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Post by stevek192 on Sept 10, 2014 9:34:26 GMT
Having witnessed every game this season I think the biggest problem is scoring goals. Now this might seem a stupid statement because we all know goals win games but IMO our big problem is that we don't have the TEAM (at the moment) to win ANY game 4 or 5 nil no matter what the level of opposition.
If we find the answer to this then we will win this league and win it handsomely come the end of the season because IMO we have better players than any of the opposing teams we have played with the one exception being Barnet. How many teams in this division could fill a bench and still have players like Harrison, McCrystal,Brunt and Harrison not even on the bench?
I have highlighted the word TEAM because that at present is the problem and it is why we are not scoring many goals when we do actually have players who can score goals. Cunnington,White and Taylor have goals in them as has been proven at this level so I ask why can they not score goals for us?
My answer would be that we have defenders who when WE have the ball, switch off and that can mean 4 players at any one time not keeping up with the game. An important part of football is the halfwayline but watch that line and see how often our defence as a unit are near it. Watch and see how often when our opponents win the ball from us we have three of our defenders in space marking nobody which means the opposition players are creating space for themselves far too easily. I will use Lockyer as the example of this but it could just as easily be Brown. We were in a position where Brown and Parkes were marking their players and we had Trotman spare and the ball was on our left which was perfect but where was Lockyer? He was far over on the right side covering I assume Trotman but the player he could have been marking was no where to be seen. This IMO is the essence of our problem because that happens all over the pitch throughout the game and on many occasions three of our defenders are lost to the game because we don't FORCE the opposition back and if we do we are outnumbered.
It goes back to John Wards time and the fear of losing or conceding in that we have four players who by not getting out are leaving spare players that somebody else has to mark, We are not compacting the play therefore you have three quarters of the pitch or in reality half of the pitch where we have 5 or 6 players and the opposition have 9 or 10. Do we get the similar situation when we attack? In truth only when we have a corner and that I believe is where our problem lies.
I said at the start of this that I believe we have the best squad of individual players in this division and i would stand by that but what most of our opponents have are 1) no fear of losing 2) players who will work hard as a TEAM,will close play down and harass and because of 1 and 2 -3) outnumber us in the key areas.
The longer opponents are still in the game the more this occurs and until we "kill off" teams by going forward to score goals and getting forward in numbers then we are going to be playing EVERY game where it is going to be close and very often decided by who scores first or the first mistake.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2014 10:02:31 GMT
SteveK, this is a well put together post.
I disagree in parts though. Firstly I haven't been to every game but I don't think I need to have tbf because it sounds and reads like 'same old' largely.
The scoring goals bit goes without saying, but it is not a separate entity since the scoring goals bit is linked to the movement off the ball bit and the quality of players bit too. So although you didn't link these, they were worth the mention.
The quality of our players? The ones you mention there that are not on our bench. What makes them any better than any other vanarama player? Other than play a few games in lg2 last year, these lads have to prove that they are good players and the 3 mentioned haven't proved anything of the such. There is potential but that is it imo. If I had to pick from a experienced pro in Brunt/Macca or a fit, hungry youngster from Braintree, it wouldn't be a simple choice.
Our lack of scoring goals is down to creating chances. This has been a problem for seasons now. Lots of fans have pointed fingers of blame at the striker when actually the service has been very poor and apart from JJOT there has been very little goal threat from MF. This has continued this year. Last year we hardly seen a tap in or many missed chances and it feels like opportunities are at a premium for us which ties into the crowd negativity if we go 1 down-we don't make many chances to score it back.
The marking bit, especially concerning defenders when we have the ball is a tough ask. Anatomically it is 4 V 2 at the back so when we push on, often 1 of those strikers will track back to help his team out. It does give us chance to exploit space but if you consider the lack of pace at the back that we are used to it is no surprise that the players are not too keen on that. It is hard work to ebb and flow with the ball as a defender so you will often see the lads make the half way and maintain a line, occasionally 1 of the FBs will join in. Many strikers in this division have pace as the main asset so when you have Parkes/Macca/Trotman from a standing start with a long ball over, you will fancy your chances. We have been particularly bad at keeping the ball in the final 3rd, more often we look like the away team attacking on breaks. If we were a possession side you would also see more defenders getting involved.
Lastly. I haven't seen enough to fully agree and doubt that we do indeed have the best(depending on all possible attributes and balance-slow at back-small in CM). But that doesn't mean that we should not be fully competitive in each and every game. Having the best players is one thing but without other key ingredients as you have mentioned, we will fall short. From what I see and hear, we will fall short unless there is a rapid turnaround.
