Thoughts on 352...

[Welly7]

I was surprised Tilly went with this, but maybe he thought he could get away with trying it against an average non-league side in the cup.
Personally, I think we learned a few things from it. For example, Macca isn't suited to it. His game is all about breaking up play, working hard and getting inot the oppositions box. Today he didn't get forwards nearly enough and he didn't need to chase and break up play because there was Bailey and Maher either side of him. The midfield had too many bodies in it today for Macca to be effective.
Francis is more suited to a wing back role than Hammell. The latter looked uncomfortable to me and I don't think he has the mo
bility to do it.
Gower had a decent game, but we missed his creativity from wide positions. When he got in areas to create, Morgan was the only body in the box and therefore Oxford were able clear their lines comfortably.

If we play this way against Huddersfield then surely two natural strikers would be a better option with Gower floating in behind. Personally, though, I expect - and prefer - to revert to 442.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Thought it was more of a 3-6-1 formation or 3-4-1-1 was quite hard to tell what our tactics or game plan was, apart from it seemed for some reason we went there to get a draw!

 

[smudgster]

When did we play two up front today ? That was straight out of the Steve i havent got a clue McClaren manual.

 

[Southminster_Shrimper]

Thought it was more of a 3-6-1 formation or 3-4-1-1 was quite hard to tell what our tactics or game plan was, apart from it seemed for some reason we went there to get a draw!

A 3-4-1-1......hmmmmmmm a player short then.....:rolleyes:

I was bemused by the team we had on the pitch.....I wasnt there but couldnt understand it from the radio commentary. Seemed like we picked a load of players names and then found some kind of formation....or not...very confusing indeed.

But then if it was a draw Tilly was after, albeit I doubt it, it worked....

 

[GNH]

We seemed to switch between a 3-6-1 when not in possesion and a shambles when we did have the ball. Gower seemed to be in some sort of free role position as he kept changing sides and occasionally joined Morgan up front. Whatever the hell it was didn't work and made for one of the most boring negative games of football i've ever watched

 

[Skyblue]

shirlly it would have been the ideal game to continue to play Harrold and Hooper and say to them in not so many words '' last chance guys. If you cant score today then you arnt going to against anyone ''. No disrespect to Harrold but most pair of strikers would be thinking in terms of which one of us is going home with the bloody ball, and not I hope i can get a shoot away on target today!

 

[Mr. Benedict]

I would have thought that MacDonald would get a start yesterday - he's a proven goalscorer at Conference level after all.

Quite why we were playing such a negative game against a non-league team was baffling. Oxford were nothing special and were there for the taking but we didn't seem to want to win it... :p

 

[smudgster]

I
Quite why we were playing such a negative game against a non-league team was baffling. Oxford were nothing special and were there for the taking but we didn't seem to want to win it... :p

Whatever happend to the Steve Tilson of a few seasons back ? I remember drawing with rotherham away and he put 3 up front to try to win it which we did.

just recently he seems more concernd about not losing. the other thing that worries me is the way matches appear to slip away from us. You can see the other team building momentum by making substitutions yet none from our bench are forthcoming.

 

[Beefy]

I think some people are being a bit over the top. Yesterday was the first time in five years that I can remember Southend United starting a competative match in anything other than 4-4-2. This isn't Football Manager and you can't just chuck eleven players into a new formation and expect them to hit the ground running. 4-4-2 is ingrained into the psyche of every footballer who is brought up in this country and English footballers don't like anything that they aren't used to. Liverpool changed to zonal marking from set pieces a few years ago. Rafa Benetiz was ridiculed for all the goals that they were conceeding and he was probably taken aback by how hard it was to change the way that English footballers think but he stuck with it and Liverpool haven't conceeded from a set piece in 2007.

5-3-2/5-3-1-1 made sense on paper. We have two fullbacks who look perfectly suited for a slightly more advanced role. We have three central midfielders who are among the best players in the squad and we only have one fit winger who likes drifiting inside anyway. This formation allowed us solve several issues in one go. It didn't work, of course, but if it was going to be tried then a one-off cup match away from the baying Roots Hall crowd probably wasn't a bad time to do it. I'd imagine that we'll go back to 4-4-2 on wednesday but if we don't and Tilly decides that this is the formation for the long term then we may not start to get results with it straight away.

 

[Kristof]

I would agree that on paper the 3-5-2 would be good and from a defensive side of things Hunt Barrett and Clarke looked in control and I only remember Collis having to make 1 real save.

From there things just didn't work though early doors we had plenty of possession but Francis and Hammell played as full backs positioning wise you could see that they were 10-15 yards too far back and didn't overlap they way they do when played as regular full backs. You could see Francis especially thinking should I go or stay, this led to a lack of width so Gower keep drifting wide right and playing as a wide midfielder not the support striker role he was supposed to. This led to a 3-6-1 which I've only ever seen on Pro Evo.

This left Morgan isolated and then he kept having drop back to look for the ball. The three midfield did get forward to support thou Bailey and Macca did try to support more in the tail end of the second half but we just didn't look like scoring, though Charlie Mac looked lively in the ten minutes Tilly allowed him (as he usually does).

I'm sure we will revert to 4-4-2 on Wednesday with Leon up top with Dean Morgan. Yesterday was not a good performance but we are still in the cup, I just hope we perform with more positivity, three home games in a week will really decide where our season is heading. I just hope that the negativity that was pouring from the stands like the rain at the Kassam stops stops and the team give us a performance like a play off chasing side because yesterday just wasn't good enough.

