It's pace?

[Magister]

We have endlessly discussed formations, 2 up top, 3 at the back whatever.... I have come to the opinion that the common denominator in the defence struggling, in midfield getting over run and in the attack being ineffective is a relative lack of mobility , agility and pace throughout the team. This is cruelly exposed at home where we are inevitably less compact and opposing teams exploit more space which are slow to close down . Repeatedly we see opposing midfielders running beyond our players at pace.....

 

Ps don't get me wrong, our players are necessarily elite athletes to be playing at the level they are playing but I believe relative to the level they are marginally off the pace all over the field. Compactness away negates this to an extent.

[yarddog73]

They do get exposed all over the pitch, the ease the opposition slice through us worries me, they seem to turn defence into attack in seconds yet we spend a couple of minutes making the same amount of passes to gain no ground.

 

It was interesting to see us go to three at the back last night at 3-0 because it changed the mindset of both teams, it allowed our players to play a bit but more importantly it gave Southend something to think about, at that point they couldn't play through us because their defenders were occupied by our forward players, there only chance of a goal came from a breakaway and the only 2 punts they put into the box resulted in goals, teams come here and know how to expose us we set up defensively they then gamble with men going forward and punish us. IF we had a stronger keeper last night we may have got back into the game at 3-2 the atmosphere lifted for seconds, it did show that when we have a go we worry teams lets hope that can be a lesson learnt.

[HarryBosch]

We have endlessly discussed formations, 2 up top, 3 at the back whatever.... I have come to the opinion that the common denominator in the defence struggling, in midfield getting over run and in the attack being ineffective is a relative lack of mobility , agility and pace throughout the team. This is cruelly exposed at home where we are inevitably less compact and opposing teams exploit more space which are slow to close down . Repeatedly we see opposing midfielders running beyond our players at pace.....

 

Ps don't get me wrong, our players are necessarily elite athletes to be playing at the level they are playing but I believe relative to the level they are marginally off the pace all over the field. Compactness away negates this to an extent.

 

It's moving the ball too slowly with little or no intent that's the problem.

 

And Liam Kelly trying/having to do everything in the first two thirds often leaving a gap where he's supposed to be.

We're really, really easy to play against.

[Magister]

To agility pace and mobility add speed of thought