The Oscillating Wildly Thread

[pavlosmacwolf]

Excelant DW, as always.

 

[darlowolf64]

Excellent read as always Dan

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

A good balanced view of things, nice one DW.

 

[Lycan]

Good read Dan.

I disagree with some of your points about the formation though. I think calling Ruben Neves defensively minded is a bit of a stretch and calling 3-4-3 an experiment is a bit harsh. It's clear from our pre season and positive starts in the league & cup with both first and second string sides that Nuno knows how to coach this formation. He may not have had the opportunity to play this way at his previous clubs but this is his preferred formation.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Count the times Neves gets in Millwall's box on Saturday...

I do think you can class it as a 7/3 split at the moment between defensive/attacking players (broadly speaking, anyway) and that's too much. Maybe he'll work it out, maybe he'll change it depending on the opposition, maybe it'll sort itself out and I'm concerned about nothing. We haven't exactly overworked the keeper so far though in any of our home games, you can count Yeovil in that as well.

Overall I'm happy with how we're doing and I like Nuno's ideals. I wouldn't say I'm 100% sold though. Plus I have about 15 years of slagging off three at the back on the Internet to defend.

 

[Del Woppio]

I'd call it a 6/4 split, as Barry does both, but Doc does neither...

 

[YoungWolf]

Count the times Neves gets in Millwall's box on Saturday...

I do think you can class it as a 7/3 split at the moment between defensive/attacking players (broadly speaking, anyway) and that's too much. Maybe he'll work it out, maybe he'll change it depending on the opposition, maybe it'll sort itself out and I'm concerned about nothing. We haven't exactly overworked the keeper so far though in any of our home games, you can count Yeovil in that as well.
Overall I'm happy with how we're doing and I like Nuno's ideals. I wouldn't say I'm 100% sold though. Plus I have about 15 years of slagging off three at the back on the Internet to defend.

:icon_lol:

I think the idea is for is to be a 5 defending, 5 attacking. The inside forwards come inside and the full backs provide the width, which they largely have. We've seen instances where Douglas and Jota have combined, and Doc and Bright so far. Unfortunately Doherty is pretty limited going forward so it has slowed attacks down, we need an improvement there (hopefully Ofosu-Ayeh provides that if he ever gets fit).

Vinagre and Cavaleiro also showed how effective the wing back and forward combination can be against Southampton, as they had plenty of opportunities due to the shape which Southampton struggled to deal with a lot. And when Ronan came on in the same game he found great spaces between the lines.

I understand your concerns though, as I'm not sure under Nuno we will ever be a freescoring team but I like the system and the football we have played so far.

 

[b3h]

Comparing it to Chelsea's then would you say there's is more 5/5? As they still have 2 defensive CMs.

Right about Doc Del. Would be lovely to have a right footed Dougla there.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

https://oscillatingwildly.net/assessing-august/

Up to your usual excellent standard DW.

 

[thehistorymakers]

Excellent read, Dan.

 

[Lycan]

Count the times Neves gets in Millwall's box on Saturday...

I do think you can class it as a 7/3 split at the moment between defensive/attacking players (broadly speaking, anyway) and that's too much. Maybe he'll work it out, maybe he'll change it depending on the opposition, maybe it'll sort itself out and I'm concerned about nothing. We haven't exactly overworked the keeper so far though in any of our home games, you can count Yeovil in that as well.

Overall I'm happy with how we're doing and I like Nuno's ideals. I wouldn't say I'm 100% sold though. Plus I have about 15 years of slagging off three at the back on the Internet to defend.

Just because he operates in a withdrawn position doesn't mean he's defensively minded. He's a regista, not a defensive stopper.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Just because he operates in a withdrawn position doesn't mean he's defensively minded. He's a regista, not a defensive stopper.

Yeah, I know. Like Kev McDonald plays as a DM for Fulham, but he's not exactly Paul Ince II. The fact remains, we'll get the ball out wide on Saturday plenty of times and there'll be next to no-one in the box. Leo will have dropped deep to lay it off in all likelihood, the CMs don't get forward and so if it's on the right, Jota might be in there, if it's on the left, Cav/Bright might be. That's it.

