Replacing Cav - a discussion about tactics

[General]

So weirdly enough, he's set up two key goalscoring chances - one which we won the penalty with Joe Bryan and one when he sent in the corner which gave us the penalty mitro missed. This means he's been reponsible directly for 2/3rds of clearcut our goalscoring opportunities (in the sense we had two penalties from his actions). Weirdly, that kinda means as things stand he's arguably one of our most effective attacking players.

Go figure.

[Matt10]

Cav's role against Sheffield United wasn't just a RW, he was a RWB. I thought more would pick up on this. It's clear as day how much ground he had to cover.



We had to do this because they overlap their centre backs quite a bit, which leaves a lot of room for their wingbacks to bombard forward.

Cav put in an incredible amount of work off the ball, and as much as I prefer another player to him, his work-rate should not even be remotely ignored. I think we are taking that for granted by not talking about it and understanding just how important it was to preventing dangerous attacks down our right side.

https://streamable.com/q3ei7x

Also, if it weren't for his control in the centre of the pitch, Lookman's goal would have never happened. Cav maintained possession, and kept us in the attacking third - eventually leading to the goal.

He needs to work on his final ball. In that respect, he's falling short. The RW spot is up for grabs, but whoever is chosen, needs to have the same defensive workrate should Parker choose to play that 5-4-1 defensive look again.

[Samsara]

I'd love to see the diamond, but we can only do that with the return of a decent RB (Tete).

                        Areola
Tete   Andersen   Adarabioyo  Robinson
                    Anguissa
             Lemina        Cairney
                      RLC
              Mitro  Lookman

I'd die if I woke up to see this team sheet Saturday morning. That is a powerful formation.

[Statto]

Good posts from General and Matt10 above

Cavaleiro gets unfairly derided on here IMO, largely because he doesn't flap his arms and moan like Knockaert and people assume that means he doesn't care

No he's probably not at the level we'd want a starting XI player to be this year but he's consistently been more productive, and a better all-round option, that AK47, Kebano or Knockaert which is why he keeps getting picked

[Whitestone]

It's a toss up between Cav and Kamara at the moment and as others have said Cav's work rate should be recognised. In an ideal world we should have brought in a replacement. Maybe in January. What we shouldn't be doing is put round pegs in square holes which it seems that some posters have suggested, i.e. Lemina, RLC, Lookman, Kebano.

[FulhamStu]

I'd love to see the diamond, but we can only do that with the return of a decent RB (Tete).

                        Areola
Tete   Andersen   Adarabioyo  Robinson
                    Anguissa
             Lemina        Cairney
                      RLC
              Mitro  Lookman

This is the formation I would play v the lesser sides and I would go for 5-3-2 with kongolo added at the back and RLC playing in between Frank and Cairney/Lemina

[colinwhite]

I thought Cavaleiro was solid in our fluid system of 541 without the ball and different systems with it. I think we have to bear in my that Aina is behind cav /or next to him . Offensively he as suffered of late and seems to have lost confidence in taking players on,which is understandable because he was giving the ball away alot (making us very susceptable to the counter).
Cant see us playing a diamond any time soon. I think we overloaded with Cbs in the market  because we intend to play a back three and we now have the players with enough pace to be successful at it. Cav has adapted his play to our present system which he deserves credit for . Wolves sold him largely because he only played one way and didnt do the tracking back. I think hell keep his place as Parker clearly trusts him for our shape more than Kamara.

[b+w geezer]

I'm with the several posters on here who can see why Cav is being selected. His replacement needs to do better on the ball, while doing no worse off it, in terms of showing for it when we are in possession and tracking back when we aren't.

In those respects he is doing OK and one can appreciate why this is being prioritised right now.  For their disallowed goal, for instance, he was in position at RB (with Aina inside him) maintaining the line and not playing anyone on. That is playing to instruction and using your head. On the break, he always showed for it, without often being found. Whether he'd have done much if he had been found is open to doubt, but it was the good movement and would have kept defenders occupied.

We could do with more from him when he gets the ball, beyond just keeping a move going, and if there is a candidate who will provide that, we will benefit, absolutely, so longer as the rest isn't sacrificed.

[Bassey the warrior]

Cav's role against Sheffield United wasn't just a RW, he was a RWB. I thought more would pick up on this. It's clear as day how much ground he had to cover.



We had to do this because they overlap their centre backs quite a bit, which leaves a lot of room for their wingbacks to bombard forward.

Cav put in an incredible amount of work off the ball, and as much as I prefer another player to him, his work-rate should not even be remotely ignored. I think we are taking that for granted by not talking about it and understanding just how important it was to preventing dangerous attacks down our right side.

https://streamable.com/q3ei7x

Also, if it weren't for his control in the centre of the pitch, Lookman's goal would have never happened. Cav maintained possession, and kept us in the attacking third - eventually leading to the goal.

He needs to work on his final ball. In that respect, he's falling short. The RW spot is up for grabs, but whoever is chosen, needs to have the same defensive workrate should Parker choose to play that 5-4-1 defensive look again.

Good post. I agree that his defending was good and it was shrewd tactically from Parker to give him a flexible role. Going forward though we have zero threat on the right, which does make us predictable.