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Match PSG v Tottenham Hotspur Wednesday 8pm

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TLDR: A few tedious observations regarding Frank's first attempt at a 4-4-2 diamond. You've been warned.
  • Frank was either terrified of PSG, or thought long and hard about everything that went wrong with his crazy 5-2-3 against Woolwich's 4-6-0 a few days ago. Probably both.

  • He used a very unusual 4-2-2-2 square for the first 10 minutes or so, packing the middle at all costs at the expense of leaving flanks quite vulnerable. He also mixed it up by asking either one of the fullbacks to bomb forward all the way inside PSG's own third when we were pressing high. Spence or Porro during that sequence was essentially acting like a winger with his relentless pressing, instead of keeping the defensive positioning as fullbacks. I guess he was trying to prevent PSG from exploiting the aforementioned vulnerability further up the pitch simply by nipping their attacks in the bud.

  • For the rest of the game the shape went back and forth between 4-3-3 and 4-4-2. Something like these;
Porro-Romero-VdV-Spence
Gray-Bentancur-Bergvall
Sarr-RKM-Richarlison

Porro-Romero-VdV-Spence
Sarr-Gray-Bentancur-Bergvall
RKM-Richarlison​
  • Using CMs instead of actual wingers as wide defenders is not an issue defensively, even preferable arguably, but the question arises: How do you progress the ball after winning it? There are no wide players in the usual sense, only CMs who were clogging the middle by getting narrower and narrower as PSG moved further up the pitch. Winning the ball by smothering them between the lines was all good, but finding an attacking outlet was a massive issue. You need strikers who are exceptional at holding the ball in tight areas, and/or midfielders who can thread the needle with their passes to buy that time for fullbacks to push forward. If Frank is going to persist with the diamond, this could be his biggest issue to address.
All things considered I think I'd rather build on this diamond with some tweaks than watch that 4-2-3-1 with the double pivot go nowhere. Promises much more in case it eventually clicks.
 
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Mrs Perryman said:
Fair comment, but I'm in the camp of "score one more than your opponent" to winning games and titles. I like to see goals, the more the merrier.
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And that motto is fair comment as well.
Me personally, I can't stand the club taking part in games that end 4-3 or 5-4, its not for me.
Rather win 2-0 in a more professional performance.
As a neutral i like seeing high scoring games, but to me it looks unprofessional.
 
Mrs Perryman said:
Until xg is counted to turn a game into a victory, I find it irrelevant and a tad boring.
I get that people enjoy the statistical side of the game, but personally I think it's just a load of nonsense, made up to give pundits a job.
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People who get excited over heat maps, formations and XG are just nerds who weren't cool enough to play Warhammer.

Sort of people that base their opinions of players on the latest Football manager game.

It's a pestilence to the sport and these people absolutely need to be stopped.

(Disclaimer this post is only half tongue and cheek)
 
Matt1882 said:
Goal one - rocket out of nowhere.
Goal two - rocket out of nowhere.
Goal Three -a'most out of nowhere.
Goal four - scrappy goal
goal five - penalty.

Not one of their goals actually "opened us up"
They were all freak goals. It is genuinely mad that it happened 4 times. But the fact they scored 5 and we had a higher Xg tells you something was off.
I actually think all 3 of ours were better team goals, although obviously not as easy on the eye as Vitinha's
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I think my takeaway is that if the same match and players played again, its unlikely Spurs would make the same mistakes (cough Bentancur, Romero) and the result would be that Spurs would not lose.

We scored 3 good team goals which had been made by practicing passages of play on the training ground (eg Bergvall on left wing running into a crowd of PSG players so Gray runs on inside towards PSG goal line with Bergvall giving him a reverse pass allowing Gray to put in a good cross for Richarlison to head back across goal for Kolo Muani to head the goal - all elements practiced on training ground but put together on pitch by our players.

By contrast probably 3 if not 4 PSG goals were down to a player pouncing on a Spurs player mistake to score. So if Spurs cut out errors, PSG don't score as many.
 
Hotspurpaul said:
🤣.....like they gave a fuck about 'the club world cup' they'd already won the Champions league!...
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Fair enough but I stand by my point... they are not the best team in the world today. Last May they might have been but today I think one or two have surpassed them... not saying their shite... just saying, they are not the best team in world which the original posted said they were. The best team in the world doesn't get beaten at home by Bayern.
 
Kane is the best striker in the world but have to say from last season to now Vitinha might be the best footballer in the world. I’d have said that if he never scored a goal ever, his passing and control of the game is crazy but to now add goals to his game is nuts. Like Modric 2.0. He just dominates the midfield in every way.
 
_mehstg said:
They are not the best team in the world. Chavs dicked them in the world club cup and I doubt this lot would lay a glove on Woolwich.
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The champions of Europe, the actual reigning champions of Europe, wouldn't even lay a finger on Woolwich?

Look I get we're all down on Spurs, and I get the goons are irritatingly decent right now, I know concededing 9 in two games is shit but let's not pretend PSG are shit just to make things worse when thinfs are already pretty shit.
 
JimothyCF14 said:
The champions of Europe, the actual reigning champions of Europe, wouldn't even lay a finger on Woolwich?

Look I get we're all down on Spurs, and I get the goons are irritatingly decent right now, I know concededing 9 in two games is shit but let's not pretend PSG are shit just to make things worse when thinfs are already pretty shit.
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Didn't say they were shit Jimmy... just said they are not the best in Europe right now... that is my opinion and the beauty about opinions is that they can never be defeated... Bayern beat them in Paris and Woolwich just beat Bayern pretty easy. I think a few teams are better right now. Come May, who knows... but right now I wouldn't back them over two legs against Woolwich.
 
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