Tippy Tappy football

[robbieh]

I still remain unconvinced that we will ever win the Premier League playing this type of football.

I watch Barca a lot and they are light years ahead of us in terms of technique. Even our most technically gifted ie Nasri, Silva, Yaya are not at the same level as Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets and that is before we talk about the rest of the squad.

WBA were poor and we beat them in the end comfortably but the same problems will arise away from home.

When Arsenal were winning things they were not playing how Arsenal of the last few years have been playing. They were faster(Henry helped there) and sometimes very direct.

I am not suggesting route 1 but Brazil circa 1970 maybe OK at high altitude in a Mexican summer but not at Stoke in December, which I know is a cliche but nevertheless doesn't make it untrue.

 

[Akira]

On a basic scale, our football style is heavily reliant on clever movement and high selfless workrate. Thus, many a times you see our back four passing the ball around like it was a passing session but in fact, it is because they are looking for the movement of our attackers so they can make the direct, forward pass.

Unless, of course, this is neglected if the playmaker, Silva/Nasri/Yaya, can trackback deep enough to collect the ball and move it forward.

The strikers need to be able to hold the ball very well. Aguero has shown the ability to do that but not consistent enough, Tevez is perfect to do that, Dzeko looks like he's on stilts, Balotelli constantly looks for the dive, or probably bringing his studs to the defender. Bring in Guidetti, I believe he was built for this.<br /><br />-- Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:17 pm --<br /><br />

I still remain unconvinced that we will ever win the Premier League playing this type of football.

I watch Barca a lot and they are light years ahead of us in terms of technique. Even our most technically gifted ie Nasri, Silva, Yaya are not at the same level as Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets and that is before we talk about the rest of the squad.

WBA were poor and we beat them in the end comfortably but the same problems will arise away from home.

When Arsenal were winning things they were not playing how Arsenal of the last few years have been playing. They were faster(Henry helped there) and sometimes very direct.

I am not suggesting route 1 but Brazil circa 1970 maybe OK at high altitude in a Mexican summer but not at Stoke in December, which I know is a cliche but nevertheless doesn't make it untrue.

Barca's ability stems from the abilities of Messi, regardless of whether there's Iniesta or Xavi. Take Messi out of the equation, and most of the time you might just see a Barca team constantly trying to break down a stubborn, packed defence.

Erm, and watch the Rags. Did you ever remain convinced that their current squad can see through even one match unscathed?

 

[Metal Biker]

What the fuck is tippy tappy?

It's like watching Brazil

 

[bluecityboy]

What the fuck is tippy tappy?

It's like watching Brazil

PMSL

 

[bondsman]

In recent months there's been no end to the derision directed at our "tippy tappy" football.

Yet tonight, we turned in a dominant offensive performance with just that style. We scored all four goals through the middle of the pitch and it is where the majority of our other chances came. It was NOT width that created our goals tonight. And we've not heard a peep of complaint about it.

What this signals to me is that the frustration has not been that we were playing "tippy tappy" football, but that we weren't playing it well enough. This is due to Silva being horrifically off form, Balotelli erratic and Dzeko (who's not quite suited to this style anyway) largely non-existent.

It's also due to our ball pressure being significantly less intense than it has been when we've been on form this season. But tonight with a fourth high workrate, close down, defend from the front type player (Tevez) West Brom had great difficulty grabbing extended possession.

When you have four high work rate players (and I think Silva and Nasri are both overlooked in this regard), and add in a player or two here or there at certain times (Barry, Clichy, Yaya is also excellent in this regard etc) it creates real confusion in the opposing ranks and leads to turnovers in dangerous areas.

Yes, this all sounds common sense but it's what we've been missing. We've not harried our opposition enough, which even if it doesn't lead to a goal it establishes momentum in our favor and instills confidence in the team.

