How do you solve a problem like Poyet?

[severnside gull]

Reading all these threads about how good the football we are playing is and how teams aren't able to cope with it/seem surprised by it, how would you counter Gus' tactical nous if you were an opposing manager?

Obviously it depends on the players at your disposal but for me if I were playing Albion on my home ground against the pyramid formation, I think I would generally go with a 3-5-2 (three centre backs, one of them playing slightly deeper; two wing backs and retain enough up front to occupy our defence and disrupt our passing from the back).

Playing at Withdean and having to counter more width with LuaLua, I would tend to go 4-6-0 with double cover on both wings and try to break quickly and nick a goal if the chance presented.


So what is the tactical wisdom of NSC?

 

[trueblue]

Get in our faces. Kick us a lot. Force us to play further back.

The sad thing is, it just doesn't work because we're brilliant.

 

[severnside gull]

Get in our faces. Kick us a lot. Force us to play further back.

The sad thing is, it just doesn't work because we're brilliant.

ha ha

Back in my day we would indeed have been kicked off the pitch - thank god that doesn't really happen any more and we can enjoy watching quality football (not that I don't miss a bit of the old blood and guts from time to time)

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Obviously it depends on the players at your disposal but for me if I were playing Albion on my home ground against the pyramid formation, I think I would generally go with a 3-5-2 (three centre backs, one of them playing slightly deeper; two wing backs and retain enough up front to occupy our defence and disrupt our passing from the back).



So what is the tactical wisdom of NSC?

It wouldn't work though. Bennett and our rampaging full backs would pin the wing backs into constant defensive duties, which would leave just 3 in midfield, who would be over-run by our pass-masters.

 

[Was not Was]

I suspect you have to either commit to defending very high up the field (in the Barcelona style) which is pretty risky if you don't have the players, or sit out Albion's passing at the back, with 11 players in your own half when we're in possession.

 

[Mellotron]

We're unplayable.

 

[Napper]

At the moment the only way I can see us beaten is get in our faces, defend for your lives and get lucky. Then nick something from a set piece and have something to hold onto.

Brentford did it bloody well for 45 mins.

 

[Stoo82]

Forfit the game so its 'only' a 4-0 loss.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Well the team who have troubled us most so far this season were Tranmere in the second half at their place, and they were very much of the "up and at'em, ruffle them as much as possible" style.

I guess you would just try and make the match as ugly as possible.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Wait for the ref to gift you an undeserved point or three.

 

[FLAIRtastic]

10-0-0

 

[Simster]

The first thing to do is to guess which formation Gus is going to play. Once you've done that, pack your midfield with ball winners because if you don't get the ball off the blue and white flairniacs, you'll only last so long before the gaps appear. And when they do appear, you'll be picked off easily.

Try and retain the ball, possibly verging on timewasting. The longer you have it, the less time we'll have to spend knackering out your team when we have the ball. And if it's still 0-0 in the last 5 mins, well Albion have been known to switch off. So use any set pieces at this time of the game properly.

 

[Easy 10]

Do what Bournemouth did, and pay the officials.

 

[severnside gull]

Gus suggests Exeter will play 5 at the back with three centre backs.

What is clear is just how difficult it is to set your stall out to counteract our fluid playing style effectively. "In our faces" is fine but as Brentford found out it is incredibly hard to sustain

 

[HP Seagull]

I think you'd have to play 4-5-1 with two holding midfield players and one box-to-box midfielder, similar to what we played at the end of last season. The only way to stop us playing is to stop our midfield, which is nearly impossible if we have an extra man in there. Then you would have to have an extremely hard-working front man who can hold the ball up and bring others into play. You would also need two very solid full backs to stop Elliott and LuaLua, as well as a bit of luck, or us to have an off-day.

Thankfully, this hasn't happened very much this season!

 

[Simster]

Gus suggests Exeter will play 5 at the back with three centre backs.

Which means he probably doesn't think that at all. And rightly so because that would be madness from their point of view.

 

[withdeanwombat]

I'd get my team to hoof the ball as far up the pitch as possible and let everybody chase it.If that doesn't work I'd get a couple of my lads to get themselves sent off so that I could say we would have done better if the ref hadn't been so one sided,thus securing my job for another week.

 

[y2dave]

I have not seen anyone figure out a way to prevent Casper and the defence playing triangles without pulling 2 or 3 players out of position and knackering themselves out. As soon as they do this we have the option of going direct to Murray which leaves us with an unusual numerical advantage higher up the pitch for Dicker, Bennett and co to exploit. Innovative stuff at this level.

 

[Jim D]

Playing at Withdean and having to counter more width with LuaLua, I would tend to go 4-6-0 with double cover on both wings and try to break quickly and nick a goal if the chance presented.


So what is the tactical wisdom of NSC?

Hello Craig - how's the Scotland job going?

 

[Giraffe]

The teams that have done best against us at Withdean have sat in their half and defended as a team with little commitment forward. That's the way I would go. And stop Lua Lua getting the ball.