Wooderbeen
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 3 Sep 2008
- Messages
- 434
There are a few details that I've been picking up on in recent months that I thought I would share and get everyone's opinions on. This is not, repeat NOT, a sounding board for people who want to slag Hughes off or people who want to sing his praises - there are enough of those threads already.
Defending too deep when we have the ball: I'm a big fan of keeping posession and of holding the ball rather than booting it forward based on little more than a wing and a prayer, but do Richard Dunne and Nedum Onuoha really have to stand only ten yards up the pitch from their own eighteen yard box to receive the ball from the opponents half. It slows everything, allows the other team to position themselves and, worse of all, gives them respite when we could and should be piling on pressure (a la United and Chelsea).
Defending too narrow: This seems to be fashionable because Sven used the same system before Hughes. When the opposition has the ball the full backs tuck in and our back four play incredibly narrow. I understand that by packing out the box you starve their strikers of space, but this hasn't worked for us. We allow their wingers too much time and even if they deliver an accurate cross, the eighteen yard box is so congested that anything could happen; a ricochet, a goalkeeping fumble, a raised hand in the area, etc. With our two or three defending midfielders, do we really need our full backs playing only five yards from our centre backs?
One up front: People who know a bit about football will say that this system can be used to great effect and I agree. But when it isn't being used to great effect and doesn't seem to suit the players on the pitch, then why not change it up. Bojinov looked completely lost at the weekend and clearly isn't a player who can carry the burden of being that lone striker. Bellamy's touch and movement is perfect but how many times has he been caught out wide only to look up and see not a soul in the box? Jo can play the role, but seemed to drift in and out of the game a bit too much. Benjani just isn't good enough in my view and nowhere near strong enough in the air. Why not shove two of them up there and see what happens? Imagine Boj and Bellamy terrorising a defence with rapid movement and a plethora of shots from around the edge of the area. I think it's worth considering.
Two or three defensive midfielders: I think this is a smart move, but I'm not sure we've got the players right just yet. If you look at the players that sit deep for the big teams (Carrick, Essien, Obi Makel, Alonso, Mascherano, etc.), their main strengths lie in not only breaking down the opposition attacks, but in starting one for their own team. Kompany, De Jong and Zabaleta don't seem to get anything going for us and if they do we've got such few bodies up the park that we're forced to slow things down and allow the opposition to regroup, making it very hard for ourselves in the final third.
More shooting: It sounds obvious, childish even, but I'd like to see more shots from outside the area from City. Not just because the law of averages says that a few are going to go in over the course of a season, but if the opposition expect it, it draws players out of their backline creating space for our forwards. This has been a huge issue this year. Whenever we've had the ball in the final third we've faced a wall of opposition that we've found incredibly difficult to break down. Instead of neat flicks and deft one-twos all the time, let's bang a few at the keeper and make their defenders think.
Anyway... perhaps I over-analyse things, but after the Fulham game I was left pulling my hair out and thought that whilst I don't for one second think I know more than Hughes I think these are issues that should be considered.
Defending too deep when we have the ball: I'm a big fan of keeping posession and of holding the ball rather than booting it forward based on little more than a wing and a prayer, but do Richard Dunne and Nedum Onuoha really have to stand only ten yards up the pitch from their own eighteen yard box to receive the ball from the opponents half. It slows everything, allows the other team to position themselves and, worse of all, gives them respite when we could and should be piling on pressure (a la United and Chelsea).
Defending too narrow: This seems to be fashionable because Sven used the same system before Hughes. When the opposition has the ball the full backs tuck in and our back four play incredibly narrow. I understand that by packing out the box you starve their strikers of space, but this hasn't worked for us. We allow their wingers too much time and even if they deliver an accurate cross, the eighteen yard box is so congested that anything could happen; a ricochet, a goalkeeping fumble, a raised hand in the area, etc. With our two or three defending midfielders, do we really need our full backs playing only five yards from our centre backs?
One up front: People who know a bit about football will say that this system can be used to great effect and I agree. But when it isn't being used to great effect and doesn't seem to suit the players on the pitch, then why not change it up. Bojinov looked completely lost at the weekend and clearly isn't a player who can carry the burden of being that lone striker. Bellamy's touch and movement is perfect but how many times has he been caught out wide only to look up and see not a soul in the box? Jo can play the role, but seemed to drift in and out of the game a bit too much. Benjani just isn't good enough in my view and nowhere near strong enough in the air. Why not shove two of them up there and see what happens? Imagine Boj and Bellamy terrorising a defence with rapid movement and a plethora of shots from around the edge of the area. I think it's worth considering.
Two or three defensive midfielders: I think this is a smart move, but I'm not sure we've got the players right just yet. If you look at the players that sit deep for the big teams (Carrick, Essien, Obi Makel, Alonso, Mascherano, etc.), their main strengths lie in not only breaking down the opposition attacks, but in starting one for their own team. Kompany, De Jong and Zabaleta don't seem to get anything going for us and if they do we've got such few bodies up the park that we're forced to slow things down and allow the opposition to regroup, making it very hard for ourselves in the final third.
More shooting: It sounds obvious, childish even, but I'd like to see more shots from outside the area from City. Not just because the law of averages says that a few are going to go in over the course of a season, but if the opposition expect it, it draws players out of their backline creating space for our forwards. This has been a huge issue this year. Whenever we've had the ball in the final third we've faced a wall of opposition that we've found incredibly difficult to break down. Instead of neat flicks and deft one-twos all the time, let's bang a few at the keeper and make their defenders think.
Anyway... perhaps I over-analyse things, but after the Fulham game I was left pulling my hair out and thought that whilst I don't for one second think I know more than Hughes I think these are issues that should be considered.