Goal watch - our defending versus Blackpool

[Ollessendro]

Bergen appears to have gone on strike, so I am going to attempt to fill in. I didn't have the benefit of going to the game and so my judgements are based on the highlights. Apologies for any crudeness (as compared to Bergen's professional posts).

0-1 Shit.

Kilgallon is caught sleeping and we get punished. Free header and from that range there isn't too much bunn can do about it. Killa is thinking about what hair colour he will have next, what radio interview he will do or his big new premiserhip contract and allows Seip the time and space to place his header in the back of the net.

0-2

We seem to have given up defending at this point. Blackpool has a couple of chances prior to this and we were all over the shop. Eardley is given absolutely acres of space to put in a cross. What on earth is Taylor thinking? He stands around the ball, which Harper is covering, and leaves Eardlely with loads of time and space to centre a very inviting cross. And where is the marking? Morgan lets Eull get away and it's 2 nil. It's probably harsh to criticise Bunn (I am going to anyway) as the defending was awful and the ball was hit at him form 6 yards out, however it was very disappointing for him to get his hand to it and not stop it from going in. Again a needless goal given away by piss poor defending. Taylor is asleep as gets caught out, Morgan switches off and then Bunn acts like a chocolate fireguard from Eulls rather weak shot.

0-3

Blackpool are now really running riot. One of their midfielders even thinks he's Xavi Alonso and almost embaress Bunn. This is actually a pretty good move. United are pushing forward and they hit us with a very good counter attack. Their defender heads the ball out and Xavi Alonso picks the ball up well inside his own half (we were making them look like this at this point) he runs unchallenged almost the full length of the pitch. Harper is doing his best to get back, but why does a defender not come towards the ball? I think that kilgallon could have come forward to make a challenge or at least close down the Spaniard. Alonso ends his 60 yeard run by passing to David's, who jinks and turns and is not challenged. He lays it back to Alonso, who is still completely unmarked, who drills a low shot into the bottom corner. Now some might say that playing against such quality opposition and being hit on the counter attack that it was difficult to defend against. However we were chasing shadows the whole time. We didn't get anywhere near the ball and the defending was school boy stuff.

My thoughts:

Killa has to be dropped. Don't care about what kind of player he is. Get him shipped out. It looks like it will have to be Fortune and Morgs at the back together.

When is Naysmith back? Taylor is out of his depth. From what I gather Stewart is not the answer, but I'd give him a go fro now (even if it is an interim measure).

 

[Foxy]

When is Naysmith back? Taylor is out of his depth. From what I gather Stewart is not the answer, but I'd give him a go fro now (even if it is an interim measure).

To be fair to him, he spent an awful lot of time having to cover for the two in the middle.

He won many balls as the last man in the centre of our box and won the majority he went for elsewhere.

I assume this was the reason he went drifting inside for the 2nd goal, not an excuse for him, but towards an explanation .

 

[Grecian2000]

"Bergen appears to have gone on strike"

To be fair there are only so many hours in a day. Some of our defending would take weeks to analyse.

Has he posted since Scunthorpe? I'm worried he may have topped himself trying to explain Scunny's second!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Excellent summary - and your commentary for the third raised a smile from someone who couldn't see properly as he was too busy putting his head in his hands. Nice to see a sense of humour.

I would add that our creative contribution was virtually none - with credit for industry (if not attractiveness and end result) to Doris and Squinny. Treacy did his best, but there was nothing going on by the time he came on.

Of two chances from open play in the second half, Cresswell had no support (and looked like the opening had come more by luck than good judgement going by his panicked look to empty spaces where his support should come from) and had no choice but to shoot tamely. Harper's shot from the edge of the box was well controlled but straight at the keeper - on reflection he'd have been better off leathering it (if he'd put it into the building work in the empty stand behind the goal he'd have been no worse off).

 

[Bergen Blade]

0-1: Killa lets Seip push him, enough to get a few yards in front of him. Poor effort from Kilgallon. Bassett would ask who's our zone man. We have all their players marked, but no free zone man to attack the ball.

