Times Online headline: Charlton rue lack of Plan B to reach top

Scoham

Someone from The Times has been on here over the last few weeks

Charlton rue lack of Plan B to reach top

Quotes from Gregan the Oldham captain.

“So we had a plan to frustrate them and narrow the space for Jonjo Shelvey, because he’s going to be a top player.

“They’ve got a lot of footballers that they’ve kept from last year. At times they probably could have got it forward a bit quicker and tried to get down the sides of us a bit more, but they’re sitting second top and that’s the way they’ve played all season, so you can’t really argue with it — and give us a bit of credit for frustrating them. They ran out of ideas a bit at the end, which was good for us.”

Get the ball forward quicker and down the sides a bit more - that's something we probably need pace up front to do. Should we start McLeod and use his pace to create chances for others?

Six-a-bag-of-nuts

So now we have the times getting in on the act.
No plan B screams the headline, before the journalist reluctantly concedes that Parky tried to change it in the final quarter.
Give me strength.
I think I'm beginning to get it now, it only counts as a plan B when it works!!!!

Addick Addict

[cite]Posted By: Six-a-bag-of-nuts[/cite]So now we have the times getting in on the act.
No plan B screams the headline, before the journalist reluctantly concedes that Parky tried to change it in the final quarter.
Give me strength.
I think I'm beginning to get it now, it only counts as a plan B when it works!!!!

You can start with Plan B though. Especially when Teams are bound to set themselves up to match Plan A. Then, if that doesn't work, you can try Plan C in the last 20 minutes or so.

Steve Dowman

Agree AA, plan B should be available to switch to during a game, plan C should be the later change, too slow to react parkie. We were saying all game that we were too slow to get the ball forward. When they had committed players forward and lost the ball, we stroked the ball around beautifully in the middle, just long enough for their whole team to get back behind the ball. No width and no urgency seemed the biggest problem first half.

ColinTat

What's the point of Mcleod using his pace to create space if we're not getting up the sides quick enough? If there's one criticism of Sam that is that he doesn't exploit space, or thrust full backs deeper. But he hasn't been fully fit for a while now and Richardson has been using his pace to thrust past players and he isn't fully fit now.

Strange that all our best opportunities occured in the last quarter, and Mcleod messed up two of the best opportunities in the match. We do need a midfielder who can bomb on pulling the rest of the team up the pitch and scaring the bejesus out of the opposition, thus creating more space for us. But if our midfield isn't supporting quick enough then Mcleod will not make an impact. He'll be better at that if he has a partner who'll benefit from the space.

Exiled_Addick

[cite]Posted By: Addick Addict[/cite]
You can start with Plan B though. Especially when Teams are bound to set themselves up to match Plan A. Then, if that doesn't work, you can try Plan C in the last 20 minutes or so.

C'mon on then, if plan A is 4-5-1, plan B is 4-4-2 with Mcleod's pace up top, what should plan C be?

You maybe get the luxury of countless different strategies if you have asquad the size of Chelsea's but in league 1 I think more often than not you have to play to your strengths and hope that's too much for the opposition. You can vary it a bit, but your not going to be able to make radical alterations, especially mid-match.

Chris_from_Sidcup

[cite]Posted By: Exiled_Addick[/cite]

[cite]Posted By: Addick Addict[/cite]
You can start with Plan B though. Especially when Teams are bound to set themselves up to match Plan A. Then, if that doesn't work, you can try Plan C in the last 20 minutes or so.

C'mon on then, if plan A is 4-5-1, plan B is 4-4-2 with Mcleod's pace up top, what should plan C be?

You maybe get the luxury of countless different strategies if you have asquad the size of Chelsea's but in league 1 I think more often than not you have to play to your strengths and hope that's too much for the opposition. You can vary it a bit, but your not going to be able to make radical alterations, especially mid-match.

Depends how badly we want/need to win the game. Could go 433 with McLeod, Burton and McKenzie up front. Obviously that'd only be a last 15 minutes resort if we were behind.

JohnnyH2

The lack of a plan b was discussed at length a few weeks ago. We did look better on Saturday with two up, but Parky does now have options up front with Mooney, Mckenzie and Sodje all able to support Burton which was not the case when we had pretty much only had Burton to pick. Mcleod has shown when given a chance he was never really a serious option.

Chizz

Surely plan C is 3-5-2?

Scoham

Do any clubs actually play 3-5-2?

Imnot Athletic

Exeter did towards the end of last season in League 2, using Dean Moxey (now at Derby) and Liam Sercombe as wing backs. I went to watch them a few times last season once Fleetwood signed. Tisdale even had them playing 3-4-3 in the second half against Wycombe. Visitors had bossed the midfield in the first half so hit put two big lads (Logan and McAllister) on at half time, who played either side of Fleetwood. Three centre backs were punting the ball upfield, bypassing the midfield completely for Logan and McAllister to flick the ball on for Fleetwood. Worked as well, they won 2-1. Tisdale is a man of many plans :0)

Oggy Red

Against Northwich, we should have changed to a 3-5-2 after 20mins - or at least to kick off the 2nd half.
Llera coming in to physically deal with The Lump, at set pieces - Omo off, Semedo & Youga wingbacks.

The moment has gone now,I know - and I'm not suggesting we should make this a regular feature.
But would have helped us deal with a specific tactic in a specific game.