GoalWatch - our defending vs Scunthorpe

[Bergen Blade]

0-1: Scunthorpe have a throw in down our left. The thrower gets it back and chips it into the middle, 35 yards out, where Scunthorpe have two men completely unmarked. Grant McCann has time to chest it down and volley it in.

As the photo shows we focus too much on the ball and have three of our four midfielders all positioned in a small triangle. The back four have dropped back, even though they only have one opposition player to deal with, and Walker seems to have gone awol.

Bunn should have used his left hand to try to get the high dipping ball. Trying to get there with his right hand is a basic goalkeeping error. Mind you he may not have got there anyway.

I think our midfield four must share the blame though. The space we give them is quite embarrassing at this level.


1-2: Scunthorpe take a quick throw in. We look unprepared, and don’t have enough men back. Quite amazing as Scunthorpe’s attack prior to the throw in had lasted a while and we were at full stretch to clear.

Morgan allows Hooper to flick it on, Kilgallon is in noman’s land, and Stewart fails to track Hayes’ run.

1-3: A great counter attack by Scunthorpe. We lose the ball in their half and they bomb forward with us panicking.

They have a little luck on the way, but their enthusiasm, pace and willingness to bomb forward make it difficult for us. Little gets a tackle in, Killa tries to clear, they hit the post, but it doesn’t matter - they run riot and are rewarded in the end.

Well done to them, for this goal there is more to learn from what they do right than what we do wrong.



(Hmm, Can't upload a photo with this thread, will try to do it later)

 

[Bergen Blade]

New try with the photo:

 

[Bergen Blade]

Two seconds later:

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Couple of comments...

Re: the first goal and Walker, is the middle of the pitch really his responsibility? Whether it's man-to-man marking, or zonal marking, I don't see why the right winger should have to get involved to break up this attack.

Re: their 2nd, I'm surprised you didn't mention the build up - hopeful punt forward, Bunn and Kilgallon get muddled with Bunn having to in the end hit it out for a throw, which they take quickly and score from. A completely needless mix-up.

 

[Ollessendro]

Once again it's just a comedy errors. How many times have we said something along these lines from the Derby game??? Midfield gone missing, lacklustre defending and poor goal keeping.

First goal is a joke. What a gaping hole there is oin our central midfield. You have 3 Blades midfielders playiung like 9 years, i.e. just chasing the ball. Still after all that I'm a little disappointed that Bunn didn't save that.

2nd goal. Morgs is at fault for letting the striker get away from him. He cushions a lovely header into the other scorers path. Stewart should have been tracking him and is at fault. Additionally Killa is as you say Bergen in no mans land. Decent positional sense by him would also have saved us.

3rd goal. Bergen you may want to credit Scunthorpe, but what on earth is Kilgallon thinking??? His lacklustre clearance casues the goal. He can simply but the ball into touch, but try some fancy flick and only suceeds in giving it back to the striker. Pathetic. To be fair to the Sucnny players they do well from there. The first striker is unlucky not to score and the scorer keeps his goal and finsihes well.

Once again we lose points down to individual errors and poor team work. Blackwell talks about getting his players to do the basics, but they are just not. Personally I'm fed up of saying this.

Once again thanks Bergen.

 

[Bladesway]

I blame Bunn for all three, he is short so he must be rubbish.

On a serious note (although some will think the above is serious) first goal is a combo of midfield not getting anywhere close to the player, the back 4 dropping off and a good strike. Second and third pretty much as Bergen describes.

On the first one, Bunn could have had 4 hands and 12 giant arms he still wouldn't have gotten anywhere close because it was a blinding strike, dipping as well. I assume Bunn used his "wrong" hand because it moved in the air and deceived him.

I could live with the first goal because that sometimes happens, second goal was unforgivable and the third down to many things, luck as much as anything as it bounced off Killer and then back of the Scunny forward.

Killer seems well off the pace since the contract thing kicked off. To me you either pay him what he wants or sell him. Under normal circumstances you would drop him but who would you play in his place?

