portslade seagull
Well-known member
That is a question I cannot answer, maybe ask our fullbacks who are being asked to play as wingers, I think the answer may lie there .... We only improved once Kaz came on but sadly he is not a 90 minute player
[Albion] The Problem Lies Here
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That is a question I cannot answer, maybe ask our fullbacks who are being asked to play as wingers, I think the answer may lie there .... We only improved once Kaz came on but sadly he is not a 90 minute player
BensGrandad
New member
The problem yesterday was team selection. Why change the team that started against Ipswich and held McGoldrick and Murphy at bay until 70th minute which incidentally was just after CMS was subbed. SH doesnt know his best line up and is not helped by NJ not knowing either.
portslade seagull
Well-known member
Not really a daft argument when you consider the quality of balls into them which they would have required step ladders for most of the time .... Colunga scuffed his chance because he is Rodriguez part 2, Baldock was pants throughout the game for a 1m player you would expect a little more
***A genuine question***
How many chances were created similar to Colunga's first minute miss?
Basically quick through ball, to feet, on the shoulder of the last defender.
It's my current mantra, so I know I'm not in a position to be objective.
All the team has to do is create 4 of those, and at least would go in.
How many chances were created similar to Colunga's first minute miss?
Basically quick through ball, to feet, on the shoulder of the last defender.
It's my current mantra, so I know I'm not in a position to be objective.
All the team has to do is create 4 of those, and at least would go in.
Guy Fawkes
The voice of treason
- Sep 29, 2007
- 8,297
Shooting accuracy would be better surely.
Also you don't seem to credit the oppositions defence who may be making it virtually impossible to get a clean shot on tareget away through good marking which means that the attacking player has to try to buy space and shoot quickly which will affect accuracy.
When we had wingers in the previous seasons, we created less chances and a lot of the crosses that were put in were hopeless, most sailing over the head of our single attacking player in the box, or easy for the keeper to catch or punch away or just going straight out of play which limited our shooting opportunities.
At Brentford, they were very quick to attack, they were clever with their little flicks and back-heels to buy their other players space in which to be able to shoot from (not helped by being a bit exposed at the back due to lack of numbers) Paddy McCourt looked like a player who was trying this sort of thing yesterday and it's something i'd like to see more of from our players.
We never seem to get into dangerous positions (edge of the penalty area) and run into the box, causing their defencders to either let us run, tackle us and risk giving away a penalty or giving us the chance to tee someone up or shoot ourselves. We don't seem to cross low and fast from wide positions, trying to get the opposition facing their goal, but at least this season we are getting numbers forward to support the attacks.
I think we need a more settled side and this could allow our forward play to emerge as players start to work on the same wavelength and anticipate moves / through balls / crosses more often. The problem is i'm not sure we know our best side yet and also, as seen just after the transfer window shut, you could make a case more nearly every member of the squad to start, so what is the best XI?. (sounds like a new thread)
Guy Fawkes
The voice of treason
- Sep 29, 2007
- 8,297
So don't you think we should be loking at how we cross rather than just saying it's poor because they are too short. Low and fast crosses and then it doesn't matter how tall they are (we did this tactic against Cardiff or was it QPR last season as they had tall defenders, but haven't really used it before or since as our regular go to crossing method)
- Jan 3, 2012
- 17,355
To be fair, in the BBC report on yesterday's match, it did say that the keeper did make some decent saves, which is what I felt as well.
Yesterday should have been a "won while not playing particularly well" sort of game.
portslade seagull
Well-known member
Not us personally, please make Sami and Nathan aware of this though as it seems to have passed them by, yesterday it only happened once kaz came on
Disagree, successful teams in this division have more physical presence up front than we do, I would say a Grant Holt type is exactly what we need.
Derby Chris Martin, Forest - Assombalonga, Leicester had Chris Wood, QPR - Charlie Austin, Burnley - Sam Vokes.
I like Baldock, his runs are intelligent but if he had a bigger player with him he would flourish even more.
True, but the bigger issue for me is f'ing squad rotation. PLAY YOUR BEST TEAM!
I don't know what you mean. Are you agreeing with me, or assuming more shots = more accuracy? Or do you mean currently better than under Oscar/Gus? Currently we are on 16.88 shots/4.38 shots on target per game (25.9%). Compare to Oscar's 12.89/3.74 - 29.0% (have looked up, earlier was going off approximate from memory), and Gus's 10.46/5.31 (50.1%).
I don't know that that has any relation to my point. My point being having lots of shots isn't necessarily better than having fewer shots, that we need to take better shots - not waste possession by shooting from distance and failing to trouble the keeper. If the defence is stopping us getting in close, that doesn't mean blasting the ball over the goal from 25-35 yards out 15 times in a match is better than keeping the ball and trying to work it through and only managing three shots on goal.