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Post by RD on Sept 10, 2014 11:11:46 GMT
Having witnessed every game this season I think the biggest problem is scoring goals. Now this might seem a stupid statement because we all know goals win games but IMO our big problem is that we don't have the TEAM (at the moment) to win ANY game 4 or 5 nil no matter what the level of opposition. If we find the answer to this then we will win this league and win it handsomely come the end of the season because IMO we have better players than any of the opposing teams we have played with the one exception being Barnet. How many teams in this division could fill a bench and still have players like Harrison, McCrystal,Brunt and Harrison not even on the bench? I have highlighted the word TEAM because that at present is the problem and it is why we are not scoring many goals when we do actually have players who can score goals. Cunnington,White and Taylor have goals in them as has been proven at this level so I ask why can they not score goals for us? My answer would be that we have defenders who when WE have the ball, switch off and that can mean 4 players at any one time not keeping up with the game. An important part of football is the halfwayline but watch that line and see how often our defence as a unit are near it. Watch and see how often when our opponents win the ball from us we have three of our defenders in space marking nobody which means the opposition players are creating space for themselves far too easily. I will use Lockyer as the example of this but it could just as easily be Brown. We were in a position where Brown and Parkes were marking their players and we had Trotman spare and the ball was on our left which was perfect but where was Lockyer? He was far over on the right side covering I assume Trotman but the player he could have been marking was no where to be seen. This IMO is the essence of our problem because that happens all over the pitch throughout the game and on many occasions three of our defenders are lost to the game because we don't FORCE the opposition back and if we do we are outnumbered. It goes back to John Wards time and the fear of losing or conceding in that we have four players who by not getting out are leaving spare players that somebody else has to mark, We are not compacting the play therefore you have three quarters of the pitch or in reality half of the pitch where we have 5 or 6 players and the opposition have 9 or 10. Do we get the similar situation when we attack? In truth only when we have a corner and that I believe is where our problem lies. I said at the start of this that I believe we have the best squad of individual players in this division and i would stand by that but what most of our opponents have are 1) no fear of losing 2) players who will work hard as a TEAM,will close play down and harass and because of 1 and 2 -3) outnumber us in the key areas. The longer opponents are still in the game the more this occurs and until we "kill off" teams by going forward to score goals and getting forward in numbers then we are going to be playing EVERY game where it is going to be close and very often decided by who scores first or the first mistake. Hi Steve,
Great post and it's excellent to see you posting your views again - I'd missed them.
I think your analysis in terms of our play is correct and it probably does stem from a losing mentality (as the defence is relatively unchanged from last year). I think losing so many games has instilled a sense of fear and a lack of self belief. As you say, until we start to push up, we won't be putting the sort of pressure on teams that will bring us goals.
I think we do have a reasonably talented team but I'm not going to go as far as to say we have the best team or squad in this division. I think we lack pace and creativity and, until that is resolved, even though pushing higher up the pitch would make us more of a threat, I'm not sure many of those attacks percentage wise will come to much due to a lack of quality in the final third.
Certainly we have a platform to build on and there is no way we will finish in the lower echelons of the league table, but I do feel we will need one or two new players in the January transfer window if we are to be serious contenders (even if we improve tactically).
Great post though and I hope to read more from you in the months ahead!
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Post by I Voted For Kodos on Sept 10, 2014 14:46:55 GMT
Some nice detailed analysis in this thread, I'll try and keep it going.
Part of the problem is that none of our defenders are that comfortable on the ball, with the possible exception of Brown. They have a 'get rid' mentality of clearing the danger firstly, and not worrying about where the ball goes. Parkes tried to play some short stuff last night, but it showed that his passing is awful. Lockyer isn't a right back and so isn't used to playing it out of danger from there.
The fault also lies partly at the midfield, though. For me, neither Sinclair nor Mansell offered the CBs an easy outlet ball last night. Clarke often does this, picking the ball off the back four and trying to force a pass forward. Our attacks often resort to wing-play on the left or balls over the top. Very little is built up through the middle or right side.
Overall, this lack of invention must be tempered with the fact that we are a hard team to break down, especially at home.
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Post by stevek192 on Sept 10, 2014 15:31:52 GMT
Some good points from everybody on this thread. As regards our players I actually do think that DC has put together a good squad for this League and as I say there are not many players who we have played against so far who I would have in our squad. My only criticism would be that maybe we signed too many Conference players who maybe have to up their level to become TOP Conference players or even League players if we are successful. This was probably down to budget and I know Higgs keeps coming out with "one of the best budgets" but what he never says is how much of the budget is actually available when you take out the contracted players. I imagine that Mildenhall, Brown, Parkes, McCrystal, Lockyer, Clarke, Brunt and Harrison take up a huge percentage of that budget and add to that the Budget was obviously reduced anyway as we definitely haven't used up the wages of the players we have lost off the wage bill this year.
