beag_teeets Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Is it time for long ball? We all would rather we play nice tippy tappy flowing football but facts are facts and we are up to our necks in it. The way we have been playing has got us where we are, is it time to try and dig ourselves out the old fashioned way and hoof it up to Iwelumo or Smith and have Baxter and Barnard playing off the knock downs? Keeper Grounds M'voto Tarky Brown Winchester Wes Furman Barnard Smith/Iwelumo Baxter Shame to drop Croft who has been our best player recently and we will lose the pace of Obita or Montano but our midfield haven't been hitting the net with regularity so might as well use them to shield the defence and launch it for the 3 up top to deal with. I'd rather see football on the deck but I would rather see that happening no lower than where we are now, if it takes a few months of desperation football to secure third division football then so be it. We've been unlucky at times this season, matched better teams by playing football but haven't got enough points to secure our league position. Time for plan hoof? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microcuts Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 (edited) Not against long ball principally, and I think it can be very effective. However the way you have set up there I'd argue is very one dimensional. With everything going through the middle, it would be easy to cut us off by standing off and playing for the second ball; nullifying the flick-ons. One of the keys to playing with a direct system is having the option of wide men - not only to get balls into the box for the big man - but to stretch the opposition defence to make space for the likes of Baxter. I think I'd much rather see one of central midfielders cut loose and allowed to get in the box. It would let Baxter come deep with more options than a heavily marked striker or a square/backwards ball, and would allow Barnard to play off the back of the defence like we saw Derbyshire do. -edit- this is of course based on a selection including Baxter up front. Edited March 12, 2013 by Microcuts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laticdickovarmy Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Long ball only works with runners and people filling the box, which is where we always seem to fail at it IMO. If you get numbers in the box you have a lot more chance it will drop to one of them (sounds stuipdly obvious) so many managers dont do that though as worried will get hit on the break. People who are clever enough to time a run from deep can get a lot of goals from it, Furman did it at Stevenage only a couple of weeks ago! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deyres42 Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Don't remember us playing much tika taka for a while to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opinions4u Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Time for? Do you mean time to cease the long ball? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddog Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Time for? Do you mean time to cease the long ball? Really?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosa Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 (edited) Not against long ball in itself, if it works, but it often plays to the other teams' strengths rather than to our own. It quite clearly wasn't working on Saturday - you're never going to beat Ronnie Moore's Tranmere in a game of hoof ball. Every punt forward was going straight to Ian Goodison. The problem wasn't that we were playing tiki-taka, the problem was that once again we were taking 3-4 touches too many on the ball, not crossing it quickly enough, and we weren't sharp or ruthless enough in and around the penalty area. That and the referee's 'Johnny King forever' tattoo on his right arse cheek. Edited March 12, 2013 by rosa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewBlue Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Keeper Grounds M'voto Tarky Brown Winchester Wes Furman Barnard Smith/Iwelumo Baxter This team isn't necessarily a long ball team. It's an attacking team. The 3 CMs are not hoofers whatsoever, and Baxter and Barnard are footballers. I still believe that we aren't attacking enough though. After 2 and a half years of defensive :censored: that Dickov 'entertained' us with the mindset for that type of play remains. We have the attacking talents to score goals and create chances but our tactics i.e. 2 CDMs and usually 1 striker restricts us. I mean, we're still playing our best attacking threat in CM (Baxter). I say put 3 up front. Have Crofty and Obita/Montano on the wings and :censored:ing get at 'em. We're not going to stay up without scoring goals, that's a fact. Go out with a fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh Heck C-Beck Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 We play a lot of long ball anyway, at least we did against Sheff United. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mighty_bosh Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 If we got a long ball manager in after Dickov was sacked then yes I think it would be a good move but the first 3 league games under TP proved that we can beat lowly/out of form teams by playing better than them. We don't need to play extreme in my opinion. Having a back four, defensive mid, creative mid, two attacking wingers, a target man and a hard worker who plays on the last man is a well balanced team at this level and that's what we've got. The time for radical tactical changes has passed imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al_bro Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Depends on the pitch. Most pitches we see at the moment including BP do not lend themselves to tippy tappy football, so we should go long on a bad pitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmer1 Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 we have been playing long ball for months thats why we are struggling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP1960 Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 No matter what system is played if there's a lack of bodies in the penalty area goals will be hard to come by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slystallone Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Maybe i've missed the ticka-tacka stuff; because aren't we a long ball team already? I mean, the tactics when we had Matt Derbyshire here didnt change, and we still hoofed the ball long & high - up towards one of the best off the shoulder / channel running strikers we've had in years. Madness. Dickov's 4-4-1-1 was a long ball formation. Especially when Smith the highest '1'. We haven't used the central 2 in midfield much at all; and there was a time when we were all bemoaning even playing wingers as we simply were not using them. When we play it "properly" - quick tempo, to feet with the occasional high ball thrown in, with a high press when we dont have the ball - we've always played our best football. It's what won us the game vs MK Dons not long ago. It's what PD managed to play for the 1st 4/5months of his reign. When we :censored: it long and leave the striker - whoever it is; Smith, Derbyshire, Iwelumo, Barnard - it matters not, isolated - we look toss. And the results support that. We've been going long for a while and it doesn't / hasn't worked. We need the quick tempo / high press football that we have shown on occasions that we can do. Not more aimless hoofs IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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