Wing play at Tottenham. Why do we persist?

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gibbs131 said:
The stat you used had better crossing % than us. You answered it for me.

You still have to use all of the pitch with my suggested lineup. With the difference that the wingbacks will NOT join attacks etc. Look at my suggested lineups above. It's not like crosses are not going to be banned under a different system is it?

Regarding that game/goals, I already said the linkup that Soldado and Eriksen had was not typical of the season. Plus the strength I mentioned to surround these players with was seen with Chadli who would also be perfect for my suggested shape.

Speaking of crosses. IMO they are VITAL to games. Man Utd won the title last year because of their returns from dead balls, corners etc. You are not going to convert many of them when almost a half of your outfield are Roses, Lennons, Eriksens, Defoes etc. If we take away Townsend, Lennon and Rose, that alone will instantly help our chances scoring from corners and dead balls. Our scoring from corners is a huge problem at the club.
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Why don't we just give this team some time to play? We are starting to see some green shoots in the last couple of games, with some potential of some nice one touch quick inter-play and as you say all from our new signings. We are also slowly seeing some genuine movement from our Midfield and forwards e.g. we morph formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 and 4-1-4-1 all in one game (which I like) and it is nice seeing players mixing it up a bit too.

To be clear, I am not disagreeing with some of what you have to say on Lennon or Rose for instance. But to frame your entire discussion on the stat of 1 completed cross from 33 attempts is nonsense as the facts, our 3 goals we scored, resulted in incomplete crosses proves it as such.
 
Guido said:
Why don't we just give this team some time to play? We are starting to see some green shoots in the last couple of games, with some potential of some nice one touch quick inter-play and as you say all from our new signings. We are also slowly seeing some genuine movement from our Midfield and forwards e.g. we morph formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 and 4-1-4-1 all in one game (which I like) and it is nice seeing players mixing it up a bit too.

To be clear, I am not disagreeing with some of what you have to say on Lennon or Rose for instance. But to frame your entire discussion on the stat of 1 completed cross from 33 attempts is nonsense as the facts, our 3 goals we scored, resulted in incomplete crosses proves it as such.
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But these crosses were not put in by out and out wingers were they? My argument is against wingbacks and wingers. Chadli, Eriksen and Soldado's best positions in the prem are not on the wing. Our classic wingers and wingbacks have not done what this trio did in the second half much this season. Just because a player finds himself by the touchline, does not instantly make that wingplay. Defenders almost always push you to the touchline, away from the goal. The difference is strikers are usually good at crossing, and Eriksen is pretty much good at anything that involves a ball and feet.

When it comes to finishing and creativity down the wings, the Walker, Lennons, Roses, Naughtons and Townsends have been weak links. Their crosses and cutbacks have been terrible. They are NOT clicking with their wing partners, or the revolving door of faux wingers that was Holtby, Siggy, Eriksen etc.
 
Ledknee King said:
Doesn't help that we hardly get a cross off the fucking floor.
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Should get em trained by these guys :adegrin:

EvenTheRain01080310.jpg
 
Fuck it, i dont care how many crosses we put in, let it be 11 or 111, as long we score more than our enemies.

I mean, 80 crosses, 1 goal to spurs, 0 goals to villians, 3 points to us. Now that matters.

Beautiful footsies can wait. : ostrich:

.
 
We play through the wings because we are incapable of playing through the middle. Lesser of two evils. With the exception of eriksen, our midfielders can only seem to pass sideways and back which is why we end up getting it out wide the majority of the time.
 
going wide free's space in the midfield, all the best teams in the world play with wingers/utilise the touchline..
fault lies in tactics/formations/personel..
 
I'm a big fan of using the width of the pitch. But there is one thing that is never mentioned.

We have one of the narrowest playing surface allowed under the FA rules. We also persevere with one up front. If you are going to go down the traditional wing play use then you need bodies in the box. Also we tend to play an inverted system. Once the winger cuts in all width is lost and the through ball is the only outlet left.

It's pretty easy to defend against when everyone is bunching like an under 11's match.
 
jamie gentz said:
We play through the wings because we are incapable of playing through the middle. Lesser of two evils. With the exception of eriksen, our midfielders can only seem to pass sideways and back which is why we end up getting it out wide the majority of the time.
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IMO it's because AVB and Sherwood gave them stupid roles and tactics. They were set up to fail because Dembele, Holtby, Paulinho, Siggy, Eriksen etc are central AM's. And they were given pretty much everything but these roles. Eriksen, Siggy, Holtby and Dembele have all been put on the wings, Dembele and Holtby have played way too deep if played in the middle, Paulinho is all over the place etc. Then you have Sandro or Capoue (who were given correct roles) doing so much running to make up for this chaos, Sandro ends up puking or overextending/making mistakes. It's no wonder they get injured because they end up having to go all out to chace down a counter because our wingers and wingbacks are so porous.
 
OZHotspur said:
going wide free's space in the midfield, all the best teams in the world play with wingers/utilise the touchline..
fault lies in tactics/formations/personel..
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The best teams in the world don't have Naughton, Rose, Lennon and Townsend. We do... I would not be singing this tune if we had Ronaldo and Bale and a world class left wingback.
 
gibbs131 said:
The best teams in the world don't have Naughton, Rose, Lennon and Townsend. We do... I would not be singing this tune if we had Ronaldo and Bale and a world class left wingback.
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Thanks gibbo for regurgitating exactly what I just said..
The advantages of wing play arnt really in question here, merely do we have the personal to make it work...the answer ATM is no...problem is we dnt really have the personal to play through the middle ether...resign yourself to seeing more wing play though, can't see it going away any time soon..
 
OZHotspur said:
Thanks gibbo for regurgitating exactly what I just said..
The advantages of wing play arnt really in question here, merely do we have the personal to make it work...the answer ATM is no...problem is we dnt really have the personal to play through the middle ether...resign yourself to seeing more wing play though, can't see it going away any time soon..
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I disagree with the last part. IMO we have quality midfielders with a rudderless captain barking or croaking at them all season.

IMO if you take out the weak links: the midfield even vert and walkers game will improve.
 
Isn't the advantage of wing play also related to the opposition. I mean the big teams like Chelsea and Liverpool would be more vunerable than a smaller team. Wing play is effective when the defense is high because on the counter the defenders are running towards their own goal and our forwards are running on to the ball, but if we play a 'smaller' team (I include Woolwich who seemed to park the bus at the lane like we where Barcelona) their deep defence leaves no room for a counter attacks and as their defence is set its easy to deal with incoming crosses.

Would it not be better to play wingers such as against Liverpool on Sunday when we will have to counter attack but drop our wingers when we are playing teams we are expected to dominate as it seems to be the space behind the defence that determine the effectiveness of playing them.
 
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