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Staying Onside


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I coach a fair bit and even I never noticed how much difference there is in a game if a striker stays on side 90/95% of your attacks as opposed to 55/60% or even less.

 

The thing that has made me notice this was more at Doncaster on Saturday which followed on to Bradford then onto Saturday against Fleetwood.

 

JCH always used to get caught offside resulting in a lot of attacks breaking down due to him conceding an indirect free kick for being caught offside. Especially at the start of the season we struggled to create chances and struggled to play our game in the oppositions half due to this as well as other reasons.

 

At Doncaster I can recall he was caught offside twice, either side of half time and the manner we played it really helped having a striker in an onside position, we created chance after chance and this in my opinion helped Jones and Kelly play further forward, enabling the defense to tighten up so we as a team played higher up the field instead of dreadfully deep. JCH had a great game at Doncaster and this helped him get sold on Monday night

 

We then sign Poleon and he does exactly the same, from memory caught offside once in the first half and I didn't see any second half. Again allowing the team to play the game and create quite a few chances once again. Also thought Poleon pressured well and was very tricky on the ball and made some fantastic runs for through balls to be played from the midfield

 

How high a team plays up the pitch is down to how well your attackers press on their defenders and we have done that fantastically over the last three games, resulting in three wins, we seem like a stronger unit but I do firmly believe having strikers staying in an onside position really does help create more attacks than what you might think.

 

Has anybody else noticed the change from the start of the season?

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Not necessarily on Saturday but watching us from the side for the last few years you notice that good strikers goal scorers will play right on the last man and gamble. Which means they will get caught offside from time to time. The 2 strikers I've seen get caught offside the most were Chris porter and Lee Hughes, result was they got in more goal scoring positions.

 

So while it's important we want our strikers to gamble and be greedy.

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One problem is not holding the ball up front - not giving at least one central midfielder time to join in with the forward play, central midfielders will be reluctant to venture too far forward if they see a colleague dispossessed and leave them open to the counter attack.

Much as Danny Philliskirk worked his socks off recently (and I applaud this) this has happened on a couple of occasions, almost leading to the team conceding a goal.

I'm sure its something he is aware of and as a result learn to be stronger on the ball.

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Not necessarily on Saturday but watching us from the side for the last few years you notice that good strikers goal scorers will play right on the last man and gamble. Which means they will get caught offside from time to time. The 2 strikers I've seen get caught offside the most were Chris porter and Lee Hughes, result was they got in more goal scoring positions.

 

So while it's important we want our strikers to gamble and be greedy.

 

Don't disagree with the gambling bit but if you think that good strikers watch their line I think it makes a massive difference of how further up the pitch it allows the rest of the team to play. Poleon is very quick and looks like he has the knack of playing off the last defender very well.

 

Just going a bit further back, Allan Smart was always offside and he was shocking!

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I was watching the shooting warm-up before kick-off on Saturday, and when they kept it on the park the finishing was superb. However when practicing volleys almost every shot ended up in the top of the Chaddy End.

 

Perhaps a certain ex Man United expert volleyer could be brought in to coach on this aspect ? :peepwall:

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