I’m new here, and this is my first post; so, hi everybody.
I’ve been supporting Beavers for two years now, and managed to get to all the home games this year.
Bit of an amateur tactician, with the focus on “amateur”. Warning: I might be talking utter rubbish, but here’s my view of how we played this year.
1) Attacking. It seems that the main tactic was to “get it forward quickly at all costs”. The main idea was to use Ben Seymour’s pace, to get behind defences. It seemed to work early on. But later on, teams seemed to be prepared for this, their defence just dropping off a couple of yards, to give them the jump on Ben.
The first option was always to pump it forward, wherever we were on the pitch. Great when it works. But, unless you’re Xavi Alonso, and can ping it directly onto somebody’s foot, I think you’re always going to lose possession a lot of the time.
In the second half of matches, we sometimes switched to a passing game, but not until the second half.
2) Lack of support generally. Our midfield never seemed that close to our forward line. Probably because they didn’t have time to get there. But also, when we were trying to pass it short, the ball carrier never seemed to get much support either. Everybody was in such a race to get forward, they didn’t give the ball carrier options for a simple pass.
3) Defending. I think Mel has done a great job of instilling positional discipline into our defending. Last year, before he arrived, we got pulled out of position really easily. But not now.
However, there is a downside to this. We can be very passive in our defending. You’re not going to get a full-team press at this level, it takes hours and hours of training. But it would be nice, when we get teams down by their own corner flag, to jump on them.
Being passive we gave opponents a lot of possession, and that often made them confident.
4) Mason Bloomfield and throw-ins. I also went to see Sutton United vs Tranmere this season. It was shortly before their manager was sacked. They also had a big number 9. His name is Smith, I think. Everything was aimed at Smith. Even throw-ins. Every single throw-in went to Smith.
We’re the same. Every throw-in is aimed at Mason. Doesn’t matter if he has three marking him. The better teams got this, put one man on him, and got others surrounding him, waiting for the knock-on. Pretty easy to clear.
Didn’t matter if Sam had acres of room in the middle, down the line it went. Is this a big deal? I just think it kind of shows this regimented idea of getting it forward quickly, but giving away possession instead.
I hope this doesn’t sound too critical. I really really enjoyed watching the games, and really appreciate all the effort everybody at the club puts in. I just like analysing games, even with my limited knowledge.
Right, I’ve babbled on for too long. I’d really like to hear more from you folks.
Review of the Season
Welcome Sparky, good to have some fresh views on here. Where I would disagree slightly is that quite a few often better teams in this league do press much higher compared to us and we have found that hard to play through without resorting to a speculative long ball forward. You could see the difference when Taunton played us a few games ago, they didn’t press at all in the first half and we dominated possession, which is unusual for us. We looked a good passing team for 30 minutes. I would guess we have much less than 50% possession in the bulk of the games this season. Fine to be a counter attacking side but we lack genuine pace in midfield to support that strategy in my view. Anifowose looked as if he could add a more attacking dimension but then got dropped for quite a few games and didn’t seem quite so effective in his last couple of appearances.
My other team West Ham have a similar debate going on at the moment: often only 20-30% possession and very few shot per game. Long balls launched forward to a CF who often struggles to control the ball. In their case the defence is also terrible so not much advantage of playing a low block formation. It’s a hard watch at times.
Defensively we rely on the CBs on winning headers and seem content to allow the opposition to have the ball wide. This I am told is a tactical choice but to my mind risks the ball being in our box quite a lot and accidents will happen. Debois has literally saved us from conceding many times. But defence is not overly a concern providing we recruit well to plug the known gaps.
My other team West Ham have a similar debate going on at the moment: often only 20-30% possession and very few shot per game. Long balls launched forward to a CF who often struggles to control the ball. In their case the defence is also terrible so not much advantage of playing a low block formation. It’s a hard watch at times.
Defensively we rely on the CBs on winning headers and seem content to allow the opposition to have the ball wide. This I am told is a tactical choice but to my mind risks the ball being in our box quite a lot and accidents will happen. Debois has literally saved us from conceding many times. But defence is not overly a concern providing we recruit well to plug the known gaps.
Thanks guys, and agree with you about pressing, Tony.
I guess I was saying nobody in this league seems to have a full-team press. Other teams do a partial press, whereby two or three players press together to cut down the options, coupled with a high defensive line. We rarely do that kind of pressing (apart from the high defensive line, which we do try to do), or we try and press and do it too late, or with one player. So yes, completely agree with you that other teams do it more, and better. But I'm guessing that might be something to do with Mel's insistence on positional discipline. Players are scared to press in case it takes them out of position. And I get it, pressing can be dangerous if not done properly.
