Gestede and January Signings

Does Gil play on the left? It seems to me he mostly plays on the right, or is that just where he's been played? Grealish is at home on the left. One thing he needs to do though is go for goal more himself, and not be afraid of running into the box.

Gil is most effective as a central player in my opinion but Grealish has done nothing to merit involvement as a starter in his performances this season. With Gil in I think it would be more of a 4-3-3 but it would still provide a conundrum for the opposition to solve with four attacking players.

According the media Gil is most likely on his way out, Betis are looking to loan for 6month with option to buy for 4mil euros at the end of the season. Lerner will take money where ever he can get it so if its a genuine offer I expect him to go.

A loan is fucking retarded. Buy him or fuck off. All a loan does is shed some of his wages and doesn't give Garde any extra funds

Trotters wrote:I think the comment that Ayew is putting Grealish out of business is the reason why we're not an overly threatening side.

At the moment, Ayew is our sharpest attacking tool and, as such, is easy to nullify. Put Gestede on with him and it keep opposition defenders that much busier and improves our chances of scoring.

What I'd like to see (and I accept that Grealish has gone off the boil a little but stay with me), is a front pair of Ayew and Gestede with Traore down the right and Grealish down the left.

Every time Traore gets the ball, he's immediately double teamed. Gestede has to be watched very closely if Traroe is on the gallop and so that leaves Ayew unattended to cause some chaos.

Again, with Traore on the ball,  Hutton will be as free as a bird to overlap, cut inside, feed the ball off to Gana or Veretout who can then pick out Ayew.

Should Grealish find himself on the ball, he'll likely be double teamed and Ayew ahead of him will have pulled two players out of position ready to lynch him. That leaves Gestede and Traore free.

It's all about giving the opposition a Rubik's cube to solve and, right now, we're not giving them any problems at all. Ayew has scored a couple of goals by cutting in and nailing some pretty perfect crosses but we need more team goals rather than superb individual efforts.

Yes, the above will leave us a little more exposed at the back but if Traore/Hutton and Ayew/Grealish have both the opposition full-backs and wingers pegged back, there's not a great deal of options for them to move forward with any meaningful threat...and Gana/Veretout can deal with that comfortably.

For me, we just don't play as a team properly, we have no combinations to worry the other team. The goals we do score tend to be of the "unexpected" variety.

I'm all for changing the formation because it's clearly not working with the players we have. Neither Ayew nor Gestede are scoring goals as the lone striker (although with Sinclair and Westwood on the wings I'm not surprised) although at least Ayew can play on the right or left and create his own goals, so you're right about him partnering someone else up front. Garde must be able to see it's not working, and only Veretout and Ayew are playing particularly well. It doesn't help that he's crippling the team by sending out eight or nine players, plus two or three makeweights out of position who are ok at defending (Sinclair, Westwood) and currently only ok at attacking (er... Sinclair, Westwood).

Thing is, Garde isn't changing the formation to suit the players, he's sticking to the 4-1-4-1 despite the fact he doesn't have the players to make it work, or more importantly doesn't select the players best suited. Sure, LB is a mess since Amavi went out because both our cover players are on loan, Clark (note lack of 'e'), Crespo and Ilori are either injured or unsuitable and Bacuna is right footed so can score but can't put in a cross across goal, but we can't afford to have Grealish on the left because he can't cover the defender, and Ayew isn't allowed there because Gestede is no good up front on his own, Gabby is gone and Kozak has done something unspeakable and isn't allowed to play. We need wingers to bang in the ball for the striker but for whatever reason Sinclair isn't working (or doesn't get the ball) and Traore isn't being played. So we're scuppered with a 4-1-4-1 before we even start. Sanchez looked good in the first match and has gone downhill ever since, he is still getting knackered and making mistakes. If he's going to start we need to be able to substitute him at half time or after 60 minutes or something. Who with though? Westwood? I don't think so.

If Garde had wanted to play something other than 4-1-4-1 he'd have done so by now. I reckon in the January window he'll be looking for a big name target striker suited to working up front on his own, wingers on both sides with PL experience able to both attack and defend, LB, left sided CB and quite possibly someone to replace Sanchez.

I've said it before, I'll say it again (and again and again - sorry!), I wish we had a manager able to adapt to what he's got to play with and adapt to matches as they go on, with formation and tactic changes and proper use of subs. No one likes Pardew but he gets the job done properly. We do have some very good players at the club, and they're not being used. We can't currently score or defend. Garde is treading water until he can buy in some players in 10 days time to suit his system. I hope he a) has the money and b) knows what he's doing.

ViewFromT2 wrote:

Dions_Bald_Head wrote:

ViewFromT2 wrote:

Dions_Bald_Head wrote:

ViewFromT2 wrote:Nobody should need telling that he made an impact....unless they never saw the game or they don't have the knowledge to realise it!

