Wingbacks' Recent Impact (Particularly Stevens)

[Lmaobob]

Posted this on another thread about our 3-5-2 formation.

In recent games, it feels like Stevens hasn't been able to express his talent due to how wide we play as a team.

Because we play so wide, it means that Stevens is literally on the side line nearly 24/7 - if there is a defender in front of him then this prevents him from being able to run past him, or play a ball down the line up to a striker (not that our strikers make those types of runs anyway)

I feel like this is affecting our ability to be as attacking as we originally were at the start of the season as normally Stevens has to resort to a pass back to a defender or to Lundstram/Fleck

My shite diagram below should explain what I mean

(brown shows where Stevens is limited to being able to play the ball when he is in such a wide position)

 

[TobyClark]

Yeh but then you could argue that the quality of Stevens' crosses have been poor which has nothing to do with that.

 

[Blade56]

Yeh but then you could argue that the quality of Stevens' crosses have been poor which has nothing to do with that.

Disagree, Lmaobob has a point. If he gets past defender he's that wide he can't run an arc to get a decent cross in. The usual solution is Clarke has to come out wide to give him an option and we end up with at least 50% of our strike force out of position. That's one reason his goals are drying up

 

[Lmaobob]

Yeh but then you could argue that the quality of Stevens' crosses have been poor which has nothing to do with that.

he's not had as many chances to cross the ball in as he used to. bolton played 3-5-2 to counter our wide play, as it meant that they could have a player on each wing to mark our wing backs

Pigs did the same, and it limited our wing backs again

 

[SwissBlade]

Lmaobob He's played right out wide and looks comfortable there, just like Baldock/ Freeman on the other side.

JOC/ Basham have been able to get forward, particularly in the first half on Friday we were getting a lot of joy with the Overlapping Centre Halves, mainly because the Wing backs were out so wide that it pulled the defenders out and gave space for JOC and Bash to get forward.

As TobyClark said though, when the wingbacks were able to get forward in space, they wasted the ball.

An observation compared to Freeman though, compared with Baldock. Freeman would often come inside more last season, meaning that the defender went with him and he was able to get into the box more, this allowed Basham to get out wide.

Whilst I like to see the two Wing backs with chalk on their boots, i'd like to see them both coming inside more, to make things less predictable and also support Fleck, Duffy and the strikers, this space then allows JOC and Bash to break more and get the balls into the box.

We know that Baldock has a bullet header on him, so getting him in the box is vital.

 

[SwissBlade]

Disagree, Lmaobob has a point. If he gets past defender he's that wide he can't run an arc to get a decent cross in. The usual solution is Clarke has to come out wide to give him an option and we end up with at least 50% of our strike force out of position. That's one reason his goals are drying up

Billy was often chasing out wide last season as well, its part of the way we play and part of the reason we play with two strikers. One holds the middle, one gets out wide, Midfield and wingbacks get into the box.

Its about movement and covering positions. We need to be less rigid, less predictable

 

[Bladezz]

Stevens has gotten himself into some unreal positions. Sometimes on the touch line with room, sometimes even in the box with room.

Sometimes his delivery is good and the opposition defending is good / or our attacking players make a poor run.

His quality has dropped in the last few games maybe to fatigue or just a dip in form. We use to see Lafferty play as a number 10 at times (Swindon away the goal with 50 passes).

Maybe CW doesn’t want him to do that / or maybe he’s just learning what he needs to do and they will bring that to his game.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

a picture is usually worth a thousand words, that one's worth about seven hundred & fifty.

 

[shrubbery]

It seems pretty clear to me that Stephens recent spell of ineffectiveness is pretty much solely due the fact that his crossing of the ball has been nothing short of atrocious.

Regardless of the formation concerns you mention, he has managed to get into numerous excellent crossing positions every game and then fucked it up. Not all of these positions are right out on the sideline either. He often manages to cut inside, sometimes into the box and then manages to somehow consistently pick out no one in a red and white shirt.

Boldock on the other hand gets about 10% of the chances to get forward and cross as 90% of the play comes down Stevens side of the pitch making things very predictable.

Add to this the inability of Duffy to produce a decent corner or free kick and it simply (hopefully) looks like a load of additional crossing / set piece work on the training ground is required.

To put it simply, Stevens in his current form is one of the worst crossers of the ball that I can remember seeing in a Blades shirt.

 

[Rodley]

To put it simply, Stevens in his current form is one of the worst crossers of the ball that I can remember seeing in a Blades shirt.

Stevens has the second highest assists this year.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I think the opposition almost always having 11 men behind the ball makes it difficult for us. We do try to outpass teams to create openings that will give us a good chance to put in a cross or find a forward in the box. But when we're always doing this against teams that are ready, waiting, anticipating what we're trying to do, it takes superb passing moves and very clever movement to open them up.

