[Albion] Shipping 7 goals - our midfield?

[CheeseRolls]

If you have two central midfielders, one moves across to cover the overload, especially when either wide player is caught upfield and the other holds the middle. We know our defence is not over blessed with pace, so why offer the opposition the opportunity to run at them and turn them.

Credit to Forest who also taught us a huge lesson in how to take and how to defend set pieces. They were also superb at supporting the player on the ball who always had options, something we used to excel at. Some of our fans were giving Minteh pelters, but at times his one option was to take on three players, as no one else was offering themselves up for the ball.

Forest deploy two lumering oafs at centre back, who both absolutely love it if you try and play in front of them. How did we manage to play five forwards and yet make so few runs into space? We should have been dragging these two out and all over the pitch, instead Forest packed the middle forced us wide and then overloaded on our isolated wingers. I invite anyone to pick the tactics out of that.

 

[1066familyman]

Yeah our back four were appalling. You have to wonder if that was partly due to the same lack of confidence in the formation that we were all expressing in the Notts County bar.

Minteh will always be better than Mitoma at tracking. He has the pace & energy and he wants to do it.

You're still clinging to the belief that it was the fault of the formation yesterday.

You've already accepted 'our back four were appalling'. I struggle to see why you're still trying to find excuses for the worse than schoolboy level of defending we displayed yesterday.

 

[macbeth]

Nailed it

We could have played 4 or 5 in the middle of the park yesterday and it wouldn't have stopped NF concentrating on overloads with width, with in all probability the same result.

Attacking a formation is lazy, probably because it suits the agenda of the minority that are always the loudest!

To go back to where the manager fits into all of this, I don’t doubt that the formation and tactics he uses can often leave the back four more exposed, and playing a different way may mask their inadequacies significantly, yesterday being a prime example. But ultimately, the manager doesn’t seem to be the kind of coach who compromises his desired way of doing things to accommodate the players he has. I’ve realised that he actually is very dogmatic, almost as dogmatic as RDZ, however likes to experiment with different ways of achieving his desired outcome, like Potter did. Whether that’s a good trait or he needs to be more adaptable to the players he has is a matter of personal preference and up for debate. But it’s obvious what the manager thinks about that, and he’s clearly Tony’s man, so if that’s the way it’s going to be then he needs to be bought some defenders that are good enough to play in his system, because it’s never going to work with this current lot.

 

[slimes]

Playing a highline is kamikaze..
We've now have the quality down both wings that we don't need the defence to be up on the halfway line.
It was like watching us play against Chelsea..when we got hammered first half and then fh changed formation..
Yesterday's 3 man defence and 1 midfield was the dumbest thing I've seen in any levels of management.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

No it doesn't. Where that possession was is far more relevant. If you're playing against a team that allow you possession and catch you on the break, it means nothing.

Think you might have just defeated your own argument there

 

[Guinness Boy]

I'd like to think that Professional Footballers don't suffer from the same lack of confidence expressed by armchair pundits!

Ha! Yeah, I didn’t mean they were sitting with a pint going “we’re going to get murdered”.

But they are used to having a midfield in front of them. With Ayari & Baleba out late I’m not sure we got to practice that formation.

 

[Guinness Boy]

You're still clinging to the belief that it was the fault of the formation yesterday.

You've already accepted 'our back four were appalling'. I struggle to see why you're still trying to find excuses for the worse than schoolboy level of defending we displayed yesterday.

I’m not finding excuses for it. If you ship seven goals you, by definition, defended appallingly.

But “overload” (also by definition) means more players than you can cope with so if you have six players breaking and a back four that means AT LEAST two should be tracking back. Not sure we did that all game. Those two would usually be your CMs.

How often do you reckon we practiced that line up?

 

[The Mole]

Is it coincidence or fact every game Dunk scores an OG in we get absolutely mullered.

I did wonder whether the own goal played on his mind and he lost confidenc.

 

[Bodian]

The thing is, if we'd scored first - we may all be lauding the selection as a master miracle. It was basically 'do or die' and unfortunately with Dunk's OG effectively out of nothing - it was die.

 

[brighton_tom]

The overall performance was bad, but not 7-0 bad. The pen, bart passing to their striker, dunk own goal, lamptey being well out of position, and mitoma being off the pitch were all individual moments that cost. The level of performances and formation/tactics still might have resulted in a loss, but those individual brain farts turned it from loss to an embarrassment.

 

[Balders]

I’m not finding excuses for it. If you ship seven goals you, by definition, defended appallingly.

