Okay, so yesterday we did well. There were a few little mistakes (Fonte, Kelvin, Punch), but I think that goes with the rustiness and slow pace of the game. My only gripe though, is with the kick-off. What's going on? One pass to Fox, and then he pumps it forward aimlessly to one of the giant's of European football, famed for their passing game. We didn't get any sort of control on the ball again until the 4th minute, and because of this we began the first 20 minutes sitting deep and on the back foot. This isn't a dig at Fox, thought he played well afterwards. I just want to know if anyone else noticed this. I know we were guilty of doing it several times last season, and it just makes we wonder whether they must be under instructions to do it. It was embarrassing. It definitely needs sorting out. Am I over-reacting?
At last!! Finally someone else on here accepts that there is a chance that Fox is told to do that. At the very least, if Adkins didn't like it, he'd have stopped Fox doing it by now. I don't know why that is so hard for some people, especially the Fox-haters, to understand.
Well I asked her and she suggested that the initial long ball from Fox was completely out of character with how the competition expect us to play. Subsequently, our chances of an early break through from a flick on utilising the element of surprise would be greatly enhanced.
Last season it often went back to Frazer and then pumped forward too so it's obviously intstructed. Guessing the aim is Lambert but it takes him about 20 minutes to get up there!
Yes he is, as does Frazer, but Fox seems to take the aerial route much more often. Both have done it far too often for my liking, considering Saints want to be a passing team. It's OK to ignore it when it leads to nothing, but in the PL, that may not be the case. Against Ajax, I noticed Saints were much more effective when Fox managed to get a ball forward and along the ground. Even the commentators picked up on it. I do hope Saints don't have the ball in the air too much this season. It needs a much more accurate passer than Fox to ping one to Lambert's head from distance. Richardson is better, but not perfect. Noticed Hooiveld pinging a few long distance to the wings. Not bad at it either. As long as he doesn't get it into his head that he can do that while under pressure from a striker, he can carry on experimenting.
The new formation means we'll need to be more patient to get men around Lambert. Less of the long ball please!.
Yep, clearly an instruction. Have you only just realised though? I remember studying some coaching manuals once and it was in there. The aim is to get the ball into your target man, but also to get the defensive line up from the deep position they start in at the kick-off, to regain possession and pressure your opponents into their own half. Evidently yesterday, our line didn't get up.
