lostgalaxy said:
The lesson is to give the players the freedom to err.
Mancini first tried the error-minimizing approach. Worked to some extent. But in the end, he lets go. Or the players get loose.
There are only three styles of play:
1. with brain / discipline
2. with diligence / patience
3. with heart / inspiration
You can mix, but in the end you have to make a choice and stick to it.
Against the likes of Wigan and Burnley [under Law] we beat them to a T because we play the same styles only more classy.
Against Everton and Moyes who actually are very wise we stuck because thats how it often goes the wise beats the brave, but the brave beats the rest!
Look at Federer his record's negative against Nadal, Djorkovic and Murray but he's still easily number one!
With this in mind, I suggest we keep calm in view of Birmingham and Aston Villa. They are both very disciplined and everton-like, only not that sharp. Against MU is not difficult because MU is too much of a mixture can't say which style they play nowadays.
If we can at least draw Birmingham and Villa, then fourth is ours.
fascinating. I agree to this extent. there will be no repeat against birmingham, because, yes, they are extremely disciplined, but more importantly, mcleish is far too wiley to make the elementary mistakes that Laws did today. we thrashed them because the of the gap between the defenders and the midfielders. adebayor and tevez had space to turn and run at them, and bellamy had the space to run inside to recieve short passes. mcleish will pack his midfield and leave no such space at all. we will probably end up having to go very wide again to try and tease out the gaps.
but overall I think I subscribe to a different theory on mancini's tactical progression with the team. it's not that he 'tried' the error minimising approach and then dumped it. rather that he implemented a coaching
process. it began with the drills designed to instill a compact shape to the team, addressing the enormous problems that led to so many goals conceded under hughes, namely, the that defenders (and midfielders) were running forwards when they should be going backwards, out wide when they should be converging, generally, out of sync with each other, the back four spread out across the pitch, leading to unpredictable gaps between the two centre halves, between the centre halves and full backs, between centre midfield and the defence, between the wide players and the full backs. as the implementation of that progresses, and maintaining the proper shape became second nature, then you gradually unleash the creativity and movement of the midfielders and attackers, as they start to display a shared understanding of when 'free' movement is desirable, and when it's neccessary to hold back, or cover for a team mate.
it's like tennis, yes. if even a top player employs a new coach, he may insist on the player concentrating on basic defensive movements in match situations, before progressing to working on seeking out opportunities for winning shots.
the rules are there to be broken. but you have to be able to follow the rules very well before you can choose the right moment to do so. otherwise, the temptation is to seek a short-cut to success by breaking a rule out of habit, regardless of the tactical situation, leaving your opponent an obvious angle of attack that he can exploit time after time. you could call that state of affairs 'papering over the cracks'. you may well be dangerous to your opponent, but you are a danger to yourself as well.