But “overload” (also by definition) means more players than you can cope with so if you have six players breaking and a back four that means AT LEAST two should be tracking back. Not sure we did that all game. Those two would usually be your CMs.

How often do you reckon we practiced that line up?

That's the issue with yesterday - assuming losing Ayari and Baleba was late in the day and yes, no time to practice the formation, which would have been new for all. Having only 3 CMs fit enough to play 45 mins each was the main issue - yet FH was "dammed if he did and dammed if he didn't". I suspect most people on here would have played them and then whined when one or two of them got injured and "something is going wrong with so many injuries". The whole staff, not just FH, decide who is fit to play when and for how long to protect them from injury (that's working well!) but they have to take a long term view, whereas most on here don't even have a short term view

Yesterday was the "perfect storm" - we dust ourselves off and move on. If FH had selected arguably our best 11 from all players being available (that's another can of worms) and we get dicked 7-0 then absolutely questions should be asked and fingers pointed. But those with their FH "agenda" are going to pin it all on him regardless of the situation he found himself in - are we expecting him to be some kind of Magician??

 

[Balders]

So to summarise the 7 goals all due to the suicidal of having a one man midfield:
1 - break down our left started from a flick from Jack into a space in the middle of the park occupied by one NF player and three Brighton players!
2 - set piece corner goal
3 - break down our left when we down to 10 men (contact lens issue) with our missing man who would ordinarily be supporting the left side of our defense
4 - break down our left - 2 NF players covered by 4 Brighton players in front of the ball with two Brighton players just behind it
5 - penalty from a set piece corner
6 - break down our left after one of our two CMs (yes we'd switched to two) giving the ball away
7 - Bart brain fart

 

[Bodian]

The overall performance was bad, but not 7-0 bad. The pen, bart passing to their striker, dunk own goal, lamptey being well out of position, and mitoma being off the pitch were all individual moments that cost. The level of performances and formation/tactics still might have resulted in a loss, but those individual brain farts turned it from loss to an embarrassment.

They actually had only four more shots than us....

Just a lot more clinical (and of course the rout started with something that wasn't even a shot)

 

[drew]

Think you might have just defeated your own argument there

I wasn't just referring to yesterday. I responded to a post suggesting one possession stat tells it's own story!

 

[Machiavelli]

That's the issue with yesterday - assuming losing Ayari and Baleba was late in the day and yes, no time to practice the formation, which would have been new for all. Having only 3 CMs fit enough to play 45 mins each was the main issue - yet FH was "dammed if he did and dammed if he didn't". I suspect most people on here would have played them and then whined when one or two of them got injured and "something is going wrong with so many injuries". The whole staff, not just FH, decide who is fit to play when and for how long to protect them from injury (that's working well!) but they have to take a long term view, whereas most on here don't even have a short term view

Yesterday was the "perfect storm" - we dust ourselves off and move on. If FH had selected arguably our best 11 from all players being available (that's another can of worms) and we get dicked 7-0 then absolutely questions should be asked and fingers pointed. But those with their FH "agenda" are going to pin it all on him regardless of the situation he found himself in - are we expecting him to be some kind of Magician??

Can I just say thanks for starting the thread and the subsequent posts. Agree with all of it.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Just watched the highlights on MOTD and agree with your analysis that makes me feel a bit more positive. It’s all very well bemoaning the points dropped against the bottom teams but lets not forget we have taken 14 pts off City, United, Arsenal and Spurs (Yeah I know!). Not sure many of us would have expected that.

I’ve decided to treat yesterday as a bad unfortunate day at the office and move on

 

[pigmanovich]

I’ve decided to treat yesterday as a bad unfortunate day at the office and move on

Your mental health thanks you!

 

[Chicken Run]

I’ve decided to treat yesterday as a bad unfortunate day at the office and move on

Whilst of course you’re right too, if i had ever had that sort of day when i worked in an office i’d be looking for a new job on Monday

 

[1066familyman]

I’m not finding excuses for it. If you ship seven goals you, by definition, defended appallingly.

But “overload” (also by definition) means more players than you can cope with so if you have six players breaking and a back four that means AT LEAST two should be tracking back. Not sure we did that all game. Those two would usually be your CMs.

How often do you reckon we practiced that line up?

Still finding excuses.

You're intent on blaming the formation, no matter what.

I think we'd best just leave it there and agree to disagree.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Still finding excuses.

You're intent on blaming the formation, no matter what.

I think we'd best just leave it there and agree to disagree.

For the last time I’m blaming the fact we clearly hadn’t prepared or practiced it.

Yeah, not sure I can say it much clearer. It’s definitely Dunk and Veltman and not our man child, inexperienced coach.