Caldwell out?

[Boyo]

Do you think a team has a better chance of scoring when a) they have the ball in their defensive third of the pitch or b) when the opposition has the ball in their own defensive third of the pitch?

I’m all for possession based football if it’s purposeful and leads to opportunities, but the defenders and keeper playing keep ball for half the game is what frustrates people.

I'd always rather have the ball, regardless of where it is on the pitch. Obviously the closer to your own goal you are the riskier the situation. Whereas we do play-out from the back, we don't overplay in our own third. Indeed, most of our possession would be in the middle third. To improve we need to retain the ball further forward (moving the heat map up the pitch).

 

[Boyo]

Would you say it's fair to say that shows we don't make the most of our possession then?

Probably. As I mentioned in the response to FBH, the next step IMO is for us to retain the ball higher up the pitch, closer to the opposition goal. At the same time I think it's important to acknowledge that while it's not entertaining to watch us knock the ball around at the back, what we are doing is denying the opposition the ball. Our goals against column this year is pretty decent, especially when you factor in 7 of those were in one match, in the depths of our despair.

 

[Alistair20000]

As near as dammit we now have the Brexit vote % figures for out and in

 

[Grecian Max]

Probably. As I mentioned in the response to FBH, the next step IMO is for us to retain the ball higher up the pitch, closer to the opposition goal. At the same time I think it's important to acknowledge that while it's not entertaining to watch us knock the ball around at the back, what we are doing is denying the opposition the ball. Our goals against column this year is pretty decent, especially when you factor in 7 of those were in one match, in the depths of our despair.

Our goals against position, which is exactly where we sit in the table

At times this year we've looked pretty solid in defence before losing our heads at bad moments, but I agree that denying the oppo the ball is a good thing

However if you've conceded and are 1-0 down it's also pretty easy to defend against hence our shocking return in front of goal:




I think most people are in agreement that we have been poor going forward this year and this is the thing that needs work

0.87 goals a game is the reason people think it's not all that fun

 

[Bridgy 81]

I don’t profess to have any particular knowledge about tactics (and I’ve never coached a team at any level) however I am interested in trying to understand the different playing options and styles.
I’ve particularly enjoyed reading up on gegenpressing (counter-pressing) in recent times.
There’s plenty of material available about it.
Although nothing is really ever completely new in football the above approach has caught the imagination of a lot of contemporary coaches and can I suppose be most clearly and easily seen by us in Klopp’s Liverpool teams.
It’s very difficult to do consistently well though as it requires a total buy-in from every player and extremely high fitness levels.
I would imagine it’ll be almost impossible for us to implement at our level mainly because we have to make so many compromises for various reasons on who we can recruit and retain.
When it works though it’s fantastic to watch.
And as Jurgen himself says “No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation”.
He was in the West County during the recent international break, I wonder what his plans for next season are?

 

[BigBanker]

Literally posted I was wrong three or four times now hahaha

What more can you say really! Humility isn't a word you'd understand

You add zero to any debate, just another farting old man on the Bank drifting in the wind

Lest we forget @STURTZ 's expletive strewn abusive post directed at me earlier in the season, which fortunately you took a screenshot of before he deleted in a rare moment of clarity. Not such a harmless old farter, bit of a nasty piece of work tbh.

 

[Grecian Max]

Lest we forget @STURTZ 's expletive strewn abusive post directed at me earlier in the season, which fortunately you took a screenshot of before he deleted in a rare moment of clarity. Not such a harmless old farter, bit of a nasty piece of work tbh.

I think this idea that you can't have an opinion that can flex and change is very Brexit-y

Surely Sturtz would be happy that more fans are coming round to the idea that GC might have a vision that will work (it's still WIP either way)

The latter Tisdale years unfortunately around the same time set the tone

 

[Colesman Ballz]

Lest we forget @STURTZ 's expletive strewn abusive post directed at me earlier in the season, which fortunately you took a screenshot of before he deleted in a rare moment of clarity. Not such a harmless old farter, bit of a nasty piece of work tbh.

Watch out for fireworks !

 

[Rosencrantz]

I don’t profess to have any particular knowledge about tactics (and I’ve never coached a team at any level) however I am interested in trying to understand the different playing options and styles.
I’ve particularly enjoyed reading up on gegenpressing (counter-pressing) in recent times.
There’s plenty of material available about it.
Although nothing is really ever completely new in football the above approach has caught the imagination of a lot of contemporary coaches and can I suppose be most clearly and easily seen by us in Klopp’s Liverpool teams.
It’s very difficult to do consistently well though as it requires a total buy-in from every player and extremely high fitness levels.
I would imagine it’ll be almost impossible for us to implement at our level mainly because we have to make so many compromises for various reasons on who we can recruit and retain.
When it works though it’s fantastic to watch.
And as Jurgen himself says “No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation”.
He was in the West County during the recent international break, I wonder what his plans for next season are?

It is good to watch when done well but as well as buy in and high fitness levels, you also need two very mobile centre backs who are excellent defending one on one situations and a good sweeper keeper. This is why Liverpool got really good when they signed Van Dijk and Alisson. Otherwise it's a bit easy to bypass the press and play direct into space behind as normally only two defenders are left back to cover with an ocean of space. Against a team who plays out regardless though it is very effective.

As for us under Matt, we played a similar way, pressing very high and looking to win possession in the opposition final third. Our 4-0 win over Argyle was probably the high point of playing this way as they kept on playing out from the back and had a high line of defence. Being in L2 though, you had more teams happy to defend deep but play direct and effective from set pieces and wide areas. That is where we could struggle at times in breaking down the opposition and being caught at the back without the mobility or aerial dominance. Attacking wise we were generally ok, whether it was Law, Holmes, Lee Martin, Bowman, MJ, Randell and Randall, Jevani and Sam we could find a way most of the time. Defending was more of a problem. Matt was always looking for the right centre back combination and we got through quite a few before landing on a back three with a centre pin of George Ray, and then Stubbs and Cheick. That way promotion happened, because we were tight defensively, especially after the new year. It was a template in getting out of L2 really, a side with a pace and power, with a good bit of quality and good on set plays.

 

[Grecian2K]

As near as dammit we now have the Brexit vote % figures for out and in

And, seemingly, the same level of vitriolic "debate" between the opposing factions.