Reed must play

I don't think he's not trying either, but as a CF he hasn't played well. If Long is fit, time to play him.

 

I really really like Reed too. Love his attitude. I just don't see why the clamour to play him right now, based on the views posted.

 

He started in the recent failed home wins vs Swansea and West Ham.

Not aimed at you, but one or two people have seemingly conveniently forgotten this. It's not like he's completely sat out this recent poor spell of ours.

 

Something to note about Pelle is when the ball gets played up to him there is nobody anywhere near him, nobody making runs off of him, i think Elia, Mane and Tadic are as much to blame for Pelle's poor form as their link up play is awful of late. Tadic is particularly frustrating as atleast the other two run around

 

as for Reed stick him upfront cant do any worse

 

I ment depending how long we rest him.

 

I agree with Fatletiss. Midfield is not the issue at the moment. Reed may play as well as the Morgan or Vic on his best day, but that wouldn't have mattered for much against Liverpool or Brom, where we dominated possession.

 

Thanks for that, quite a bad oversight on my part there. Although, I think we were at 0-0 when he was substituted in both those games. Just hoping he could be a lucky charm I guess, rather than seriously suggesting that starting a defensive midfielder would improve our scoring.

 

Maybe not a few weeks, but yeah, Pelle looks jaded, and if he was playing in any other position than striker, he'd have been dropped/given a rest by now. Trouble is, Long is in no way a like for like replacement. Drop Pelle and you change the whole shape of the team, though that may be no bad thing for now. A fluid front 3 of Long, Mane and Elia might work better than channeling all our attacking play through a target man, when the target man's off his game.

On the other hand,maybe Pelle just badly needs a goal.

 

I've been calling for this for weeks now. The fact that it will makes us change our approach will be a bonus.

Pelle will then come off the bench and score and all his frustrations will erupt in a fabulously, erotic, Italian celebration and all will be back to normal.

 

We need a midfielder capable of recycling the ball into dangerous areas. I think Swansea have one!

 

A bit of a corker, I hear.

 

The definition of "recycling" in coaching terms (or how they refer to it when coaching coaches) is "to start again".... so by definition, your man must have been going the opposite way rather than into dangerous areas, thus making your statement above contradictory. Just saying

A relatively recent coaching phrase that is much mis-used by fans.

 

I've heard a lot of young coaches refer to recycling as reloading which seems to be easier for younger players to understand.

 

Whatever. You know what I mean though. I always called Cork the link-man. Recently we seem to play in strict lines, forwards and midfield. The midfielders (i.e. Wanyama and Morgan and /or Toby) hit the ball to Pelle and he is supposed to bring in the other players.

I know its not as simple as that but that is plan A as far as I can tell. The more desperate we are to score, the more forward thinking we get and it becomes even more obvious. When you sit at the side (and roughly in the middle) as I do you, can literally see two lines of players with no one linking them.

 

I always saw Davis as more that than Cork, but anyway of course I get your point.... just couldn't resist making that point I don't think Cork is the creative type really.

 

Yes, it is but it depends where you are. In Southampton and other more rural Cities, shouting "recycle" would cause chaos as youngsters would run to the side of the training pitch and start picking up plastic bottles and bits of paper...... in Liverpool, London and Manchester, "re-load" often caused the coach to have to run screaming from the training field

 

I said somewhere else about him that he was the one who made the pass before the 'assist' and that is what we have been missing. The ability to put the creative ones into positions where they can well, create!

 

mmm me thinks we have players that do that. I feel an old debate opening up, so I'll leave that.

 

I like Reed a lot and he will be a great bonus next season where i'm sure he'll become more established in the side and no doubt the main reason for us being happy enough to dispense with Cork.

Can't agree that he would do anything better to improve our goal drought, but I have an idea along the same lines and that's the return of Alderweireld is going to be a benefit going forward.
No issues with Fonte and Yoshida as defenders, but with the ball there not quite at that top level and when teams drop deep as they have been they're often left alone with possession. Then it's usually a hopeful lofted cross field ball from Fonte or a midfielder drops deep to collect a short pass.

With Toby we have a player who I would say is second to Morgan in terms of pinging a long pass. This would mean Morgan wouldn't have to keep dropping deep to collect possession and push the whole team a bit further up the pitch