Tactics today

[ShockingBadBuy]

Two noticeable things from this afternoon that confused and frustrated us:-

1) After Higdon's red card we changed nothing at all about our shape, and just played without a striker for most of the game. This didn't stop us banging ball after ball into the space where Higdon would have been. Wtf ? When Chesterfield went down to 10, they made sure they kept one up top.

2) I like Nigel's way of giving the oppo the ball in their half, but pressing hard when they cross the halfway line. It was one of the things that took us to the semi-final of the Cup. But when you are 2-0 down, with time running out, it doesn't take brain of the feckin century to realise that you need to adapt and press much higher up the pitch. At 3-0 down, with 10 mins left, we were still quite happily giving Chesterfield the ball in their own half. Again, wtf ??

Given the dominance we had in the first 20 minutes, at 10 v 10 might we have expected to win this game comfortably with a different approach ?

Pissed off tonight.

 

[Rupicola]

Wonder what the team for sat gonna be.

 

[metalblade]

Wonder what the team for sat gonna be.

same as today ................. shit

 

[Rollerball]

the decision that totally baffled me was, we are down on goals but pressing so we swap a left back for......another left back?
i understand playing to not lose, but to play to defend when times running out and we are losing has me tactically stumped, if mceverly is going off why not pull alcock in to play 3 central defenders and throw on davies, lose 3-2 or 5-2 its still a defeat, take a risk play not to lose, surely swapping mceverly for harris was just saying ok we have lost, lets not let them score any more but nor will we, bad decision nige IMHO.
as for resting harrison, why not play him have paddy on the bench, if not needed play paddy full game vs hartlepool and any U21 games, seems a little silly just as collins and HM are getting an understanding to drop one nd bring in a new guy in a local derby game.
just hoping lessons learned.
UTB

 

[Bergen Blade]

Wallace was subbed first, was he having a poor game?

 

[Silent Blade]

Wallace was subbed first, was he having a poor game?

He got a knock

 

[Bergen Blade]

Our organisation is not good for this Chesterfield goal:

 

[alcoblade]

Wow, that was schoolboy defending. I was there, but missed that shambles!

UTB

 

[crucialkneeligaman]

the decision that totally baffled me was, we are down on goals but pressing so we swap a left back for......another left back?
i understand playing to not lose, but to play to defend when times running out and we are losing has me tactically stumped, if mceverly is going off why not pull alcock in to play 3 central defenders and throw on davies, lose 3-2 or 5-2 its still a defeat, take a risk play not to lose, surely swapping mceverly for harris was just saying ok we have lost, lets not let them score any more but nor will we, bad decision nige IMHO.
as for resting harrison, why not play him have paddy on the bench, if not needed play paddy full game vs hartlepool and any U21 games, seems a little silly just as collins and HM are getting an understanding to drop one nd bring in a new guy in a local derby game.
just hoping lessons learned.
UTB

Exactly my feelings re Harrison & Collins.

 

[DazBlade88]

the decision that totally baffled me was, we are down on goals but pressing so we swap a left back for......another left back?
i understand playing to not lose, but to play to defend when times running out and we are losing has me tactically stumped, if mceverly is going off why not pull alcock in to play 3 central defenders and throw on davies, lose 3-2 or 5-2 its still a defeat, take a risk play not to lose, surely swapping mceverly for harris was just saying ok we have lost, lets not let them score any more but nor will we, bad decision nige IMHO.
as for resting harrison, why not play him have paddy on the bench, if not needed play paddy full game vs hartlepool and any U21 games, seems a little silly just as collins and HM are getting an understanding to drop one nd bring in a new guy in a local derby game.
just hoping lessons learned.
UTB

I see where you're coming from but we were more dangerous down the left when Harris came on. McEveley and Murphy both had a mare and Murphy plays much better when Harris is behind him. Saying that, I think Murphy should have been taken off instead off Flynn because Murphy didn't get past Darikwa all day. Flynn did cause problems when he was on the pitch.

I thought Clough made a few mistakes though. I thought we were waiting until half time to make the change when it was 10 on 10, which I was content with. But to not make the change at half time when were 2-0 down was poor in my book. That young keeper will never have an easier 40 minutes in professional football. Every single corner and free kick should have been under the crossbar to test him, and we should have been having shots at any sight of goal.

Again, I'm happy with us soaking up pressure before pressing at the halfway line but not when you're two goals down. They were keeping the ball well in their own half, knowing full well we weren't going to close them down and they could see the game out.

With some of the players we have, I think we need to start taking games to teams more. When we do, we get goals. We're not defending well enough to soak up the pressure so we need to be on the front foot much more than we are.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I see where you're coming from but we were more dangerous down the left when Harris came on. McEveley and Murphy both had a mare and Murphy plays much better when Harris is behind him. Saying that, I think Murphy should have been taken off instead off Flynn because Murphy didn't get past Darikwa all day. Flynn did cause problems when he was on the pitch.

I thought Clough made a few mistakes though. I thought we were waiting until half time to make the change when it was 10 on 10, which I was content with. But to not make the change at half time when were 2-0 down was poor in my book. That young keeper will never have an easier 40 minutes in professional football. Every single corner and free kick should have been under the crossbar to test him, and we should have been having shots at any sight of goal.

Again, I'm happy with us soaking up pressure before pressing at the halfway line but not when you're two goals down. They were keeping the ball well in their own half, knowing full well we weren't going to close them down and they could see the game out.

With some of the players we have, I think we need to start taking games to teams more. When we do, we get goals. We're not defending well enough to soak up the pressure so we need to be on the front foot much more than we are.

It's been speculated that fitness is the reason why a so high percentage of our goals have happened late in games.

Could another reason be attacking intent? Clough does seem to love 0-0 at half time away, but if that fails, it can take some time for players to adjust pre-planned tactics and original mentality.

 

[Goodpinchofclough]

What wound me up was that at 3-0 up with 10 men on the field (against our 10) they still kept 3 up front when defending our corners. At 3-0 down why shouldn't we be having 7 men in the box? I counted 5

 

[awblade]

And sometimes there were only 3. Baffling really. I expected after half time that we would come out and hammer their young lad in the net. Just look at both of our goals, I think he should have easily stopped.

 

[Lane Ender]

As soon as it was ten against ten he's got to go positive get Mcnulty and JCR on.

As soon as we do this we looked like we could get back in the game why did Clough delay this.