I don't know about you but I love watching a good winger. Nothing beats the attacking danger of a marauding wide man dancing in and out of tackles and providing that killer shot or pass. And it was wing wizardry that put Bolton Wanderers to the sword at the City Ground on Saturday.
Yes Tim Ream was a makeshift right back and had a nightmare (capped by being stretchered off in what appears, thankfully, not to be too serious an injury) and yes the rest of the Trotters defence looked more like the Peckham brothers of that name than a coherent Bolton back line. But you can't take away just how good Michail Antonio and Chris Burke were.
For the first 20-30 minutes especially the pair tormented their opponents. The strength, for me, is that they can operate as a pair. If Burke, rejuvenated since Dougie Freedman's arrival, doesn't get you with his nifty footwork, clever touches and accurate crosses and shots then, from the other side, Antonio offers something completely different.
Michail is one of those mercurial talents who gives off the air off not always quite knowing himself what he's going to do. I don't mean that in a bad way either, he's unpredictable and, when relying on instinct on Saturday, his raw pace, power and direct running simply blew Bolton away. His goal, the second, was breathtaking. Teams may be tempted to 'double up' on him to try to nullify that explosive talent. but they know they leave open the risk of the wily Burke weaving his magic on the other flank.
It's a combination that is not only refreshingly exhilarating to watch but shows why Freedman has managed to get off to such a strong start. At the beginning of the season, during the unbeaten run (it seems so long ago), the threat from the flanks ensured that won games even when we didn't dominate or play particularly well. Good, strong width can give a side the tools for deadly counter attacks or - when on top - stretch teams to unlock defence. Dougie has realised that is where the talent lies in this squad - especially considering who is missing - and it's a strength that should be played to as much as possible.
Freedman's 4231/41221 not only frees up Chris and Michail but gets Henri Lansbury further forward, where he can become involved while making sure we have the numbers around him so that we aren't so easily overrun in the centre of the park.
The Freedman formation change fixed three key problems Pearce encountered after that early season run. He had often moved Lansbury to a deeper role to mitigate the loss of Reid and Cohen - the two players he put at the heart of his side at the beginning of the campaign. That role didn't suit Henri or the team as a whole - he didn't win the ball too well and wasn't in a position to contribute the sorts of passes and shots that are a big part of his game. Gardner and Osborn provide the poise and the tenacity respectively that make for a more balanced engine room and the springboard for those further forward.
But, returning to the theme of this blog, it is in the wide positions that Pearce allowed himself to get outflanked.
He, quite rightly, wanted to use the loan market to add a splash of Premier League quality to the squad, especially in light of Reid's continued absence. Sadly, he opted for Tom Ince who didn't seem 'up for the fight' when the going got tough and only served to sideline Burke - whose experience and guile were then sadly missed.
Worst of all, Antonio's early season threat was lost. Michail, the clear player of the season for me, was probably a victim of his own success. Colin Fray describes his blistering run and finish on Saturday as Collymore-esque. Praise indeed in these parts and he's right - it's the sort of explosive goal rarely seen since Stanley in his pomp. But the fact he has pace, power, direct running and - on top of that - is good in the air, meant the temptation was too strong for Pearce to move him up front.
That, however, meant he was too far forward for his movement, running and dribbling to have any impact and he got bogged down battling centre halves from a standing start, rather than running at them with purpose. It killed his best assets stone dead
Now restored, the unlikely dynamic duo of Antonio and Burke makes us a far better prospect. They're scoring, creating and generally terrorising defences at will and Freedman needs to do all he can to keep that going. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed watching a pair of wingers at the City Ground.
The obvious duo would perhaps be Stone and Woan. They operated at a higher level in a different formation but, similarly, offered variety on the flanks. If Antonio and Burke go on to have half the success of those two we'll be lucky.
Then again, we've been fairly lucky to have the odd decent winger grace the flanks of the City Ground turf to light up poor teams. In the post-Premier League era* two shine out. Andy Reid mark one was a Burke-esque twinkled toed magician. Over time he drifted inside and now, in his second spell, his quality on the ball means he has to play in the middle to try to dictate a game.
After Reid departed for White Hart Lane we had Kris Commons. It may be tough to admit it now but we could've done with hanging on to someone of his quality instead of facing the galling prospect of him turning out for them lot down the road. Yet Commons, like Reid over his career, has drifted inside and was a more central attacking midfielder for a lot of his stay on Trentside.
Garath McCleary left just as he was hitting his stride but showed glimpses of the explosiveness Antonio has shown - and was probably the key part of Steve Cotterill's relegation saving rescue effort. Let's hope he doesn't come back to haunt us at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.
But those three have been bright lights in some pretty dark days. We've never been able to field a pair of top performers in both of the wide positions with the likes of Nicky Southall (good at set pieces but less of an impact in open play) and Paul Anderson (good tactically for Billy but not enough of a creative force) not having the quality of the current pair.
I agree with Dougie Freedman that the play offs are beyond us but as long as Antonio and Burke continue to offer the sort of entertainment we witnessed on Saturday I'll be happy regardless. For now we should try to enjoy our football without the burden of worrying about matters at the top and bottom. Exciting players shouldn't be taken for granted - let's just hope they can deliver more displays like that on Saturday. If they do, it'll certainly be worth turning up.
*It'd be massively unfair to compare any Forest winger to John Robertson so I'll go without mentioning him - save for this footnote to doff our cap to the very best!
No comments:
Post a Comment