Why were we so poor in the first half?

[Rammy Blue]

Any thoughts?

Seemed to me that Wolves were playing very high up the pitch and pushing their midfield 4 right onto our defence. There were times when we outnumbered their back 4 without even being on the break.

Personally I think we struggled due to our lack of pace in midfield, Barry had a shocking first half, yet Bob didn't seem keen to change our formation to counteract what was happening.

Very lucky to get in 1-1 at half time, could have and probably should have had at least 6 in the second half.

Strange game.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Any thoughts?

Seemed to me that Wolves were playing very high up the pitch and pushing their midfield 4 right onto our defence. There were times when we outnumbered their back 4 without even being on the break.

Personally I think we struggled due to our lack of pace in midfield, Barry had a shocking first half, yet Bob didn't seem keen to change our formation to counteract what was happening.

Very lucky to get in 1-1 at half time, could have and probably should have had at least 6 in the second half.

Strange game.

The one thing that the midfield and defence crap themselves about is someone running at them. The pitch is a mass of brown trails. Look at their faces when Yaya started goin' at 'em. We can be like Arsenal in that we will pass ourselves to death but we invariably need five passes to get into their half.

We need to play these teams at their own game plus our own, and let the gulf in class show. I think a little bit of pace anywhere on the pitch, and David Silva would have rendered a quite different first half hour.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Good thread rammy. Kolo and zab got totally outmuscled by Doyle and their other big lad. We didn't break quickly or fluently . Tevez kept giving it away. Did you spot the formation change around half an hour? That helped.

Kolo still a problem for me

 

[Bluebee2]

McCarthy had them high up the pitch pressing our back four and giving them no time on the ball, sitting watch us make 30 passes around the half way line has become something we have been doing quite a lot, Wolves thought sod that get into them. Hence yesterday we had to scrap it out with them and we came out on top.

 

[gio's side step]

A few reasons.

1. The tempo of our passing was not only down to Wolves working hard to put pressure on us, but also our inability to move the ball around quicker using fewer touches. Add to that, I lost count of how many times Hart had the ball in his hand looking for a quick throw, with little options in front of him, other than to hit it long to Dzeko, and when he did have options, he decided to hold on to it too long

2. Doyle kept splitting Toure and Zab in the first half meaning they always had the channel ball option (Dzeko didn't press their centre half and full back as much as Tevez does when he was central) - Toure got too tight at times, giving free kicks away, then other times, didn't get tight enough, they enjoyed quite a bit of success down that right channel in the first half

3. Collectively we were poor (too many of our players having a poor half all at the same time) thus it was difficult to get any real momentum building in the game

4. System - Yaya was far too deep in the first half playing almost along side De Jong at times and again whilst credit to Wolves for pressing and winning a lot of second balls, we could have certainly pushed him further forward to make their defence/midfield drop a bit deeper. Kolarov also (because Jarvis didn't always track back) should have supported much more further forward and overlapped past Barry (who was sort of playing more left than he usually does to compensate for Tevez drifting in field)

5. Didn't get Johnson isolated one on one against the full back enough

6. Far too narrow - very rarely getting in behind them

 

[BlueRockape]

Don't get me wrong i am more than happy with the 3 points but do you think it could be the fans.
For the last ??? years its been the same how the fuck can you be 4-1 up cruising and end up scrapping for a 4-4 its always the same they cant send us home completely happy.
Everything at City has changed over the years the staff the players even the ground the only thing that remains is us the supporters does something filter down from the stands that makes the players nervous because as long as i can remember its been the same.


It cant be still be the gypsy curse shirley???

 

[squirtyflower]

a simplistic view i know

but i also thought they were unfamiliar with the positions and system some of them had to adapt to because of the addition of Dzceko
i thought we looked disjointed and lacking balance for a while and then, like all top players, they began to work round it/through it and perform

 

[DenisLawBackHeel74]

A few reasons.

1. The tempo of our passing was not only down to Wolves working hard to put pressure on us, but also our inability to move the ball around quicker using fewer touches. Add to that, I lost count of how many times Hart had the ball in his hand looking for a quick throw, with little options in front of him, other than to hit it long to Dzeko, and when he did have options, he decided to hold on to it too long

2. Doyle kept splitting Toure and Zab in the first half meaning they always had the channel ball option (Dzeko didn't press their centre half and full back as much as Tevez does when he was central) - Toure got too tight at times, giving free kicks away, then other times, didn't get tight enough, they enjoyed quite a bit of success down that right channel in the first half

3. Collectively we were poor (too many of our players having a poor half all at the same time) thus it was difficult to get any real momentum building in the game

4. System - Yaya was far too deep in the first half playing almost along side De Jong at times and again whilst credit to Wolves for pressing and winning a lot of second balls, we could have certainly pushed him further forward to make their defence/midfield drop a bit deeper. Kolarov also (because Jarvis didn't always track back) should have supported much more further forward and overlapped past Barry (who was sort of playing more left than he usually does to compensate for Tevez drifting in field)

5. Didn't get Johnson isolated one on one against the full back enough

6. Far too narrow - very rarely getting in behind them

Excellent analysis.....can't add a thing to that.

 

[Braggster]

A few reasons.

1. The tempo of our passing was not only down to Wolves working hard to put pressure on us, but also our inability to move the ball around quicker using fewer touches. Add to that, I lost count of how many times Hart had the ball in his hand looking for a quick throw, with little options in front of him, other than to hit it long to Dzeko, and when he did have options, he decided to hold on to it too long

2. Doyle kept splitting Toure and Zab in the first half meaning they always had the channel ball option (Dzeko didn't press their centre half and full back as much as Tevez does when he was central) - Toure got too tight at times, giving free kicks away, then other times, didn't get tight enough, they enjoyed quite a bit of success down that right channel in the first half

3. Collectively we were poor (too many of our players having a poor half all at the same time) thus it was difficult to get any real momentum building in the game

4. System - Yaya was far too deep in the first half playing almost along side De Jong at times and again whilst credit to Wolves for pressing and winning a lot of second balls, we could have certainly pushed him further forward to make their defence/midfield drop a bit deeper. Kolarov also (because Jarvis didn't always track back) should have supported much more further forward and overlapped past Barry (who was sort of playing more left than he usually does to compensate for Tevez drifting in field)

5. Didn't get Johnson isolated one on one against the full back enough

6. Far too narrow - very rarely getting in behind them

Good post. I think 3 is the most significant - as you say, when 3-4 players all struggle we won't build any reAl possession or momentum. Especially when it's the midfielders. And in fact that was in part what led to not being able to get Johnson on the ball in the right areas.

The Touré issue is a concern. He was clearly struggling with injury. That's my biggest concern with him, too many injuries disrupting his game.

There's no obvious solution as Lescott is worse, if anything. Or perhaps more to the point, isn't comfortable in a side that plays like ours does.

 

[Gelsons Dad]

Good thread rammy. Kolo and zab got totally outmuscled by Doyle and their other big lad. We didn't break quickly or fluently . Tevez kept giving it away. Did you spot the formation change around half an hour? That helped.

Kolo still a problem for me

It was bang on 24 minutes when Bobby changed the formation. We were weak on the right side as AJ was too slow either coming back or breaking forwards. Bobby when ape shit at him shortly after the formation change.

It's a little disappointing that we are still starting so nervously at home.