I was trying to disguise their identities so that you lot didnt slaughter them on here , I think Seniorservice is doing a great job .
They’re long-balls, mate. Nothing wrong with playing balls over the top but we hardly ever play through balls on the ground.
Id say a long ball is just a punt forward Not to a specific player While a long pass is a long punt forward to a specific player
Agreed. Long ball is more a percentage ball as opposed to a long pass to an individual in space. Sometimes it takes a bit of recycling the ball to draw their press and free up space for our attacking players - which is when we tend to go direct - as opposed to lumping it, they invariably win the header and we're then susceptible to the counter.
Point is, we rarely play through balls on the ground for strikers or wingers to run onto. When we were playing with Óscar up front and midfielders on the wings, fair enough. Now we’ve got a bit of pace in the team, we should make use of it.
Conceptually this makes sense, but it definitely isn't always the case. Both goals against Millwall there was no press beaten at all for the two balls that created our goals. Focusing on Traore specifically, he was a 'through ball machine' when we first got him back from injury last season. We just need a bit more bravery, more runs to be made in the middle and into the box, and then the confidence to play those passes more. With a faster build up, or beating the press with more purpose and not recycling as soon as possible, there should be more space to play and run into, though it'd have to be done at tempo, or at a slower pace it needs to be inch perfect passing.
Was it James Chester played that absolute peach of a pass along the ground from our box to theirs which Fryatt latched and scored, away at Forest I think? One of the best goals ever.
I don't disagree with the main point, but those 'long balls' weren't 50/50's into an area either - they were more lofted through balls and played when it was specifically advantageous as opposed to a set pattern. 'long ball' to me describes a system where you are set up to hit the front 2 quickly with 2 banks of 4 behind the ball so they have to play through you when it doesn't stick up top. It certainly wasn't that. They weren't percentage balls per se more like lofted through passes. I feel we have the basics of something, but it will take time to get the understanding and decision making more consistent and as you say, confidence is the key to it all, whichever style you play. That only comes with stability and consistency of message over time.
I’m not sure if that’s the case because when Tufan plays that role he often lays the ball off first time.
Regarding through balls, I think it's important to consider that you can't just play a through ball whenever you want, you have to have already created an opening for one, which is where the build-up play and dragging people out of position comes in. If we're not making many through balls, it's probably more of a build-up issue than a conscious decision to avoid them. That said, as I've argued plenty of times before, I think there's too much scrutiny on matters relating to chance creation with this team given that we create plenty of chances.
Some of our most exciting passes are the straight through the middle ones , they look good , they are not that common in this division due to quality . IMO if you play these or run at a defence down the middle you’ve got two ways to go , down the wing you have one usually and less space .
Just in case some dummies don’t know it’s the international break and we don’t have a game Saturday ….
When Seri is away at the Africa cup of nations could Tufan play in the middle of midfield with Slater and Morton either side of him presuming all are fit.
