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45 crosses


And Its Smith

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What are peoples views on this?  Most games we produce about 15 crosses, sometimes as high as 20.  Tonight it was 45.  Is that because Coventry packed the central areas and forced us wide or is it down to a lack of bravery and taking the easy option?  Or was it a tactic from Nige?  Hard to say really, maybe his post match interview or press conference will reveal more.  The problem with crossing 45 times comes about when your players (a) can’t really cross a consistent ball and (b) your strikers aren’t attacking great areas.

Disappointed at a missed opportunity for 3 points.  For me, it was a lack of bravery in pass choice and also lack of movement, which often can go hand in hand.  We either dominate possession and then chances to break are rare, with our slow build up allowing teams to set their defence with ease or we get dominating and can then break but the opposition puts our defence under too much pressure.  
 

Very interested to see what Nige has to say 

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6 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

What are peoples views on this?  Most games we produce about 15 crosses, sometimes as high as 20.  Tonight it was 45.  Is that because Coventry packed the central areas and forced us wide or is it down to a lack of bravery and taking the easy option?  Or was it a tactic from Nige?  Hard to say really, maybe his post match interview or press conference will reveal more.  The problem with crossing 45 times comes about when your players (a) can’t really cross a consistent ball and (b) your strikers aren’t attacking great areas.

Disappointed at a missed opportunity for 3 points.  For me, it was a lack of bravery in pass choice and also lack of movement, which often can go hand in hand.  We either dominate possession and then chances to break are rare, with our slow build up allowing teams to set their defence with ease or we get dominating and can then break but the opposition puts our defence under too much pressure.  
 

Very interested to see what Nige has to say 

 

Starting with Norwich , the Champ teams realised we have zero attacking threat from our wing backs and plenty from central areas.

Hence letting the wing backs have all the ball knowing they won't do anything with it

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Every cross seemed to be a bit aimless, curling away from the goal and slightly behind where the attackers were.

The one time we cut inside and 'crossed' the ball from Williams, Conway got a glancing header and Wells could have diverted it in.

We needed to get to the byline and drill the ball across at shin height for our good finishers and their big centre backs to slice it in.

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1 minute ago, steveybadger said:

Last 2 games have been slightly concerning in terms of teams appearing to have worked us out a bit. 

Just had a look as didn’t check QPR game when looking at averages and it was 35 on Saturday so yes, last two games big change.  80 crosses in two games. I just wish we were brave enough to sometimes ignore the space afforded to us and go through the middle 

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9 minutes ago, BS3City said:

45 crosses, the majority of which were crap...

Dasilva was getting into very decent positions but his crosses were the worst. I can’t recall any of them hitting a City target.  I was yelling at him to lift the bloody cross! it was so frustrating…….jeez………:facepalm:

At least City managed to keep a clean sheet.

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I thought it was the speed at which we got the ball to a crossing position as much as the delivery today personally.

We do best by getting to the 18 yard line, byline, driving in the box, or whatever as quickly as possible and getting the ball in early for our mobile front men to aggressively attack. Today we were much more ponderous, and it let Coventry pack the area and that's not the environment for Wells / Semenyo and co to thrive in.

The other side is I don't think we pose enough of the threat from outside the box to help draw teams out - Massengo and Williams aren't going to be striking dangerous 25 yard shots if they get half a chance.

Coventry had their flat back 5, then a flat 3 in front of it for a lot of the game and it was just too congested to play like that. We had to be more brave/decisive with our decision making at times which plays to our strengths.

Disappointing overall - the wing backs need to do better. I think Jay looked more of a threat than Sykes personally, but I don't think it's entirely down to them.

Edited by IAmNick
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6 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Starting with Norwich , the Champ teams realised we have zero attacking threat from our wing backs and plenty from central areas.

Hence letting the wing backs have all the ball knowing they won't do anything with it

Good start to the season again will probably keep us in good stead.

There is no way we will trouble the top 6. 

Were so far off challenging wele finnish 6 or 7 places outside the drop.

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15 minutes ago, steveybadger said:

Last 2 games have been slightly concerning in terms of teams appearing to have worked us out a bit. 

Yeah. That's what tends to happen with us, isn't it? Get worked out - continue to pummel head against brick wall for another 20 games.

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2 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

One cross from Vyner was in a fantastic area but Weimann just held his position when he would have had a great chance to score if he had attacked it. Martin would have buried it. It wasn’t only about the delivery.

That was the best cross of the night I thought.  Weimann with confidence attacks that ball 

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We’re not a big physical side. Even their forwards won the majority of the ball in the air from the goal kicks.

We stopped getting to the byline for the pull backs. We were getting some joy with it in the first half from Semenyo, but soon stopped and started lumping it from the sideline.

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When teams set up in a way that reduces our main threats (the cat is out the bag regarding our attack) we have to find different patterns of play and alternative ways of grinding out goals, not just buckets of hopeful crosses. That’s 3 of the last 4 sides who have seemingly worked us out.

Complimentary in some ways that teams are almost stifling themselves to cope with us but we have to give them more to think about with Plan B’s and C’s. 

Unpopular decisions may have to be taken for that to happen. Martin playing in a side with proper shape (not 4/5 striker mayhem) who are consistently delivering crosses is bound to get on the end of some of them in a way that other strikers won’t. Weimann is now (in an attacking sense) a passenger and his threat vanishes when we play like that, Pearson may need to view him as liable to a substitution once in a while. Maybe we also need to think about Wilson’s crossing ability which has always been very good and would create more opportunities than the average deliveries of Sykes and JD, but he’s going to have to start getting minutes as he looks miles off the pace right now. 

This is where managers earn their corn, we’re still keeping hold of the ball and that remains big step forward. There are now however some tactical tweaks to be made before early season confidence starts to drain. If the goals dry up where does that leave us? 

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It’s frustrating as the crosses were poor quality as were the set pieces, especially when neither play to the strengths of Wells and Semenyo who are better running on to through balls on the ground. My reasoning behind replacing Semenyo with Conway was that at least it gave us someone who likes to get their head on crosses. That said we did little in possession a lot of the time and we were a bit ponderous in attack, which allowed Coventry to get lots of men behind the ball, which is exactly what QPR did at the weekend. There were also a number of wasted shirt corners. If you have Atkinson and Vyner up from the back why play it short and not get into the penalty box?

Certainly areas for improvement. Whether we have the personnel to enact those changes is another matter altogether…

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