greenpilled":3qu7nipo said:Knibbsworth":3qu7nipo said:greenpilled":3qu7nipo said:It's nothing to do with the personnel. Mayor, Grant and Fornah are all good passers who have all picked out delightful through balls on occasion.
Really? I beg to differ on that.
Mayor typically dribbles the ball until he is within inches of being dispossessed and offloads it so someone else to deliver. If he can play these balls why doesn’t he ever do it himself?
Fornah plays safe passes back to the CBs or to the wing backs, sometimes to his fellow midfielders but very rarely to the strikers.
Where have these delightful through balls been all season because I haven’t seen many of them.
When you consider that Adam Lewis has two assists, then Fornah’s 3 and Mayor’s 3 really aren’t that impressive after 45 league games and a good cup run.
Both have played virtually all season. George Cooper by comparison had 12 assists from 27 starts in a position he had never played before.
It is a bit unfair to credit Fornah and Mayor with the kind of vision and ability Cooper has, because it certainly hasn’t been backed up by the stats.
I am sure Hardie would agree his service this season has been of a far lower quality than before.
no, you've misunderstood the point being made in the part of the post that you didn't selectively quote (and I think the point being made by the original poster).
The comparison with Cooper is apples and oranges. He played as a left wing back last season. Most of his assists were crosses/pullbacks from the side of the pitch. This thread was about through balls played forward from central midfield.
Fornah and Mayor are both very capable of this. Mayor slipped Ennis in with a nice pass to score against Oxford. Fornah played a beautiful ball down the line to start the move from which we scored against Blackpool.
The reason their stats don't reflect them doing this more often is because they rarely have options in front of them, because of the formation we play.
I didn't selectively quote anything. That sentence was the bit I was responding to, that Mayor and Fornah were capable of brilliant through balls.
George Cooper had numerous assists through the centre of the pitch last season, some short some long. So did Bakinson.
We are playing the exact same formation as last season using two strikers. One of those strikers was this division's top scorer in January and the other has electric pace. It is hardly Alex Fletcher up front on his own, back to goal like in the days of Adams.
I am not sure this point that Mayor and Fornah have incredible passing ability but no-one to pass to stacks up to scrutiny. Any good passer will unlock Hardie and Ennis but our centre midfielders this season largely haven't.