I think we could try to catch teams out more, go forward quickly when they've committed players forward. At the moment we're passing it short, sideways, backwards, safely, which allows the opposition the time to get back and ruins the chance of a good break. When we then try to go forward, the wingbacks have to get wide. As they get on the ball they are closed down, and our secret weapon, the overlapping centre backs may be something opposition team now are more prepared for.

It was such a relief when Fleck made that first half run vs Wednesday. As we took the free kick just before he looked really uncertain of what to do. The long ball hadn't worked as they won most balls in the air. He went short and got it back and then skipped past the player that closed him down, before continuing racing forward. That finally created a situation they weren't comfortable with. We need more players like that, who can get past players and create problems in the opposition's defensive organisation.

 

[South Bucks]

Also need to vary it more, no point putting in lofted crosses to a parked bus where our static forwards have a 6 foot 6 gorilla standing infront of and behind them. Needs to go in earlier and hard and low into the danger area or pulled back so a player can hit it first time without needing a touch to control it as with a bobbling ball. Would like to see players cutting inside more often and developing play quicker sometimes so we are less monotonous and predictable and so our opponents don't know what is coming next nor have time to get in their preferred positions
Notice on Friday after the game CW said we need to be more patient when developing overloads. Strewth, if we are any more patient half the crowd will be asleep.
Never thought we'd score on Friday and against Bolton with all that slow tedious triangle stuff with no end product and frankly we were so boring I was watching our fans leave early and knew why. We could easily have lost on Friday, them lot had 3 really good chances in the second half by being more direct and free flowing and we were just too slow and predictable with no urgency,cutting edge nor enough efforts on goal.

 

[EddieColquhoun]

Stevens has the second highest assists this year.

Wilder needs to sign some poorer players as some fans are desperate for a proper scapegoat.

 

[I should coco]

Wilder needs to sign some poorer players as some fans are desperate for a proper scapegoat.

No, I think you'll find there is plenty of choice from Blackman, CCV, Lunny, Stearman and latterly Billy.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

Now CCV has gone, my money's on Blackman. Who needs expensive fancy dan southern loan signings, sat sitting on the bench? gerrimsentbahk

 

[broomhillblade]

No, I think you'll find there is plenty of choice from Blackman, CCV, Lunny, Stearman and latterly Billy.

CCV has gone.

Do try to keep up.

 

[Sheff de party]

Posted this on another thread about our 3-5-2 formation.

In recent games, it feels like Stevens hasn't been able to express his talent due to how wide we play as a team.

Because we play so wide, it means that Stevens is literally on the side line nearly 24/7 - if there is a defender in front of him then this prevents him from being able to run past him, or play a ball down the line up to a striker (not that our strikers make those types of runs anyway)

I feel like this is affecting our ability to be as attacking as we originally were at the start of the season as normally Stevens has to resort to a pass back to a defender or to Lundstram/Fleck

My shite diagram below should explain what I mean

(brown shows where Stevens is limited to being able to play the ball when he is in such a wide position)

View attachment 35905

I see your point, but wing backs in particularly rarely get closed down fully if they’re that wide. Defenders tend to stand off and protect the space.

You might not be able to knock it down the line, but you should always be able to get past someone either on the inside or the outside if you’re good enough.

 

[I should coco]

CCV has gone.

Do try to keep up

To be fair, that is no reason for him to stop being a scapegoat.

Hammond cops for it regularly (from me too), and he's been gone nearly 2 years now.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

To be fair, that is no reason for him to stop being a scapegoat.

Hammond cops for it regularly (from me too), and he's been gone nearly 2 years now.

People were still booing Dean Hammond, when John Lundstram joined us.

 

[RedandWhite]

I'd give Lafferty a run, he hasn't ever played bad for us and some would say didn't deserve to lose his spot, I believe Stevens has better quality but he seems to have taken his foot off, maybe a few games out of the squad push him to fight again.

 

[McGrath]

Maybe now we've doubled our central midfielder ranks, brought in another winger and await Brookes return and lost a centre half in CCV we might go 442 or 451 or 433.

 

[shrubbery]

Stevens has the second highest assists this year.

He has managed 4 assists in 26 appearances, hardly prolific.

Are you trying to say that his recent performances have been acceptable?

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

These 2 positions won't need addressing next season..

RWB - Bogle and Baldock
LWB - RND and Lowe

Quality

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

Should look to strengthen LWB. Hopefully Soton go down and we can get Perraud

 

[corner_flag]

Why would anyone revive this thread?

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

Why would anyone revive this thread?

Because the massive impact Bogle and Lowe are currently having I'd guess.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

These 2 positions won't need addressing next season..

RWB - Bogle and Baldock
LWB - RND and Lowe

Quality

RND at LCB for me so I'd be keen for us to get a LWB whose name isn't Stevens or Osborn...