Tactic talk what do you think? (1 Viewer)

[Trond Egil Soltvedt]

As title suggests, i believe its time to drop the diamond for the time being especially as last night showed that by lacking pace and creativity we were exposed by a determined and dominant midfield, the theory of using the diamond is excellent however you need the attributes i mentionned above to gain advantage, last season we had a clinical striker who would score half chances wheras this season we dont, i know we need to create a hundred chances to score one or two, but also we need to be strong in midfield with a beast in the middle to break up play.

I admire young Bigirimana and he has been excellent but dont think he and Clingan can play together as they are too similar, i would play one of them, the other needs to be a ball winner to allow Clingan and Bigirimana the freedom to play.

but coming into criticism are Baker, Bell and Mcsheffrey (Bell i thought had a decent game last night) all 3 are guilty of carelessly giving the ball away.

Although last night we were pretty sh*t but we never stuck to the game plan after Cranies spectacular own goal, rushed and hoofed everything, cant win them all folks and keep the faith!

 

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[Nonleagueherewecome]

Agreed that Bigi and Sammy play in too similar position. Gael needs to be as central as possible, not playing as a defensive inside-right midfielder. I don't necessarily think we need to abandon the diamond, but as I said in last nights Tactics thread, it needs to be 5 yards higher up the pitch, the RCM/LCM much more narrow, and the AMC link with either flank, providing the overload. That isn't happening, and I'm not sure why-but lacking a physical CM who can close down, run and tackle would help. Deegans the closest we have to that on the books.

As far as possible formation changes..I wouldn't mind mixing in a bit of 442, but who are our wingers again? Exactly!

 

[wingy]

Geals a far more creative player than he's been allowed to portray,seems he's playing to cautious instruction ,holding position and merely playing as conduit between back and wide?

 

[bamalamafizzfazz]

To a certain extent I agree. I think this season the diamond appears to have more width and thus causes passing targets to be further away from one another. Last season the width came from the full backs alone with the front three mids playing narrower offering further options up front but this season it appears that last night in particular Baker was very wide and had he been inside would have offered more of a threat.
We need to tighten the positions of the midfield and allow the fullbacks only to provide the width and as a consequence shouldn't get as overrun in midfield and dominate the game by outpassing the opposition as we are more than capable of doing so.

 

[PVA]

The only ball winning midfielder we have is Deegan and he's not fit. Clingan and Biggie played perfectly well together at Palace and that was a flat 442. In fact we've played a flat 4 in most of our away games, not sure why we didn't last night tbh.

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

Yep, that's exactly how I read it Bamalamafizzfazz. We out-passed and outnumbered teams in midfield last season: last night it was entirely the opposite.

 

[nicksig]

The midfield were completely overrun last night. Clingan was playing deep and as ever passed it well but he's not a ball winner and was left exposed. The obvious move was to go to 4-4-2 with Bigi and Clingan in the centre but Ipswich had a lot of quality there, and Bell and the McSheffrey didn't really get a look in down the flanks. As for defence I'd like to see us start where we finished - with Cameron in the centre with Crainie or Wood, and Keogh at rb. Hussey did ok down the left with next to no support. Up front they worked well and put in 100%. Once Cody scores and I think he'll get on a roll

 

[Lord_Nampil]

am i the only one who thinks gale has alot more to give but maybe hes been told not to??? I think he can do alot more than what hes actually doing at the moment, but Thorn and Harrisons way of currently playing restrict him!! One thing we need a box to box midfielder and that means the sooner Deegan gets fit the better! Left bk is my main area of concern at the moment, no cover and no compertition for Hussey least last season we have O Hallaran who gave him that!!!!

 

[Trond Egil Soltvedt]

i think bigi is being held back too, but keep need to reminding myself the boy is still 17, so i guess we cant rely on him too much, whilst i agree that he is more creative than he is currently, being too creative is also a risk where we play without a ball winner, i have no qualms about how we regularily play, its just on occasions when we play a more bulky and experienced midfield i just fear we will get hammered, i might be slated but if i was thorn i would be tempted to give Cyrus a game or two at right wing if playing a 4-4-2 as he and Keogh could bomb forward and and easily cover each other, the other problem would be having cover for the left side, another point i would be slated on would be the keeping Mcindoe, footballs a game of opinions isnt it!?! LOL

 

[stupot07]

I think that bigi I far too lightweight to play in a central midfield 2, also both him and clingan would drop very deep and play as 2 defensive midfielder, just like when clingan-carsley used to play together. Then who do you play on each wing? Bell has rarely produced and often hides on the wing, baker hasn't done well when he's been give a run of starts on the wing, and last season mcsheffery offered nothing on the wing attack wise and was a liability when defending.

For me a 442 would isolate the strikers even more, and would surrender possession more easily.

I like bigi, but as i have said before he is still lightweight, rarely makes a tackle, and seems reluctant to carry the ball out of midfield, and seems to want to play on clingans toes. For me the diamond is the best formation for the players we have got, it's just that the players haven't got sufficient quality to consistently perform.

 

[johnniericoh]

I have analysed Gael's performances over the last few games and it is glaringly obvious his natural attacking flair is being nullified by team tactics.

He is operating in a very compact space, narrow right midfield, but hovering around the center line area and appears to just swap passes sideways and backwards with very few incisive forward movements.

I agree Gael and Sammy appear to be contradicting their respective roles, slowing forward movement and allowing a more dominant opposition midfield to break up our play.

PUSB

 

[Fluffsta]

I am also of the opinion that Bigi is playing as the safe holding midfield man and is restricted in his role. What position did he play in the youth team? I would like to see him in a attacking midfielder role for a few games to see him set free.

 

[oldskyblue58]

more a general comment than tactics .......

In nearly all the games the result has been on a knife edge. The games could have gone either way, in many games particularly at the end of last season the result could but for good fortune have gone against us. As yet I dont think we can say we have controlled a game, its been a case of edging infront. That for me particularly this season shows the fragility of the system and squad, they know they can play the system but dont have the wholehearted belief they can.

I do think that the Plan B isnt yet properly worked out and that we have relied on youthful exuberance too much (probably had to given the performances of some of the senior players). The diamond as we play leaves a hole in the middle of the pitch for the opposition to exploit, if we had a more attack minded central midfielder with Clingan holding we could play a 4:1:3:2 formation and there would be a link to the forwards. I also think that teams know how to counter the diamond (eg Ipswich)and that spells problems for our lightweight squad