Roberto Soldado Starved

[THX2208]

I wonder if we might get better performances out of Soldado if we player three Advanced Play-Makers behind him? You could still get crosses in from our Full-backs. I just don't know, every week the guy is completely starved of any kind of service.

Lloris

Walker - Dawson - Chiriches - Vertonghen

Sandro - Paulinho

Eriksen - Holtby - Lamela

Soldado​

 

[Teddy Klinsmann]

We don't zip balls across the box to him. He scored so many goals for Valencia nipping in front of defenders.

 

[WiganSpur]

I think Soldado is a great striker but with our current style of play we might as well play Adebayor over him.

From what I saw today because of the inverted wingers the lone frontman is having to act as a supplier to the wing players who like to be direct and get shots off (Sigurdsson and Townsend). It's almost as if Soldado is the one being told to create from holding up the ball and feeding the wingers rather than the other way round. This just isn't natural to him. It's because players like Townsend have the mindset to shoot and be direct over thinking of ways they can feed the striker. That's only natural if you place him on the right.

If we're looking to play that way then as I said we might as well play Ade for his physical presence and ability to hold up the ball. Some argue his finishing is poor but it doesn't really matter if he's not going to be getting chances to score anyway.

Soldado and direct inverted forwards such as Townsend and Sigurdsson won't work unless we have effective, overlapping full backs on both sides who will play the ball across to the centre forward.

I thought Soldado was an excellent signing at the time and he is a world class poacher but with the way we are playing we should have gone all out for Benteke.

 

[pablo73]

I'd like to see us try something like this, with Lamela on the right, Eriksen/Holtby centre and Siggy/Eriksen on the left.

The one thing I would say is that I don't think Townsend and Lennon should start together. It should be one or the other at the most, as neither has much end product and they don't have a footballing brain between them.

 

[Blake Griffin]

i don't like to say i told you so(ok, i do) but back in july i said that this will be a big problem and here we are. i don't even blame soldado, it's the manager's job to recognise and to fix the problems.

 

[THX2208]

It seems AVB wants our one man up front to be a Trequartista Striker! But he's a poacher!

 

[sunnydelight786]

Not having a pop at Soldado, as in the right system/style of play he would score loads, but we should have paid what Villa wanted for Benteke. He was made to play this system and a battering ram of a striker was what we needed, with Defoe/a young poacher coming off the bench for the last quarter.....

 

[TH1239]

Lamela and Eriksen, who were brought in SPECIFICALLY to create chances for our strikers, have been relegated to the bench. Eriksen and Soldado played well together for spurts, but then he was dropped for Holtby, who doesn't have the goal-scoring ability to be playing in the #10 role for a team that doesn't have goal-scoring wingers. Lamela hasn't even gotten a chance to play with Soldado at the start of a game.

I want to see AVB start Soldado, Lamela, Eriksen, and Townsend together for just one league game at home. Can they contribute less end product than what we've seen so far? Is that possible?

 

[mil1lion]

I still think his team mates are learning about his game and how he wants the ball. The sooner they can get on the same wavelength as him the better. At the moment it's taking too long to pick out his runs. He'll make a run but the player on the ball will not see it quickly or hesitate to play straight away.

 

[nidge]

Shamelessly stolen from the Everton ratings thread (thanks to @PeeEyeEmPee for the pic) shows that we got the ball to Soldado once in the box in the whole of the game today. Speaks volumes of our current problems.

 

[THX2208]

If we just want a battering ram to play up front, what about Lacina Traoré?

 

[Darth Vega]

We've either gone out and signed the completely wrong striker for our system or need to adapt to suit him. Either way he looks lost. Any striker would struggle without service mind you. Not every forward can create something out of nothing like an RVP or a Tevez.

 

[idontgetit]

Soldado needs to actually drop off the back four more often. He seems to religiously hug the cb's all game, I don't know if that's just his natural style or AVB's telling him to do it. If you watch Giroud for Arsenal or say Michu for Swansea they both drop off and lay the ball on to players running past them. It brings the other players in to the game and it's really hard to mark against because any man to man markers will be dragged all over pitch. It's also really hard defending against players running on to the ball at pace and if they beat the tackle you won't catch them.

 

[Misfit]

If we just want a battering ram to play up front, what about Lacina Traoré?

We have one already on the books. He suffered from exactly the same thing last season. Actually not to the same extent as Bobby even but similar. Feeding off scraps.

 

[nidge]

People asking for a battering ram type of striker need to look at how effective Lukaku was today.

 

[haxman]

We don't zip balls across the box to him. He scored so many goals for Valencia nipping in front of defenders.

Yeah, Lennon tried to cross to him a couple of times today but dinked, low pace crosses are useless and are food and drink for any centre half against Soldado. Really want the guy to succeed at Spurs, but he's got to be getting frustrated already with the shit service he's getting.

 

[Locotoro]

Switch the wingers to go on the outside and you will see our problems will be solved. I'm willing to put money on it.

We don't need to sign a different striker or midfielder. Lamela or Townsend on the left, lennon on the right and you will see a marked improvement on the number of chances and goals we convert. This is the only option especially without the width the fullbacks should be giving us.

 

[TheGreenLily]

I wonder if we might get better performances out of Soldado if we player three Advanced Play-Makers behind him? You could still get crosses in from our Full-backs. I just don't know, every week the guy is completely starved of any kind of service.

Lloris
Walker - Dawson - Chiriches - Vertonghen

Sandro - Paulinho

Eriksen - Holtby - Lamela

Soldado​

Change the formation to a proper 4-3-3 and have The Beast of Whitehart Lane sitting back and destroying the opposition play.


Ultimately when everyone is fit I would play.

Lamela ---------- Soldado ---------- Eriksen

Holtby --------------- Paulinho
Sandro

Rose ----- Verts ------- Vlad ----- Walker

Llorris​

Both Holtby and Paulinho have licence to bomb forward and support Soladado, with extra width and support coming from Rose and Walker.

 

[NEVILLEB]

Everyone's partly to blame but Soldado just hasn't been able to really make a big impact in any game I've seen this season.

He doesn't go looking for the ball, he doesn't offer a secure channel to receive the ball and knock it off, he doesn't offer enough variety in his play.

He looks like a poacher at the moment and you can't play a pure poacher on his own.

 

[absolute bobbins]

He was getting visibly pissed off today with the lack of service, he clearly feels that he won't have a problem turning a close marker or pulling them out of the game so every now and again we should play the seemingly challenging ball into him and giving him the benefit of the doubt that he is capable of actually doing something