Absolutely love BP but starting to get a bit miffed about something.
Yesterday we started brightly and could of been a goal up before we scored in the 10th minute, Cousins was playing an effective role just behind Igor in the middle, Bulot looked bright on the left and Jackson comfortable on the ball, standing at the top of the Covered End you could see the team had very good shape.
We score a well worked goal that our early play deserved, and then ...Cousins goes back out to the left and from that moment onwards we effectively handed Birmingham not only the ball to play with, but all of our own confidence. Up to that point Birmingham had looked a little disorganised and we were sitting pretty against a 20th place side ...so why then completely reshuffle the midfield, sit back and play on the counter attack ? If you give any team that much possession the chances are they will score at some point. We appeared to be wanting to hang onto the lead for the remaining 80 minutes rather than try and improve our goal difference.
We were standing there yesterday trying to understand why he did this. I think our best guess was that by sitting back maybe this saves energy for the second half, but obviously not.
This is fine away from home and worked out well at Norwich, but need to be a lot more positive at home against the lower placed teams.
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Of course, having conceded Brum responded and upped their own game. They started to press higher up the pitch, and the gap between our midfield and Igor grew larger and larger. What should have afforded us even more space became a painful concession of territory for the rest of the game, something we never really recovered from.
Ferguson reportedly used to tell his players to up their tempo once they'd scored. It made it more difficult for the opposition to respond and often led to more goals. Taking your foot off the pedal might start to deny space but it also concedes territory, possession and very rarely do sides find it easy then to up things again without some kind of timely catalyst in the game.
I applaud Bob for trying to get us passing, but if it's producing neither possession nor genuine chances - how many saves did Randolph have to make yesterday? - then what's the point?
BP will be taking all this in, the things that are being said here, him and his coaches will also have noticed. Lets hope BP and and his coaches will become more attack minded, but I am sure he will always be wary of losing. Some players are still getting used to playing here and all of them are getting used to BP ways, that is why I believe with a few additions, we will be better in the second half of the season
Brum switched to 442 after the goal and we switched to combat that.
Bob did say in his post-match interview that he was aware that things went downhill after the first 15 minutes when we "began to give the game away". I'm sure he knows what that coincides with.
Henry could well be right though, Birmingham did seem to change their style at the same time. That said, so did we around the 60 minute mark when we put Moussa on, and later, Tucudean. So it wasn't all negative. (Having Vetokele, Moussa and Tucudean all on the pitch is surely a sign of intent!)
The main issue is still the lack of hold-up play. We ain't gonna improve until we give Vetokele more support.
A lot of criticism of Buyens on here, who lost possession too often. We are now 11 games in and it is no longer a surprise to other teams that he collects the ball from the Centre Backs and starts the build-up. So they go man-for-man. BP and Buyens need to come up with an adjustment, before heaven help us, we lose a game and this thread goes ballistic.
Long live Catenaccio & Rope-a-dope football. This weeks dope is obviously Clayton Donaldson - what a numpty.
The game plan to play from the back - which I though Morrison adapted to really well - was stopped by their two front runners sticking closely to Bikey and Morrison. It will be interesting to see if other teams attempt to stop this.
Bob Peeters has a tactical plan for each game, but unfortunately the opposition have one too and, moreover, have usually prepared to counteract our plan. If we surprise them they'll adjust during the game, as Lee Clark appeared to do yesterday.
Also, Peeters' tactical plan is the art of the feasible. He has to work with the players available to him.
I'm sure he'd like to play a target man alongside Vetokele, as indeed he did in our opening games, but there isn't really anybody who appears to be good enough, unfortunately.
I wouldn't be surprised either if he'd like another quality, "footballing" midfield player to play alongside or just infront of Buyens, but it's clear that we are going to use the loan window only sparingly, for understandable reasons. That also limits his options, for now. And makes it easier for our opponents to counteract our tactical plan.
The January window will be interesting.
As Mundell says there is always another manager and another team trying to stop us having it all our own way.
It does surprise me how often posts on here, like the OP, take no account of what the other team are doing.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game yesterday - particulalry with the changes in formation and how the 'coaches' dealt with it as the pendulum swung one way then the other.
Technically the football this year is light years away from what we're used to. Unfortunately too many fans seem to want the up 'em, bash 'em, smash 'em old skool English style and struggle to see the 'niceties' of standing off the opposition and keeping our shape when they have possession - it's certainly worked so far.
Zonal Marking? Always thought it was rubbish, but have we let a goal in direct from a set piece yet?
Passing backwards? No. It's keeping possession and looking for options. Did you know Birmingham didn't touch the ball for almost the first two minutes of the game? They're hardly likely to score from that position.
No doubt we need to fill some gaps - just looking at the other squads in this League shows you we are a couple of experienced pros short. It will be interesting if Bob can do anymore business in the next international break.
Counter that with not a single Middlesbrough corner or free kcik went directly to a Middlesbrough player (from what I can remember).
Clark changed things around because what we were doing was working. Couldn't we at least have a spell playing the same positive way before retreating? You never know we might actually get a second goal. Or a third. Surely you change your shape because the other side are hurting you, not vice versa? Never understand why teams that have taken the lead stop playing the way that got them into that position. But it is the Charlton way, or has been since the days of Killer Flash and Paddy...