Originally Posted by Stu Monty
I clearly remember hearing Ferguson talk about both the Villa and Bolton games in a way which stated he would be taking them into account. I think he said that Bolton's physicality and Villa's wide men where "something I will consider going into the game".
This idea that the other sides just do a bit of 5-a-side and then look at a pinned-up teamsheet that says "Attack" on it is, quite frankly, naive rubbish. I think motivation is a fair point to question as I see that as a weak point in Benitez's ability and is vital over a 38 game campaign.
We have scored more goals than Chelsea this season, the team that were still in with a shout on the last day. Is caution a big issue for them? Arsenal's wild abandon in going forward has netted them just seven more than us; the facts don't bear out a cautious approach.
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Stu, whenever you make withering posts like this I never know who you're aiming them at. Obviously you're caricaturing Rash's position, but I hope you're not tarring the likes of me and Brownie with the same brush. Neither of us are advocating anything as simplistic as the highlighted sentence.
Brownie and I are both concerned that the basic passing and movement of our team hasn't improved much under Rafa, and we're wondering how much emphasis is placed on this in training. Neither of us want our training sessions to be solely dedicated to that.
As for tactics, we're not asking for a simplistic Keegan-style approach of "just go out and beat them" without having any kind of game plan. We'd just like to see a little less caution and a little more risk-taking against teams that are clearly inferior to us - getting more players forward when we attack, getting full-backs to overlap more, leaving a man on the half-way line when we're defending a corner, not playing a defensive midfielder at home against teams that will put everyone behind the ball, that sort of thing.
To answer your questions about Chelsea and Arsenal: Chelsea have by and large been more defensively solid than we have this season, apart from the two freak 4-4 draws, while Arsenal blew the league because their players don't have a pair of balls between them.