I understand why Mel gives opposition wingers space. He wants us to have a very compact, solid middle. And he's worried that if we press wingers too early, that will leave space behind full backs. I remember a lot of that happening in the first season I started watching, before Mel arrived. Tricky one, I suppose.
What we currently do, generally, is keep a rigid, compact shape and shuffle from one side of the pitch to the other. It does cut down on gaps, but it certainly gives the opposition a lot of possession. And I think, psychologically, we've seen opposition teams grown in confidence because of all this possession we've given them.
Really interesting what you say about counter-attacking. Couldn't agree more. I remember thinking about this during one of the games. I suppose at heart we are a counter-attacking team. But, like you say, we don't have the pace throughout the team to do it properly. I think to be a dangerous counter-attacking team you need pace throughout the midfield. Then, when you win the ball, you've got runners bursting out of defence, all supporting one another.
Hampton's version of counter-attacking, more often than not, is not bursting out of defence with runners, but pumping long balls quickly. As we've seen, this means a higher chance of your team just giving up possession. I guess it worked for Leicester City in 2016, but Jamie Vardy is a one-off. Occasionally we try running out of defence, but as you say, that's when our lack of pace gets exposed.
I don't want this to sound critical of Mel, because I'm guessing he hasn't had a huge amount of time with the players. So, I think he's chosen to be pragmatic, and keep it simple. But I do hope, next season, we widen our repertoire.
I guess I was saying nobody in this league seems to have a full-team press. Other teams do a partial press, whereby two or three players press together to cut down the options, coupled with a high defensive line. We rarely do that kind of pressing (apart from the high defensive line, which we do try to do), or we try and press and do it too late, or with one player. So yes, completely agree with you that other teams do it more, and better. But I'm guessing that might be something to do with Mel's insistence on positional discipline. Players are scared to press in case it takes them out of position. And I get it, pressing can be dangerous if not done properly.
I understand why Mel gives opposition wingers space. He wants us to have a very compact, solid middle. And he's worried that if we press wingers too early, that will leave space behind full backs. I remember a lot of that happening in the first season I started watching, before Mel arrived. Tricky one, I suppose.
What we currently do, generally, is keep a rigid, compact shape and shuffle from one side of the pitch to the other. It does cut down on gaps, but it certainly gives the opposition a lot of possession. And I think, psychologically, we've seen opposition teams grown in confidence because of all this possession we've given them.
Really interesting what you say about counter-attacking. Couldn't agree more. I remember thinking about this during one of the games. I suppose at heart we are a counter-attacking team. But, like you say, we don't have the pace throughout the team to do it properly. I think to be a dangerous counter-attacking team you need pace throughout the midfield. Then, when you win the ball, you've got runners bursting out of defence, all supporting one another.
Hampton's version of counter-attacking, more often than not, is not bursting out of defence with runners, but pumping long balls quickly. As we've seen, this means a higher chance of your team just giving up possession. I guess it worked for Leicester City in 2016, but Jamie Vardy is a one-off. Occasionally we try running out of defence, but as you say, that's when our lack of pace gets exposed.
I don't want this to sound critical of Mel, because I'm guessing he hasn't had a huge amount of time with the players. So, I think he's chosen to be pragmatic, and keep it simple. But I do hope, next season, we widen our repertoire.
Last edited by Sparky on Tue Apr 23, 2024 8:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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EastTerracer
- Posts: 233
- Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:40 am
We were able to have midfield runners when we had Clifton last season because of his ability to retain possession and lay the ball off. He was also very clear on how he wanted the ball played to his feet rather than hoofed over head height. That made a big difference.
Not sure we have played to the strengths of our strikers this season.
Not sure we have played to the strengths of our strikers this season.
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Shepperton Supporter
- Posts: 1741
- Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:18 pm
I noticed mentioned of Clifton, he is at Dulwich and is not always first choice in a struggling team.
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Shepperton Supporter
- Posts: 1741
- Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:18 pm
In view of the problems we encountered with players with injury records, I am sure that the club will be more mindful of this now.
As for previous loan players, discounting those like Dieng and Baptiste that play at a higher level or have retired. Off the top of my head I can only think of a couple who still play at our level. Jeffers at St Albans and Roberts at Havant.
The former would be expensive and the other has just been in a relegation team so might be off.
As for previous loan players, discounting those like Dieng and Baptiste that play at a higher level or have retired. Off the top of my head I can only think of a couple who still play at our level. Jeffers at St Albans and Roberts at Havant.
The former would be expensive and the other has just been in a relegation team so might be off.