[Albion] Pace / playing on the break

[perseus]

The finishing is improving though isn't it. Murphy's last two strikes, Hemed's recent crisp finishes, Baldock's belter at Bristol and goal making shot last night, as well as Zamora's decisive strike against Huddersfield. It's an impressive roll call of no-nonsense finishing. The extra pace has given the front men a massive boost and we are now capable of shredding any defence.

The key is to get the early breakthrough and disrupt the defensive formations teams deploy against us.

Not the best strikes this season. They were two from Lualua. A Solly March strike was good as well. And two of Zamora all gained us vital points that would have made us a mid-table side if they had not all gone in. Not forgetting Dale Stephens.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Whilst I'm happy to heartily agree in general, Baldock's 'shot' for the own goal last night was a shocker!

I've watched it a few times. I'm not convinced that it was a shot. He may have been trying to flick it with the outside of his boot to the player to his right - Hemed presumably.

That's definately what he was going for, 100%.

that's exactly what he was trying I'd say, having watched it again.

Wasn't he trying to square it to Hemed?

Edit. I see I'm not alone in this thought.

Baldock was playing a pass for sure.

You know when you put a word in 'these' inverted commas, to show that you know its not what you mean? Like writing Leon 'Best'...

Of course it wasn't a SHOT. That was my point to the guy who suggested it was! Unfortunately he got the pass wrong. Had it reached TH it could have been a STUNNING goal.

 

[NooBHA]

Agree to disagree. For me, it didn't look to have enough power or direction for it to be a pass to Hemed, and the way Baldock shifted direction to go behind the defender suggests to me he was just trying to play himself through.



There is, for me, a difference between 'breaking a team down' and 'scoring'. Breaking a team down involves them being set and standing fast and us playing through or around them when they are in defence, when they come up our end and we counter attack, or they are preparing to attack and have pushed up and a defensive error allows us in, we can score, but we do so without having to break them down.

I'm commenting on what I've seen, and in our recent run of form our goals have come on the break, not in the periods when opponents have had their defence lined up behind the ball and we've been passing it around trying to get through their defence.

The game was only 15 minutes old though

 

[Acker79]

The game was only 15 minutes old though

And in those 15 minutes I saw what I've seen in a lot of our recent games (which is what my comments are referring to, as the thread is, our current reliance on pace and playing on the break - not just the Leeds game). v Bolton we dominated possession early on but didn't break them down, our goal came from a counter attack.