Maxi/Cole have, but his pace and direct running puts defenders under pressure, and he can make things happen for us. The same goes for Babel. For every 4 times he runs right into a defender or takes the ball straight out of bounds, there is one time that he beats a man and either gets in a decent shot or cross.
I don't think Jova or Babel are going to be our saviors, but I do think that we need to play one of them against these type of teams just to keep some of the opposing defenders on the back foot and buy a little extra time and space for Nando and Kuyt to operate in. But we clearly need to make a classy winger with pace a priority in Jan!
« Last Edit: Nov 15, 2010 04:38:44 pm by harrydunn08 »
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