Why do the tactics no longer work?

[Bergen Blade]

I see little or no change in the way we play now from the way we played when Blackwell first arrived. So why did we do so well at the start, and why are we struggling now?

 

[Bristol Blade]

For me, there are three major problems.
First is that, when Kilgallon first dropped out of the team due to illness, we began to concede more goals. Since he has come back in, he hasn't been fully focussed and we have carried on shipping goals.
Second is that Monty is out. Love him or loathe him, when he breaks up opposition attacks and will stop us from conceding so many goals.
Third is that Ward is out; we haven't won since he got injured. He can score goals and add a spark to our play that can get the rest of the team going and get the fans going.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

I see little or no change in the way we play now from the way we played when Blackwell first arrived. So why did we do so well at the start, and why are we struggling now?

I know you like to disect the play but for me, it's mainly confidence and a lack of the togetherness we had as a group of players. The Blackwell philosophy is based around the whole being greater than the individual parts, that and a solid defence. We have neither at the moment.

I've never seen such a collective dropping of the shoulders than after they scored last night and that includes the management on the touchlines.

 

[Kev Gee]

I know you like to disect the play but for me, it's mainly confidence and a lack of the togetherness we had as a group of players. The Blackwell philosophy is based around the whole being greater than the individual parts, that and a solid defence. We have neither at the moment.

I've never seen such a collective dropping of the shoulders than after they scored last night and that includes the management on the touchlines.

And there-in lies the problem. We need a STRONG manager who will do what is required before/during and after the 90 minutes.

 

[NN6]

'why did we do so well and why are we struggling now'?...simple, other teams know exactly what we are going to do and what we do is very easy to defend against.

its not a coincidence that our best spells of football the last 2 seasons have been when Cotts, Ward and Treacy have been on form. When our wide men either aren't playing or aren't playing well we are so easy to defend against its not true. When we don't look like scoring it puts extra pressure on the defence who are starting to crumble.

 

[sheffielder]

I see little or no change in the way we play now from the way we played when Blackwell first arrived. So why did we do so well at the start, and why are we struggling now?

1. There are more goals this season.
2. There is no Paddy
3. The players don't like Blackwell which you can cope with when your winning, but when the losing starts....
4. We have 1 plan to boot it to Henderson.
5. We have no pace

Sod it, I can't be arsed to go on

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

2 main reasons

1.) Confidence
2.) Belief

I think the squad is low on confidence and are losing belief in the system.

 

[TonyAgana]

For me, it's the fact that the style of football Blackwell employed last season and this is on a knife edge between success and failure. Just a few variables* fail and the whole system breaks down. It's what pissed me off so much when people were complaining at the style for the last year or so and Radio Sheffield's Football Heathen team just met it with "shut up man, you're 3rd/4th/5th/6th in the league!". Fans could see that it wouldn't take much to see it all collapse around us and that seems to be what's happening.

Playing more football tends to mean you keep posession more and you can cushion a dip in form/luck without turning to complete shite.

*to be fair to Blackwell, the system stood up remarkably well and those "few variables" ended up being a shit load of injuries.

 

[Wards]

I can see diffferences in the way we played when Blackwell first arrived. When he took over from Robson we used the wings a lot, lot more, Cotts was on fire and our mean weapon was to get it down the wing and in for Beattie. At least we varied our play a little in the fact that we also went direct but also got plenty of crosses in the box.

Now it seems we're very one dimensional and see very little else other than the ball up to Hendo. We don't seem to possess as much guile in the team as last seasons or the year before.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I know you like to disect the play but for me, it's mainly confidence and a lack of the togetherness we had as a group of players. The Blackwell philosophy is based around the whole being greater than the individual parts, that and a solid defence. We have neither at the moment.

For me key ingredients to Blackwell's style is:

• Stopping the opposition from playing
• Aggression
• Pressing
• Working hard
• Being more up for it than the opposition
• Man marking
• Taking few risks
• High tempo
• Long ball
• Set pieces

I think you're right though the most important factor for Blackwell is mental, more than tactical. Superior motivation is absolute key for his tactics to work.

When he came here the dull and tactically diabolical Robson had turned a decent squad into a set of losers, and the contrasting Blackwell was exactly what we needed. It was all about regrouping and getting the fighting spirit back.

There's a question of how far fighting spirit and superior motivation can take us though, and can we rely on it working long term?

