Post by weasel on Sept 23, 2023 21:32:17 GMT
There has been a lot of discussion over whether Joel Piroe and Georginho Rutter should be switched around. Piroe is seen as the striker with the proven goalscoring record that many would have playing as 9 with Rutter, the record signing, who has lots of flair, but is less of a clinical finisher being seen as many as being better suited to playing in the 10, behind Piroe.
Farke has played Piroe at 10 and Rutter at 9. The reason given that Farke likes the idea of him arriving late into the box. Conpiracy theorists would suggest Farke has been told he must play Rutter as 9 as we need to turn him into the player that we paid big money for and the best chance of seeing us make a profit with him is if he turns into a clinical no.9. I don't see any truth in that as firstly Farke seems to have been given complete control over team selection. Secondly I think Farke could play them the other way round if he wanted and felt it would suit them best and thirdly Farke's mandate is to get us promoted and that alone would bring in far more money than we'd get if we failed to get promoted but manged to sell Rutter for £50m.
My thoughts are that Farke has been quite shrewd. He knows that Rutter will not simply play as a number 9 but drop deep at times and try to be involved in the link-up play. This has the effect of dragging at least one centreback out of position which then gives Piroe more space in the penalty area. As we saw with our opening goal today Rutter wasn't really in the picture when Piroe was tapping home at the far post. Piroe has the natural instincts in and around the box but if he was up top on his own it would be easier for the opposition to double mark him especially with teams opting to park the bus against us.
It is also worth noting that nobody at this point can definitively say what Rutter's best position is. Everyone has opinions but in many ways he has the tools to play in 3 or 4 positions. He isn't a natural finisher but neither was Thierry Henry when Arsene Wenger converted him (although Wenger tried to do similar with Theo Walcott but it never really worked). If Rutter can get his confidence up when shooting then we could have a really potent attack as Rutter has the ability to make something from nothing. The confidence in his all round game was on display today, despite him missing a good chance, and if he gets confident in front of goal then he could easily get 30 goals this season - throw in Piroe seemingly being able to score regularly from the deeper role and that would give us an incredible return from the 2 of them.
It isn't broke at present, in the 5 matches they have played together Piroe has 4 and Rutter has 2. Whilst it is only a small sample size if replicated over the season that would be 55 goals between them. We're going to get frustrating matches but like today we were still creating chances, good chances, but weren't taking them. The frightenng thing for the other teams is that we should get better. The reason I say this is down to players confidence levels. Gnonto, Summerville, Rutter and Dan James have all been lacking confidence when shooting, if they get their confidence then all are capable of chipping in with potnetially double figures for goals (hopefully Rutter can be 20 or 30+). Throw in that Jaidon Anthony has shown he is capable of scoring at this level, and will have his confidence up after scoring today, and we really could go into goals overdrive at some point this season. The fact we seem to be looking reasonably secure at the back makes the confidence even higher. Today Watford sniffed an opportunity in the second half at 0-0, they pushed forward and pressed high, we showed we were capable of keeping possession, knocked it back and forth and then found the gap and exploited it ruthlessly. That will probably make teams less likely to try to get at us. In our previous home match, against Sheffield Wed, the match went the same way but when Sheff Wed came at us they got a bit of joy and we didn't manage to capitalise on them commiting more men forward but the fact we did today should see teams less likely to adopt the approach of hanging in till half time and then hoping to get at us when our energy levels dip. Watford came at us again when they were 2-0 down and to be honest we did look a bit tired, 3 games in 7 days catching up with us but we still looked the more likely of the two sides to score and the 3rd goals emphasised again how deadly we can be when space opens up. Was a bit disappointing that Watford managed to get in a decent shot near the end as it would have taken the shine off the win to have not kept a clean sheet but Messlier saved well.
Farke has played Piroe at 10 and Rutter at 9. The reason given that Farke likes the idea of him arriving late into the box. Conpiracy theorists would suggest Farke has been told he must play Rutter as 9 as we need to turn him into the player that we paid big money for and the best chance of seeing us make a profit with him is if he turns into a clinical no.9. I don't see any truth in that as firstly Farke seems to have been given complete control over team selection. Secondly I think Farke could play them the other way round if he wanted and felt it would suit them best and thirdly Farke's mandate is to get us promoted and that alone would bring in far more money than we'd get if we failed to get promoted but manged to sell Rutter for £50m.
My thoughts are that Farke has been quite shrewd. He knows that Rutter will not simply play as a number 9 but drop deep at times and try to be involved in the link-up play. This has the effect of dragging at least one centreback out of position which then gives Piroe more space in the penalty area. As we saw with our opening goal today Rutter wasn't really in the picture when Piroe was tapping home at the far post. Piroe has the natural instincts in and around the box but if he was up top on his own it would be easier for the opposition to double mark him especially with teams opting to park the bus against us.
It is also worth noting that nobody at this point can definitively say what Rutter's best position is. Everyone has opinions but in many ways he has the tools to play in 3 or 4 positions. He isn't a natural finisher but neither was Thierry Henry when Arsene Wenger converted him (although Wenger tried to do similar with Theo Walcott but it never really worked). If Rutter can get his confidence up when shooting then we could have a really potent attack as Rutter has the ability to make something from nothing. The confidence in his all round game was on display today, despite him missing a good chance, and if he gets confident in front of goal then he could easily get 30 goals this season - throw in Piroe seemingly being able to score regularly from the deeper role and that would give us an incredible return from the 2 of them.
It isn't broke at present, in the 5 matches they have played together Piroe has 4 and Rutter has 2. Whilst it is only a small sample size if replicated over the season that would be 55 goals between them. We're going to get frustrating matches but like today we were still creating chances, good chances, but weren't taking them. The frightenng thing for the other teams is that we should get better. The reason I say this is down to players confidence levels. Gnonto, Summerville, Rutter and Dan James have all been lacking confidence when shooting, if they get their confidence then all are capable of chipping in with potnetially double figures for goals (hopefully Rutter can be 20 or 30+). Throw in that Jaidon Anthony has shown he is capable of scoring at this level, and will have his confidence up after scoring today, and we really could go into goals overdrive at some point this season. The fact we seem to be looking reasonably secure at the back makes the confidence even higher. Today Watford sniffed an opportunity in the second half at 0-0, they pushed forward and pressed high, we showed we were capable of keeping possession, knocked it back and forth and then found the gap and exploited it ruthlessly. That will probably make teams less likely to try to get at us. In our previous home match, against Sheffield Wed, the match went the same way but when Sheff Wed came at us they got a bit of joy and we didn't manage to capitalise on them commiting more men forward but the fact we did today should see teams less likely to adopt the approach of hanging in till half time and then hoping to get at us when our energy levels dip. Watford came at us again when they were 2-0 down and to be honest we did look a bit tired, 3 games in 7 days catching up with us but we still looked the more likely of the two sides to score and the 3rd goals emphasised again how deadly we can be when space opens up. Was a bit disappointing that Watford managed to get in a decent shot near the end as it would have taken the shine off the win to have not kept a clean sheet but Messlier saved well.