We Need A New Defensive Tactic

[glynriley]

4-4-2 may be seen as an outdated system but it strikes me as the one best suited to the players we have.

We now have Baldock in the squad , who's movement is as good as anyone I've seen in a City shirt since Andrew Cole.

Adomah is an out and out winger , Taylor / Stead / Davies can all play as a good old fashioned target man , and they are all reasonably mobile. Woolford was looking decent on the left with the assitance of Cunningham , now that Greg's out it might be worth giving Anderson a go.

We've recently tried to play different hybrids of 4-3-3 and the goals have dried up a little. I reckon DMc should bite the bullet , accept that we have a problem in the centre of the pitch and go back to what we were doing well at the start of the season , namely attacking teams down the flanks and looking to outscore the opposition. If the fabled centre half appears along the way , so much the better.

[spudski]

4-4-2 may be seen as an outdated system but it strikes me as the one best suited to the players we have.

We now have Baldock in the squad , who's movement is as good as anyone I've seen in a City shirt since Andrew Cole.

Adomah is an out and out winger , Taylor / Stead / Davies can all play as a good old fashioned target man , and they are all reasonably mobile. Woolford was looking decent on the left with the assitance of Cunningham , now that Greg's out it might be worth giving Anderson a go.

We've recently tried to play different hybrids of 4-3-3 and the goals have dried up a little. I reckon DMc should bite the bullet , accept that we have a problem in the centre of the pitch and go back to what we were doing well at the start of the season , namely attacking teams down the flanks and looking to outscore the opposition. If the fabled centre half appears along the way , so much the better.

I understand your point, but i've often thought our midfield has been overun for a couple of years now. Mainly because we play two wingers. How many goals actually come from crosses?

If you look back through the stats over the past season or so and you will see we just don't keep possession.

We've played on the counter attack at pace,and generally lose the ball quickly and are on the back foot again.

No wonder our defence is low on confidence, it never gets any respite.

All the best teams now, retain possession and control where the ball goes, not leaving it to chance.

We need imho, to pack the middle and use one winger.

Just how i see it from the past.

Like you say...I've not watched City this season, but from reports it sounds very similat to before in where we are going wrong.

Maybe i'm wrong...I'm sure Del will sort it once injuries are down.

[glynriley]

I understand your point, but i've often thought our midfield has been overun for a couple of years now. Mainly because we play two wingers. How many goals actually come from crosses?

If you look back through the stats over the past season or so and you will see we just don't keep possession.

We've played on the counter attack at pace,and generally lose the ball quickly and are on the back foot again.

No wonder our defence is low on confidence, it never gets any respite.

All the best teams now, retain possession and control where the ball goes, not leaving it to chance.

We need imho, to pack the middle and use one winger.

Just how i see it from the past.

Like you say...I've not watched City this season, but from reports it sounds very similat to before in where we are going wrong.

Maybe i'm wrong...I'm sure Del will sort it once injuries are down.

I agree about trying to retain posession and we can do that and play with 2 wingers IMO.

Against Palace and Cardiff we had some long spells of posession and for Cardiff I've never seen Whittingham playing so deep. That was because when we lost the ball we closed down quickly and forced them back. For some reason , we seem to have stopped doing it in the last couple of weeks.

As I've said , playing 4-4-2 early on was like a breath of fresh air , we looked good going forward , created plenty of chances and the attacking side to our game actually relieved the pressure on our defence. Look back at this forum between the Palace and Leeds games and you will read plenty of posts praising the entertainment value and attacking ethos of the side.

Now all of a sudden , we've started to place more emphasis on defence and ball retention (by playing 3 in the middle) and the entertainment value and results have dipped.

It's a conundrum , but that's what Del is paid handsomely to get right.

[downendcity]

I understand your point, but i've often thought our midfield has been overun for a couple of years now. Mainly because we play two wingers. How many goals actually come from crosses?

If you look back through the stats over the past season or so and you will see we just don't keep possession.

We've played on the counter attack at pace,and generally lose the ball quickly and are on the back foot again.

No wonder our defence is low on confidence, it never gets any respite.

All the best teams now, retain possession and control where the ball goes, not leaving it to chance.

We need imho, to pack the middle and use one winger.

Just how i see it from the past.

Like you say...I've not watched City this season, but from reports it sounds very similat to before in where we are going wrong.

Maybe i'm wrong...I'm sure Del will sort it once injuries are down.

The problem is that we seem to fall between two stools.

If we play two wide players in midfield and counter attack at pace then I agree that all too often we lose the ball and are quickly overrun and under pressure at the back, because our central midfield two are not strong enough.

Successive managers have countered this problem by packing midfield and playing a lone striker. The problem then is that we struggle to hold the ball up in the opposition final third, because our midfield does not get up in support and leave the striker too isolated, so the ball keeps coming back quickly thereby puitting the defence under increasing pressure.

On balance, I do think that we should play to our strengths , rarther than trying to mitigate our weakness. In previous seasons, the problem has been that it has been difficult to see many strengths, especially as an attacking force. This season, for the first time for a few seasons we do have the makings of a decent team going forward and need to find a way of getting the best out of Baldock. He will get goals, given the chance but i just don;t see him as a lone striker.

McInness's plans have been thrown out of kilter by recent injuries, and in the meantime he might have to compromise, but I do hope that he is prepared to get back to the formation and tactics that served so well at the start of the season.