Why were we so poor in the first half?

[Project]

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.

 

[Soulboy]

The first half we played with a front three, with Tevez playing wide left... and it didn't work.

Second half we moved Barry more wide left, shoved Tevez behind Dzeko... and it worked a treat.

Tevez is not a wide player. Easy peasy.

 

[*singingtheblues*]

I'll try my best to be diplomatic about it, but I think Joe has to take a large proportion of the blame.

His distribution puts us under an unnecessary amount pressure of pressure every single week, and it seems to have been getting worse of late. Of course he's a young, inexperienced keeper, but it really shows at times.

I can excuse the occasional gaffe ala the fumble at Leicester, particularly for a young keeper like Joe, but if you're persistently putting us on the back foot every week due to your distribution questions need to be asked.

A good example would be when we break down an opposition attack;

Joe might receive the ball for example, the fullbacks would bomb on to give him options to initiate a counter, but he'll dawdle in possession, often taking an age to mull over his options, in which time the opposition have got everyone behind the ball again and the opportunity has evaporated into thin air. At which point Joe will usually usher everyone away, punt it long, we concede possession (quite predictably and inevitably), and the opposition are taking the game to us in our own half once again.

And then repeat, repeat, repeat.

To be perfectly honest his goal-kicks are just as hopeless, but of course I accept he's a young keeper and the experience will come with time.

But nonetheless, it's frustrating watching us fail to retain possession or build any momentum while every time we get the ball in our own half Joe punts it hopelessly back to a very grateful opposition.

Apologies for the rant, it's just a serious bugbear of mine. Particularly now that we have such a talented side, with such technical ability, we shouldn't be bypassing our midfield and playing into the opposition's hands in the manner we do. It defies logic.

Not all Joe's fault of course, if we're pressed high up the pitch it's never easy, and he's not the only culprit. But I think it's beginning to get to the point where the opposition are recognising that once you put Joe under a little pressure he struggles and is prone to panic.

Besides that though, we really just didn't press the man in position consistently enough in the first half, and there was little pace or conviction to our passing. Not forgetting an atrocious performance from that enormous **** Mason, and it made for a difficult first half. Thankfully we improved second half and earned a deserved win, but if we're to keep the pressure on the scum between now and the end of the season, the individual and collective errors will have to be ironed out.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Mancio]

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 watched the game online rather than being there 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.

perfect.

at 24 mancini changed to a 4-4-1-1 both for help midfield and defender to retain possession and for play tevez and dzeko in role they are more used to

 

[Nelly's Left Foot]

Just badly prepared for me.We knew or should have known exactly how Wolves would play as they did the same thing against Liverpool and yet it was as if it came as a shock they would press so high.

That plus players maybe starting a little complacent.Just as well we are a good team and have a player that can make things happen on his own.

 

[hirop]

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.

This is right, Tevez dropped deeper on about 25\30 mins, and started making forward passed, through balls, and switching play. The lack of Silva was everything with their in your face style of midfield pressing game. He helps us move the ball quicker and sharper. Tevez showed what a good footballer he is yesterday, the prospect of him and Silva playing close to one another with a centre forward on the pitch up top is mouth-watering.

 

[Blue Tooth]

Wolvesd played with two up top which should not have been a surprise but seemed to catch us on the hop...McCarthy did a good job on us first 25 but Roberto responded well and my only dissapointment is that we did not end up boosting our goal difference more...two soft goals to let in...shame but hey ho...3 points is what matters.

 

[rossie]

i thought wolves deserve a lot of credit , they pressured and pressed us from the start, we struggled with that and slowly got to grips and stemmed the tide, that first goal of ours i think wounded them a little, the second got them on the ropes , the 3rd and 4th should have killed them, but again credit to them, they never gave up , all in all a great game to watch, but it was fucking nail biting at the end, suppose we better get used to these nail biters from now on, its fucking brilliant , c'mon cityyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[Soulboy]

I'll try my best to be diplomatic about it, but I think Joe has to take a large proportion of the blame.

His distribution puts us under an unnecessary amount pressure of pressure every single week, and it seems to have been getting worse of late. Of course he's a young, inexperienced keeper, but it really shows at times.

I can excuse the occasional gaffe ala the fumble at Leicester, particularly for a young keeper like Joe, but if you're persistently putting us on the back foot every week due to your distribution questions need to be asked.

A good example would be when we break down an opposition attack;

Joe might receive the ball for example, the fullbacks would bomb on to give him options to initiate a counter, but he'll dawdle in possession, often taking an age to mull over his options, in which time the opposition have got everyone behind the ball again and the opportunity has evaporated into thin air. At which point Joe will usually usher everyone away, punt it long, we concede possession (quite predictably and inevitably), and the opposition are taking the game to us in our own half once again.

And then repeat, repeat, repeat.

To be perfectly honest his goal-kicks are just as hopeless, but of course I accept he's a young keeper and the experience will come with time.

But nonetheless, it's frustrating watching us fail to retain possession or build any momentum while every time we get the ball in our own half Joe punts it hopelessly back to a very grateful opposition.

Apologies for the rant, it's just a serious bugbear of mine. Particularly now that we have such a talented side, with such technical ability, we shouldn't be bypassing our midfield and playing into the opposition's hands in the manner we do. It defies logic.

Not all Joe's fault of course, if we're pressed high up the pitch it's never easy, and he's not the only culprit. But I think it's beginning to get to the point where the opposition are recognising that once you put Joe under a little pressure he struggles and is prone to panic.

Besides that though, we really just didn't press the man in position consistently enough in the first half, and there was little pace or conviction to our passing. Not forgetting an atrocious performance from that enormous **** Mason, and it made for a difficult first half. Thankfully we improved second half and earned a deserved win, but if we're to keep the pressure on the scum between now and the end of the season, the individual and collective errors will have to be ironed out.

Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately for us, he's been doing this in all his time as our keeper.

Don't we coach him? Doesn't anyone tell him how important his distribution is?

How we can counter teams quickly if he makes his mind up quickly rather than dawdle with the ball before having to launch it straight to their big centre half.

Good call mate...

 

[cleavers]

Its quite simple, and doesn't need chalk boards or anything else.

Wolves started better than we did, they wanted it more, and were first to every second ball.

They started the second half much the same way, but we quickly imposed ourselves on them, and it petered out after about 3 or 4 minutes.