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5 things we learnt from the West Ham game
- Thread starter Behind Enemy Lines
- Start date
Remind me?
brightonrock
Dodgy Hamstrings
- Jan 1, 2008
- 2,482
1) Considering all the fuss before the season was made about how big the pitch is, and how we would be using the width to our advantage, we are frighteningly narrow. It was too easy for West Ham to intercept yesterday as we tried to thread intricate passes through two banks of four, or play it to Noone who was had double coverage for 90% of the game.
2) Teams have worked out to let our keeper/centre backs have the ball, but press hard on our central midfielders when they drop in to receive it. Losing the ball in central midfield is our biggest problem at the moment - we are vulnerable to sides breaking at pace if the first touch is anything worse than perfect.
3) Reyes looked quality. Would love to see him in midfield.
4) Hoskins/Barnes are much of a muchness (IMO). Played wide they both drift out of the game and have little effect other than chasing lost causes in the channels. Regardless of your opinion on either, whoever starts needs to be up in central positions alongside CMS to make a difference.
5) It's not actually all that bad. We do dominate possession in most games; for all the negativity, neither side last night looked like scoring at all. I have a feeling if we were still playing now it'd still be 1-0. West Ham were f***ing atrocious going forward and but for one individual mistake didn't trouble us in equal measure to our breaching their defence. It WILL come good, the football we play is too good not to. Confidence at the moment is low, combined with a run of difficult fixtures. Next month doesn't look as hard on paper, sides like Coventry & Barnsley are there for the taking. Get a win or two on the board to stop the rot and we'll still be in the play-off mix-up come Christmas.
2) Teams have worked out to let our keeper/centre backs have the ball, but press hard on our central midfielders when they drop in to receive it. Losing the ball in central midfield is our biggest problem at the moment - we are vulnerable to sides breaking at pace if the first touch is anything worse than perfect.
3) Reyes looked quality. Would love to see him in midfield.
4) Hoskins/Barnes are much of a muchness (IMO). Played wide they both drift out of the game and have little effect other than chasing lost causes in the channels. Regardless of your opinion on either, whoever starts needs to be up in central positions alongside CMS to make a difference.
5) It's not actually all that bad. We do dominate possession in most games; for all the negativity, neither side last night looked like scoring at all. I have a feeling if we were still playing now it'd still be 1-0. West Ham were f***ing atrocious going forward and but for one individual mistake didn't trouble us in equal measure to our breaching their defence. It WILL come good, the football we play is too good not to. Confidence at the moment is low, combined with a run of difficult fixtures. Next month doesn't look as hard on paper, sides like Coventry & Barnsley are there for the taking. Get a win or two on the board to stop the rot and we'll still be in the play-off mix-up come Christmas.
In this picture you can see Nolan ready to pounce. If the full back is covered there still can be the central midfielder to pass to. The central defender and central midfielder are the spine of the side. These players need to be better than the others.
In my mind our central attacker should drop deeper and then we have a triangle in the middle.
It is arguable in the picture that one of the wide men is superfluous (the formation is 4-2-4 and the midfield will be more congested). The central midfielder has space to run with the ball if the opponents are pressing like maniacs.
I think we are going to have to pass out via our full backs. This makes the game lob-sided as the game moves over to the side where the ball is. One option is having a midfielder running at their defence, or one of out strikers coming deeper to form a triangle in the middle of the park.
jevs
Well-known member
Neither do Barcelona. Guardiola out, sack the 120,000 strong board!
APACHE
LONGTIME DIEHARD
For me there are 2 things that are a must to improve, 1 the ball must be moved quicker from the back, it's much too slow. 2 the whole team has got to toughen up, we get knocked off the ball too easy, our tackling is weak and we get booked for silly fouls in the wrong areas of the pitch. The rest is slowly improving let's not forget this team is being changed to play at a higher level but somethings are basic in this league but if we don't do the 2 above we're in for a long hard season.
Gary Leeds
Well-known member
- May 5, 2008
- 1,526
My 5 things are
1) Stop the watering of the pitch, was there really any need with the heavy rain to be watering it before kick off? For the first 10 minutes you could see the spray coming off the ball when it was passed along the ground. Wet pitch = slippy pitch = more mistakes and injuries with players slipping over.
