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Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Defending Salcido Defend

By: samg | March 1st, 2011
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Firstly, some bad news as Jason Gatties is leaving the Offside. The good news, however, is that he found a new job for himself – so best of luck Jason!

That means the Fulham Offside site will be left in my hands. I’ll try to up the ante and post on a regular basis. So, without further ado, here’s one for today and it’s all about Carlos Salcido.

Sunday’s away draw against Manchester City was Carlos Salcido’s third start in a row. Is it fair to say he’ll be a regular left-back from now on? If so, has his game changed?

Salcido’s game plan is to sprint down the flank and whip in dangerous crosses. They can often be a bit too dangerous and whip over heads and out of play for a goal-kick to the other team. His defending can be an issue as well. Sometimes he’s left too much space for him to track back and even when he is back he can be defeated too easily by opposition players.

However, Salcido does have the quality to be a first-team regular. The trick for him, perhaps, is to guard his territory better and become more reserved – both defending and thumping those crosses into the opposition box.

Here’s a comparison of Salcido’s passing in the two Man City games this season: *

http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/9765909

The comparison shows Salcido is more reserved in his crosses these days. He played seven unsuccessful crosses from the edge of the Man City box at Craven Cottage, while at Sunday’s Eastlands game he made two. His passing and movement, determined through his successful passes, seems tighter and more controlled in the away draw than the home defeat.

This could be an effect of Fulham’s tactics. The team plays a passing game and like to work the ball steadily. This philosophy is being used more confidently now that Fulham are going through a good run of form. The philosophy will help Salcido fit into the squad.

Fulham however, can become too steady and rack up draws when wins were possible. If Carlos Salcido is to stay at left-back he could see his job as deliverer of dangerous crosses as a useful asset to the squad – much like what Konchesky did for Fulham.

Mark Hughes says Chris Baird has the best shot of the ball in the Fulham squad. But maybe a wild shot or two from Salcido can be useful? He has a powerful strike of the ball – remember his shot in last year’s World Cup? A wonder goal from Salcido would help him keep left-back too. But he must, of course, work on not firing them too far or leaving behind his defensive duties.

* = I still have to learn how to embed these chalkboards. I’ll work on it asap.

Category: Carlos Salcido

Tags: Carlos Salcido
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Monday, 13 September 2010

Wolves forced to defend the defensible

By: DJ | September 13th, 2010

FULHAM V WOLVES 23 GD 11 Seems like Wolves are being portrayed by the media as the dirtiest team in the Premier League and getting all the criticism being associated with such an unwanted tag. And statistically those accusations are backed up in terms of yellow cards having accumulated 15 in 4 games which is twice the number of most teams. So is this portrayal of Wolves a fair reflection of how they have approached the opening four games of the season?

The witchhunt began with a focus on Match of the Day on the succession of challenges that Wolves made on Joey Barton in the Newcastle game. Some real crunching tackles there, not all of them fouls but as it was conducted against one of the league’s sweetest and innocent of players it captured attention. That was a game where Wolves got a shed load of yellow cards and a game where I expressed the view on The Offside that it provided the worst refereeing display I have ever seen at this level. Attwell never had control of the game and compensated by issuing a card for every foul he awarded in the second half. The young ref is not short of critics and on that performance I can understand why. But it established the view in the eyes of the media and some fans that Wolves were a team playing beyond the law.

And this weekend at Fulham the yellow card spree continued. How much of that was a result of a reputation going before the team was reflected in the fact that there was not one serious foul committed by Wolves all day, although there were a succession of petty pushes and pulls, and Ebanks Blake, Jones, Jarvis and Mancienne were all booked for their first offences and Henry was booked for back chatting. The tackle that drew all the attention when Zamora sadly suffered a broken ankle was an excellent tackle by Henry for which quite rightly no foul was given. The two worst tackles of the game came in injury time at the end of the game and resulted in yellow cards for Murphy and Hangeland.

So despite the fact that the two players that havc conceded the most fouls in the Premier League this season both play for Bolton, Wolves have a reputation that I am sure they do not want or seek and that their supporters would not wish especially as at this rate Wolves will have suspensions a plenty in the autumn. The petty fouls need to be cut down, not least because it brings pressure on the defence, but there is a danger that Wolves will now get more bookings through reputation than is justified, as with the number given on Saturday to players making their first foul challenge.

Wolves have 3 players in the top twenty in terms of fouls committed with Henry and Berra in there and Ebanks Blake having fouled more than any Wolves player. They all trail behind the likes of Davis and Muamba of Bolton and alongside Cahill, Carew and Carroll.

Wolves need to be competitive in style to counteract the better teams in the league and I hope that doesn’t change and most of all I hope it doesn’t change Karl Henry who is developing into one of the best defensive midfield players in the division. But there is a danger that the pressure that media attention brings will force a change in style when in reality we have seen two referees in succession dish out cards far too liberally. The away game at Spurs on Saturday will probably get undue attention from the media in this respect and then hopefully it will all pass by as stories do and Wolves will be accepted for what they are as a compettive but not dirty side.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News
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