Ground covered gets tricky. Strikers who defend set pieces for teams under the kosh will gets loads of distance jogging up and down the pitch. The far better judge of exertion is number of sprints and distance sprinted.
reminds me of a piece i saw with Cryuff when someone talked about his speed. His response was it is hard to tell if i am faster than X player because by the time we both start running flat out, I (Cryuff) have already adjust my postioning long before the ball gets there to negate the other players speed. something to that effect. Smarts and intelligence gets beaten down quite a bit in favor of flash and valor!
It depends entirely on your definition of "from" the wing. Martial from the wing is fine. Mata from the wing is not. We need to ensure we maintain width, balance on either flank and do not hinder Pogba.
Nah, Martial, Mata and Mkhi would all do things differently, but they'd all do fine in a set up where there wingbacks provided width and there was movement up front and we could win the ball early with a high line.
Couple of interesting articles on Spurs "two number 10's" 3-4-2-1 system (though today was probably even more attacking 3-3-3-1). http://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/we-always-play-two-no10s-12896837 http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...ation-has-given-me-more-freedom-a3515561.html
Liked the 3-5-2 system vs Chelsea, sure it was implemented in a very specific way with two man makers (2-4-2 vs 3-4-1 with the man markers / man marked out of the game). But think this system could have other uses for us at times in the future, as can give Pogs a more free role and can give Rash or Ibra some more connected support. Also with Spurs to play could imagine something similar with for example Herrera on Alli (and possibly Darmian on Erikson).
(Spurs fan posting) It's an interesting point given that on paper the 3 4 2 1 formations are quite similar. However, for all the talk of Chelsea's squad depth, their formation was ruined before kick off with a single injury to Marcos Alonso - Azpilicueta is not really a wing back on his natural side, let alone the left - he's a stay at home traditional full back. Herrera as the right sided midfielder was free to follow Hazard wherever he went because the overlap wasn't there. Chelsea's first 11 is incredibly strong and they have a few good options (Fabregas, Batshuayi, Pedro/Willian, Zouma) but Alonso and Moses don't have backups and their whole setup is screwed when one or both are missing. Danny Rose or Ben Davies are both natural fits playing on the left, Alli or Eriksen coming off the left would leave a hole for whoever plays to exploit, leaving a straightforward 1 vs 1 duel against Valencia (which would make for an excellent watch, really good battle on paper).
I'm still dubious as to the formation we used against Chelsea as the marking instructions given to Darmian (Pedro) and Herrera (Hazard) completely distorted the shape and any heat maps or average positions for them. Add to this Lingard playing his regular "roaming" game.
It was more of an asymmetric 442 than anything else. Herrera as a wide right midfielder that tucked in.