 

[Richard_Cadette]

I wasn't at the game, waiting for the Missus to give birth to RC Junior, but I listened to it on the radio, and it really didn't sound very good at all.

I am all for changing things round when the team is not working as it should be, but that formation, and the personnel which were used, was just bizarre.

Beefy is correct, when you change from 4-4-2, it takes players time to adjust, they won't just slot into it seemlessly as they do on Football Manager (not even on there do they do that for me anyway!!), but that said, the 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 or 3-6-1 formation which was adopted, using the players he did in the positions he did, was never ever going to be a success story.

This smacks of last season a bit really, players being played out of position again, and put simply, we didn't need to do that.

Many teams have tried the 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 formation over the years, including us under Alvin Martin and Alan Little, and it never brings you success in the long term - whatever way you look at it, it is a defensive formation, and perhaps if we were playing away at Manchester United instead of Oxford United, you could see some logic in it, but in this instance, I can see none at all.

The decision to play Gower up front, or just off the front, with Morgan is one of the oddest decisions ever taken by Tilly. Morgan, in how own words, is not a goalscorer, and Gower is a midfielder, and a creative one at that, so how did he expect us to score goals if the creative midfieder is in one of the positions he is supposed to be creating chances for???

IMO it was a nonsense formation, a nonsense team selection, and one I only hope he doesn't persevere with in the future.

How on Earth Charlie Mac didnt get a start in this type of game is beyond me - He may say it was because he isn't 100% fit, but I don't see that, if that was true, he shouldnt have been on the bench. As everyone has pointed out before, he was scoring goals for fun at this level last season, and so surely this would have been the perfect game for him to build up a bit of confidence?

It is a strange feeling at the moment, the team are in the hat for the 3rd round draw of the FA Cup and we are lieing 8th in the league, but there seems to be a very negative undercurrent running through supportters, and not just the ones who post on Shrimperzone. Some of the text messages being read out after the game on BBC Essex were incredidly negative, and I must admit, without being able to put my finger on it, there is something definitely slightly amiss at the club right now.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

So therefore do we think Tilly has got too comfortable in his role and is now longer performing, discuss?

Not my personal opinion but would a change at the top freshen things up and get us all back on track?

 

[BrettieAngell]

So therefore do we think Tilly has got too comfortable in his role and is now longer performing, discuss?

Not my personal opinion but would a change at the top freshen things up and get us all back on track?

To be honest I was wondering yesterday whether Tilly has lost the plot a bit, maybe he was just trying something different but surely in that kind of system you have to have a recognised striker on the pitch?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Not a fan of 3-5-2 at all. You either have no width or you are exposed at the back. Saturday sounds like an excellent result, we've confirmed that we can't play 3-5-2 and are still in the hat for the next round.

We can now go back to playing 4-4-2 and the football that had us one of the top scorers in the division.

 

[Beefy]

So therefore do we think Tilly has got too comfortable in his role and is now longer performing, discuss?

Surely if he was too comfortable then he wouldn't have bothered changing things like this?

 

[Skyblue]

Not a fan of 3-5-2 at all. You either have no width or you are exposed at the back. Saturday sounds like an excellent result, we've confirmed that we can't play 3-5-2 and are still in the hat for the next round.

We can now go back to playing 4-4-2 and the football that had us one of the top scorers in the division.

Nor me, remember playing it once when i was in midfield alone with 4 others. It was a nightmare with people not knowing who to pick up, running into each others space and not knowing how far to push on. We let in 5 before the manager admitted he had made a mistake with it at half time. We went to a 4 3 3 in the second half and although pulled 5 back lost 6.5 in the end. Will never forget our manager as we trudged off at half time bellowing ''well thank you gentlemen for making me look a right C**t''.

 

[Jam_Man]

So therefore do we think Tilly has got too comfortable in his role and is now longer performing, discuss?

Not my personal opinion but would a change at the top freshen things up and get us all back on track?

No thats ridiculous.

He could either leave things the same, and get criticised, or try someting new in a game that he could afford to experiment in, and get criticised.

Personally dont think 3-5-2 is a good formation but I would praise Tilson for at least looking at new things, not criticise him.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

No thats ridiculous.

He could either leave things the same, and get criticised, or try someting new in a game that he could afford to experiment in, and get criticised.

Personally dont think 3-5-2 is a good formation but I would praise Tilson for at least looking at new things, not criticise him.

It was just a discussion point, I didn't say I felt it was time to get rid.....

 

[Jam_Man]

It was just a discussion point, I didn't say I felt it was time to get rid.....

We are 8th in the league and not too far off the play offs, why anyone would think thats a good time to sack your manager I dont know.

I wonder at the level of peoples expectations if they think thats acceptable but hearing some of the moaning in the stands it wont be long before people start asking it.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

We are 8th in the league and not too far off the play offs, why anyone would think thats a good time to sack your manager I dont know.

I wonder at the level of peoples expectations if they think thats acceptable but hearing some of the moaning in the stands it wont be long before people start asking it.

Aaaaaargh!
I am not advocating we do that. I just want to gauge the general feeling about if people think they are behind the scenes problems going on just now that the majority don't know about.

As I said last week (and also got shot down for I might add), a couple of years in and around the L1 playoffs will see us able to consolidate and then mount a sustainable challenge on Championship survival once in the new stadium. Tilson and Brush are still key to this in my opinion!