Talking 'bout formations

[grecIAN Harris]

I don’t think Chieck played badly on Saturday.
He was strong in the air and kept it simple on the ground.
He did seem to be ‘man handling’ his opponent quite often, but was rarely penalized, so why not.
He’s still young and inexperienced.
I think he’s doing a good job for us.

Recently he's been too busy looking for 'the battle' with the oppositions striker, somewhat needlessly imo, rather than concentrating on doing his job properly.

 

[Egg]

And it may well be something that GC is encouraging him to do in order to add more steel to his game ?

I thought exactly this. Cheick's tendency to concentrate on the man as much as the ball seems to have occurred since GC's arrival.

 

[arthur]

To be fair, Stubbs is very physical with any opposing striker as well. There is nothing wrong with standing your ground and making sure you are not bullied out of position by the opponent. However, I would like Cheick to take more notice of the ball when having a tussle. A few times he is letting the ball drift behind him and still tussling with the centre forward as they turn to chase the ball, which could and probably should be a free kick. He is also very reliant on Sweenz or Alex covering in behind him in those situations or Jamal coming out.

Basically, have a tussle and stand your ground, but deal with the ball.

Thank you. Exactly my thinking. I was alarmed by how often an indifferent forward from a poor team was getting goal side of him without too much bother. Imagine what a quality striker could do..