Have always thought early crosses are more effective than late crosses.

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HighfieldBlade said:
I agree we need to get crosses in earlier. Too often, we are overplaying the ball with intricate triangles of passes out on the wings, giving defenders ample time to get back into position.
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We try to Arsenal the ball into the new but we don't have the quality to play that way every match .

Southampton proved how deadly you can be if the cross comes in early. The cross for the winning goal put Leno in no mans land so he just flapped in the general direction of the ball and they had the Arsenal defence still facing their own goal tracking back. Leaving Austin with one of the easiest headers of his career.

It was a good counter to say neither Austin and Long are blessed with a lot of pace but they managed to do Arsenal on the counter attack.
 

Bladesman said:
We try to Arsenal the ball into the new but we don't have the quality to play that way every match .

Southampton proved how deadly you can be if the cross comes in early. The cross for the winning goal put Leno in no mans land so he just flapped in the general direction of the ball and they had the Arsenal defence still facing their own goal tracking back. Leaving Austin with one of the easiest headers of his career.

It was a good counter to say neither Austin and Long are blessed with a lot of pace but they managed to do Arsenal on the counter attack.
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Arsenal’s defence? Let’s not pretend they had one.
 
nopigfansintown said:
Early crosses and crosses from the byeline are the hardest to defend. Crosses from deep are the easiest.
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......but most likely to catch a retreating defender out causing a home goal possibly. It’s all to do wit trajecto.....trajac........trigector......angle o’ ball!
 
SwissBlade said:
There was a lot of criticism of Stevens' crossing last season, but it seems that him and billy have really worked on getting the ball where Billy wants it and he had a result with it.

A great example of quality balls is our third against Wigan. Leon put a brilliant first time ball in and Billy was there, a yard off his man to meet the ball at the back post to send it back where it came from.
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Another example appropriate for this thread is the header at Blackburn. Stevens received the ball, could have hit it early, took a couple of extra touches before delivering a perfect ball to the far post for Sharp. Early crosses are all well and good if we have players with the quality to be able to delivery them accurately, but whenever I’ve seen Stevens, Freeman, Baldock (and JOC & Basham for that matter) attempt one from out wide they’ve generally been awful deliveries. A key factor is also positioning for where they’re attempting to cross (recent success of an early ball from a decent position being Basham vs Reading).
 
I agree it's difficult to have the timing, accuracy and superb quality needed to score goals when defenders have many players back, all waiting for the cross and also being physically superior when it comes to challenging for it:

Some examples vs WBA, taken from the extended highlights, which normally shows our best attacks:

WBA1, long move, Stevens cross blocked.png
WBA2, Duffy shot pushed wide.png

WBA4, Stevens low cross, Hegazi clears.png

WBA6, Duffy tricker, but cross is deflected, gk saves.png


Our goal was a very direct and good counter attack, punishing WBA before they could get organised.

McGoldrick's shot moments before we scored was maybe our second biggest chance of the match and happened when Norwood won the ball high up.
 
Silent Blade said:
That is how Saints have beaten Arsenal today. We need to do more of them. The only goals we have scored from early crosses this season I can think of are Sharp v Hull in League Cup, JOC's header v Villa, Sharp's 2nd v Blackburn and 2nd v Wigan
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Couldn’t agree more SB , the number of times we work a good wide position & then check back does my fuckin nut in . An early cross allows an attacker to gamble getting in front of a defender or pull away to find space behind ,
 
sitwell said:
Our wing backs aren't confident or good enough to produce quality crosses on a regular basis ,this is one of the main areas I would like us to look at in January.
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I agree Sitwell they so pivotal to our system they seem to have the ability to beat their man but not deliver the final ball consistently
 
I'd like to see us mix up our deliveries more, but I'll play devil's advocate just a little bit.

It's easy to look at a sample of one and say we should do what the winning team does, but the context of that game was Southampton going in with 9 points from 16 games. It's the second game they've won. I know it's the Prem with big gaps in quality between top and bottom but all we can say for sure is that Southampton's tactics don't work anywhere near as consistently as our own.

And when we do put early balls in, it's nearly always a poor delivery. Actually, that goes for most of our crosses. I'd guess a big part of why we try to develop such good crossing opportunities is that delivery is one of our weakest areas. Not one of Freeman, Stevens, Baldock, JOC, or Bash, are capable of putting in a consistently decent delivery. It's even Duffy's weak point and he's played as a winger most of his career.
 
Pull backs are a problem at times.
While they can be a fantastic idea when they confuse the defenders ,they have to be timed really well and the shot afterwards still has to be on point. Crosses (especially early ones) cause panic and can result in anyone knocking it towards goal.
 
Silent Blade said:
The assist for our goal today was from an early cross. Just saying...
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It was also from regaining possession high up the pitch and punishing the opposition before they got properly organised. As it happened I thought Baldock's pass backwards may have ruined the chance, but Norwood's clever movement and excellent cross kept it alive. Typical Sharp finish, showing height isn't always a requirement if you do things quickly at the right time.
 
We don't really have a commanding striker so if you;re putting in crosses when a defence is set then we're unlikely to score. Early crosses are more difficult to do and harder to control but they cause panic at the back. Even if the cross doesn't go where intended it can cause all kind of problems.
 
Silent Blade said:
That is how Saints have beaten Arsenal today. We need to do more of them. The only goals we have scored from early crosses this season I can think of are Sharp v Hull in League Cup, JOC's header v Villa, Sharp's 2nd v Blackburn and 2nd v Wigan
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Can't go saying things like that or you'll pinchy on your case!:)
 
SwissBlade said:
Yes, you're absolutely correct that it was an early cross. However, had the quality been poor, it would've been a wasted early cross.

