Nod.E

Teams sit back against us and we don't have players with vision or passing ability in forward areas. Not difficult to understand why our games are on the slow side, is it? No manager changes that without losing points, so just enjoy the victories as they roll in. And no, it isn't the same as Rodgers/Puel football. Their game was passing for passing's sake, with no apparent plan. We draw the opposition onto us with a defined pattern and spring to life at the right moments. We also give our wide players license to take on their man, something Rodgers would castrate a man for. Call me a snob if you like, but holding and posting the view that this is the same as our football under those managers simply serves to highlight one of, or various combinations of, your: 1 - Lack of football understanding 2 - Lack of intelligence 3 - Lack of attentiveness

We only need to be better than the other teams in the division this year. We're not the finished article (i.e. a team that could do more than just survive in the Prem), but can you reasonably expect that? Our best players left in the summer and we bought a lot of new players as a Championship outfit. Meanwhile players that were deemed not good enough in the Prem have been brought back into the fold. All Enzo needs to do this season is ensure that we win enough points to get promoted this season, which he's currently on track to do for us at a canter. We might not play the most entertaining football we've ever seen, but again is that a reasonable expectation given our lack of creative personnel in the middle of the park? Our manager has transformed a player we didn't think was fit enough for even this level into the best defender in the league. He's tactful enough to instil a press-baiting build up without being so hell-bent on that tactic that our players aren't allowed to empty the ball when it makes sense to do so. He's expertly managed two injury-prone full backs, completely re-inventing the role of Ricardo in the process. All of the above means we have comfortably the best defence in the division, despite injuries and setbacks. Yes we have some enviable talent at the back, but remind yourself of the absolute calamity we were at the back last season and how that translated in cup games against teams at this level. Defences this solid don't just happen. We're playing to our strengths and strolling to promotion as a result. Honestly don't understand why our fans appear desperate for him to fail. Make no mistake, winning doesn't just happen. Talented squads can and do fail. Rodgers would 100% find a way to fvck this up. Enjoy having a winner in charge. If he and the team around him don't go out of their way to address the creativity problem in summer, feel free to question the style again then. We were never going to be perfect with such a huge turnover of players in summer. I'm just pleased we're finding a path that works, and our manager deserves a lot of credit for that.

Hard work isn't it

Don't most teams struggle when there isn't much quality in the final third, regardless of formation? Isn't it a positive endorsement for our formation that despite the lack of quality in forward areas, we're still among the division's top scorers?

You've literally used the word behind in both of your English examples Then used a couple of exceptions to the obvious rule, all of which in different countries to the game over here, which is irrefutably different.

Chelsea vs Man City finished 4-4. Both played one up top. 1 up top does not mean a flat 4-5-1 in 2023. It's not the isolated, snatch and grab nonsense you'd see from defensive setups of yesteryear. Not many teams play with two strikers at all. It's rare. Are there fewer goals in football? Of course not. The main variation to 1 up top is 3 'forwards' in a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3. I mean think about it, how many current strike partnerships can you name? There can't be many. There's nothing wrong with our system, our final ball just isn't there at the moment. We don't play with an attack-minded 8, because the only one we have has been crap so far in Casadei. KDH, for the goals he scores, is actually a terrible passer of the ball. He's an odd footballer in the sense that he scores the goals you'd want from a 10, but you'd never play him in that slot because of his passing and vision. We lack that vision and ability to thread a pass. It's our missing part. Meanwhile, to say our wingers have blown hot and cold would be being generous. Didn't see Haaland complaining last year about his lack of a strike partner when he broke all those records anyway. The game has moved on since Crouch & Defoe, Heskey & Owen and Quinn & Phillips. About time we put this dated opinion to bed once and for all.

We're top of the league and Enzo is under a level of scrutiny that Rodgers didn't experience until his final season with us (over a year after it was obvious we were in freefall.) I think perhaps our fans are generally just a bit thick.

