30 Dec 2018 09:00:54
OK I bit my tongue for a while but reading all the posts below just tells me that some of you cannot see the fire for the smoke! Firstly I will point out what I have been saying for ages. Forget about center forwards for a moment. Look at the result. Look at how we conceded. Look at how the team was set up. I am so pleased with Silva at times. The players he has brought in. The way we attack again. How close we are to having a really great team. He has us playing football again. Now the sting in the tail (but I still want Silva) . he had a run of games when Mina first recovered from injury when he played a back 4. Mina looked like a giant. Since then, he has played back 5's and other weird formations and tinkered a little bit too much for my liking. I would have been happier yesterday with a bck 4 and in fact the same team as last week! Why change it so dramatically after such a great performance? And now my main point. all season we have conceded goals from set pieces. We set up with zonal marking. We concede a goal nearly every game whoever we play. A decent center forward will not stop that. Better defending will. It should be easy to cure. Watch videos af all the games. I am sure Mr Silva is looking at this. It used to happen under Roberto Martinez. We just couldn't defend set pieces. We have conceded 30 goals and I would bet a huge chunk of those were set pieces. Literally a few minutes each game. that's all we have to improve on. Surely that is just coaching and tactics? Yes a center forward would be nice. But like ED002 says from money from where for a really top one? It has to be a kid or last legs player or an unknown one. Anyway the easy way of climbing that table is to concede fewer goals from set pieces!

1.) 30 Dec 2018
30 Dec 2018 09:55:30
I totally agree, Silva should never of changed a winning team, did we need a back 5 against a team who cannot score, no we didn't, we played into there hands and got punished, hope he learns his lesson.

{Ed025's Note - im with you simon..

2.) 30 Dec 2018
30 Dec 2018 10:13:47
Great post, balanced and objective and pretty spot on. Last season conceded 8 goals from set pieces -this season 10 already. Worth pointing out in case anyone had forgotten though last season we shipped a league high 46 from open play. Further supports the simple fact if sort out set pieces we will be much more solid, as this season we have only shipped 16 from open play. We may be moving side ways in terms of points/ position but I have at least enjoyed some games this season, last year even the victories left a sour taste!

3.) 30 Dec 2018
30 Dec 2018 10:30:39
Thanks for that stat EFCONE. It perfectly demonstrates what I am on about. I would guess if we could cut out just half of those goals we would be higher up that table. I have seen too many goals this season whereby we have controlled the game, looked like we would get something out of it and then given a corner or free kick away. and I immediately think, "why not just improve our defending at set pieces? " that's where we are losing these points. So 30 less conceded from open play! That tells a story and I am sure Mr Silva will see this and have statititions telling him all of this. A good manager listens as well as talks!

4.) 30 Dec 2018
30 Dec 2018 10:53:06
degs not that i dnt agree with a lot ov what u said but you contradicted yourself as you said you wanted a back 4 and the same team as last week, we played a 3 aat the back last week and won 5-1 am putting yesterday down to one ov those days, just lile spurs had just lile Leicester had leeds had there wer loads of mad results yesterday.