cityfanlee23

I didn't know we NEEDED a sea themed Nelson song until today

I think he will need some guarantees by the end of the month, hopefully we have enough time as you could forgive him for wanting a fresh start, but today he was electric. Needs a nice christmas run and a couple of games in January and I think if he does well and gets minutes he will stay

This is a good point, I see it as a sliding scale, whereas this season it's often been a light switch between aimlessly holding the ball and attacking. We need a better balance between controlling the game (with tempo) and unlocking defenses. I know a lot of people are going to defend Enzoball by suggesting that the reason we have scored so many is because Plymouth have not sat in a low block and have given us space, but I've said from the beginning, arguably better attacking teams like Leeds don't come up against a low block nearly as much as we do and they are far more offensive in their style, If we get the balance right and increase the tempo, I think we can create exciting attacking football whilst controlling the game. This idea that teams only setup as a low block against us because they are scared is just a myth imo, they often do it because we invite them with our often low-tempo passing. This almost feels like Anti-Enzoball today, but I'd be very happy and content if we found a good balance between today and possession football, although I'd obviously prefer this side of the scale most weeks. We just need to find a balance.

What a performance today. Absolutely fantastic, he NEEDS minutes now, he needs to start for the next few weeks to give him some confidence. Plymouth went for it today and that gave him some freedom, but he used that freedom far better than Vardy or Kel have this season and Fatawu/Mavididi played much better as a result of him being on the pitch. We've seen these glimpses before but I really hope this could be the resurgence of the Salzburg Daka that we know is in there.

It's a balance, you're 100% right that often we have not had the space to attack like today, but it's also very obvious that part of the reason we face low blocks is because of the fact we pass it around so slowly and allow them to do it. There are plenty of teams this season who have posed more of an attacking threat such as Leeds, and they don't run into the same low block problem nearly as much as we do. I think if we played more aggressively and quicker we would often create more chances, but because we constantly pass it around for 50-60 passes before attacking we almost invite the low block. Balance is key I think

Nah you don't get any points for fence sitting like that, next time make the call

Especially given how fragile we are in defence and how wasteful we have been in attack this season. I understand that often it's beneficial to go for quality chances over quantity, but given how many chances we have blown this season it's sometimes better to go for brute force

Patson has been absolute fantastic today. Finally seeing sparks of that Salzburg Daka. Need to see him starting every week now to give him some real minutes to solidify himself. For one of the very few times this season, I'm actually not fussed if Cannon stays on the bench.

I don't want to prod the bear too much, but this is not Enzoball, and offensively it's been magnificent. We could easily have 7 today, the game is entertaining. Plymouth have given us a bit of space and credit to them for going for it today, but THIS is what Enzoball should be. I'd be happy if we struck a balance between todays offensive transition and possession.

@CrispinLA in Texas

Based on the current season the performance has been very anti Enzo-ball. Hard to tell if it's because of the Plymouth press or because Enzo has instructed them to be a bit more direct.

Watch Daka get dropped next game

Happy with him today, he's been a little bit unlucky and slightly wasteful but he's creating more space than Vardy and Iheanacho have managed all season, part of that due to the way plymouth are playing but that does not take away from the fact his positioning and movement have been good, even if he doesn't score today I'd keep him in the team if he replicates this in the second half.

Yeah I’ve said a few times this season I think he’s surprised me with some of his performances given he’s been playing right back a fair bit, but that surprise at how well he’s often adapted doesn’t paper over the cracks in his game, he’s a championship player.

Hard to really judge what’s going on, defending was awful, attacking transition was fantastic but individual decision making has put this game on a knife edge when we should be 3-4 up. It feels to me like today we’ve largely ditched Enzoball and we are playing far less passes before we press the button which is what I’ve been calling for all season, the tempo is increased. But I’m not sure if this is just a result of Plymouth pressing us more or if we are purposely going out to be a bit more direct in transition. Either way the attacking transitions in that half were a breath of fresh air.

Horrendous defending from Hamza there.

We really do not enjoy being pressed.

I'm really concerned by our decision-making upfront and how poor we often are in defence. Our defensive record is fantastic, but I think a lot of that is to do with poor opposition not taking advantage of our constant mistakes.

Hard to tell what Enzoball is, we are playing far more direct today and not passing anywhere near as much, far more space to play into. One of the best first halves of the season so far!

Winks is such a good passer, would really love to see him progressive like this every week.

Perfect project for him really, big ground, loyal fanbase, could be a long term one for him, he did spend time at Newcastle mind but I doubt that will be an issue for him. Would love to see him there but I think Ric is probably right on this one, seems like Sunderland want young players and swanky attractive football, so will probably be someone from France or Portugal etc

They have had a poor few weeks and yeah there were talks at the end of the season, but It sounds like there are fundamental differences between him and the board, from what I've heard Sunderland ownership is essentially dictating signings and Mowbray has been begging them to sign some experience while ownership only wants younger players. Looking at the last 2 seasons they look to have signed 20 odd players, only 2 of them are over 25, 2 are 24 and the rest are U23. Not really sustainable without allowing him to bring in some experience if he feels like that's what they need. Sunderland has the youngest squad in the league with an average age of 22.5. Think Mowbray has done a fantastic job there and will walk into another champ job no problem.

Think the balance just needs to be slightly shifted towards taking more risks and being more adventurous. Our best passer is obviously winks, yet last time I checked which was before the last game his pass record was something like 20% forwards passes and 80% backward/sideways. the problem seems to be we invite the press and if it doesn’t come we don’t really know what else to do, and if it does come we often panic and give chances away, but I’d rather us just press the ball forward at times and be more aggressive when we lose possession.

And people still rate him as the future for us. The reality is he is not a premier league footballer and we should not really risk trying to make him one should we go up, he needs to go to a championship team pushing top 6 and solidify himself and hopefully get promotion and get a few years of stability behind him to grow as a player, I'd love for him to make it at a top flight player in future but from what I've seen it won't be happening any time soon if at all. The reviews are worded very harshly but the points are somewhat accurate.

Ah fair enough! probably just seen select posts of yours, was under the impression you were on the fence!