Is Phil Bill a left winger?

Z

zigger zaggar

Star Player
Well the one big thing I took from today is; no he ain't but then again I probably already knew that.
I was all for GON to be given the job up until the game but why oh why when we are going 442 did he not only leave two very good left wingers in Anthony and Dembele on the bench in favour of Phil Bill he never at any point looked like he wanted to put a left winger on the left wing position despite having plenty of chance to use either sub? WTF was that meant to be? A midfield four of three central midfielders and one winger on the right. Most of the time either Solanke or Moore was forced to take up the efforts out wide left. I just didn't get it, maybe someone far more tactically astute than me can explain the logic.
 
We often lack balanced shape when we have two up top plus billing. In contrast we play better with a billing-Anthony-zemura triangle that brings both billing and JZ more into the game.
 
Gaz obviously wanted to play a certain formation for this game but didn't have the balls to drop Billing and play Anthony,which is fair after Phils two goals way from home.
However Phil had a stinker playing square peg and only came into the game when Christie came on for Moore.
 
Billing had 2 goals in 2 games so obvious choice was to put him at left wing. I'm being sarcastic of course. GON didn't want to drop him and shoehorned him into a position where we lost his strengths and saw his weaknesses. With Anthony and Christie on the bench. Im seeing yesterday as an opportunity to win at home lost
 
As stated above, Phil Bill is an enigma! On his day excellent and crucial for us. On an off day frustrating. Yesterday was an off day, but better days will come. Saying that Anthony should have been given a run out yesterday.
 
To be fair to him I'm not particularly having a moan about Phil Bill's performance yesterday, I actually don't think he played too badly at times there was a bit of effort there but he didn't really have a position. He was in a midfield 4 of himself, Jeff, Cookie and Tavs and obviously if Tavs was out on the right and Cookie and Jeff were central where else was he expected to play? I blame GON more for playing Phil Bill either on the left wing or not giving him specific instruction as PB seemed to not know where he was meant to be and kept coming in to the middle while either Kieffer or Dom had to go out wide. It just seemed totally shambolic. If you're gonna play 442 then the balance has to have a left and a right sided player and two in the middle surely? Square pegs in square holes and all that.
 
Given that starting 11, I would rather have moved Solanke wide to accommodate Moore centrally with Billing just behind.

Instead we had Moore of all people drifting out wide at times, crossing the ball to fresh air.
 
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