Football style

[Southend Elvis]

Just check out the highlights

Proves my point, Barnet one touch and we wanted multiple. Notice when we scored, we was playing 1 touch....

 

[Chairman Trigg]

Clearly this style is now coming all the way down the football ladder and probably a FA directive with all coaches going through the system told this is the way to play. Where it goes wrong is that the quality and standard of the players at lower levels aren't up to it with many goals conceded by poor back passing .How many times do we see a promising attack go backwards and sideways and finish with a lump up the field in desperation!
Add to this issue the 10 man deep defending of corners etc which results in increased pressure when the ball is cleared but comes straight back as no player is left up.
Moncur is clearly a step in the right direction,but we have no one in the style or flair of Eastwood who takes it directly to the opposition half without 20 passes!

 

[Medway Blue]

I didn't say blood and thunder football for 90 mins. As for the boxer punched in the face, he learns and knows when to bob and weave. We get smacked in the kisser and keep putting our face in the same place. All games start with a coaching manual and a whiteboard and when things don't go as expected you change things up. We often start with the wrong tactics and fail to adapt. I have lost count of the games this team has lost to, man for man, inferior sides that are set up with greater tactical nous. I will still be at RH tomorrow but I suspect I have a very good idea of how we will play already. If I know the opposition most certainly does.

Me too. It's called an 'identity'. Something that people were crying out for before Kev came in.

We are now have one, and now that the club is out of the hands of Ron Martin, it will take time to continue to perfect, via the improvement of training facilities and (within a budget, and slowly but surely) the playing squad.

No point training 2 identities or ways of playing, as you'll never be spending enough time to get anywhere near perfecting either.

 

[onceknownasrab]

Me too. It's called an 'identity'. Something that people were crying out for before Kev came in.

We are now have one, and now that the club is out of the hands of Ron Martin, it will take time to continue to perfect, via the improvement of training facilities and (within a budget, and slowly but surely) the playing squad.

No point training 2 identities or ways of playing, as you'll never be spending enough time to get anywhere near perfecting either.

Oh well, so long as I know identity means one dimensional, predictable and no plan B. Sorry I disagree. We may have the wish to be identified as a team that plays the passing game but, there are many ways/permutations of how to do that. It's not black and white. It's not the passing game or hoofball. Fluidity and the ability to adapt to the requirements of any match are essential. That is managing. Teams we play will make in game adjustments as and when required. No successful team plays one style at all times

 

[LBBlue]

As I say, arguably I'm a bit of a dinosaur but being in my 60's I generally feel today's football is not as exciting. You may well be highlighting to me why I feel that way. Modern coaching is very stats driven which often molds how teams are set up, as they say knowledge is strength but for me most matches lack the level of spontaneity they used to have due to a more manufactured approach. Do Stats help with creativity or impeded a rewards over risk approach? Depends on your take I suppose. What I find is the predictability of the modern game for me detracts from the excitement. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy football obviously, I am just able to draw comparison from my own library of memories of what I have witnessed myself over the years, those are my stats so to speak but as was once said to me, 'If you play around with Stats enough they will end up giving the answer you wanted'

I agree with you entirely. Just picking 5 players George Best, Frank Worthington, Jimmy Greaves, Alan Hudson, Glenn Hoddle. Everyone would marvel and be entertained by their ball skills. You wouldn’t say that any of them were wonderful athletes.

If you look at the height weight and athleticism of players from 50-60/years ago they were a lot smaller and maybe some liked a fag and a drink. When we signed Gary Moore he was a giant 6’2”, probably our only player over 6’. Best, Chisnall, Smillie, Bentley probably were no taller than 5’7” - 5’8” and pitches were hardly billiard table.

Nowadays a lot of teams will have a number of players well over 6’ - very fit very athletic and very quick. To my mind this makes the pitch and goals comparatively a lot smaller. The space in which a player has to play and time before they are hunted down is no where near what it was 50 years ago.

So we keep the ball playing it about at the back, I guess to invite a press and make the pitch bigger. Everyone gets back to block in their own box because they can because they are so fit. Players rarely dribble past an opponent because they get closed down so quickly and might lose the ball and a shot that actually makes it through to the keeper to make a save is even rarer.

If you can run quickly, have great stamina, can knick the ball off an opponent and play a short pass you’ve made it. The old cliche if you’ve got the ball the opposition can’t score dictates the style now. Of course there is the odd slip from a misplaced pass that creates the excitement.

Edit : oh I forgot - Nowadays with 5 subs available you can change half your outfield players with clones when they start to tire- which is what Barnet did yesterday when we started to get on top.

 

[BoyWonder2]

I didn't say blood and thunder football for 90 mins. As for the boxer punched in the face, he learns and knows when to bob and weave. We get smacked in the kisser and keep putting our face in the same place. All games start with a coaching manual and a whiteboard and when things don't go as expected you change things up. We often start with the wrong tactics and fail to adapt. I have lost count of the games this team has lost to, man for man, inferior sides that are set up with greater tactical nous. I will still be at RH tomorrow but I suspect I have a very good idea of how we will play already. If I know the opposition most certainly does.

But those boxers still get punched too….

We have often, not just under Kev, lost to teams at Roots Hall that turn up with a low block and asked us to break them down.

Kev has shown he can switch things up with tactics and formations, but other teams are allowed to do the same thing too. Kev has set up a 3-5-2 formation, but he has played a 3-4-3, he has played a double pivot in his 5, he has played a 10 and had tweaks too.

We have an identity and a philosophy of how we want to play, but it doesn’t always work. We can have off days, other teams have exceptional days, officials can effect games too.

I’d love us to play like Barcelona did under Pep, or how Pep has City playing, but we don’t have that standard of players, we don’t play on that standard of pitches and so forth.

 

[Stubb]

Clearly this style is now coming all the way down the football ladder and probably a FA directive with all coaches going through the system told this is the way to play. Where it goes wrong is that the quality and standard of the players at lower levels aren't up to it with many goals conceded by poor back passing .How many times do we see a promising attack go backwards and sideways and finish with a lump up the field in desperation!
Add to this issue the 10 man deep defending of corners etc which results in increased pressure when the ball is cleared but comes straight back as no player is left up.
Moncur is clearly a step in the right direction,but we have no one in the style or flair of Eastwood who takes it directly to the opposition half without 20 passes!

Quite agree. I go regularly to watch a team 2 divisions down from Southend (Southern Premier South) and they are coached exactly the same way. The only problem is that the pitch quality is not brilliant and the skill quality of the players are not up to it. The result...hearts in mouths every time they 'play out from the back!'