This is it for me. One tactic (a high line) only works if its done in tandem with the other tactic (midfield and attacking players pressing the opposition high up the pitch). If you dont do the second part then you're just giving opposition an easy day at both ends of the pitch.
Can you find the quote where someone said “you can’t play like that unless you have Van der Ven in defence”? Those precise words in that precise order?
Probably not, no. Dozens of posts telling the exact same thing in other words is easy to find though.
So you just made up a quote, presented it as fact and backtracked then.
Yup. I had this evil plan about falsifying a quote and presenting it as a factually exact representation of reality and then I chickened out when asked about it. That is correct.
It just invalidates that whole paragraph as does the fact Van der Ven would have caught Glenn Murray even if he’d had a ten years head start.
It's quite scary but once you accept it's going to continue (and the benefits at the other end), it gets a little easier to watch.
I'm not sure if this is a typo, or if you were being sarcastic about Glenn's lack of pace?
Deny them time and space to pass the ball around by all means, but it doesn't need much time and space to hoof it hard - and with your fastest player poised to spring from the centre line, the job's a good 'un. I'm thinking there'll be a load of League 2 clubs just licking their lips at the hope of drawing us in the third round of the cup!
It's a good tactic if the other team agree to play like gentlemen and not kick the ball over your head and run after it very fast, considerably faster than you.
This is quite an interesting point, because in the old days the lino would put his flag up and we'd be smug about catching them offside before taking the free kick. Nowadays they are allowed to break, we chase after them, slide around all keystone cops, they score and then the flag goes up. We have to catch our breath and gather our composure before taking the free kick, often after the big screen is telling us they're doing a VAR check for a minute or two. Outcome the same but the second version feels worse, and people go on about how lucky we are, two disallowed goals, etc etc.
None of Chelsea's goals were from a player receiving a ball passed through our high line
I heard them say pretty much exactly that on Talksport, on Guardian football weekly and on BBC 5live in the match build up. Two teams playing high lines but Brighton aren't suited to it because we have slow Dunk and Webster CBs, whereas Spurs are suited to it because they have quick CBs like VDV. Works for them, suicide for us. It's been pretty standard punditry all week.