0-2: Agree with you Ollessendro, that Taylor is completely out of position and I'll tell you why. He is focusing on «his man», Emmanuel-Thomas. He is the opposition right winger, and Taylor has obviously been told he's marking him. It doesn't matter that Thomas has drifted in field and is doing sod all, Taylor gets pulled in centrally with him. (see photo) Meanwhile Eardley realises there's acres of space down that side, gets the ball and crosses for Euell, who scores.

Again this illustrates the weakness of our emphasis on man marking. When Emmanuel-Thomas roams out of position it gets difficult for Taylor to know when to let him go and when to keep following him.

Morgan has either slipped, been pushed or foolishly tried to play the offside trap, as he is nowhere near Euell when he finishes.

0-3: Agree that it's a good counter attack for them. When Emmanuel-Thomas gets on the ball, he's closed down by Kilgallon, who manages to make him stop, and go sideways.

But then Treacy (I think) AND Harper decides to join in on pressing the same player. Thus we have three men on him, but nobody marking or covering the zone where Adam waits. Harper should have been the one to do that.

 

[Ollessendro]

Thanks Bergen. I wasn't trying to steal your thunder or anything. Glad that we agree upon things.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Thanks Bergen. I wasn't trying to steal your thunder or anything. Glad that we agree upon things.

No problem, only glad if more people are offering their thoughts on these matters.

Speaking of man marking vs zonal marking, I read about a study on the tactics of the 2004 Champions League teams. Out of 16 teams that qualified from the group stages, 15 were using zonal marking. In the last World Cup, the vast majority of teams used zonal marking.

There are teams that make it work with man marking systems, but it seems there are fewer now than a couple of decades ago.

 

[Ollessendro]

I agree that zonal is the way forward Bergen. I do think that you let Taylor off too lightly if you say it is down to the system we are playing. To me it is just poor positioning. He gets so caught up with his man that he drifts way out of position. It's really poor defending. It's not the first time that he has been caugh out positionally. He is a bit of a liability and I will feel much better when Naysmith is back. As i've said earlier i'd give Stewart a go until then.

That second goal gives me nightmares. Just look at the Red and sWhite shirts on that photo. There are 8 (compared to 5 Orange). Still through poor positional play and a lapse of concentration we let them score. Terrible!

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Did we play zonal or man to man last season?

 

[Foxy]

I agree that zonal is the way forward Bergen. I do think that you let Taylor off too lightly if you say it is down to the system we are playing. To me it is just poor positioning. He gets so caught up with his man that he drifts way out of position. It's really poor defending. It's not the first time that he has been caugh out positionally. He is a bit of a liability and I will feel much better when Naysmith is back. As i've said earlier i'd give Stewart a go until then.

As I said, I think there is much more to it than Taylor having poor positioning, when you take the match as a whole rather than an isolated part of the goal, there are a number of reason (in my opinion) why he's drifted inside.

Had he not have drifted inside on a number of attacks earlier, where he ended up being the last man/winning the ball, then it could have been a lot worse.

That's not to say he should have done the same for the goal, but I think its harsh on the lad to pick out such a small part of the match without taking into consideration the earlier reasons that probably effected his judgements

 

[Bergen Blade]

I agree that zonal is the way forward Bergen. I do think that you let Taylor off too lightly if you say it is down to the system we are playing. To me it is just poor positioning. He gets so caught up with his man that he drifts way out of position. It's really poor defending. It's not the first time that he has been caugh out positionally. He is a bit of a liability and I will feel much better when Naysmith is back. As i've said earlier i'd give Stewart a go until then.

I just feel we must try to include what we think it the management's instructions. If Blackwell wants extreme man marking (I don't think he does, it's a confusing mix), Taylor could say that it wasn't his man that scored, in fact his man wasn't involved at all! He could claim that our left midfielder (Cresswell) or maybe the left sided of the three central midfielders should have tracked the run of their right back.

Because it IS a mix, our players gets faced with similar dilemmas all match - when to follow and when to let go. Against teams with decent movement it gets difficult for our players to make the right choice every single time, and then there's often no rescue plan, no covering.

If I was the manager of an opposition team I'd tell my players to roam around, swap positions and aim to pull our players out of positions all the time by making off the ball runs.


