Yesterday was the first average game Abdi has IMO (other than Derby obv), he's crucial at controlling the ball regardless of who's on his toes, turning and moving on. Couple of times yesterday Hogg shat himself in situations and just smashed if up anywhere.
I'm well pleased for Zola. He's been getting outrageous stick, totally undeserved as well. What a lot of people forget is that he's still an 'inexperienced' manager, despite his age, and how many of our current players did he have a say over about signing for us? I reckon no more than 50%. He's had to quickly find a style, formation and starting eleven to play at this level, whilst keeping our dribbling moronic fans happy. All of the players we've signed, minus Fitz Hall and Manuel Almunia, have never played in England before, don't speak particularly great English by all accounts and are all a fairly young age except Cassetti and Geijo. Most, if not all, the players we've signed have come into the club with poor fitness levels and are still essentially playing in pre-season mode. It was ALWAYS going to take a minimum of ten games for everyone to gel and get use to each others games/styles. It's coming together slowly but surely. Anyone expecting promotion first time around needs a reality check, including the owners! Zola has already gone on record and said next season we'll be challenging for the title, and I genuinely see that.
Bubbles bang on. Thing is, I really enjoyed watching how we played at Huddersfield, great technique, interchange, spraying it about (on a great pitch) and attacking with flair! Can that really be us in yellow?
Shhh, reasonable opinions aren't allowed here anymore. Everything has to be brilliant or abysmal, anyone in between is a happy clappy, polyester clad m ong
My thoughts exactly! Nice to see us mix it up a bit more too with short / long passing when appropriate!! MUCH better
Short, sideways passes are totally fine, as long as you are just outside the mixer and to the left or right of it.
Brilliant post, Bubble. There's a lot of variables working against us right now. Slowly but surely though, those variables will swing round in our favor and we'll be a force in this league. As has been mentioned so far, Zola has shown a refreshing honesty and ability to adapt. I think he'll prove to be an excellent manager for us over the next few years.
Of course it can. Football is a simple game. Pass and move. Press when you don't have the ball and close down space. Play players in their natural positions.
I like 3-5-2. The future is definitely Nathaniel Chalobah as a libero - cultured Almunia Chalobah Hall Ekstrand Cassetti Hogg Abdi Eustace Pudil Deeney Vydra