by URZZZZ »
06 Nov 2019 13:21
NewCorkSeth URZZZZ NewCorkSeth Erm. He played most of his games their on the Right Wing. He played 11 games as an Attacking Central Mid that season.
Well, from what I recall of Fulham that season, Aluko played very narrow for Fulham (like an attacking midfielder but drifted over to the right side) with the width on the right side coming from the overlapping Fredericks. Factor in Piazon also played a similar role to Aluko I the left hand side and he wasn’t a winger either. Infact even watching Fulham’s first goal against us when they beat us 5-0 illustrates my point
I think a while ago on one particular thread, someone compared the crossing stats between 16/17 and 17/18 which had dramatically fallen since Aluko replaces McCleary/Beerens (natural wingers). And they said on that particular thread that Aluko attempted even less crosses at Fulham than he did for us. So I’m not sure he can be classified as an out and out winger personally
Naturally though, we couldn’t emulate Fulham’s style with the width coming from the fullbacks because we had Gunter at right back who was no where near as effective as Fredericks going forward
I think you'll find Floyd Ayite played most their games that season playing at Left Wing and Piazon replaced him that season during injury. Tom Cairney central with 2 wingers.
If I could find the thread I was looking for, I could show you what I mean. But I remember it showing Aluko attempting a pitiful amount of crosses at Fulham. Surely, as a winger, the main objective is crossing the ball in the box?
Another thing. Under Stam and Clement, Aluko was hopeless. You can agree with that, right? They played with width. When Gomes came in, he changed from a wide formation to a narrow one (actually a formation like Fulham’s that season). And Aluko started to play better. Because the emphasis on him wasn’t to hug the touch line and cross the ball in. Yiadom was able to do that because he was better offensively than Gunter was
Ejaria played the role on the right of the three attacking midfielders when he first came in. He’s not a winger is he?