Are you having a dig at me?

nope. not at all

Phew - I must've misread it. I'm very delicate.  


Apparently we've put in a bid for Morgan Amalfitano - a free agent at the moment

I can see how you thought that reading it back to be fair....wasn't meant as a swipe at you. soz pal

Amalfitano?...hmmm...suppose could be ok on a free, we've got worse players in the squad!

FoxyAV wrote:

Trotters wrote:I think the comment that Ayew is putting Grealish out of business is the reason why we're not an overly threatening side.

At the moment, Ayew is our sharpest attacking tool and, as such, is easy to nullify. Put Gestede on with him and it keep opposition defenders that much busier and improves our chances of scoring.

What I'd like to see (and I accept that Grealish has gone off the boil a little but stay with me), is a front pair of Ayew and Gestede with Traore down the right and Grealish down the left.

Every time Traore gets the ball, he's immediately double teamed. Gestede has to be watched very closely if Traroe is on the gallop and so that leaves Ayew unattended to cause some chaos.

Again, with Traore on the ball,  Hutton will be as free as a bird to overlap, cut inside, feed the ball off to Gana or Veretout who can then pick out Ayew.

Should Grealish find himself on the ball, he'll likely be double teamed and Ayew ahead of him will have pulled two players out of position ready to lynch him. That leaves Gestede and Traore free.

It's all about giving the opposition a Rubik's cube to solve and, right now, we're not giving them any problems at all. Ayew has scored a couple of goals by cutting in and nailing some pretty perfect crosses but we need more team goals rather than superb individual efforts.

Yes, the above will leave us a little more exposed at the back but if Traore/Hutton and Ayew/Grealish have both the opposition full-backs and wingers pegged back, there's not a great deal of options for them to move forward with any meaningful threat...and Gana/Veretout can deal with that comfortably.

For me, we just don't play as a team properly, we have no combinations to worry the other team. The goals we do score tend to be of the "unexpected" variety.

I'm all for changing the formation because it's clearly not working with the players we have. Neither Ayew nor Gestede are scoring goals as the lone striker (although with Sinclair and Westwood on the wings I'm not surprised) although at least Ayew can play on the right or left and create his own goals, so you're right about him partnering someone else up front. Garde must be able to see it's not working, and only Veretout and Ayew are playing particularly well. It doesn't help that he's crippling the team by sending out eight or nine players, plus two or three makeweights out of position who are ok at defending (Sinclair, Westwood) and currently only ok at attacking (er... Sinclair, Westwood).

Thing is, Garde isn't changing the formation to suit the players, he's sticking to the 4-1-4-1 despite the fact he doesn't have the players to make it work, or more importantly doesn't select the players best suited. Sure, LB is a mess since Amavi went out because both our cover players are on loan, Clark (note lack of 'e'), Crespo and Ilori are either injured or unsuitable and Bacuna is right footed so can score but can't put in a cross across goal, but we can't afford to have Grealish on the left because he can't cover the defender, and Ayew isn't allowed there because Gestede is no good up front on his own, Gabby is gone and Kozak has done something unspeakable and isn't allowed to play. We need wingers to bang in the ball for the striker but for whatever reason Sinclair isn't working (or doesn't get the ball) and Traore isn't being played. So we're scuppered with a 4-1-4-1 before we even start. Sanchez looked good in the first match and has gone downhill ever since, he is still getting knackered and making mistakes. If he's going to start we need to be able to substitute him at half time or after 60 minutes or something. Who with though? Westwood? I don't think so.

If Garde had wanted to play something other than 4-1-4-1 he'd have done so by now. I reckon in the January window he'll be looking for a big name target striker suited to working up front on his own, wingers on both sides with PL experience able to both attack and defend, LB, left sided CB and quite possibly someone to replace Sanchez.

I've said it before, I'll say it again (and again and again - sorry!), I wish we had a manager able to adapt to what he's got to play with and adapt to matches as they go on, with formation and tactic changes and proper use of subs. No one likes Pardew but he gets the job done properly. We do have some very good players at the club, and they're not being used. We can't currently score or defend. Garde is treading water until he can buy in some players in 10 days time to suit his system. I hope he a) has the money and b) knows what he's doing.

Totally agree with that Foxy.

Remi wants to play 4-1-4-1 and he will not change, so until he gets the players to play his system we will be 'treading water'.

Another thing I don't like currently is that we seem to have created another 'bomb' squad, which is ridiculous considering the position we find ourselves in!
Why haven't we seen Ilori (he played for the U21's the other day) or Crespo in the first team squad, we know Kozak is going along with Gabby in the transfer window for whatever reason!

Good post from Foxy. Completely agree.