Still a long way to go but it has gone from bobbing along nicely to Blackwell putting himself under some serious pressure. I don't agree with what some of the fans are doing/saying but KB really isn't helping himself at this point.

 

[Ollessendro]

Killer seems well off the pace since the contract thing kicked off. To me you either pay him what he wants or sell him. Under normal circumstances you would drop him but who would you play in his place?

Get him dropped. He's been a liability for weeks. In and out of the squad with niggles, flu etc and not playing well when he has played. Play davies at centre back with Morgan. Give them a few perforamnces together and if not completely happy play Fortune with Morgs.

I'd be on the blower with Newcastle, Boro, Wigan, Villa or the promoted teams offering Killa out on loan with the promise that they pay 2 million for him in Januray.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Couple of comments...

Re: the first goal and Walker, is the middle of the pitch really his responsibility? Whether it's man-to-man marking, or zonal marking, I don't see why the right winger should have to get involved to break up this attack.

When all the others push over he should definitely follow, though much more so if we'd been zonal marking in midfield. As we're employing a much more man marking based system I don't really know what Blackwell tells him.

Part of the idea of playing a full back on the wing is often because the manager is fearful that the opposition left midfielder will cause us problems. If this was the case, maybe Blackwell will blame Walker even more than I have.

Re: their 2nd, I'm surprised you didn't mention the build up - hopeful punt forward, Bunn and Kilgallon get muddled with Bunn having to in the end hit it out for a throw, which they take quickly and score from. A completely needless mix-up

I feel if I get into too much detail people won't bother reading them. I noticed their hesitation, but Bunn did manage to clear it out for a throw in, he had plenty of time to get back in goal, and there was also time for Kilgallon and Stewart to get back in defensive positions.

 

[Bergen Blade]

3rd goal. Bergen you may want to credit Scunthorpe, but what on earth is Kilgallon thinking??? His lacklustre clearance casues the goal. He can simply but the ball into touch, but try some fancy flick and only suceeds in giving it back to the striker. Pathetic. To be fair to the Sucnny players they do well from there. The first striker is unlucky not to score and the scorer keeps his goal and finsihes well.

I think the ball hits the heels of their player and Killa sort of clumsily reacts by kicking the ball randomly. It hits the body of their forward, Killa's feet again and then the forward gets to run on with it.

However mistakes like this happens when the opposition manage to make our defenders face our own goal, i.e. defending when trying to get back. The momentum of the panicking defenders mean they're likely to make stupid looking mistakes like this.

Modern football is much about achieving these situations, identifying when the chance is there - and taking advantage by carrying out the counter attack with pace and movement. Scunthorpe did it brilliantly, which to me proves that it doesn't necessarily take a team of Arsenal's quality to play that way.

 

[Wards]

think you're being far too generous to our defending in regards to their 3rd goal. It was calamatous.

 

[Ollessendro]

I think the ball hits the heels of their player and Killa sort of clumsily reacts by kicking the ball randomly. It hits the body of their forward, Killa's feet again and then the forward gets to run on with it.
QUOTE]

It's Killla's first touch that I am talking about Bergen. Their striker flicks the ball with his heel/outside of the foot with the intention of knocking the ball past Kilgallon. Killa then pokes the ball and it hits their striker in the chest. The ball then bobbles off Killa feet and their strikers and the striker is fortunate to come out with the ball. However, for me, Kilgallon had a chance to deal with the danger with his first touch. He casually pokes it back into their player and then gets caught out. He could have easily smashed the ball away or simply played safety first and put the ball into touch. Kilgallons apathy, mis confidence or simple mis judgement cost us a goal. IMO it was criminal defending.

 

[Bergen Blade]

think you're being far too generous to our defending in regards to their 3rd goal. It was calamatous.

I'm not saying I think we're doing great, but I want to make the point about the difference between

• defending when our defence is settled, have men behind the ball, have the man on the ball closed down and can anticipate the opposition runs and moves
  
• defending when our defence is getting caught on the break, and are trying to defend while running towards their own goal.

The second scenario is so much more difficult for defenders, and it can make them look very poor, certainly when doing slow motion studies.