The "problem with the high line" has been mentioned a lot.
The core of this "problem", bit like the "problem of fannying around at the back" that emerged five years ago, is that Fabian Hurzeler is a brave coach and football fans are anxious cowards. But its time to accept it.
People have been going on and on about "you can't play like that unless you have Van der Ven in defense!!!", as if it exists a central defender who can turn around, accelerate his run and catch up with whatever sprinter that made his run behind the defense line.
Can we put to bed that the magical paranormal solution to the made up problem isn't to sign some sort of Martian cheetah?
The high line and offside trap is here to stay. Just like in most of the previous games, it worked excellent yesterday and the opponents were allowed no more than the "normal" amount of chances that will likely happen regardless of how you play.
There was nothing "naive" about the first half yesterday, that wasn't the cause of the issues; the cause was being as cowardly as us watching it. "Oh no, a Tottenham player is pressuring me, I need to hoof it randomly into the stands or to their defenders". "Oh no, they're doing those runs again, I don't trust our trap gonna run home and cover the goal". Lazy, cowardly, useless.
Second half, at least until 3-2, we pushed our "naive high line" higher, took more risk in "fannying about at the back" and ran past their allegedly invincible super quick back line through sheer determination and willpower.
I hope there won't be TOO much of the "we only concede goals in football matches due to high defense line" over the season. Teams like Wolves that have 48 players inside their own box also concede goals. In fact, everyone does. So at the end of the season, lets just wait and see what the "Conceded goals" column has to say about the success of our "naive high defense line" compared to lets say the "best football I've ever seen", which was the narrative last season.
The core of this "problem", bit like the "problem of fannying around at the back" that emerged five years ago, is that Fabian Hurzeler is a brave coach and football fans are anxious cowards. But its time to accept it.
People have been going on and on about "you can't play like that unless you have Van der Ven in defense!!!", as if it exists a central defender who can turn around, accelerate his run and catch up with whatever sprinter that made his run behind the defense line.
Can we put to bed that the magical paranormal solution to the made up problem isn't to sign some sort of Martian cheetah?
The high line and offside trap is here to stay. Just like in most of the previous games, it worked excellent yesterday and the opponents were allowed no more than the "normal" amount of chances that will likely happen regardless of how you play.
There was nothing "naive" about the first half yesterday, that wasn't the cause of the issues; the cause was being as cowardly as us watching it. "Oh no, a Tottenham player is pressuring me, I need to hoof it randomly into the stands or to their defenders". "Oh no, they're doing those runs again, I don't trust our trap gonna run home and cover the goal". Lazy, cowardly, useless.
Second half, at least until 3-2, we pushed our "naive high line" higher, took more risk in "fannying about at the back" and ran past their allegedly invincible super quick back line through sheer determination and willpower.
I hope there won't be TOO much of the "we only concede goals in football matches due to high defense line" over the season. Teams like Wolves that have 48 players inside their own box also concede goals. In fact, everyone does. So at the end of the season, lets just wait and see what the "Conceded goals" column has to say about the success of our "naive high defense line" compared to lets say the "best football I've ever seen", which was the narrative last season.
.