Welcome to this week’s Talking the Blues podcast with George and Andy Costigan.
We look back at the Sunderland game, and ask was it all sweetness and light? Legendary stuff as usual from George and Andy.
As ever thanks for listening. Talking the Blues is available subscription and advert free on all major podcast platforms.
We look forward to speaking to you next week
Categories: podcast
Great discussion and valid disagreements over styles of play and Moyes’ flexibility. Clearly, there are risks in changing structure and our long term reliance on a ‘big’ centre forward. However, is our current precarious league position too precarious to try a fundamental change, even though personally I would like to see it. I would focus on the sharp contrast in performance from the first 30 minutes. They got after Sunderland, they dominated the ball and created chances so why the total change? Although you cannot expect to dominate a team for 90 minutes, our players fall into a default mode, caused by years of fighting relegation, and stop attacking the ball. They fall into a defensive structure, marking space behind and not attacking the ball. A clear evidence of this is Tarky’s lauded stats for blocked shots. Defenders should not, ideally be blocking shots in the 6 yard box, running the risk of deflections and blocking at the same time Pickford’s ability to readjust. Ideally, they should be stopping shots on the 18 yard box and crosses out wide. The wild scenes at one point was like the Alamo and a reflection of total panic as we back-pedalled. That should be an exception not a strategy. Anyway, that’s my rant 🤣 Keep it up Guys. Love it!
Thanks Jeff. Very valid point about how deep we end up blocking shots. Not a criticism of Pickford at all but I can imagine other goalkeepers not allowing this to happen. As always thanks for listening