When we're playing the likes of Millwall then that seems counter-intuitive to me. Or maybe they'll have changed the emphasis by Saturday. I don't know, I don't have a crystal ball. We definitely don't need three centre halves against them, they'll have bugger all to do (I am well aware that we will still play three).

For the record, two shots on target vs Boro, three against Cardiff.

 

[Jinky]

Yeah, I know. Like Kev McDonald plays as a DM for Fulham, but he's not exactly Paul Ince II. The fact remains, we'll get the ball out wide on Saturday plenty of times and there'll be next to no-one in the box. Leo will have dropped deep to lay it off in all likelihood, the CMs don't get forward and so if it's on the right, Jota might be in there, if it's on the left, Cav/Bright might be. That's it.

This sums up the system we are playing quite nicely. There have been a number of times where we've worked the ball out wide and either Douglas has crossed it in to no one or Doherty has looked up and then stopped running and passed it backwards again.

The major criticism of the system that I have is there are never enough bodies in the box to hit once we've worked it in to dangerous areas.

 

[AndyWolves]

I think for 3-4-3 to really work then the wide players have to be midfielders first and full backs second.

For what it's worth i think 4231 would suite us much better, and would mean we could exploit our better players.

A front four of Costa, Cav, Jota and Bonatini - I'd he hard pressed to find better in the championship.

Douglas and Marshall as FB means you've still got attacking outlets with Neves and Saiss/Alfie doing their thing in the middle.

It just makes more sense to me

 

[Tony Towner]

I think for 3-4-3 to really work then the wide players have to be midfielders first and full backs second.

For what it's worth i think 4231 would suite us much better, and would mean we could exploit our better players.

A front four of Costa, Cav, Jota and Bonatini - I'd he hard pressed to find better in the championship.

Douglas and Marshall as FB means you've still got attacking outlets with Neves and Saiss/Alfie doing their thing in the middle.

It just makes more sense to me

I don't agree with first paragraph, but do think they need to be a certain type of defender with pace to burn in the Alonso, Rose, Walker mould. Doherty isn't that and neither is Marshall, German Phil who knows.

I agree with everything else you say formation wise although I have concerns about Marshall at right back.

 

[Johnny75]

I think for 3-4-3 to really work then the wide players have to be midfielders first and full backs second.

For what it's worth i think 4231 would suite us much better, and would mean we could exploit our better players.

A front four of Costa, Cav, Jota and Bonatini - I'd he hard pressed to find better in the championship.

Douglas and Marshall as FB means you've still got attacking outlets with Neves and Saiss/Alfie doing their thing in the middle.

It just makes more sense to me

I'd largely agree with that although I think Coady would be a better RB than Doherty and Marshall, at least he can defend. Douglas and Vinagre can clearly operate at LB and Boly + Miranda should be good enough for the level we want to be at.

 

[b3h]

See what Andy means in terms of qualities. Ideal world the wingbacks are quality on the ball and have good attacking passing/crossing. Backed up by being a competent defender. Also need a massive engine. Kind of like the inverted ideals of a LB rather than LWB

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

While we're on the subject of blogs, have any of you read this one - https://southbankresistance.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/gary-mastic-and-poundstretcher-football/amp/

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Sometimes I think it's quite good and then he mis-spells Sako's name and I wonder if it's all a wind up.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

His style isn't really my cup of tea, but that's a personal thing I suppose.

 

[Parkins left foot]

While we're on the subject of blogs, have any of you read this one - https://southbankresistance.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/gary-mastic-and-poundstretcher-football/amp/

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Sometimes I think it's quite good and then he mis-spells Sako's name and I wonder if it's all a wind up.

Saw that one earlier, but wasn't going to put it up - trying to hard to be funny & no real great insight (& not proof read properly)

Not a patch on the Blog this thread extolls - good read again Dan