Points dropped

sportwey

I notice that we've dropped 17 points when playing against teams in the lower half of our current league but have only dropped 7 points against teams in the top half.
Similarly, two of our three doubles already have been against top-half teams and six of our ten remaining potential doubles are against top-half teams. Question - given that the better the opposition, the better we fare, doesn't this bode well for next season where we'll be facing even better teams?

Callumcafc

Brilliant! We'll go on and storm the Championship, run away with the Premier League title the next year and demolish the competition in the Champions League by 2015.

LonelyNorthernAddick

Might be to do with the fact that the teams we dropped points against were the ones who played awkward, direct, ugly football which slowed the game down etc, e.g. Tranmere.

MuttleyCAFC

It is clear that the best approach against us is to flood midfield and defence and try to stop us rather than try to beat us. Agree, that in Championship less teams should do this which is a very positive sign.

Swisdom

Teams who flood the midfield and leave one up front will cause us trouble. If you are in our faces we don't seem to like it.

If you try to play foorball against us we will out-football you.

nth_london_addick

Points against the top are the ones to look at because a draw is no good for either , it shows that if you play for 3 points you will get beat hence why those that need every point flood the midfield

redlanered

I don't think Rochdale & Bury were especially ugly or negative in the way they grabbed a point, and though it's a while ago, my recollection is that Scunthorpe kept on trying to play when they pegged us back.

For sure, we find it hard against 4-5-1, but that system does not mean you can't play a bit of football & pass it about - in fact you more or less have to, because lumping forward against a lone striker is not going to work. In contrast, hoofball specialists Wednesday play a classic 4-4-2

Lower teams are prepared to sit back & be more patient, and we (players and crowd) sometimes struggle with that, especially if our attacking play is misfiring a bit (& so we don't get the early goal to open things up).

MuttleyCAFC

Both Rochdale and Bury flooded the midfield and defence and aimed to break. I agree they did not do this in an ugly way but they were playing for draws and a win would have been a massive bonus. You could tell Stevengae fancied the 3 points on Saturday which went against them.

redlanered

So what we seem to conclude is: pack the midfield & sit back a bit, but when you get the ball, pass it around. They'll be plenty of Championship teams able to do that, and they will be more ruthless & creative in our box than most L1 teams. But let's worry about that if/when....

MuttleyCAFC

But you are unlikely to beat us playing that way and more often than not you will lose. I would expect most Championship sides to be more positive than league one sides but we'll find out. There is also the fact that the experience may help us to deal with this tactic more ruthlessly in future.