Prestwich_Blue said:The only thing is, I thought the "holistic" system we were introducing across all the teams was 4-3-3 so why is the first team playing 4-4-2?
Prestwich_Blue said:The only thing is, I thought the "holistic" system we were introducing across all the teams was 4-3-3 so why is the first team playing 4-4-2?
inbetween said:It isn't a problem with the formation. This is a problem with underestimation of the opposition. West Ham pressed us and did everything they could to turn the game into how they want to play. With our formation today we turned up expecting to score 5 but instead we got overrun everywhere and pressed out of the game. It only changed later because we changed formation and suddenly had the advantage in numbers in midfield and could always find a man when being pressed.
They played the exact formation so tactically we cancelled each other out but they put in 100000x more effort and therefore stopped us playing. There was no space for Silva to work his magic, Clichy, Zabs and Navas barely offered anything out wide so where was the goal going to come from?? I just don't understand why we hamstring ourselves both defensively and offensively by playing with 2 strikers, we saw an equal amount of the ball in the first half and barely any of it was in the final 3rd so why have 2 strikers at all??
Today's formation works fine when your opposition is sat in their own half because you get all the space and your midfield can move around however they fancy but today we were penned back by effort. In that case you then either match it or you calm it down and control the game, we couldn't control it because we were evenly numbered to West Ham in midfield and as for effort it was a half arsed attempt until the last 20 minutes.
More work needs to be done on THE OPPOSITION and what they will do to us rather than just blindly playing 2 up front because it's West Ham and we should expect to win 6-0, it DOES NOT work. The exact same philosophy applies in Europe. You simply CANNOT play with 2 strikers and a inferior half arsed midfield against top teams. When playing this formation you have to match whatever the opposition does because that is the price of 2 strikers, today we didn't!!
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:inbetween said:It isn't a problem with the formation. This is a problem with underestimation of the opposition. West Ham pressed us and did everything they could to turn the game into how they want to play. With our formation today we turned up expecting to score 5 but instead we got overrun everywhere and pressed out of the game. It only changed later because we changed formation and suddenly had the advantage in numbers in midfield and could always find a man when being pressed.
They played the exact formation so tactically we cancelled each other out but they put in 100000x more effort and therefore stopped us playing. There was no space for Silva to work his magic, Clichy, Zabs and Navas barely offered anything out wide so where was the goal going to come from?? I just don't understand why we hamstring ourselves both defensively and offensively by playing with 2 strikers, we saw an equal amount of the ball in the first half and barely any of it was in the final 3rd so why have 2 strikers at all??
Today's formation works fine when your opposition is sat in their own half because you get all the space and your midfield can move around however they fancy but today we were penned back by effort. In that case you then either match it or you calm it down and control the game, we couldn't control it because we were evenly numbered to West Ham in midfield and as for effort it was a half arsed attempt until the last 20 minutes.
More work needs to be done on THE OPPOSITION and what they will do to us rather than just blindly playing 2 up front because it's West Ham and we should expect to win 6-0, it DOES NOT work. The exact same philosophy applies in Europe. You simply CANNOT play with 2 strikers and a inferior half arsed midfield against top teams. When playing this formation you have to match whatever the opposition does because that is the price of 2 strikers, today we didn't!!
Watching us press Newcastle in the first game of the season last season, I thought that we would go on to rule Europe playing like that. It lasted a couple of games. I'm not sure why, as pressing like that with quality players usually means a win. We don't press hard enough anymore.