I remember Kev Gage moaned as Leon hit that ball, not because it was a bad idea, but because hitting the ball first time takes some ability to do. As it happened he nailed it.

So early or late, get the cross right and you've got a great chance.

As a team i believe that we try to get the ball in the box early. Its something which i believe is a trait of ours, especially down the right with Freeman or Bash/ Baldock, we try to get the ball in early, but its when sides cotton on to this that we can struggle. It makes the quality even more vital
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But Silent's still makes a very good point.

A quality early cross is far more likely to result in a goal being scored than a quality late cross, because the defence is more likely to be correctly positioned and organised when a late cross comes in no matter how good it is.

If the cross isn't particularly good there is still a chance of scoring if it is put in early, whereas if it is late there is virtually no chance.
 

Silent Blade said:
The assist for our goal today was from an early cross. Just saying...
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It was indeed - and Norwood played it without actually looking - just a quality ball played into the danger area.

Defenders weren't organised as much, which is where early balls can catch out the defence of any team.

I would like to add, that if we had the reputation of always doing early crosses, we would equally be found out for doing it.

What we need to do is mix it up a lot more.

I hope the JTW brings 2 strikers so that we go with the 2 new ones and Billy - Leon is just so out of sorts he can't or should not be relied upon.

UTB
 
Bumping this as the last 2 games have yielded 6 goals all from our strikers. Ive noticed we have pressed high up the pitch much more effectively and for the full 90 as we did during the first half of last season and we have attacked with more pace and purpose and fed the strikers earlier. As when Silent first posted this thread i agreed with him then and hope we carry on playing the same way. The addition of Dowell and hopefully a couple more will mean we have quality beyond the first 11 and can change with no loss of quality when legs get tired.
 
Sensation as S2 fans call for Gerritintbox.

Tufty doesn’t agree I’m afraid. Noise and Nonsense he calls it. Wise man.
 
Pinchy said:
Sensation as S2 fans call for Gerritintbox.

Tufty doesn’t agree I’m afraid. Noise and Nonsense he calls it. Wise man.
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Pinchy in blinkered stuck record shocker.

I usually find your contributions amusing if somewhat repetitive and this is a case in point. I have not and do not advocate lumping balls aimlessly forward. I do firmly believe attacking with pace and purpose yields results and scares the shit out of defences. I will be interested to see what the other Bladey Blade S2 posters who you clearly despise as being way below your superior wit and intellect think on this matter.
 
Bill Johnson said:
Pinchy in blinkered stuck record shocker.

I usually find your contributions amusing if somewhat repetitive and this is a case in point. I have not and do not advocate lumping balls aimlessly forward. I do firmly believe attacking with pace and purpose yields results and scares the shit out of defences. I will be interested to see what the other Bladey Blade S2 posters who you clearly despise as being way below your superior wit and intellect think on this matter.
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Ignore the troll. He is still convalescing from open wallet surgery having lost his bet about Billy Sharp.
 
Bill Johnson said:
Pinchy in blinkered stuck record shocker.

I usually find your contributions amusing if somewhat repetitive and this is a case in point. I have not and do not advocate lumping balls aimlessly forward. I do firmly believe attacking with pace and purpose yields results and scares the shit out of defences. I will be interested to see what the other Bladey Blade S2 posters who you clearly despise as being way below your superior wit and intellect think on this matter.
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Sorry Bill, you need to take it up with Tufty, not me. Noise and nonsense according to him.

The truth is we’re putting the crosses into better places and people are getting on the end of them. It happens when you’re playing well. It is better delivery and confident strikers, nothing to do with ‘early’ or ‘late’. Our third goal came from a cross that was anything but early. It was the culmination of an excellent period of pass and move football. Proper football, played the right way (two more Tufty phrases).

Look, I know the S2 Bassett Boys want to Gerritintbox as quickly as humanly possible from as far away as possible, so as to give the opposition centre backs some heading practice. I want anything but that grotesque spectacle. Luckily for me but to the despair of S2, Tufty has exactly the same view. Not a good time for the hoofers I’m afraid but they get full marks for persistence and devotion to the cause. One day they’ll get their Blackwell or Morgan back.

We ❤️ Plan B.
 

Pinchy said:
Sorry Bill, you need to take it up with Tufty, not me. Noise and nonsense according to him.

The truth is we’re putting the crosses into better places and people are getting on the end of them. It happens when you’re playing well. It is better delivery and confident strikers, nothing to do with ‘early’ or ‘late’. Our third goal came from a cross that was anything but early. It was the culmination of an excellent period of pass and move football. Proper football, played the right way (two more Tufty phrases).

Look, I know the S2 Bassett Boys want to Gerritintbox as quickly as humanly possible from as far away as possible, so as to give the opposition centre backs some heading practice. I want anything but that grotesque spectacle. Luckily for me but to the despair of S2, Tufty has exactly the same view. Not a good time for the hoofers I’m afraid but they get full marks for persistence and devotion to the cause. One day they’ll get their Blackwell or Morgan back.

We ❤️ Plan B.
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Nobody. Absolutely nobody has even in your parallel universe suggested hoof
in any way, shape or form.
Everyone loves the great stuff we are serving up.
HOWEVER and this is a minor criticism which seems to have been addressed, we have dropped quite a lot of points by over egging the pudding and losing good, potentially goalscoring opportunities by over passing. You may not like or agree with this but you are the ONLY person I am aware of who dosent see it or makes 157 from 2 + 2 by accusing any of the countless posters and fans in the ground who point this out of wanting to scrap our football and hoof.
No one is suggesting anything of the kind and you do your obvious intelligence a huge disservice by banging that ridiculously inaccurate and lone drum.

I hope you had a most enjoyable Christmas and wish you a very happy New Year.
 
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