Vs S'oton - their gegenpressing

[finlaytheblade]

I think he's been to multiple teams as all of the teams include us because teams dont know what postion he actually plays so he never gets a consistent run of games

Burke seems to be the fall guy when only Mcburnie has shown anything this season.He needs more game time to really find his feet.
On reflection Wilder must know he got it wrong against Soton,having a player with pace always has an effect on defenders whether he be premiership quality or even a player no better than league 2..
Ask any defender what he fears most ?
it's being exposed against pace ! .
Burke has shown in flashes what he can do .He must feel the worlds against him ,the look on his face when he gets subbed tells a story.

 

[blades14]

Burke seems to be the fall guy when only Mcburnie has shown anything this season.He needs more game time to really find his feet.
On reflection Wilder must know he got it wrong against Soton,having a player with pace always has an effect on defenders whether he be premiership quality or even a player no better than league 2..
Ask any defender what he fears most ?
it's being exposed against pace ! .
Burke has shown in flashes what he can do .He must feel the worlds against him ,the look on his face when he gets subbed tells a story.

Exactly, he get subbed because a. hes not a 20mil + striker we've wasted money and b. he hasnt been with us on our journey. wilder has loyalty to the wrong players and for me he should be starting and finishing near enough every game in the future until another striker steps up and shows us any different

 

[Grappler]

Not sure if he was injured on Sunday, but I think Burke would have been tailor made for that game, to add some speed and pressing of our own, up front.

 

[Russ]

In many of those pictures we had 7 men behind the ball, most of whom weren’t marking anybody, it’s no wonder that there wasn’t an outlet and their defenders could push the forwards back into our own half. I’m convinced that having fewer at the back would help both our defending (they would all know who to mark, rather than thinking that someone else would pick them up) and our attacking (more players available to receive the ball).

Agreed. And in all his photos we could have done what most other teams in the league would do. Either;

a) pass backwards to a team mate who is in space. (With a view that subsequently someone might actually run into space to be available to receive the ball forward.)

b) don’t pass it if there’s no one to pass it too. When their player comes in to challenge just try and protect the ball / go down and win an easy free kick.

It’s not rocket science.

 

[BarcaBlade]

Another thing that many have commented on vs Southampton is that we couldn't seem to pass the ball at all. Was it 9 passes the first 15 minutes? A new record low for the first half?

So what happened when we got the ball, why couldn't we just control the ball and find a teammate?


Factor one - we couldn't get close to them. This meant that they kept the ball until they tried to attack us and finished. Then goal kick.

Factor two - long balls up to McBurnie didn't work. He won a couple, but they didn't fall to a United player. Sharp also struggled to hold the ball up against their strong centre halves.

Factor three - I think Southampton's gegenpressing was excellent. A side point here is that they were so comfortable at the back that they often had many players pushed up into our half. We had no pace up front to trouble them either. On the rare occasions that they lost possession and a ball fell to one of our players, they were all over us like hyenas, often in groups. When they pressed us so well we either risked losing it dangerously or had to give it away.

Some examples:

View attachment 100528
Stevens gets the ball, ends up in a wrestling match with Ward-Prowse. We got a free kick.


View attachment 100529
Sharp is back helping out, Fleck gets the ball and is immediately put under pressure

View attachment 100530
Ball falls to Fleck, but he can only poke it on as two players are circling around him, S'oton get the ball back.


View attachment 100531
We try to break with McBurnie, but three players are surrounding him, including their left back and they stop us.


View attachment 100532
McBurnie is again back helping, but Vestergaard is all over him with other S'oton players also helping and they can start a new attack.

View attachment 100533
Again we get the ball with Baldock. He hesitates, probably can't see any passing options up the pitch, and is blocked.


There are other factors like confidence, composure and lack of rhythm too. But in short we just couldn't get any sort of passing going. It helped a bit second half when we changed the formation, but only for a while and new problems arose as well.

In those Big Sam threads when people ask who would you get in instead, I sometimes wonder whether Bergen is available.

 

[bakeblade]

Not sure if he was injured on Sunday, but I think Burke would have been tailor made for that game, to add some speed and pressing of our own, up front.

It's a shame radio sheffield didnt do their job and ask him after the match

 

[pommpey]

In many of those pictures we had 7 men behind the ball, most of whom weren’t marking anybody, it’s no wonder that there wasn’t an outlet and their defenders could push the forwards back into our own half. I’m convinced that having fewer at the back would help both our defending (they would all know who to mark, rather than thinking that someone else would pick them up) and our attacking (more players available to receive the ball).

^This^

It's also noteworthy that if we have layers of

-----------------------------Ramsdale----------------------------------

Baldock-------Basham-------Egan---------Jagkielka----------Stevens
---------Berge--------------Ampadu------------------Fleck------------




-------------------Sharp--------------------------------------------------


---------------------------------------------------McBurnie-------------

We aint going nowhere.


That gap, and the fact that oppositions just pass it round the midfield three to draw them out and we cannot sustain possession anyway tells us all we need to know

pommpey

 

[BladesOnToast]

I’m convinced that having fewer at the back would help both our defending (they would all know who to mark, rather than thinking that someone else would pick them up)

Spot on. Diffusion of Responsibility. You see this all the time in everyday life. The same reason someone has a heart attack in a crowded shopping centre, no-one stops to help, but someone has a heart attack in a quiet street with just one lone passer by and they get helped every time.

I just knew one day choosing pschology for A-level would finally pay off.

 

[blackydog]

Wasn't we them last season.... ah last season.... memories.

Exactly my first thought...

 

[Withington Blade]

Agree, a top manager IMHO.

Southampton are an all-round impressive outfit, IMO. No idea what structure they have in place but they seem to have good scouting in place so they recruit well, play attractive football and seem to operate to a sensible budget. They also don’t seem to be afraid of selling a star played or even letting their manager go if needed as they have succession plan - just negotiate a good fee and then move on. At one point they had pretty much provided half of Liverpool’s starting 11. A lot of so-called experts were quick to predict their demise but it never came. Highly impressive. Love-in over!