denzel
Very well known Exeweb poster
Eh? Crewe didn't play much football. Artell admitted as much.
-
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies from this website. Read more here
Exeter City v Crewe Matchday Thread
- Thread starter OmanGrecian
- Start date
Rosencrantz
Very well known Exeweb poster
They tried initially and gave it up as a lost cause.
Nonsense. They're Crewe Alexandra not Man City. I'm not sure where this myth came from that they play this amazing brand of football to rival Barcelona. They didn't play or attempt to play great football. They were average and we were marginally better.
Rosencrantz
Very well known Exeweb poster
I'm not saying they play amazing football. Just saying that they tried to play normally for the first ten/fifteen minutes and then tried to adapt and it became a game of territory. We actually did it better, thanks a lot to Bowman and better percentage balls forward into channels.
They had Porter milking free kicks and it was from a free kick they scored with one of their only chances in the game. That was the disappointing part having got the lead, it should have been difficult to chase the game and we really had them where we wanted.
They had a bit of a decent period right after they scored for about ten minutes, then we got on top again and they were happy to play for a point.
IndoMike
Very well known Exeweb poster
What does "better percentage balls into the channels" mean?
Are you saying we supplied some good through balls for our strikers to run onto?
What happened with those better percentage balls? Did we shoot? Did the goalie save? What did Bowman do better?
Rosencrantz
Very well known Exeweb poster
Channel running - strikers who chase a medium to long range "ball" that is played behind the opposing full back towards the sides of the penalty area. It is a percentage ball as it has a number of possibilities, the striker gets the ball and can hold it up waiting for support, the centre back gets there first but under pressure from the striker hits the ball out of play gaining the attacking side territory, the defender hoofs the ball blind up the pitch and it all starts again, the defender is Van Dyke and he Cruyff turns his way out of trouble and plays it calmly into midfield.
It used to be a staple of lower league football before the pitches (no comment) generally got better and therefore the players and teams got more ambitious with their style of play. Players like Stanno, Jamie Mackie, Lee Phillips, even Ian Rush back in the day made careers out of this basic tactic (Rush and Liverpool also had other strengths up their sleeves of course
). If you are stuck going through midfield on a really sticky pitch it still is a good option as percentage wise, you can gain an attacking position from which you have possession around the opposing penalty area. Bowman can, and does, do this well when the ball is decent (think of it as area bombing, they're just playing the ball into space). City's defenders generally did this better than Crewe (apart from his goal, every ball Nottingham hit forward in the second half went out for a goal kick or to Ward).
It gave us territory and a better chance to attack. Therefore more possession in their half than ours. It didn't in the end result in more quality attempts, but it gave us the better opportunity to do so. Unfortunately our final ball in when we got into those positions was average to be kind whether in open play or set pieces.
Think of it as a rugby game played in bad conditions. You're unlikely to run a try in from your own 22 in a flowing move. So a lot of kicking into corners to try and set up a position to score within closer range to the try line. Not pretty, but it gives you the best chance in those conditions.
City executed Part A (territory) quite well. But not Part B (creating chances and scoring).