Strategy Playing with Wingers

[munksyb]

Instead of all this garbage about playing beautiful passing football,

Why not play with Wingers,

With good wing players:-

You stretch the opponents defence , pulling them wide
Break quickly
Always have a chance of getting a cross in ( or getting a corner )
And once it's in the box, always a chance of of a header or strike on goal.

You dont need players like Rooney or Tevez or Torres, and you dont have to rely on inch perfect passing.. you know the kind of players we cant afford.

And it can be exciting, as it was with Woodward & Reece.

Then having decent Midfielders pick-up anything that leaks out of the penalty box, and switch play.

It's a shame Cotts wasn't more consistent,

And it's what both Naughton & Walker were good at , marauding down the wing and running at defenders with pace.

Keep Little as he is a great exponent of this tactic, and build a team around this strategy.

UTB

 

[LouTheBlade]

It's a nice ideal Munksy but I see a few flaws with the theory;

1. To pull off truly good wing play on a consistent basis, you need good midfield players and full backs who can play a good pass and get the ball into the right areas for them.

2. All Neil Warnock's sides ever used to do was get the ball wide. Constantly knocking it wide every time we went forward with the rare intention of trying anything different. As a result we often became predictable.

3. Good sides will snuff it out and will certainly not get stretched. If under real pressure their own wide men will drop back to help and the full backs will stay tucked in with the centre halves. It's not always guaranteed to work.

4. If it does come off and your wingers get into lots of good areas to put crosses in, you need good centre forwards to take the chances when they come along. We have a couple of half decent ones (at the moment).

5. Glen Little has been a very good player in his career but he is over the hill now and to ask him to play in the sort of system you refer to is asking a lot. He is fairly slow and struggles for fitness.

6. Wingers can be very inconsistent and they have a very tiring job. You have to be fully confident they can produce week in week out or your tactics will fail and you'll have no plan B.

7. If we get back to the PL any time in the next 5-10 years we will need a lot more than just good wingers. The high tempo game in the top flight is all played in the final third so it is very difficult to mount quick counter attacks from the back without very good defenders who can pass the ball.

 

[munksyb]

Decent assesment Lou

I wasn't laying out a complete book of plays, merely saying,

When recruiting , you ought to recruit with a system in mind, as I dont realy see a system at the moment except bang the ball up front & see if someone can get on the end of it.

I agree we would need decent midfielders & overlapping fullbacks, and these would provide our plan B & C, but I think we could start down this line without breaking the bank, and look at players both within our existing squad, and pick-up the others, a little more easily than wanting pass perfect nidfielders

 

[LouTheBlade]

Decent assesment Lou

I wasn't laying out a complete book of plays, merely saying,

When recruiting , you ought to recruit with a system in mind, as I dont realy see a system at the moment except bang the ball up front & see if someone can get on the end of it.

I agree we would need decent midfielders & overlapping fullbacks, and these would provide our plan B & C, but I think we could start down this line without breaking the bank, and look at players both within our existing squad, and pick-up the others, a little more easily than wanting pass perfect nidfielders

Oh yeh I recognise that Munksy and I enjoy a good tactical debate

As you say, I think we all recognise we have to mix it up from time to time and I certainly agree that the system you choose to play should dictate the players you sign.

I'm just a little cautious with the idea of out and out wing play again after the Warnock days because that's all we ever seemed to do and we were found wanting sometimes.

In this division I think your suggestion would be a good platform for us, but moving on from there we would need to have more in our locker. Sadly I don't think the current manager quite sees the game in the same positive way as you do.

 

[Trafford]

I know that it's a sweeping generalisation but one of the Blades' biggest problems over recent years has been that our full backs have been better wingers than our actual wingers! Quinn started really well on the left on Saturday but was switched to the other wing several times and Yates just doesn't seem capable of beating a man - Connolly was actually far more threatening early doors.

 

[Worksop_Blade]

Instead of all this garbage about playing beautiful passing football,

Why not play with Wingers,

With good wing players:-

You stretch the opponents defence , pulling them wide
Break quickly
Always have a chance of getting a cross in ( or getting a corner )
And once it's in the box, always a chance of of a header or strike on goal.

You dont need players like Rooney or Tevez or Torres, and you dont have to rely on inch perfect passing.. you know the kind of players we cant afford.

And it can be exciting, as it was with Woodward & Reece.

Then having decent Midfielders pick-up anything that leaks out of the penalty box, and switch play.

It's a shame Cotts wasn't more consistent,

And it's what both Naughton & Walker were good at , marauding down the wing and running at defenders with pace.

Keep Little as he is a great exponent of this tactic, and build a team around this strategy.

UTB

You could have reduced all that post into the following sentence.

"We should play like we played in 2002-03"