West Brom match thread

[Slinky Skills]

I think we will click shortly, something will fall into place and we'll start playing the way Roy wants us to.

Think the confidence was down a bit prior to yesterday so the win will have done us good. If we can get 2 or 3 more wins under our belt I'm confident the football will get better and with it a bit of a winning mentality too.

[alunevans]

According to MOTD2, we had 48% of possession compared to their 52%. Against West Brom FFS.

And before some condescending ****er 'points it out', I know we got one more goal than them - but still....under Rafa we were used to monopolising the ball, and pressing the ball when we didn't have it.

So far under Roy it looks like we're not pressing, happy to let the other team have the ball and defending with a very deep line. Anyone notice Murphy's and Etuhu's comments? Murphy said the first thing Hughes did was push the team 10-15 yards up the pitch. Etuhu said Hughes had told him to make some forward runs, whereas before he was never given that licence.

Eeeek. Scary. I noticed we were extremely deep, and not only were the centre mids given little license, the full backs didn't move out too much either.

Options ahead of the ball were pretty much non existent.

It reminded me quite a lot of watching the old WM tactics from the 50s in fact, but with 6 in the back line rather than 5.

[little dave hedgehog]

Eeeek. Scary. I noticed we were extremely deep, and not only were the centre mids given little license, the full backs didn't move out too much either.

Options ahead of the ball were pretty much non existent.

It reminded me quite a lot of watching the old WM tactics from the 50s in fact, but with 6 in the back line rather than 5.

that's the world cup on these shores

[nineteen]

I missed the game. Am I interpreting the articles I've read and this thread correctly in determining that we were absolutely ****e/lucky?

[little dave hedgehog]

I missed the game. Am I interpreting the articles I've read and this thread correctly in determining that we were absolutely ****e/lucky?

not really lucky, just never got our fingers out of our ass and actually tried to win the game. nobody took shots, nobody passed forward without giving it away. we were far more ****e than lucky i'd say.

[Exiled_red]

no problem with being a counter - attacking team . . . . . . . . . .IMO the best counter attacking team in europe today is manure. they continually pull 10 men back to defend but they attack with great speed when they get the ball - done correctly it is very effective.

Man Utd are an effective side on the counter attack because they have players with pace and who are good on the ball, these are a couple of things we lack.

[Exiled_red]

The stats that Shaggy posted are worrying in previous years we would have had 60-70%possession in a home game against a team like West Brom, we play a deep backline and the space between defence and midfield and midfield and attack are too big every department is isolated from every other.

[little dave hedgehog]

see, this is what i'm talking about:







lucas and poulsen both continually getting sucked into kuyt's space on the right. and even:

jovanovic getting dragged all the way over once or twice and spending lots of time making up for poulsen and lucas' wandering. not to mention almost exclusively passing the ball OUT of the danger zone in red there. no formation, bunched up over on the right side like a bunch of kids. and jovanovic is completely isolated.

[Vermilion]

Well atleast they seem to be keeping possession.

[alunevans]

fascinating diagrams them. where from?

[BrianF80]

fascinating diagrams them. where from?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards

Roll your own.

Like this one showing that it was Gerrard playing in the "Danger Area"!



They are notoriously inaccurate though, look at the goal even for example.

[little dave hedgehog]

would like to see the gerrard map for first half only.

[BrianF80]

[Craig_H]

Interesting.

[alunevans]

In the entire game, Jamie C didn't make a single pass from any point that was higher up the field than the bottom of our centre circle.