It's not Sherwood!

[supertom]

What surprised me is Lowton was very decent at left back and even won the penalty against Albion. Why he is not either right or left back over the two there I am a bit perplexed by.

agreed.

Might not give a gazillion percent in training.

I felt Lowts started well at LB but had a couple of dodgy games.

As for Rico, he was indeed poor yesterday. For the first 30 minutes he was getting murdered on the flank and kept getting caught in behind. Thankfully he just about had the pace to recover a couple of times. In fact Dixon on commentary made the point that it was something that often happens with wingers who get switch to left back. They'll often lose runners in behind because they focus on the ball.

Hopefully Cissokho is fit for next week. He's dog meat going forward but I'd just have him concentrate primarily on defending, which he's not too bad at.

[Risso]

What surprised me is Lowton was very decent at left back and even won the penalty against Albion. Why he is not either right or left back over the two there I am a bit perplexed by.

agreed.

Might not give a gazillion percent in training.

I felt Lowts started well at LB but had a couple of dodgy games.

As for Rico, he was indeed poor yesterday. For the first 30 minutes he was getting murdered on the flank and kept getting caught in behind. Thankfully he just about had the pace to recover a couple of times. In fact Dixon on commentary made the point that it was something that often happens with wingers who get switch to left back. They'll often lose runners in behind because they focus on the ball.

Hopefully Cissokho is fit for next week. He's dog meat going forward but I'd just have him concentrate primarily on defending, which he's not too bad at.

Difficult one.  I agree that Richardson has had lots of very ropey moments, but is he an integral part of the overall attacking ethos, and would we unbalance that and lose some of the impetus by putting Cissokho back in, who is as bad going forwards as Richardson is at defending?  Hard one to call.

[supertom]

What surprised me is Lowton was very decent at left back and even won the penalty against Albion. Why he is not either right or left back over the two there I am a bit perplexed by.

agreed.

Might not give a gazillion percent in training.

I felt Lowts started well at LB but had a couple of dodgy games.

As for Rico, he was indeed poor yesterday. For the first 30 minutes he was getting murdered on the flank and kept getting caught in behind. Thankfully he just about had the pace to recover a couple of times. In fact Dixon on commentary made the point that it was something that often happens with wingers who get switch to left back. They'll often lose runners in behind because they focus on the ball.

Hopefully Cissokho is fit for next week. He's dog meat going forward but I'd just have him concentrate primarily on defending, which he's not too bad at.

Difficult one.  I agree that Richardson has had lots of very ropey moments, but is he an integral part of the overall attacking ethos, and would we unbalance that and lose some of the impetus by putting Cissokho back in, who is as bad going forwards as Richardson is at defending?  Hard one to call.

The way it could balance out is that we look good attacking the left side with Benteke, Grealish and Delph's interplay. And Bacuna then bombs on to give the width on the right.

I'd perhaps take off a little of Grealish's defensive responsibility if we have Cissokho. And indeed when Rico bombed forward and occasionally got caught out, Delph was covering at Left back. It might give Delph a little less covering to do with Aly at the back.
The major problem Cissokho always had under Lambert, is that he was often given the ball and then left isolated on the wing (and expected to take on a couple of players and get a cross in- no chance). Now he's not good on the ball by any stretch, but I'm not sure he's as bad as Lambert's tactics made him look. If he's there as an option and keeps it simple he'll be alright. But Lambert expected our fullbacks to provide all our width and create all our chances.

[Toronto Villa]

Ryan Bertrand would look so much better playing now than he did at the end of his time with us. He's a superior version of Richardson and has done well at Southampton performing ultimately a similar role as an attack minded FB.

[supertom]

Ryan Bertrand would look so much better playing now than he did at the end of his time with us. He's a superior version of Richardson and has done well at Southampton performing ultimately a similar role as an attack minded FB.

Agreed.

[Malandro]

What surprised me is Lowton was very decent at left back and even won the penalty against Albion. Why he is not either right or left back over the two there I am a bit perplexed by.

agreed.

Might not give a gazillion percent in training.

I felt Lowts started well at LB but had a couple of dodgy games.

As for Rico, he was indeed poor yesterday. For the first 30 minutes he was getting murdered on the flank and kept getting caught in behind. Thankfully he just about had the pace to recover a couple of times. In fact Dixon on commentary made the point that it was something that often happens with wingers who get switch to left back. They'll often lose runners in behind because they focus on the ball.

Hopefully Cissokho is fit for next week. He's dog meat going forward but I'd just have him concentrate primarily on defending, which he's not too bad at.

Difficult one.  I agree that Richardson has had lots of very ropey moments, but is he an integral part of the overall attacking ethos, and would we unbalance that and lose some of the impetus by putting Cissokho back in, who is as bad going forwards as Richardson is at defending?  Hard one to call.