You're kind of proving my point here. Our issues come down to attacking sharpness rather than opponents sussing us out. The approach of Boro and Leeds couldn't be more different. One sat back, the other pressed us high up the pitch. Regardless, in both games we've been in plenty of good areas which we could have created more chances from. On another day the chances we did create would result in a goal or two. Not that you can rely on trying to pinch a goal. As I say, we need to be better with our final ball and our wide players need to do a better job of turning good positions into goal scoring opportunities. How anyone can watch the last 35 minutes of the match today and think the problem is our style of play / game plan / we've been sussed out is beyond me. The Boro commentators on our stream were stressing out that they hadn't been in our half for ages and were demanding subs and suggesting they needed to pump the ball long just have any chance of getting in behind us. They were absolutely knackered and were chasing shadows. Iheanacho hit a post and Mavididi somehow contrived to not even manage a shot with an open goal in front of him. Add to that plenty of scuffed shots wide. Long story short, there is no blueprint but also we're not perfect. When you're not perfect, sometimes you'll lose games. On this occasion it's because they scored a worldie and we weren't clinical. It happens, it'll happen less if we can coach our attacking players to find another level.

That's not a blueprint opponents have concocted to stop us in our tracks though is it? Hull game is the only game I've missed all season but the Leeds and Boro games we've done more than enough to score. Certainly today. Our problems are our own to fix. We need to be a little sharper in front of goal, it's as simple as that. We were punished in the last two games because they are better sides so we don't get quite as many chances. In the games we win, we fluff just as many promising positions, it's just we're that much better than most teams that we can afford to be wasteful.

Try 99 times out of a 100! Unbelievable hit.

It's set outside the goal and kisses the intersection between post and bar. And he's leathered it by the way. He saves that and everyone's calling for it to be save of the season, rightly so. Football fan opinions of goalkeeping will never cease to amaze me.

Your comment right here is my pet hate in football. You analyse a foul given away 30 yards from goal (which was a good decision by the way), because the guy has ended up hitting the best free kick he'll ever hit in his life and the best free kick goal you'll see all season. The goal doesn't go in and you don't even remember the foul. Just such lazy thinking to think 'what happened immediately before the goal? Oh yeah Choudhury fouled their player. What a liability.' Engage brain man.

Score a worldie or a fluke and hope our chances hit the woodwork? I think we'll be alright if that's the blueprint.

It's the wingers. They need to do a better job of beating their man and drilling it across or finding a man on a regular basis. It's all too hot and cold, from both sides. For every bit of exciting play from Fatawu there's a wild shot that flies 30 yards wide. For every bit of skill from Mavididi there's a stumble into his full back. They don't need to be perfect, but we'd benefit from both simplifying their game. They're good enough and physically superior enough to just play it as a numbers game. No need to panic but for me that's why at times we don't look like scoring as much as our attacking positions would lead you to expect. I'd be much more concerned if we weren't finding ourselves in good positions.

He did the right thing, they were through otherwise. When the foul was given were you really worried about him sticking it in the top bin? Can't legislate for that. The error was losing the ball carelessly in the first place.

There's only 3 teams in the top half we haven't played yet and we're 11 points clear of 3rd, yet if we lose away tomorrow at an in form Boro, this place will look like the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan. Absolutely zero evidence to suggest anything other than promotion at a canter at this stage. Now obviously injuries, fallouts, loss of form etc can happen, so I'm not saying it's a dead cert. But from the evidence in front of us we should be nothing other than confident, regardless of the result tomorrow.

Second option if this is the British interpretation of VAR. But there is absolutely no reason why we can't implement VAR like basically the rest of the world has, and that is better than no VAR. VAR was the answer to a real problem, but so shoddy has its application been that the solution has created a bigger problem than the one it's there to solve. Can somebody help me to understand why we get it so terribly wrong here?

Yep. They're the best team we'll play all season, we were without N'didi and didn't really turn up. And yet we still could've quite easily got something from the game on another day. Our start means we can afford the odd loss. We're still far too good for the vast majority of teams that we'll play.

Agree with posts suggesting he's too lightweight and too easy to play against. You can get away with that at times, but he was playing next to a KDH who went into hiding as he (rightly) didn't back his touch against the Leeds press. Midfield our problem area still. We need N'didi back and in the meantime I'd give minutes to Choudhury. If we only make one signing in January, I'd bet Enzo would make it a midfielder if he could.

I say this more from a place of wanting to be excited rather than scepticism. What evidence do we have that he's mustard? Appears to be common knowledge and I don't know a thing about the lad.

It's way too harsh (and inaccurate) to state he's bad at defending. He's bad in any scenario that involves him running back to goal, yes, but bad at defending full stop? No, not having that. There have been countless occasions this season that he's demonstrated great anticipation, stood strong and made good tackles, won headers. Who'd have seen that one coming? Would he be a wise selection for us in the Premier League? I'm not sure either way. Better teams are more likely to get in behind us more often, so maybe not. It's nowhere near as clear cut as a lot of you are making out, though.