What this says to me is that when Tevez goes (as he will) and Dzeko too, we should be looking at players like Lavezzi, who also has a high workrate and closes players down consistently throughout matches. (I do not know if Hazard has a similar style, so can't comment.) In fact, rather than going after another big striker (we'll have Mario, who I expect we'll keep perhaps largely because we won't get an adequate transfer fee, and Guidetti will return) we should be targeting two quick, tippy tappy players, leaving us with something like this in terms of depth:

Aguero
Silva
Nasri
Lavezzi
Hazard
Balotelli
Guidetti

Is this overkill? I don't think so when you consider that its basically two CAM/wide attacking midfielders (Silva, Nasri), three out and out strikers (Aguero, Balotelli, Guidetti), and two wide forwards (READ: NOT TRADITIONAL WINGERS) (Lavezzi, Hazard).

Add in Martinez (who can slot in at CB if required, meaning we don't have to sign another "world class" CB if we keep Kolo, which I expect we will) when De Jong goes (he didn't sign a contract on 100,000 GBP, and his value has gone down, but he won't think it), and offload AJ if we can get 12 million GBP out of him, and our transfer dealings would not be that far from breaking even.

Out:
Tevez: 25 million
Dzeko: 20 million
De Jong: 12 million
AJ: 12 million

Total: ~70 million GBP

In:
Hazard: 30 million
Lavezzi: 25 million
Martinez: 15-20 million

Total: ~70-75 million GBP

Throw in the transfer fees for Adebayor, Santa Cruz, and the other hanger ons, and we'll also be looking to add a regista. And that would make this a COMPLETE, four fronts competing — and CL winners quality — squad.

And it'll play tippy tappy football.

I'm hoping tevez stays he's better than all the players you want in. If his attitude has changed keep him end of.

 

[LongsightM13]

The big difference last night was that we moved the ball around with pace and tempo, as we did at the start of the season but stopped doing in January. Yaya would always be one of the first names on the team sheet for me, but sometimes, especially away from home and when heplays in a deeper role, he is guilty of slowing our play down too much.

 

[mike channon´s windmill]

Just watching an analysis of Barca the other day

They played a combination of 3-3-4 and 4-4-2

With the 3-3-4 this allows them to play with 2 wide men. Then they switch to 4-4-2 to defend. When attacking tippy-tappy style through the middle they STILL have 2 wingers who can attack
The key to this is Busquets who drops back into CD

I was watching Micah in particular and thinking he doesn´t have the skill to trouble oppo full backs. This is why the oppo allow us to use the present system as they are sure they can cope with it. They don´t think we are a threat with our FB´s
But if Micah played in a back three this would allow us to play 2 conventionally attacking wide men along with the 3 mids when getting forward. This I believe could be the way forward and would start to worry defences away from home much more.
The question would be who would take the Busquets role? Yaya? Or what about Javi Martinez? He would be perfect for that role - absolutely perfect
The other question would be left side. Would we give this role to Kola to bomb on and push forward pinging crosses in? I suppose we already have someone in mind for the right flanK ( Hazard ie)

This system could be the solution to Bob´s dilemma away from home where we seem to have been sussed out

 

[jay_mcfc]

It's an education thing. Ask Brendan Rodgers about the biggest factors in Swansea's development as a team that plays excellent and effective football and he will cite the crowd as one of the biggest factors.

Over the course of several years, beginning with Martinez, that crowd has bought into the fact that "tippy tappy football" is not "fannying around with it". Passing backwards and sideways is not a waste of time and they do not need to "get it forward".

At most clubs, including City, you get a crowd that react in a ridiculous way when a team plays consistently plays quality football in this style and results aren't coming freely.

It is outrageous that this City team, who in the first half of the season were the best footballing team seen in this country for years, destroying teams, get grief off parts of their own crowd for playing this way when they hit a sticky patch of form.

If anything they should get grief for not committing fully to "tippy tappy" in the second half of the season.

My thoughts exactly

 

[SuperYaya]

I think sometimes we arse about too much with it though. Agueros goal came from a shot outside the box, I'd like to see us having more pops from that distance.

 

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

I like this kind of football...its trying to be Barcelona type style which is what we want ultimately but agree that we need the players for it, we have some but Edin cannot play it and Mario is too young/immature - can get better....buy these types of players, somebody to replace Tevez is a must.