Almost every goal we have conceded has come from a cross 2nd ball So 1.We allow a lot of crosses 2. We lose the first contact 3. We lose the 2nd ball How do we fix it? The centrebacks have usually been on the 6 yard box While the scorer was further out Midfield being awol and defenders too deep?
I don't think you can boil it down to just players' positioning. There will be a sequence of play leading up to every goal and people get dragged around reacting to different things. If the midfield are indeed absent when a goal is scored from a second ball in our box, the important question is what led to them not being there. It's unlikely to be just a lack of interest or a lack of understanding that they need to help out in the box. Is it us turning the ball over and being caught out before we can organise? Is it us being dragged into a high press and then played through or over, leaving too many of our players ahead of the ball? Or something else. Supposedly this is the sort of thing that Dean Holden is very focused on. Hopefully we improve on it over the international break.
Is our squad depth actually thin? Someone posted a picture summarising the options in each position and I'd say it's as deep as we've had in a long time. The least depth we've had in the last few years was the first half of Rosenior's full season, when we had a really small squad with very few backups, yet that half season was the best we've been in years, and the only time we've been in and around the playoffs. The second half of that season we had a stronger squad but fell away.