2) In some positions we are lacking squad cover, one injury and that position is exposed. That can only really be fixed in January as I dont think any more loan players is the answer
3) CMS cannot take on all the defenders on his own, the midfield need to be pushing up a bit more to give a supporting role where CMS or AB can lay off the ball to a midfielder, get into a better shooting position and then get the ball back. Monday at times was like a bull in a china shop trying to just run straight through the middle and it wont work when you have defenders built like brick s**t houses.
4) We need to stop giving away bad fouls, the yellow card situation is really going to kick in at some point and we could end up with half a team out due to suspensions. I think a lot of it could be fustration at the recent results but if its not checked now then refs will be on the look out even more for our fouls and we will end up getting even more
5) leading on from 4, I felt Monday because we were picking up the cards that a lot of decisions went against us, shouting at and running up to the ref will not change his mind. The fans can make it known how they feel about the ref
Of course, I would still rather have Gus in charge than anyone on these forums and our time will come again. Just remember our last couple of seasons in the Championship, we have come along as a team and we will as long as we keep improving. Plan A will work against most teams as long as we vairy the route. Noone switching flanks is a good example, for 5 minutes it confused WHU and with better service to CMS we would have got a result
1) Stop the watering of the pitch, was there really any need with the heavy rain to be watering it before kick off? For the first 10 minutes you could see the spray coming off the ball when it was passed along the ground. Wet pitch = slippy pitch = more mistakes and injuries with players slipping over.
2) In some positions we are lacking squad cover, one injury and that position is exposed. That can only really be fixed in January as I dont think any more loan players is the answer
3) CMS cannot take on all the defenders on his own, the midfield need to be pushing up a bit more to give a supporting role where CMS or AB can lay off the ball to a midfielder, get into a better shooting position and then get the ball back. Monday at times was like a bull in a china shop trying to just run straight through the middle and it wont work when you have defenders built like brick s**t houses.
4) We need to stop giving away bad fouls, the yellow card situation is really going to kick in at some point and we could end up with half a team out due to suspensions. I think a lot of it could be fustration at the recent results but if its not checked now then refs will be on the look out even more for our fouls and we will end up getting even more
5) leading on from 4, I felt Monday because we were picking up the cards that a lot of decisions went against us, shouting at and running up to the ref will not change his mind. The fans can make it known how they feel about the ref
Of course, I would still rather have Gus in charge than anyone on these forums and our time will come again. Just remember our last couple of seasons in the Championship, we have come along as a team and we will as long as we keep improving. Plan A will work against most teams as long as we vairy the route. Noone switching flanks is a good example, for 5 minutes it confused WHU and with better service to CMS we would have got a result
pork pie
New member
Barca have fantastic players. Arsenal and Albion do not.
Tony Meolas Loan Spell
Slut Faced Whores
They do have world class players to carry out their one and only plan...we have Gary Dicker for example...
But thats being addressed bit by bit!
1. I stayed dry throughout the entire match and got totally drenched waiting for P&R
2. The Balti pies weren't finished quite in time
3. It would be good to give the away fans there own flags - saying something "appropriate"
4. At least 2 of Gully's Girls will burst out of their outfits by the Barnsley game
5. There's a cracking little bird in WSL concourse on the mobile beer thingy
2. The Balti pies weren't finished quite in time
3. It would be good to give the away fans there own flags - saying something "appropriate"
4. At least 2 of Gully's Girls will burst out of their outfits by the Barnsley game
5. There's a cracking little bird in WSL concourse on the mobile beer thingy
Tony Meolas Loan Spell
Slut Faced Whores
THIS. We are too WEAK physically as a unit im afraid
Adkins addressed this as far back as last season we didnt. Also speaking to a Palace fan, they release the ball quickly as most teams in this div do and we are getting CAUGHT time and again.
Quite. I think more needs to be made of this point. We've come SO far and it'll take a while until we can compete with these teams. We're NOT in the same position as Southampton, who already had everything in place. Also, importantly, it'll take a season or two for all the new revenues from the stadium to be realised.
Agree that people seem nervous, but I certainly wouldn't call the atmosphere flat. Better than 95% of English football league grounds is what I'd call it.