Booing off / Ironic cheering of Smallwood

I get the obeying orders bit but only up to a point. I can't believe that MH tells him to receive the ball from the defence, completely ignore what might be happening elsewhere on the pitch, and blindly pass it straight back to a defender......even, as is sometimes the case, if there is an opposition attacker in the way.

 

I agree.
My main point is why would taking the armband off him make any difference.
Stubbs having the armband won’t make players suddenly create a bit of space for themselves to receive the ball.
There were a couple of occasions on Saturday when he took the ball while he was parallel with Stubbs and Platt.
He moved forward 5 yards but didn’t have an outlet so turned round and played it back.

Nobody in the team is any good at making space for themselves,so an obvious forward ball isn’t there.

Smallwood is a poor captain imo.
Taking the armband off him isn’t going to turn him into a Lge 2 Pirlo.
His first thought always seems to be the easy ball.
As said previously,he has his limitations but that doesn’t make him solely responsible for our static,limp style of football.

 

Can't disagree with any of that BBB, but he isn't helping either by putting the onus back on the defenders to make the forward pass. You are right that our movement off the ball is shocking, with possibly the exception of Tyler Smith. But before long he is going to get bored of making run after run and never getting the through ball.

 

Hopefully Smallwood watched the Arsenal game yesterday.
I lost count of the number of times Odegaard received the ball, turned and ran at the Everton defence.
Simple really.

 

Odegaard couldn't be more different than Smallwood, to be fair.

They don't even play the same position.

That's like saying I hope he watched Pickford closely and starts caching the ball.

 

Comparing Smallwood to Odegaard or any premier league player is laughable

 

I don't think Mr Mental was comparing Smallwood with a top class midfielder and I think he was saying he could learn something like running forward with the ball

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^100%

Agree a player with his pedigree shouldn't need to look over his shoulder, he should be aware what's going on around him.

 

Thank goodness for that we'd be down to 10 men within the first 15 minutes, even back in the day some of those tackles were more GBH that football tackles, on the day he got what he deserved a red card.

 

Spot on Manningham, some people on here are just too pedantic.

 

That's all down to Hughes he's said many times we keep the ball until we can play the right ball and not lose possession, up to a point I agree movement off the ball is poor maybe they have had Hughes drumming it into their heads and dont have faith in our midfield players playing the pass.
We've seen it many times this season after 4 home games that it doesn't worry the opposition getting 3/4/5 players in our final third.

 

and far too often the responsibility for the forward pass ends up back with the defenders not the midfielders

 

I’d also question whether a player who is consistently subbed should be starting at all. Doesn’t that show that plan A hasn’t worked, so move to plan B. Surely it’s time he was dropped from the starting 11 and we start with a more positive set of players.

 

Totally agree. Discussed the same topic in another thread about how static we are from throw in’s - and it’s not just limited to that as you say.

In all my years of supporting City, weve never been a flowing ‘pass and move’ team apart from the odd occasion. Parky assembled a squad with a few trump cards in Wells, Reid, Meredith, Morais, Thompson etc - that’s the last time we I genuinely remember anything close to various options in a squad with players who knew how to attack space, then enough quality behind them who could find them.

 

I saw some Premiership highlights today. Quite often the defenders would give the ball to the midfielders, they would knock it back and the rest of the players would spin off and make forward runs. I’m not a coach but that might be what they mean by “turn over possession”, or “transitions”. In which case Smallwood was probably doing as he was instructed, and the rest of the players weren’t doing what they are supposed to, eg release the ball quicker, or make the right off the ball runs.

 

And there is the answer, we don't, you have to wonder why not when they train all week to perfect that formation I would think ?.

 

I know this may sound cynical but I think the first thing players and agents want to know is the money, but yes you'd hope the player was capable of playing the managers formation, with regards the manager you'd think he'd want to sign players he or Gent know can play said position.
Maybe before your time Rod but there was a lad at Leeds called Peter Paul Madeley who played every position apart from goal keeper during his career, he was that good, managers seem to like that type of versatile player although league two players may say they can play as an example wing back they may be capable of flying down the wing and getting a cross in but 1, are they constantly good crosses and 2, when called upon can they tackle back or head a ball in their own box under pressure I'm not sure they can to any consistent level.

 

Yeah and there are too many snowflake fans being offended on other people’s behalf

 

Paul Dave