macbeth
Dismembered
after the frustration from last night has passed, i’ve been having a think on my own theories about what is going wrong currently, and where that leaves us with FH.
it was actually something i posted on the ‘supported frustration’ thread, about not liking the way we play two men in midfield as it means we get outnumbered in the buildup and overrun for counter attacks, as well as it meaning we play this flat front four with the two strikers and wingers almost in a straight line across the pitch, which makes the box far too congested, especially when we play the bottom half teams who put ten men behind the ball, that got me thinking.
my theory right now, and i don’t know how this would go down given TB has spent a good few years turning us into a possession-based side, is that FH wants us to be a more counter-attacking team. it makes sense imo, thinking about that newcastle away game, where we executed our gameplan almost perfectly, and that fantastic first 45 at anfield, where we scored from a counter attack. that flat front four has advantages in pressing from the front, which is one of the few clear principles i can see from FH, and has the potential for some nice numerical overloads, but those would only really work in a situation where we play on the counter and can have a numerical advantage going forward. having four players minimum around a packed penalty area offers nothing.
which brings me onto what i think is going wrong now, and it seems quite obvious when you say it, and is kind of alluded to when people say we’re in a transition period right now. the example that comes to mind is the west ham home game last season under RDZ. there, something similar was going on. we had this flat front four trying to break down a packed box and it wasn’t working at all. there were other issues, such as groß and gilmour (i think?) being our midfield pair, and welbeck and ferguson playing together, neither of which ever really worked. but right now i think the problem is that we’re simply in between the team we were under RDZ and the team FH wants us to be (duh!). and my mind goes back to when FH was hired this summer and said he didn’t want to change too much too soon (rightly or wrongly, i don’t know) so, he’s brought in this flat front four, which suits a more counter attacking style imo, but the team still hasn’t moved on from a lot of the core RDZ ideals of wanting to build out from the back, trying to bait the press and wanting to pin teams into their own area, and FH hasn’t tried to force them to yet. this is why i think we look confused and lack identity a lot of times, we’re caught in between being two different types of teams. and as a result we’re seeing repeat after repeat of that west ham game from last season, where the current combination just isn’t working.
any thoughts? have i totally misread what’s going on? and would you be happy with us adopting a less possession-based style?
it was actually something i posted on the ‘supported frustration’ thread, about not liking the way we play two men in midfield as it means we get outnumbered in the buildup and overrun for counter attacks, as well as it meaning we play this flat front four with the two strikers and wingers almost in a straight line across the pitch, which makes the box far too congested, especially when we play the bottom half teams who put ten men behind the ball, that got me thinking.
my theory right now, and i don’t know how this would go down given TB has spent a good few years turning us into a possession-based side, is that FH wants us to be a more counter-attacking team. it makes sense imo, thinking about that newcastle away game, where we executed our gameplan almost perfectly, and that fantastic first 45 at anfield, where we scored from a counter attack. that flat front four has advantages in pressing from the front, which is one of the few clear principles i can see from FH, and has the potential for some nice numerical overloads, but those would only really work in a situation where we play on the counter and can have a numerical advantage going forward. having four players minimum around a packed penalty area offers nothing.
which brings me onto what i think is going wrong now, and it seems quite obvious when you say it, and is kind of alluded to when people say we’re in a transition period right now. the example that comes to mind is the west ham home game last season under RDZ. there, something similar was going on. we had this flat front four trying to break down a packed box and it wasn’t working at all. there were other issues, such as groß and gilmour (i think?) being our midfield pair, and welbeck and ferguson playing together, neither of which ever really worked. but right now i think the problem is that we’re simply in between the team we were under RDZ and the team FH wants us to be (duh!). and my mind goes back to when FH was hired this summer and said he didn’t want to change too much too soon (rightly or wrongly, i don’t know) so, he’s brought in this flat front four, which suits a more counter attacking style imo, but the team still hasn’t moved on from a lot of the core RDZ ideals of wanting to build out from the back, trying to bait the press and wanting to pin teams into their own area, and FH hasn’t tried to force them to yet. this is why i think we look confused and lack identity a lot of times, we’re caught in between being two different types of teams. and as a result we’re seeing repeat after repeat of that west ham game from last season, where the current combination just isn’t working.
any thoughts? have i totally misread what’s going on? and would you be happy with us adopting a less possession-based style?
Last edited:
