Re: Review of the Season
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:48 pm
I’m new here, and this is my first post; so, hi everybody.
I’ve been supporting Beavers for two years now, and managed to get to all the home games this year.
Bit of an amateur tactician, with the focus on “amateur”. Warning: I might be talking utter rubbish, but here’s my view of how we played this year.
1) Attacking. It seems that the main tactic was to “get it forward quickly at all costs”. The main idea was to use Ben Seymour’s pace, to get behind defences. It seemed to work early on. But later on, teams seemed to be prepared for this, their defence just dropping off a couple of yards, to give them the jump on Ben.
The first option was always to pump it forward, wherever we were on the pitch. Great when it works. But, unless you’re Xavi Alonso, and can ping it directly onto somebody’s foot, I think you’re always going to lose possession a lot of the time.
In the second half of matches, we sometimes switched to a passing game, but not until the second half.
2) Lack of support generally. Our midfield never seemed that close to our forward line. Probably because they didn’t have time to get there. But also, when we were trying to pass it short, the ball carrier never seemed to get much support either. Everybody was in such a race to get forward, they didn’t give the ball carrier options for a simple pass.
3) Defending. I think Mel has done a great job of instilling positional discipline into our defending. Last year, before he arrived, we got pulled out of position really easily. But not now.
However, there is a downside to this. We can be very passive in our defending. You’re not going to get a full-team press at this level, it takes hours and hours of training. But it would be nice, when we get teams down by their own corner flag, to jump on them.
Being passive we gave opponents a lot of possession, and that often made them confident.
4) Mason Bloomfield and throw-ins. I also went to see Sutton United vs Tranmere this season. It was shortly before their manager was sacked. They also had a big number 9. His name is Smith, I think. Everything was aimed at Smith. Even throw-ins. Every single throw-in went to Smith.
We’re the same. Every throw-in is aimed at Mason. Doesn’t matter if he has three marking him. The better teams got this, put one man on him, and got others surrounding him, waiting for the knock-on. Pretty easy to clear.
Didn’t matter if Sam had acres of room in the middle, down the line it went. Is this a big deal? I just think it kind of shows this regimented idea of getting it forward quickly, but giving away possession instead.
I hope this doesn’t sound too critical. I really really enjoyed watching the games, and really appreciate all the effort everybody at the club puts in. I just like analysing games, even with my limited knowledge.
Right, I’ve babbled on for too long. I’d really like to hear more from you folks.
I’ve been supporting Beavers for two years now, and managed to get to all the home games this year.
Bit of an amateur tactician, with the focus on “amateur”. Warning: I might be talking utter rubbish, but here’s my view of how we played this year.
1) Attacking. It seems that the main tactic was to “get it forward quickly at all costs”. The main idea was to use Ben Seymour’s pace, to get behind defences. It seemed to work early on. But later on, teams seemed to be prepared for this, their defence just dropping off a couple of yards, to give them the jump on Ben.
The first option was always to pump it forward, wherever we were on the pitch. Great when it works. But, unless you’re Xavi Alonso, and can ping it directly onto somebody’s foot, I think you’re always going to lose possession a lot of the time.
In the second half of matches, we sometimes switched to a passing game, but not until the second half.
2) Lack of support generally. Our midfield never seemed that close to our forward line. Probably because they didn’t have time to get there. But also, when we were trying to pass it short, the ball carrier never seemed to get much support either. Everybody was in such a race to get forward, they didn’t give the ball carrier options for a simple pass.
3) Defending. I think Mel has done a great job of instilling positional discipline into our defending. Last year, before he arrived, we got pulled out of position really easily. But not now.
However, there is a downside to this. We can be very passive in our defending. You’re not going to get a full-team press at this level, it takes hours and hours of training. But it would be nice, when we get teams down by their own corner flag, to jump on them.
Being passive we gave opponents a lot of possession, and that often made them confident.
4) Mason Bloomfield and throw-ins. I also went to see Sutton United vs Tranmere this season. It was shortly before their manager was sacked. They also had a big number 9. His name is Smith, I think. Everything was aimed at Smith. Even throw-ins. Every single throw-in went to Smith.
We’re the same. Every throw-in is aimed at Mason. Doesn’t matter if he has three marking him. The better teams got this, put one man on him, and got others surrounding him, waiting for the knock-on. Pretty easy to clear.
Didn’t matter if Sam had acres of room in the middle, down the line it went. Is this a big deal? I just think it kind of shows this regimented idea of getting it forward quickly, but giving away possession instead.
I hope this doesn’t sound too critical. I really really enjoyed watching the games, and really appreciate all the effort everybody at the club puts in. I just like analysing games, even with my limited knowledge.
Right, I’ve babbled on for too long. I’d really like to hear more from you folks.