I think it is asking a tremendous lot of the players to be more up for it than Wednesday players in the Sheffield derbies. It's risky to rely on us being more up for it than smaller clubs like Blackpool, Scunthorpe and Doncaster. Despite us having better players I feel we have so little to offer if we aren't succeding in outfighting them.

And what happens then is that the real weaknesses in Blackwell's tactics become exploited. Players get away from our man markers; good movement make us confused about who's picking up who; like headless chickens we chase the ball, while leaving huge gaps open behind us.


To sum up I think Blackwells' tactics are almost ideal when he comes into a club who is struggling and threatened by relegation. Long term I think it's very difficult to make the same tactics work.

 

[Wards]

To summarise, it's not sustainable. And I agree.

 

[Zlatan]

The tactics no longer work because we use the same approach every single time...

 

[Micalijo]

Bergen - you remmeber the incredible run at start of last term I think when something like 75% of our goals were from set-pieces?

That is something that has changed for me. Beattie's penalties and free-kicks were responsible for alot of points. All count obviously but we aint getting this supply anymore - no idea why but suggest it is because we aint getting ball in the box as much, aint getting forward as much.

Another point, made above, is that the almost total lack of possession football means we very rarely control games even when all of your attributes are in place Now that your attributes are not in place the lack of possession football is glaring and we are a shambles.

I watch alot of football at all levels and every other team seems to be able to score what I call a passing goal where 2 or 3 passes result in a player in space having time to shoot or play killer ball. This is very, very rare under Blackwell

 

[Bergen Blade]

Bergen - you remmeber the incredible run at start of last term I think when something like 75% of our goals were from set-pieces?

Yes. When those set piece goals dried up we hit a poor patch, which didn't improve until Blackwell then tried to get a bit of pace in the side with Dyer, Webber and Cotterill getting more time on the pitch.

Our average height has improved slightly, but our line up yesterday can't be described as a very tall, strong team, and in addition we only had Cotterill offering some pace. I noticed Reid wasn't even on the bench yesterday. Like with Dyer last season I don't think we'll know what he can offer until he gets a few games in a row in a well balanced side.

 

[Wards]

To be honest Bergen Reid didn't look anything like a Championship footballer when he came on at Scunny the other day.

When we have Treacey on the bench it would've been daft to have two left wingers.

 

[Bergen Blade]

To be honest Bergen Reid didn't look anything like a Championship footballer when he came on at Scunny the other day.

When we have Treacey on the bench it would've been daft to have two left wingers.

Acknowledge that Wards, but throw in youngsters in a struggling and losing team and you may not always see what they are capable of.

 

[madeinsheffield]

The ball is no longer in our possession when it's up in the air, it becomes a 50/50.

All the other teams have worked us out making defending easier, and having no other method they can shut up shop.

We are getting less free kicks/penalties because refs are sometimes too harsh on our big CF, and we don't often get fouled while in possession because of the point above

 

[alcoblade]

I see little or no change in the way we play now from the way we played when Blackwell first arrived. So why did we do so well at the start, and why are we struggling now?

our entire strategy since the beginning of last season is to avoid defeat and pinch the odd goal. It worked well with a rock solid defence, keeper, and a midfield intent on primarily protecting the back four. Now that unit is broken up and we can't stop shipping goals. We've not been prolific for ages and when chasing games, we're left with a static attacking line up that is simply not practiced enough, through our own fault, in getting goals.

First time I've said it, but time for a change. Blackwell out.

UTB

 

[alcoblade]

We are getting less free kicks/penalties because refs are sometimes too harsh on our big CF, and we don't often get fouled while in possession because of the point above

this has been obvious for ages, and often it's no fault of Henderson. But are the management happy to see us relegated with few goals scored, rightly arguing that our big CF is harshly treated? Whatever we think of the reasons, Henderson's presence cause play to break up on a weekly and consistent basis. His "partnership" with Evans looks pants, and doesn't fit any mould IMHO. But we still don't change anything.

UTB

 

[Rudders]

They said on the radio last night that we were joint top goal scorers in the division or something - which surprised me given the football this season has been mainly dire.

So we are scoring a few despite a defensive set up.

What was annoying about Blackwells rant after the game (and he uses this excuse a lot) - was the point that we were brilliant until they scored and ergo that goals change games.

Of course they do so why not get some subs on at 1-0 down instead of waiting till we 'd lost the game at 2 down???

Alternatively, why not try changing the game by us shaping up with an attacking line up and scoring the first goal?????