My personal opinion is that players' roles are more clearly defined in a zonal marking system, which means decision making is easier, and it gets more difficult for the opposition to open us up.

As the trend seems to go towards zonal marking, I wonder what's our management's reasoning behind going the opposite way?

 

[oldblade]

Incompetence?

 

[Bergen Blade]

Did we play zonal or man to man last season?

I think the way we tried to organise the defence is no different this season to last. It is also very similar to Warnock's organising. It can work, it does have strengths, especially if we're more fired up than the opposition.

Warnock managed to get his players more fired up than most teams, a lot thanks to creating a great team spirit, and also some tremendously loyal players who wanted to do their best for him.

Blackwell, with his direct, in your face, slightly intimidating style certainly did get the players fired up in his first (half) season, we were so aggressive and hard working that teams struggled to get their normal moves going. It is no surprise that opposition players say that Sheffield United have always been a hard team to play against, difficult to beat, etc.

This season we seemed to have dropped off our aggression a bit. We don't get close enough to get a tackle in, and if we try to tackle anyway, we slip up and away the opposition go. There certainly seems to be more situations where they open us up and it has resulted in goals conceded. The weaknesses of a system that were hid by a tremendous collective work rate, are now being punished.

 

[keenzy]

It's school boy defending from taylor and it cost us a goal. Kept doing it all the match and a few other times they got down that side. Not good enough and he's out of his depth.

 

[Foxy]

It's school boy defending from taylor and it cost us a goal. Kept doing it all the match and a few other times they got down that side. Not good enough and he's out of his depth.

What about all the times he was actually the only defender winning the ball, covering for the other three?

I wouldn't say he's set the world alight, but I don't think he's necessarily been out of his depth.

He was one of the better players at Blackpool for me (though that isn't hard )

Poor positioning for the goal, but he wasn't alone for being at fault for that goal as others have pointed out.

Think he's steady and will only improve with experience, as will his positioning.

 

[keenzy]

What about all the times he was actually the only defender winning the ball, covering for the other three?

I wouldn't say he's set the world alight, but I don't think he's necessarily been out of his depth.

He was one of the better players at Blackpool for me (though that isn't hard )

Poor positioning for the goal, but he wasn't alone for being at fault for that goal as others have pointed out.

Think he's steady and will only improve with experience, as will his positioning.

He's lacking in pace and been out of position way too many times this season. I think i'd take kozluk at left back than taylor!!!

 

[Foxy]

He's lacking in pace and been out of position way too many times this season. I think i'd take kozluk at left back than taylor!!!

Similar thing was happening with Naysmith last season when we lost Ugo.

Whenever Killa and Morgan played together, more often than not Naysmith would regularly end up pulled inside.

With Ugo on the pitch, his positioning was spot on and he concentrated on his area of the pitch.

Not quite sure what it is, or even if its just me imagining things, but it's something I've long been convinced of .

I agree about the pace, he struggled against the pacier wingers, which is why his positioning need improvement, but on a whole, I don't think he's been that bad.

On the flip side, Kyle W is like dogger off a stick, but his positioning has been absolutely woeful at times.... Often he'll make up for it with his speed, but with the better opponents/him in the Premier League, he'd soon be exposed.

 

[Sharpy]

1-0 - shit defending
2-0 - fucking shit defending
3-0 - fucking dog shit defending

overall performence - shite.

 

[Sharpy]

He's lacking in pace and been out of position way too many times this season. I think i'd take kozluk at left back than taylor!!!

YES.

(If there was even a hint of sarcasm in that post I will hunt you down kill you and eat your ears)

 

[keenzy]

YES.

(If there was even a hint of sarcasm in that post I will hunt you down kill you and eat your ears)

Sharpy, That statement is full of fact.

 

[Foxy]

We all know as much as we love Kozzy, he'd have initially been equally as out of position, followed by a cracking burst of pace to catch up with him before hauling him down in or around the area

He'd then get back up, with a childlike smirk on his face pretending to be innocent

 

[Sharpy]

Thats because Rob Kozluk was sent by God to do thys bidding on the football pitch.