I am sure if we do manage to go back up that FFP or whatever its called will present us with no problems whatsoever!!
My point on the size of our squad and the players that don't get in it I am basing this on the players I have seen so far and would take very few of the players we have played against in preference to anybody in our squad.
Obviously everybody's opinion will vary on this and that is the great thing about football and about debating these things on a forum.
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Post by timsburygas on Sept 10, 2014 20:26:46 GMT
I think we need someone you can dictate play from midfield, who can take the ball off the defence and pass it forward, every time (and its a lot) the defenders pass back to Mildenhall he lumps it forward and it becomes a 50/50 ball again. The only creativity last night come from Martin wide left and his corners were excellent. Sinclair and Mansell offer nothing apart from harassing the opposition when they have possession.
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Post by Topper Gas on Sept 10, 2014 20:57:07 GMT
What we need is the JJOT we had on loan in JW's first season!
We've never replaced Campbell or Lines and that's been the crux of our problems, hence why all our strikers look cr@p Harrold, Beardsley, Brunt, Taylor, White the list is endless.
Although why DC can't see the problems is beyond me!!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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Post by socrates on Sept 10, 2014 23:04:52 GMT
What we need is the JJOT we had on loan in JW's first season! We've never replaced Campbell or Lines and that's been the crux of our problems, hence why all our strikers look cr@p Harrold, Beardsley, Brunt, Taylor, White the list is endless. Although why DC can't see the problems is beyond me!! Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk Fair comment. I've been saying for years it's not that we need more strikers but we need more creativity and pace. We need 2 wingers on the pitch if we're going to Play 4-4-2 as well, sounds obvious but how many times in the last few seasons have we played either a striker or central midfielder out wide ? More often than not. All though to be fair Balanta has arrived , hopefully with him on one side Martin on the other well have those two wingers. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2014 23:25:43 GMT
pushing up to the half way line to squeeze the play and make it easier to close your opponents down and press the ball is a valid tactic but isnt suited to every team and it might just be to risky a strategy for us to employ with the players we have available?
most of the goals we have let in have come from bad errors although one of braintrees goals was superb.
i think we will score more goals than we have,the corners and free kicks have been very good and plenty of players are attacking the ball but in free play weve been a bit hit and miss i admit.
i think tom parkes should mainly play long balls to cunnington or diagonally to monkhouse with the midfield and taylor/white/harrison feeding off knock downs and not worry about playing dinky little short passes into congested areas,just my opinion of course
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Post by dragonfly on Sept 12, 2014 21:06:49 GMT
At best so far it has been the same as it ever was except for the fact that we do not have the usual injury problems which has enabled us to pick up a few more points. Our problem is and has been for many years the inability to keep and pass the ball. Our passing is generally atrocious and if you cannot pass the ball you are unlikely to score many goals. Why haven't all the Managers and coaches that BRFC have employed in recent years been able to make professional players do what they are paid to do? It must be one of the greatest puzzles of the century - solve that DC and you will be God in north Bristol.
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Post by socrates on Sept 13, 2014 8:25:00 GMT
Get balata fit and get him on the other wing.
We play 4-4-2 so we must have 2 wingers on the pitch we also need another in case one if them gets injured.
Cunnington will score plenty if we get crosses in.
It seems to me like every goal we've scored so far has come from a cross from a player near the byline?
We don't seem to have central midfielders capable of playing clever through balls through congested central midfield / central defences.
Get another winger in and get it out wide.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2014 8:49:21 GMT
Get balata fit and get him on the other wing. We play 4-4-2 so we must have 2 wingers on the pitch we also need another in case one if them gets injured. Cunnington will score plenty if we get crosses in. It seems to me like every goal we've scored so far has come from a cross from a player near the byline? We don't seem to have central midfielders capable of playing clever through balls through congested central midfield / central defences. Get another winger in and get it out wide. We could substitute a few of these words and apply the post to the last few seasons. |
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Post by socrates on Sept 13, 2014 9:41:35 GMT
Get balata fit and get him on the other wing. We play 4-4-2 so we must have 2 wingers on the pitch we also need another in case one if them gets injured. Cunnington will score plenty if we get crosses in. It seems to me like every goal we've scored so far has come from a cross from a player near the byline? We don't seem to have central midfielders capable of playing clever through balls through congested central midfield / central defences. Get another winger in and get it out wide. We could substitute a few of these words and apply the post to the last few seasons. Yeah I agree. A hell of a lot of the problems from last season are still there. |
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