Thanks for the memories, Ben. The painful, awful memories.
I think we should henceforth refer to that Pratley-Watson midfield pairing as 'The Partnership that shall not be Named.' Like Voldemort.
Outrageously harsh on Pratters that. One of the best midfielders we’ve had in the last 15 years
No it's not, I liked Pratley. But that midfield pairing was one of the most turgid I've ever seen. Two defensively minded 35-year-olds, one completely out of legs. The football was dire.
Thanks for the memories, Ben. The painful, awful memories.
I think we should henceforth refer to that Pratley-Watson midfield pairing as 'The Partnership that shall not be Named.' Like Voldemort.
Outrageously harsh on Pratters that. One of the best midfielders we’ve had in the last 15 years
No it's not, I liked Pratley. But that midfield pairing was one of the most turgid I've ever seen. Two defensively minded 35-year-olds, one completely out of legs. The football was dire.
Pratley lacked many things but “legs” wasn’t one of them .
Thanks for the memories, Ben. The painful, awful memories.
I think we should henceforth refer to that Pratley-Watson midfield pairing as 'The Partnership that shall not be Named.' Like Voldemort.
Outrageously harsh on Pratters that. One of the best midfielders we’ve had in the last 15 years
No it's not, I liked Pratley. But that midfield pairing was one of the most turgid I've ever seen. Two defensively minded 35-year-olds, one completely out of legs. The football was dire.
Thanks for the memories, Ben. The painful, awful memories.
I think we should henceforth refer to that Pratley-Watson midfield pairing as 'The Partnership that shall not be Named.' Like Voldemort.
Outrageously harsh on Pratters that. One of the best midfielders we’ve had in the last 15 years
No it's not, I liked Pratley. But that midfield pairing was one of the most turgid I've ever seen. Two defensively minded 35-year-olds, one completely out of legs. The football was dire.
Thanks for the memories, Ben. The painful, awful memories.
I think we should henceforth refer to that Pratley-Watson midfield pairing as 'The Partnership that shall not be Named.' Like Voldemort.
Outrageously harsh on Pratters that. One of the best midfielders we’ve had in the last 15 years
No it's not, I liked Pratley. But that midfield pairing was one of the most turgid I've ever seen. Two defensively minded 35-year-olds, one completely out of legs. The football was dire.
Pratley lacked many things but “legs” wasn’t one of them .
"One completely out of legs" and you assumed I meant Pratley? Come on now!
Thanks for the memories, Ben. The painful, awful memories.
I think we should henceforth refer to that Pratley-Watson midfield pairing as 'The Partnership that shall not be Named.' Like Voldemort.
Outrageously harsh on Pratters that. One of the best midfielders we’ve had in the last 15 years
No it's not, I liked Pratley. But that midfield pairing was one of the most turgid I've ever seen. Two defensively minded 35-year-olds, one completely out of legs. The football was dire.
Gower and Hughes all over again!
I'll raise you Crofts and Foley
You win, they also played with Jackson at the end of his career.
If anything we seem slightly over stocked with RBs when compared to our LB options
In hindsight, signing an out and out LB over Sessegnon would have made more sense. Depends on whether Garner thinks Egbo can do a job at LB, if he does we'll probably stick with the 3 we've got and have Clayden as 4th choice. If not, he's got a decision to make, would he be content if Sessegnon gets injured and we have to use Clayden for 10-15 games.
The left-footed defender able to play LCB or LB makes sense on paper, but I don't really think that sort of player exists. You might get a LB capable of playing CB in a 3, or a CB capable of being a defensive LB, but how do you get a O'Connell and Sessegnon as one player?
It seems a bit odd if we end up with 3 options at LB in Sessegnon, Clayden and Egbo, all being of the "can do a job" variety.
And it looks a bit inconsistent to have a right footed LB cutting inside, but not have the same on the right seeing that all our RB options are right footers, Egbo, Clare and Sessegnon plus Ness who's been tried there.
A formation doesn’t need to be symmetrical. Probably harder to find a left footer comfortable at right back too.
I prefer having left footed players on their ‘natural’ side. I think that we will be better off if / when JRS signs because having two right footers on the left makes us too predictable. Kirk thrived when he had a left footed left back at Crewe.
Maybe after the other night Clayden could make a claim. Whilst I wouldn’t want to put too much pressure on him along with his impressive 30 second cameo against Mendez Lang I think we have something to work with.
It doesn't make a team predictable as long as the players are being asked to do different jobs. City won a league title playing Grealish and Cancelo on the left and they're both right footed. They were far from predictable though; Cancelo moved into central midfield in periods of control and also arrived in the final third to provide a crossing platform for built-up moves. Grealish would push down the wing but also cut in, but he'd vary it which is important for a player in that spot. We've seen that Kirk is clever enough to know when to push down the line or cut inside and he keeps the width well. CBT is also very capable of providing width and then cutting in when he's built up some momentum. I know that we're not Man City but the instructions we will be giving the players aren't complicated. As long as the players are sufficiently comfortable on their assigned flank, which all three of our current options in those areas currently are, being able provide both line and inside play actually makes the team less predictable, not more.
I'm pretty sure that Rak-SAkyi is being signed to play on the right as a left-footer as well.
Last season they regularly used Zinchenko at LB, giving the left foot attacking threat down that side
There' a few things there. Firstly, Zinchenko didn't bring any threat. He's a painfully average midfielder played as a LB because City didn't have any other backup. City do have the luxury of rotating their players regularly though. Despite that, no player made more appearances for City last season than Cancelo. He played 52 games, 36 in the league. Zinchenko made 28 appearances, 15 in the league. Most of Zinchenko's appearances were purely down to the absence of Kyle Walker (only 20 league appearances due to injury), at which point Cancelo would switch to RB. City under Guardiola rarely play the same way for too long, they have a huge amount of tactical flexibility. Mostly though your comment isn't really relevant anyway considering I never said they didn't ever play with left-footed LBs, I was pointing out how having two right footers on the left doesn't have to limit your tactical flexibility using City as an example of it done very well.
Zinchenko was outstanding and helped turned the game when he came on at half time on the last day of last season.
Is Zinchenko ‘painfully average’? I don’t really know a terrible amount about premiership football, but from what I’ve read there’s arguments that he may end up being arsenals best signing this summer?
I assume they are chiseling his name and stats into the Charlton Athletic Pantheon of Champions wall (behind the green skip next to the empty beer casks by the West Stand) as we speak?
Bit surprised Pratley getting some stick,he never left anything on the pitch,whether he played good or bad,could certainly have done with him ,even at his age,in a few games last season when we were getting passed off the park.
Bit surprised Pratley getting some stick,he never left anything on the pitch,whether he played good or bad,could certainly have done with him ,even at his age,in a few games last season when we were getting passed off the park.
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Seems a lot but I wonder what the views are for the Man U Life transfer thread?
Deal off.