wanderlust wrote:It seems to be a common fallacy that Matete doesn't have a creative bone in his body and is just an athletic midfield enforcer, albeit with superb touch and control. And yet he made a massive contribution to the 60% increase in chances created and the 100% increase in "touches in the opposition's box" when he started ahead of Sheehan. Facts don't lie. Early days so we'll see how it pans out - maybe we've already seen his best performances?
Well I've never seen him play apart from the odd video clips, so I don't know what skills he's got (did you not note the question mark I put after me questioning whether Arfield, McAtee and Matete were signed for their physicality?) and I doubt even you are an expert on what skills Matete actually possesses.
As for that stats they are meaningless, his two starts were in cup games with team selection simply designed to give all the squad playing minutes. (No doubt our cup opponents probably did something similar themselves?)
As I've said you may end up being right about him - even a stopped watch tells the correct time at some point of the day.
Whatever you think about Sheehan - which apparently isn't much - he was seen as a key player in our team as evidenced by those who played against him and voted him in to the divisions team of the season, and unless Evatt has purposefully adapted our playing style to exclude Sheehan, then I would imagine he will remain a starter in the league games for the immediate weeks to come, unless or until injury, loss of form, or bad results leads to Evatt changing the playing style becomes a factor.
(And he's been pretty stubborn to change anything in the past!).
I don't wish Matete any ill, in fact just the opposite, I hope his form forces him into the side - but I come back to my original point, we no longer have a Dapo or Paris (and nothing on the grapevine about brining someone similar in?) so who in the side can unlock defences if Sheehan is no longer in favour?
It appears to me that Evatt's plan for tippy tappy II is to push both wingbacks up the pitch but two wingbacks, two number 10's and Dion running around as he does, seems to have have overcomplicated the play up front and weakened our capability in midfield and defence?
Maybe I'm not seeing it right perhaps?
My opinion at this early stage is that it will look good when it works but it will make us look horrible when it doesn't - as per the Santos misplaced pass analysis I made.
It's just a game at the end of the day to me though.
I don't lose any sleep over it one way or the other.
Home
