Intensity of defending

[Bergen Blade]

When I used to play centre half I always tried to make sure that my backline dropped deep when we should and pushed up when we could.

Sometimes we won the ball, cleared it up-field and immediately pushed up. As we did, occasionally we'd pass some of our midfielders who were tired/lazy/sloppy and I'd tell them to push up, thus keeping the right distance between defence and midfield, but obviously also to support the attack or win second balls.

I'm not sure United (Maguire and Collins) do this well enough, though it's difficult to tell for sure as BladesPlayer tend to zoom in on the ball too much. Has anyone noticed if it is the case?

Possible explanations to why Maguire and Collins don't push up quickly enough:

• They like (or have been instructed to) being available for a backwards pass and need to be in some space
• They subconsciously prefer to remain deep, knowing that their lack of pace may lead to strikers running in behind them at a break
• Being unaware of (or just disagreeing with) the importance of pushing up

Negative consequences of not doing this well:

• Rarely playing opposition strikers offside
• Wrong distance between defence and midfield
• Midfield getting too much space to cover (notice the amount of long shots we've conceded)
• Central midfielders compensating for the above by "sitting back" (notice the selection of Doyle and Lappin)
• Said midfielders consequently not supporting the attack enough (notice the lack of strong forward runs from midfield, Michael Brown did this superbly)
• Said midfielders consequently not winning second balls and tackles high up the pitch
• Without intensity of defending being 100% it leads to a sloppy mentality with a lack of focus and concentration at key moments

 

[Grecian2000]

I sort of agree Bergs.

However, hasn't the change in the offside law contributed to this attitude of staying back rather than pushing up? It used to be if you pushed up and the lazy arse CF didn't come back with you he was, invariably, caught offside. Now he can loiter in behind and, providing he doesn't get the first ball forward, he can still join in and become available in the "second phase" from a very advantageous position.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I sort of agree Bergs.

However, hasn't the change in the offside law contributed to this attitude of staying back rather than pushing up? It used to be if you pushed up and the lazy arse CF didn't come back with you he was, invariably, caught offside. Now he can loiter in behind and, providing he doesn't get the first ball forward, he can still join in and become available in the "second phase" from a very advantageous position.

It makes it a bit harder for defenders, but the need to defend with intensity (keeping the backline straight; dropping deep quickly when they have to; pushing up quickly when they can; moving sideways as a unit; keeping the right distance between players; sprinting, not jogging into the right positions) remains as important.

The defensive side of it is one thing, but the attacking implications are maybe even bigger as we don't win the ball in good areas often enough, and therefore find it so difficult to create chances. It's been a struggle since 2011/12! Lee Carlsey spoke of winning the ball in good areas as an aim, which was music to my ears, however under him and Weir we were worse at it than ever!

I think we focus too much on individual players when we discuss our problems. At the moment we have new threads popping up after each game saying Player X isn't good enough, prompting replies saying X isn't the worst, Y and Z are even worse.

But the fact is that we have a squad full of players who've done reasonably well at the current and higher level. It must be possible to find a blend, a defensive organisation and an offensive style that makes us at least competitive in the third tier.

 

[JohnDenver]

Possible explanations to why Maguire and Collins don't push up quickly enough:

• They subconsciously prefer to remain deep, knowing that their lack of pace may lead to strikers running in behind them at a break

I think that's the big reason. When we did push up field on Saturday (chasing the game), Gillingham just punted it in behind and ran it down - pressure relieved.

During the first half hour of the game our plan was working well, notwithstanding the silly concession. But from that point the midfield never got anywhere close to the strikers and we ended up humping it long to isolated players. It's likely that our midfield are so defensive-minded and immobile that they just reverted to type and sat deep, sucked even deeper by the slow defence.

We can criticise the selection but for half an hour we executed well. Then it just stopped.