It's been well documented and obvious to the eye that under Pochettino we're playing a higher line with a far more aggressive pressing style. On Soccer Saturday last week our two biggest fans Phil Thompson & Paul Merson picked out the flaw in this style of play. Merse said if someone switches off and don't press big gaps will appear. Thommo said the best teams will pick you off with long quality balls. Watching Celtic v Juve mid week & Juve did this brilliantly against Celtics high pressing. Though they did have Pirlo & Marccisio making those passes. Not many teams in the premier league(if any) have that kind of passing range at their disposal, but plenty of sides play a very direct style. Newcastle, West ham & Stoke spring to mind. Do you think the pressing game will be as effective against these sides? Should we adapt our style against these different challenges?
I have no idea what is going to happen although it seems like we are a much better team under pochettino, probably because he is a much better manager. And so I think we will continue to play well against all teams.
Long balls forward is definitely the danger, and my worry was that good teams would pick us apart, at least as we got used to the setup. After beating City and outplaying Man U for much of the game, I'm no longer all that worried.
Writing on friends tablet so not easy. Whatever style you play, teams will suss you out. You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but play well and you will win games. We will leave ourselves open to the break, but will also get better at defendi g against it. Hopefully.
To be fair, Celtic dominated that game for 70 minutes and if they took their chances a bit better and the ref had his contact lenses in the least they deserved was a draw. The scoreline nowhere near reflected the game.
The danger with the pressing game is that the long ball game can defeat it. If you're midfielders and left and right backs all up the field getting in your opponents faces, a lob over the top to a pacy striker who gets on the end of it can leave the defence exposed. Of course, the long ball won't be so accurate if their player is under constant pressure, but play enough of them and one of them will pay off. That said, I think we look far more dangerous when we play like terriers. A secondary danger is player exhaustion, though fitness training in coaching sessions and well-timed substitutions can alleviate that.
It did occur to me the other day that pressing West Ham up the park might leave us vulnerable, because they specialise in very quickly getting bodies around their opponents box. They are often criticised - unfairly in my view - for playing the "long ball", but I think they just turn defence into attack very quickly. It's also inevitable that if you play a pressing game, you leave space in behind - one of the reasons why you need quick fullbacks, which we've got when Shaw and Clyne are both fit.
Depends on the pace of their strikers against the pace of our CBs.....we're going back to the pacy CB question again!
In fairness I think Maya is pretty quick. Not sure about Forren yet, but I'm figuring he'll have the legs on Jos....
None other than Dion Dublin explained it on MOTD2 a couple of weeks ago. He talked of a team pressing high and aggressively [yes, he was using Saints as an example], and where they might fail to maintain that pressure on the ball. It would leave them open to balls over the top and beyond the high line of the back four. The tactic to defeat the high ball is for the back four to retreat 5 to 10 yards. As soon as the team begin to press the ball well again, the defence moves up. It looks quite a simple and effective tactic, but it requires concentration and good communication.
Funnily enough, during my umpteenth watch of the extended highlights of Saints v Man City, I tried to concentrate on what our CBs were doing. In particular, Jos Hooiveld's ability to keep up with the Man City attack. On a few occasions, he was involved in a race to get to the loose ball first, and won every time against what I thought would be quicker opponents. It's not that he isn't fast enough, in actual fact, after seeing the evidence, I think he might be. Perhaps it's his occasional positioning that makes him slightly vulnerable or his speed of thought. I don't know. In any case, he has come on leaps and bounds lately, imo.
I think it did. Juve stood off and invited Celtic onto them, and even though Celtic saw a lot of the ball they didn't create many clear chances because Juve had three centre backs on the pitch. What happened to Celtic is a perfect example of what can happen if you play a pressing game badly - their defenders made mistakes in critical areas and conceded three goals.
