by YorkshireRoyal99 »
09 Nov 2022 13:44
Royal Rother We don't do anything quickly enough.
Nothing is instinctive.
When in possession we stop, look for a pass, and in that time everyone has been closed down so there are no easy balls. As a result, when we do pass forward, the guys on the end of the pass almost always seem to have their backs to goal with a defender right up their bum, so we either get dispossessed or pass backwards. Same applies with crosses, the ball is always too slow being delivered which means defenders are set and can challenge (if we actually get a clean delivery in without being charged down which isn't often).
Do things faster and maybe they'd have a couple of yards of space to utilise. To counter the low possession stats I wonder whether their heads have been filled with a "keep the ball" mantra which just ends up blunting everything we try to do and ends up having the reverse effect.
We are just so predictable. I don't want to see us giving the ball away unnecessarily but we need to take a few more risks with early deliveries to create a degree of uncertainty in the opposition. At the moment we are easy to play against.
Still, I suppose a reality check is reasonable. No idea how much Watford's squad cost but it's a hell of a lot more than ours. They just have better players. Maybe when we play teams more at our level we'll find things a bit easier. Maybe....
Agree with this here, think we are predictable and can be easy to play against, although think that suits what we've got at the moment. A bit of speed in our play is what we need, particularly if we want to soak up pressure and hit on the break. Early season we had that with Ince as a 10 who would drive and be direct and he's really the only good ball carrier we have in midfield, every other player outside of him doesn't really do it and are quite passive, which is fine for just keeping the ball and relieving pressure, but we also lose some potency in attack as well. I do think that is a contributing factor to why we've struggled in front of goal.
The only issue is, you can't have six of one, half a dozen of another. It's true - legs are being killed asking the same players to play consistently, so having Meite and Long who can stretch opposition defences and press more is fine, but we'd be even easier to play against having just the likes of Meite, Long and Ince pressing, but then not having the rest of the team do it (or conversely only doing it for an hour before we run out of steam), teams would just bypass us constantly.