Why were we so poor in the first half?

[LoveCity]

It was Dzeko having the Rodney Marsh effect. ;)

... just kidding. But this wasn't the first time we've had tempo problems this season.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

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.

One reason; because they were working much harder than us.

 

[Andouble]

Tevez started out on the left and we were all out of sorts. He moved into the centre of the pitch behind Dzeko around the time of our first goal. Opened everything up.

 

[talkativesprout]

A team of our quality will only get better as the games goes on. Result is teams going full on for the first half hour, get the first goal then try to shut up shop.

Big Mick will have seen that sometimes in the first 10-20 mins our defence seems to be napping. Result get at em from the off.

Unlucky Big Mick, you deserved a point but tough titty

 

[AustinBlue]

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.

He did change it. If you were at the game rather than watching online you might have missed it, but the camera was focused on him and you could hear what he was saying to Yaya. Which leads me to...

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.

It was actually the complete opposite - Yaya was playing too far forward in the first 25 minutes. It meant that Barry and De Jong were getting overrun making it difficult for the back 5 to play the ball into midfield to build attacks; hence the alarming number of long balls looking for Dzeko.

As I said earlier, you could clearly hear Mancini saying to Yaya to drop back into central midfield, rather than the AM he has been playing in recent months. Once this happened we changed instantly. There was an extra man there and we started to pass the ball.

Here is the chalkboard for Yaya in the first 25 minutes, and then the 25 mintues following that:

Its quite clear to see the change and Yaya playing deeper.

This created a space for Tevez to move into, and play what was effectively the Silva role as playmaker, rather than being stationed out on the left.

Is there a place for actual data and analysis on Blue Moon? Heresy! Burn the witch!

 

[scenecreamer]

lots of good comments in this thread, why I love this forum.

the only thing I'd add- the midfield looked odd from the start, but once Barry started playing a bit more inside and Kolarov made use of the overlap we found the width we needed. This along with Tevez playing a bit inside and behind Dzecko opened up.

 

[wanderer72]

lots of good comments in this thread, why I love this forum.

the only thing I'd add- the midfield looked odd from the start, but once Barry started playing a bit more inside and Kolarov made use of the overlap we found the width we needed. This along with Tevez playing a bit inside and behind Dzecko opened up.

This. Also, is it just me or did Johnson run around like a headless chicken throughout the match? Very unlike him, it was rather bizarre...

 

[talkativesprout]

lots of good comments in this thread, why I love this forum.

the only thing I'd add- the midfield looked odd from the start, but once Barry started playing a bit more inside and Kolarov made use of the overlap we found the width we needed. This along with Tevez playing a bit inside and behind Dzecko opened up.

This. Also, is it just me or did Johnson run around like a headless chicken throughout the match? Very unlike him, it was rather bizarre...

Think Zabba was taking his space mate, to good effect tho

 

[scenecreamer]

This. Also, is it just me or did Johnson run around like a headless chicken throughout the match? Very unlike him, it was rather bizarre...

Think Zabba was taking his space mate, to good effect tho

I was surprised to see AJ start, but yeah. Zaba pushing him a little inside was a good idea.

 

[portisheadblue]

I have read all the posts above and developed my own theory which no-one to my knowledge picked up watching the game yesterday ... I have to confess I watched it on t'internet live, then today on SKY+ to verify my findings ... which are as follows .... check out the team from Joe to Edin ... far too many of them had just had their haircut ... it's as clear as daylight when you look for it .... and being a cold and wet day in Manchester it took the players half an hour to get used to the wind whistling round their ears and the rain running down their neck ... what they need is waterproof snoods I think ....!!!!!

Still joint top on points too ... Come On City .... Remember 1968 ... we only have to be top on 22 May at 5.00pm.

Cheers