Skrilla
Just doesn't shut up
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2012
- Messages
- 17,349
- Reaction score
- 19,159
To start off, I want to precursor this by saying that what Moutinho has given us over the past fours has been incredible. However, he's very clearly in the twilight of his career, turning 36 in a week, and it's evident that he isn't the same player now. I've felt for a couple of years now that the partnership of Neves and Moutinho very rarely works, because they are too similar in style and the positions they want to occupy on the pitch are the same.
It works fine when we play the top sides and have limited possession to have two sitting holding midfielders to try and retain the ball as much as possible, but as seen tonight, Moutinho just seems like a passenger for most of the game, it nullifies Neves's game at times, and it's almost as if we're playing with a back six with how deep they both want to play.
Against a side that puts ten men behind the ball, it doesn't help to have the front three being so isolated. Nunes tried to support tonight, but at times it felt the only options our forwards had were to go sideways or backwards because there's no movement ahead of them to create passing lanes or space for Neto/Guedes to drive into.
Neves/Moutinho sat in front of the back four, neither moving forward to support the front three and make those runs from deep. Very rarely did Jonny or Semedo overlap in support of Neto/Guedes either. With a player like Neves, you play to his strengths, he wants to sit in front of the two centre backs and dictate the play. He doesn't want to play in those more advanced positions. The problem is, so does Moutinho.
Even in a back five, we seemed at times more attacking than this, because with both Neves and Moutinho sitting deep, the two wing backs were pushing very high up the pitch to support the front three, whereas tonight it felt like only Nunes was supporting that front three and trying to make runs ahead of them. It's a 6-4 formation (Back 4 + Moutinho/Neves) vs. 5-5 formation (Back 3 + Moutinho/Neves). We actually look safer now than we did in a back five. Very easy to defend against, and predictable.
In the 4-2-3-1, with Podence as the #10, we looked far more dangerous and intentional in that last 15 minutes than we did in the first 75. Podence is a player that frustrates me at times, but one thing he does give you is that element of unpredictability, and he's never afraid to take risks to find that final ball. That was the type of football most of us expected from the start of this season, and the only real bright spot of tonight's performance.
While Nunes wasn't on the pitch for the final 15, I think his athleticism gives us the option to play a midfield two in a 4-2-3-1, with Nunes as the box-to-box 8 while Neves continues to sit deep as the 6. We'd be more open, but we'd also have much more in an attacking sense. Nunes has experience playing in a midfield two in Sporting's 3-4-3, and he'd benefit greatly from having more space to drive with the ball, as would Neves with more attacking options ahead of him rather than to the side of him.
(Looks like a midfield three, but Chiquinho is akin to having Podence rather than Moutinho)
Moutinho to me feels like the weak link in this system at the moment, and perhaps Bruno's soft spot, that could cost him. There are other problems of course, but this system of a back six isn't helping our goalscoring problems at all. It's safer, more predictable, and less threatening. It might work when we play against Man City or Liverpool, but it has never worked when the onus is on Wolves to break down a deep block.
It works fine when we play the top sides and have limited possession to have two sitting holding midfielders to try and retain the ball as much as possible, but as seen tonight, Moutinho just seems like a passenger for most of the game, it nullifies Neves's game at times, and it's almost as if we're playing with a back six with how deep they both want to play.
Sa
Semedo Collins Kilman Jonny
Neves Moutinho
Nunes
Neto Jimenez Guedes
Semedo Collins Kilman Jonny
Neves Moutinho
Nunes
Neto Jimenez Guedes
Against a side that puts ten men behind the ball, it doesn't help to have the front three being so isolated. Nunes tried to support tonight, but at times it felt the only options our forwards had were to go sideways or backwards because there's no movement ahead of them to create passing lanes or space for Neto/Guedes to drive into.
Neves/Moutinho sat in front of the back four, neither moving forward to support the front three and make those runs from deep. Very rarely did Jonny or Semedo overlap in support of Neto/Guedes either. With a player like Neves, you play to his strengths, he wants to sit in front of the two centre backs and dictate the play. He doesn't want to play in those more advanced positions. The problem is, so does Moutinho.
Even in a back five, we seemed at times more attacking than this, because with both Neves and Moutinho sitting deep, the two wing backs were pushing very high up the pitch to support the front three, whereas tonight it felt like only Nunes was supporting that front three and trying to make runs ahead of them. It's a 6-4 formation (Back 4 + Moutinho/Neves) vs. 5-5 formation (Back 3 + Moutinho/Neves). We actually look safer now than we did in a back five. Very easy to defend against, and predictable.
In the 4-2-3-1, with Podence as the #10, we looked far more dangerous and intentional in that last 15 minutes than we did in the first 75. Podence is a player that frustrates me at times, but one thing he does give you is that element of unpredictability, and he's never afraid to take risks to find that final ball. That was the type of football most of us expected from the start of this season, and the only real bright spot of tonight's performance.
While Nunes wasn't on the pitch for the final 15, I think his athleticism gives us the option to play a midfield two in a 4-2-3-1, with Nunes as the box-to-box 8 while Neves continues to sit deep as the 6. We'd be more open, but we'd also have much more in an attacking sense. Nunes has experience playing in a midfield two in Sporting's 3-4-3, and he'd benefit greatly from having more space to drive with the ball, as would Neves with more attacking options ahead of him rather than to the side of him.
Sa
Semedo Collins Kilman RAN
Neves Nunes
Neto Podence Guedes
Kalajdzic
With the ball it would look something like below, with Nunes in the role that Taarabt played in Lage's Benfica side as the more advanced pivot, and Neves as the deeper holding midfielder, almost creating a back three at times between Kilman and Collins:Semedo Collins Kilman RAN
Neves Nunes
Neto Podence Guedes
Kalajdzic
(Looks like a midfield three, but Chiquinho is akin to having Podence rather than Moutinho)
Moutinho to me feels like the weak link in this system at the moment, and perhaps Bruno's soft spot, that could cost him. There are other problems of course, but this system of a back six isn't helping our goalscoring problems at all. It's safer, more predictable, and less threatening. It might work when we play against Man City or Liverpool, but it has never worked when the onus is on Wolves to break down a deep block.