Have you seen Man U's team against Arsenal today? They've got Darron Gibson playing alongside John O'Shea and the da Silva twins, IN MIDFIELD! And people complain we're too defensive with Evans and Harper together in midfield.
Maybe Arsenal would win something if they were good at the back. Dunno why people frown at sides that are naturally defensive. The defensive side is as important as the attacking side of things.
So would I, but we're in the Championship and they're the side that are topping the PL and they're playing at home. For them to be playing 3 defenders in their midfield is a bit much. I like a balanced side myself. With Koren playing you really want him to have a free role so i think we need the two defensive in it. I do see a difference between defensive minded midfielders and playing defenders in midfield though. Up until a couple of years ago I would have claimed Rooney as a midfielder as well, he basically played between the midfield and the front line (a problem when he was up front on his own) and didn't have the goals to justify being called a striker at a side like Man U.
Every club has some form of defensive mentality, it is a case of adapting for your team. I have no problems with 2 defencive midfielders so long as one knows he needs to occassionally burst forwards, the wingers come inside at times and full backs over lap. Arsenal are really quite defencive, they keep the ball from you and control games through possession, Utd and Chelsea play in patterns, if they can control in possession they will however if teams drop everyone back they do the same and encourage teams to attack to give them the option of counter attack, Spurs and Liverpool soak up pressure then attack. Even the most attacking team in the world ,Barcalona, are defensive, look what happens when they lose the ball, they close down rapidly and use forwards to apply pressue.
Gibson defensive? Not really, he is just playing the Carrick role, and to be honest its not exactly hard to play that role. Anyone who thinks he is playing seven defenders or whatever the headline was, just really needs to watch the first half and tell me Fabio and Rafael where defending, the amount of times they got into the box, tried to get on the end of crosses and really actually got forward will show that SAF is not defending!
last 2 games, we have created more chances then the rest of the season put together.. should have had 3 or 4 goals tuesday, and today.. long may the chances continue, and we may have a chance..
Ricardo, I don't think playing Rooney up front alone is a bad thing. Look at Barcelona for example, Messi plays up top alone with Villa on the left, Pedro on the right. Van Persie at Arsenal drops deep despite playing up there alone. Roma and Totti where the first to use the false 9 role when they had no one to play up front. It just depends on whether the midfield are willing to help out in the attack.
Nobody ever said Gibson was defensive. It was the 3 players that are recognised as defenders being in midfield that I was highlighting. A large chunk of our fans complain that we're too negative with Evans and Harper in the middle. Imagine the complaints if (granted we don't have enough defenders to do it) we named rosenior on the right wing and Dawson on the left as well. I was also aware they'd be given attacking instructions, and that as DJ says we've created more chances recently. I was hoping I'd get the "doesn't matter that they're defenders, look how many chances they've made" comments from the people complaining that we're playing 2 midfielders that aren't seen as attacking ones. They seem to be ignoring the fact we've been creating more recently just because we haven't been sticking away 4 goals a game so I was trying to create the same thing about another team. Neither do I these days, but he's improved his game in that role a hell of a lot in the last 2/3 years. Before that he used to be behind the midfield line and in his own half collecting the ball as much as he was in front of them offering an outlet.
I'd say the Da Silva's are attacking full backs, so don't look our of place on the wings, just as I think Rosenior would do a decent job for us there if we were pushed(and had another right back option). That said, I'm not sure why he went with that line-up, when he had Giggs, Scholes, Valencia and Obertan sat on the bench.
I agree, i understand where you are coming from, just i am a long time admirer of SAF and the fact that he has given us a few players here and there has heightented my respect for him. Either way i would never have a go at the system NP plays, if you look closely Harper and Evans have never not gone forward just atm we are doing more with it when they do.