I miss the width we had, I don't think our full backs have the attacking qualities that wingers have (I don't recall any great or even good crosses from Bruno, Calderon or Bennett). I would agree the crossing wasn't the most productive, but I would argue that was because we frequently only had one target in the box meaning crosses had to be on a six pence every time, any less and they were easy to defend, and at championship level there are few players who can put a cross on a six pence particularly often within a game or from game to game. Any that are will get snapped up by premier league clubs pretty quickly. So the better option is to get more men in the box to allow for less accurate crossing, and making defenders have to work to defend crosses.
But again, I'm not sure that this is relevant to my point. It's not a choice between shooting high and wide from 25-35 yards out 15 times a game, or having wingers who put in bad crosses that result in no chances.
Agreed. This is particularly important when facing a team that is defending quite resolutely. If you are struggling to break down a team because they frequently park two banks of four on the edge of their box crowding you out, then you need to break at pace on the occasions they have come out of their hald and get to their box before they've had a chance to get back into position, so you have space and can get through, cause those that are back to feel the need to cover and run out of position, creating more space for supporting players on the counter.
We never seem to get into dangerous positions (edge of the penalty area) and run into the box, causing their defencders to either let us run, tackle us and risk giving away a penalty or giving us the chance to tee someone up or shoot ourselves. We don't seem to cross low and fast from wide positions, trying to get the opposition facing their goal, but at least this season we are getting numbers forward to support the attacks.
I don't think there is such a thing as a "best 11" in the modern game. But, I do think the constant rotation isn't helping the team develop a working relationship. I think a bit of stability in the short term will allow more fluid rotation longer term. Get one set of players in sync, then swap a player or two giving players chance to get familiar with them, then bring others in etc. then eventually you have a squad who know each other well enough that players can be swapped out as needed (to give players rests, to expose weaknesses in opponents, etc) and incoming players and regular players are all on the same wavelengths.
I think our players are good, I actually think the squad has the quality in it to make a decent fist of trying to make the play offs, but agree they need to get on the same wavelength which needs time together, playing games.
Guy Fawkes
The voice of treason
- Sep 29, 2007
- 8,297
As in we need to work on and improve our shooting accuracy and get a higher percentage on target and fewer going wide / over.
Or that the opposition defenders give very little (if any) of the target to aim at and it's then a rushed snap shot when trying to buy a little bit of room to be able to hit the target rather than having time and space to pick your spot. The more rushed something is, the less accurate it is and when you watch numerous replays of our efforts, they try to get that space needed and often the defender is still blocking the goal so it's virtually impossible to score.
But the wingers we had weren't leading to chances so you could argue that it wasn't working. They almost had to play the perfect cross for it to be a chance due to lack of numbers in the box and the vast majority of crosses were completely harmless and therefore wasted. Now under the new system, crosses don't have to be as accurate as there are more players to pick out / try to get on the end of a cross.
With the crosses from wingers, often they were too high and meant that even if our forward got onto the end of it, they wouldn't be able to bring it down and create a chance from it, especially when time and space was so limited because they were heavily outnumbered by defenders, and that they were unable to lay of those crosses to our supporting players for them to have a shot because there were usually none (all out wide, back in our own half)
Hopefully that will come with time and as our players get used to playing this system / line-up, it's still early days.
Teams that don't make too many changes tend to do well (Burnley last season for example)
We have a squad were the majority of players are new and therefore haven't worked out that much of an understanding (yet) so chopping and changing (at this point) may not be helping this process and therefore affecting our performances. The problem is we have a strong squad and it's difficult to say who is our best XI
Again it's mainly a time thing, they need to develop an understanding and that will come with time on the pitch and from training.
not a fan of squad rotation but I am not sure we have had enough players earn the right
to start as first choice Greer dunk hola and JAO tex is about all.
if players ( and systems) are not producing results I think the manager should make changes.
If we were on a convincing run of form then I am not in favour of squad rotation
But we looked fairly strong against Ipswich, created more than yesterday - surely that should have been enough for those starting players to 'keep the shirt'.
BensGrandad
New member
I thought that we looked likely to at least get a point at Ipswich up until CMS was subbed and this allowed Ipswich to get further forward and we know the rest. So having made that mistake, I was very surprised to see yesterdays team selection, the only change I would have made was Teixeira for Lua Lua to start.
Surely you are just saying we need better strikers, rather than taller ones? It's a downright odd obsession.
Burnley
Dropping Ince was stupid plain stupid. It worries me that Hyypia is making these decisions.
Changing players and constantly playing the same tactics and playing players out of position are the problems.
It's rather telling that they are pretty much the only example people can think of. There may be others, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. There are no absolutes. There is nothing (within reason) that will work every time and nothing (with in reason) that will never work. But, generally, with the modern game most teams will rotate.