Shane Long

Amended. (Y)

 

Spoilsport

 

Well it's true.. I taught him everything he knows.

 

I'm surprised to see he's only started 19 games. Did he have an injury or just a lot of time on the bench?

 

I think it was more a case of waiting his turn. Pelle and Mane played most games until their form went off. Not sure Koeman truly rated Long in his own right....he was seen as an understudy to others. Now I would see him as undroppable.

 

Since the end of last season, Shane has scored 20 goals and assisted 16 goals.

(N.B: Ireland and Southampton combined)

 

For the record, are you able to advise appearances? Thanks

 

On a per-minute basis in the league with us, he has averaged a goal or assist every 147 minutes. Among others attackers to feature regularly since our return to the PL:

Pelle - One every 188 minutes.
Mane - One every 174 minutes.
Tadic - One every 180 minutes.
Rodriguez - One every 176 minutes.
Lambert - One every 142 minutes.
Lallana - One every 243 minutes (!?).

 

Sorry, nope! Second-hand information.

 

No. Four year contract is a bad move.

Especially when we have Long tied down to the perfect length of contract right now. Two more years, he leaves when he's 31. All of his prime years locked down, very little of the decline.

Why tie ourselves down to his age 32 and 33 seasons when his biggest aspect is his speed and workrate?

 

Also, I like Long where he is. I think being out wide makes better use of his speed. It lets him exploit the space between FB and CB, or behind the FB if they push up.

Everyone talks about how he draws defenders so let him pull players out of position instead of being in the middle.

I don't get the whole thing with Pelle. Pelle's physical presence draws the CB's in, creating space for Long. Just as Long's presence forces CB's out, creating room in the middle for Pelle.

If we play with Austin, he's a natural finisher and good at finding space in the congested areas in the box.

 

I disagree with your positioning of Long. Whenever he is played wide, he has been less effective. most of last season he played wide, and he just doesn't do as well there. If he plays wide, he doesn't pull anyone out of position, the full back just picks him up. If he plays central and makes runs forward, wide either direction or back, the CB had a decision to make as to follow him or not.

I'm not having a go at you, I just think tactically you have this wrong and my view is the complete opposite on using Long. We will have to agree to disagree on it.

Mane can play wide as he has better ability to use his skill to beat a man. As with Tadic.

Shane has looked a revelation since being played down the middle, starting with that Arsenal game.

 

Shane remarked recently that he found it harder to make an impact when Ron played him out wide. Sometimes we forget that managers have to learn about players as well and have to work with what they have. Ron said recently that it is players who make formations and not the other way round. I think this is the difference between Ron and Mauricio.....the former adapts to what he has and MP makes the players adapt to his style. MP's system works if he has the players....as he had at Saints and has now in his 2nd season at Spurs.

 

So you would play Long over a healthy Austin or move Austin wide?

 

Assuming that's for me ... not necessarily. All of my posts on this were Long/Pelle. Austin makes the competition greater and gives the manager a conundrum. A healthy one at that.

 

Agree with you about Long being best suited for a central role.
Pace frightens CBs and he uses it well against them, without getting the free kicks/penalties he should.
Add in his work rate, stamina and never say die attitude, defenders must hate playing against him.

 

Long as an individual is better in the middle, since he's not a great crosser or passer. Also he's good in the air. Striker is his natural position.

I don't think that's the best option for the team going forward, or if it is we need to think about bringing in another striker.

But as for Long over Pelle. I would do that for the remainder of the year. I think Pelle is better against teams that park the bus, but we probably won't have any more games like that. Besides, with only an outside shot at Europe we need to think about our options for next year.

Personally, I don't think Long will prove good enough as striker if we wish to improve our league standing next year. But he deserves the chance over the rest of the year to show what he can do.

I suspect we will need to bring in at least one and probably two attacking players, because none of Long, Pelle, Davis, Mane (for now), or Tadic cut the mustard. They're all good players, but not quite top level, and the result is that as collective unit our attack is not that great.

 

We may need to improve in a few areas to progress.

 

had to double check that I had not gone to the Man U or Chelsea board by mistake. Saying those players are not good enough is a bold statement, pretty sure we would struggle to find better forwards than those in your list (Davis not included as we do need an upgrade in that department.

 

Very good player, especially this season. Hopefully he can repeat this form next season as he needs to in order to fully justify what I still see as a hefty 12m. It is great to have such a degree of versatility up front with the likes of Pelle, long, Rodriguez, Austin and Mane all being completely different players!