I don't question his effort but he is hopeless under pressure. I'd put him as the root cause of our nervousness at the start.
I'm sure Sherwood could drill it into Cissokho when to come forward and when to defend (and not to bother crossing or shooting)

[VillaAlways]

Anyone think he looks absolutely shattered. He said on that interview he doesn't sleep and he really looks like he doesn't !100% committed to the cause.

[Diablo]

Ryan Bertrand would look so much better playing now than he did at the end of his time with us. He's a superior version of Richardson and has done well at Southampton performing ultimately a similar role as an attack minded FB.

Agreed.

I agree. I see he's just been named in the Premier League Team of the Year. All credit to him.

[edgysatsuma89]

What surprised me is Lowton was very decent at left back and even won the penalty against Albion. Why he is not either right or left back over the two there I am a bit perplexed by.

agreed.

Might not give a gazillion percent in training.

I felt Lowts started well at LB but had a couple of dodgy games.

As for Rico, he was indeed poor yesterday. For the first 30 minutes he was getting murdered on the flank and kept getting caught in behind. Thankfully he just about had the pace to recover a couple of times. In fact Dixon on commentary made the point that it was something that often happens with wingers who get switch to left back. They'll often lose runners in behind because they focus on the ball.

Hopefully Cissokho is fit for next week. He's dog meat going forward but I'd just have him concentrate primarily on defending, which he's not too bad at.

Difficult one.  I agree that Richardson has had lots of very ropey moments, but is he an integral part of the overall attacking ethos, and would we unbalance that and lose some of the impetus by putting Cissokho back in, who is as bad going forwards as Richardson is at defending?  Hard one to call.

The way it could balance out is that we look good attacking the left side with Benteke, Grealish and Delph's interplay. And Bacuna then bombs on to give the width on the right.

I'd perhaps take off a little of Grealish's defensive responsibility if we have Cissokho. And indeed when Rico bombed forward and occasionally got caught out, Delph was covering at Left back. It might give Delph a little less covering to do with Aly at the back.
The major problem Cissokho always had under Lambert, is that he was often given the ball and then left isolated on the wing (and expected to take on a couple of players and get a cross in- no chance). Now he's not good on the ball by any stretch, but I'm not sure he's as bad as Lambert's tactics made him look. If he's there as an option and keeps it simple he'll be alright. But Lambert expected our fullbacks to provide all our width and create all our chances.

I'd go along with this. I know it's not as clear cut with full backs nowadays but I'd rather them be good at defending predominantly. Especially as Bacuna is on the other side.

[OCD]

Ryan Bertrand would look so much better playing now than he did at the end of his time with us. He's a superior version of Richardson and has done well at Southampton performing ultimately a similar role as an attack minded FB.

If we had been prepared to pay a little more we could have got Clyne too.

[Dave]

Ryan Bertrand would look so much better playing now than he did at the end of his time with us. He's a superior version of Richardson and has done well at Southampton performing ultimately a similar role as an attack minded FB.

If we had been prepared to pay a little more we could have got Clyne too.

He cost Southampton a whole £2m the summer we bought Joe Bennett.

[OCD]

Ryan Bertrand would look so much better playing now than he did at the end of his time with us. He's a superior version of Richardson and has done well at Southampton performing ultimately a similar role as an attack minded FB.

If we had been prepared to pay a little more we could have got Clyne too.

He cost Southampton a whole £2m the summer we bought Joe Bennett.

The talk at the time was that we wouldn't meet Palace's asking price so bought Matt Lowton (reportedly for around £750k). £2m for Clyne looks a snip now. Still though, that lays down a model that might be in keeping with Sherwood's philosophies.

[Dave]

Maybe the budget was a finite thing that summer - and we had the choice of spending it on Lowton and Benteke, or on Clyne and Steve Morison.

[silhillvilla]

Anyone think he looks absolutely shattered. He said on that interview he doesn't sleep and he really looks like he doesn't !100% committed to the cause.

If he's commuting up and down from St Albans that would explain the tired eyes.

[OCD]

Maybe the budget was a finite thing that summer - and we had the choice of spending it on Lowton and Benteke, or on Clyne and Steve Morison.

I doubt that and the Benteke fee was only agreed on the last day of the window. It's more likely that we had identified both Clyne and Lowton, set a maximum price we were prepared to pay for the player/position and refused to go above it. We had to be frugal at the time because of the damage O'Neill had done to the club's finances but in that instance it was at the cost of signing a future England international and someone who has been linked to Champions League sides in a £20m move. Just another example of the way the club has been run in the last few years.