On the beach already…?

[DaveF]

16 hours ago, redkev said:

Living in London umm good luck on that one , love to visit London and work there but don’t think I could live there 

Why not?

[Son of Fred]

3 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Add in Atkinson and Williams and we've got 5/6 starters out, more than half the first choice team.

Plus Benarous would certainly be playing now with Williams, Naysmith, Scott and Sykes out. He may well have been playing anyway.

All things considered Nige is doing well to patch together a team which is at least competitive, if perhaps lacking in creativity and a bit uninspiring to watch.

We obviously need reinforcements so we can only hope that we get positive news this week on Naysmith and Scott, as well as James being confirmed as available. 

I wouldn't wish to risk Scott this season now, from a number of perspectives..

If that ligament goes twang

[Clutton Caveman]

On 01/04/2023 at 19:08, redkev said:

Thought against Swansea I said I thought some players were on the beach but I thought today the effort was deffo there but we were just so wasteful and made some poor decisions whilst on the ball

I think we need to look at our positioning when crosses come in.  It seems we are pretty much always in one line and as such very hard to pick out. I think we would do far better if we had a staggered line and also a player hanging back for when a defender gets a soft touch or part clearance.

[Davefevs]

33 minutes ago, Clutton Caveman said:

I think we need to look at our positioning when crosses come in.  It seems we are pretty much always in one line and as such very hard to pick out. I think we would do far better if we had a staggered line and also a player hanging back for when a defender gets a soft touch or part clearance.

Ha…been looking at this for several weeks now.

We had a good bit of success after the WC break with “square(ish) crosses” into the 6 yard box for a tap-in, bundle-in, own goal.  But that has stopped.  Why?

My gut feel is that at the time we were playing on the counter-attack, attackers attacking the 6 yard box at pace, defenders retreating at pace to try to stop them.  Ball flashed across the 6 yard box….goal!  Simple.

Of late we have played against teams with a deep defence.  They are already in place / well positioned to block the cross, put our attacker off.

We have lost a bit of our counter-attacking ability with Naismith out, whilst we’ve also played a few teams happy to sit back.

So, going back to your second sentence, we need to alter our approach, but in terms of the crosser, but also the recipient.  If Wells is gonna go near post, short, then someone has to hang-back.

Its as if TC read your post!!!

This angle and close-up is perfect!

Look at Conway after he lays it off to Tanner (who aims for 6 yard box - and Wells)….he just doesn’t head for the same space as Wells, he delays and delays…gets the lucky break and is perfectly positioned to score.

You may recall his header vs Cardiff (h)…another example of just holding the run so that when Wells crossed his defender had carried on running towards goal, giving him the freedom to head home.  Bloody good header though.

[redkev]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Ha…been looking at this for several weeks now.

We had a good bit of success after the WC break with “square(ish) crosses” into the 6 yard box for a tap-in, bundle-in, own goal.  But that has stopped.  Why?

My gut feel is that at the time we were playing on the counter-attack, attackers attacking the 6 yard box at pace, defenders retreating at pace to try to stop them.  Ball flashed across the 6 yard box….goal!  Simple.

Of late we have played against teams with a deep defence.  They are already in place / well positioned to block the cross, put our attacker off.

We have lost a bit of our counter-attacking ability with Naismith out, whilst we’ve also played a few teams happy to sit back.

So, going back to your second sentence, we need to alter our approach, but in terms of the crosser, but also the recipient.  If Wells is gonna go near post, short, then someone has to hang-back.

Its as if TC read your post!!!

This angle and close-up is perfect!

Look at Conway after he lays it off to Tanner (who aims for 6 yard box - and Wells)….he just doesn’t head for the same space as Wells, he delays and delays…gets the lucky break and is perfectly positioned to score.

You may recall his header vs Cardiff (h)…another example of just holding the run so that when Wells crossed his defender had carried on running towards goal, giving him the freedom to head home.  Bloody good header though.

Isn’t one of the sayings in football sometimes you make space by basically standing still ,

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, redkev said:

Isn’t one of the sayings in football sometimes you make space by basically standing still ,

Yep, I recall Alan Ball’s dad in an interview when his son was manager of Southampton, saying Le Tissier had than ability to create space by standing still.  Always stuck in my mind. 

[PHILINFRANCE]

3 hours ago, redkev said:

Isn’t one of the sayings in football sometimes you make space by basically standing still ,

 

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Yep, I recall Alan Ball’s dad in an interview when his son was manager of Southampton, saying Le Tissier had than ability to create space by standing still.  Always stuck in my mind. 

Thank You.

I know the expression, and was going to suggest it referred to Gary Lineker - except, I knew it didn't!

Of course, it was Matt le T.

[Port Said Red]

On 02/04/2023 at 19:33, redysteadygo said:

I imagine he was strictly sticking to orders about positioning and keeping shape and did this well enough. The other aspects like control, passing and tackling etc was all at a pace he is not used to so was a little of game in this respect and the pitch conditions should be taken into account.

Yes, I did watch him quite closely and he looked like he was working hard in keeping position and maintaining shape, but it was very deliberate and almost to the detriment of other parts of his game. 

As I said before in other threads, he started his career further forward, so I think it will take a while for him to look natural in a more defensive role.