Pace (theirs) and lack of it (ours)

One of the reasons why we will always struggle when Whitts and Gunnar play in midfield is their lack of pace.

When Barnsley made their breaks for their last three goals, they broke at pace and the person making the break had three or four teammates bursting into the box past our central midfield meaning the player on the ball had any number of options which they took advantage of with some clinical finishing.

In the second half, Whitts played a ball down the line which Hoilett chased and when he caught up to it by the corner flag, we had Zohore in the middle of the box marked by three defenders, and Whitts and Gunnar jogging sedately just by the half way line.

Their lack of pace means the centre of midfield is making too little contribution to the game.

If it wasn't for set pieces we would never score any goals!

Fair play to Barnsley, they've found a system that suits their players i.e. fast counter attacking football. Now can someone please tell me what system we use, 'cos damned if I can work it out.

The fact that the forum poll has them as 1st and 2nd must mean they played well and can play well together.

IMO - The fact that they can do so (play as a pair) means that 4231 is a must. We need a 10 but pilks can do that role or the right (AMR)
We need a 9 (but so do a lot of teams) and we need a right forward as neither noon or Harris are that player.

Shopping list

a #1 - Amos not good enough
a #9 - We just don't have one
and a genuine attacking wide midfielder or 10

The fact that the forum poll has them as 1st and 2nd must mean they played well and can play well together.

IMO - The fact that they can do so (play as a pair) means that 4231 is a must. We need a 10 but pilks can do that role or the right (AMR)
We need a 9 (but so do a lot of teams) and we need a right forward as neither noon or Harris are that player.

Shopping list

a #1 - Amos not good enough
a #9 - We just don't have one
and a genuine attacking wide midfielder or 10

I see what you mean but they can play well individually without playing well and being effective together as a midfield pair.

Their lack of pace for me means we struggle at both ends of the pitch.

But teams that play a double pivot both midfielders the enforcer and passer rarely get pulled outside and basically walk up and down the pitch. The pace and mobility comes from the 3 attacking midfielders and full backs. Its those players that hurt us yesterday.

Our problem is we only have 2 modern attacking midfielders and thats Pilkington and Holiett and one full back that fits the role and he was on the bench (John isn't championship IMO).  Noone and Harris have very little end product for all their pace or trickery.

Either Warnock got all our set plays wrong which he may have, or our players didn't listen, but you have to match pace with pace and power with power at set plays. We never, we out powered them as we do for most teams, but their manager done his homework and left pace up top and we couldn't counter it.

One of the reasons why we will always struggle when Whitts and Gunnar play in midfield is their lack of pace.

When Barnsley made their breaks for their last three goals, they broke at pace and the person making the break had three or four teammates bursting into the box past our central midfield meaning the player on the ball had any number of options which they took advantage of with some clinical finishing.

In the second half, Whitts played a ball down the line which Hoilett chased and when he caught up to it by the corner flag, we had Zohore in the middle of the box marked by three defenders, and Whitts and Gunnar jogging sedately just by the half way line.

Their lack of pace means the centre of midfield is making too little contribution to the game.

If it wasn't for set pieces we would never score any goals!

An excellent observation. At one point when we got a corner then it was a more likely they would score than we would due to the brilliant way they deployed the counter attacking strategy. This is not the first time this season we have struggled with this and I would also point to the lack of pace in defence Peltier, Morrison and Connelly are not exactly quick are they?

But your point is the ability of our midfield to get from box to box quickly. Whitts/Gunnar offer little support in either box due to their lack of mobility. In a midfield 2 you can at most carry one slouch but not 2. We need legs and that means a big call Whitts or Gunnar might have to go.

One of the reasons why we will always struggle when Whitts and Gunnar play in midfield is their lack of pace.

When Barnsley made their breaks for their last three goals, they broke at pace and the person making the break had three or four teammates bursting into the box past our central midfield meaning the player on the ball had any number of options which they took advantage of with some clinical finishing.

In the second half, Whitts played a ball down the line which Hoilett chased and when he caught up to it by the corner flag, we had Zohore in the middle of the box marked by three defenders, and Whitts and Gunnar jogging sedately just by the half way line.

Their lack of pace means the centre of midfield is making too little contribution to the game.

If it wasn't for set pieces we would never score any goals!

Like who though ?

Ralls or O'keefe wouldn't have stopped the counters. And lets face it, A Warnock team isn't going to be 10 nippy midgets playing tippi tap football.

For me this was a Warnock mistake. We didn't set up properly.

An excellent observation. At one point when we got a corner then it was a more likely they would score than we would due to the brilliant way they deployed the counter attacking strategy. This is not the first time this season we have struggled with this and I would also point to the lack of pace in defence Peltier, Morrison and Connelly are not exactly quick are they?

But your point is the ability of our midfield to get from box to box quickly. Whitts/Gunnar offer little support in either box due to their lack of mobility. In a midfield 2 you can at most carry one slouch but not 2. We need legs and that means a big call Whitts or Gunnar might have to go.

Its a nightmare our lack of pace, which we have known about for 3 years(6 transfer windows) which has never been addressed .
I think Warnock will sort this out in January.
I think Bennett needs to come back in ,and move Peltier back to RB.
Either Whitts plays #10 or he needs to be dropped.
Zahore done well yesterday also Hoillett and Gunners, but otherwise we had too many passengers.
Noone is now just an impact player who does well against a tired defence.
Pilkington is too slow and doesn't do much either.
I think either O'Keefe or Huws needs to come in alongside Gunner.
Harris,Zahore and Hoilett up front with Pilks or Whitts at #10
O'Keefe and Gunner in midfield .
With Peltier Morrison Bruno and Bennett in defence.
With Murphy in goals.
Warnock really needs a good shake up before next week

One of the reasons why we will always struggle when Whitts and Gunnar play in midfield is their lack of pace.

When Barnsley made their breaks for their last three goals, they broke at pace and the person making the break had three or four teammates bursting into the box past our central midfield meaning the player on the ball had any number of options which they took advantage of with some clinical finishing.

In the second half, Whitts played a ball down the line which Hoilett chased and when he caught up to it by the corner flag, we had Zohore in the middle of the box marked by three defenders, and Whitts and Gunnar jogging sedately just by the half way line.

Their lack of pace means the centre of midfield is making too little contribution to the game.

If it wasn't for set pieces we would never score any goals!

Totally agree