Whatever kit we wear the players finally deserve to wear the shirt with the Notts County badge on B):DQuote:
Originally Posted by upthemaggies
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Whatever kit we wear the players finally deserve to wear the shirt with the Notts County badge on B):DQuote:
Originally Posted by upthemaggies
Extended highlights:
https://youtu.be/FiMl4TgYjeM
Match stats analysis and a closer look at Aidan Stone …
https://www.ncs-news.co.uk/read/stat...ford-city-a-l2
We're winning, so it's working. Even so, I don't enjoy Stone's long balls OG, and I think you're a wee bit too positive about it in the report.Quote:
Originally Posted by ncfcog
'Stone's distribution not only adds another dimension to Notts build up play but is also accurate with over 76% of his passes finding a team mate.' That means 24% don't. So 1 in 4 going awry and the figure includes all the short passes that always find a Notts shirt. I'd say that's quite a lot of giving it away, and it shows when the watching the game. There are a lot of punts going straight to the other side.
My read of it is LW is going for a pre-emptive disarming of other teams plans to mug us in our own half. If you can't play all that much, it seems like an easy way for teams with more brawn than guile to create chances.
Both Coleman and Wood boasted that they succeeded in making us hit it long. But I suspect they were disappointed with it, if so, that's 1 up for LW. Those sides don't seem capable of receiving the ball deep and putting together a great move all the way from back there. But if we get into this bad habit, we'll run into sides that can. I really don't think you can bring Didzy in at 35 and use him as some sort of target man.
My guess is that LW has been bitten so much by the mistakes at the back that he's reluctantly gone away from how he really wants his team to play. While we're winning though, we'll carry on. We might have stumbled across a winning approach - a possession team that boots it to the other team and then takes it from there :)
Some really good analysis there AC and I wouldn’t dispute it. I mentioned he was ‘evolving’ and the better opposition influencing the long ball but now the majority of those balls and tactical passes and not just a punt up top.Quote:
Originally Posted by the_anticlough
I agree it’s something that LW has had to look at and quickly after the opening few games but just like he normally does he’s looked at it and identified how he can use it to our advantage.
It's interesting that we got like 70% into last season and then we saw the same tactic when Brooks came in....the game at Bromley (treacherous pitch?) and the following home games (Dorking and Eastleigh?) Like your graphic, a lot of those were diagonals from right-side to left.
To me, this gives a clue that LW reverts to this when he thinks the risk of screwing up at the back just isn't worth it. Maybe traumatised a bit by the Sutton game as well, when a couple of goals came from muggings in our own half?
I've always been like this, but even more so now after being spoilt by our 'control the game' dominance under LW. It winds me up...to think Ok we have the ball, let's go, and 2 seconds later they have it because of a punt.
Surely that has to be the right way to go? How we play depends on what sort of press our opponents go for, and when they press high I think the risks outweigh the advantages. I like the way LW is adaptable rather than sticking to a rigid style.Quote:
Originally Posted by the_anticlough
'Surely' might be over-egging it. It's a compromise, and a judgement call that's being vindicated for now by the wins.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elite_Pie
But we know his first choice is 'control the game' and possession. My feeling is that it's not just an opposition's high press...through his experience with the players I don't think he's got maximum faith in their abilities to keep it. And we didn't recruit in that key right-sided defender role.
Just giving it back to them at least a half dozen times a game must piss him off. It'll be very interesting to see if it continues or not.
What you don't see a lot of though is our keeper throwing or passing it Kasper style to the midfielders/wide players. It's more like one of the back three or nothing. Is that wrong? If so, that might be a LW principle as well (sees those balls as risky?)
I think at times you have to go long if nobody is on also mixing it up keeps the other team guessing too.
If we stuck to just passing it to our defenders then eventually good teams will squeeze you and push up as a unit to do this and then the ball over the top becomes a weapon if Neman’s, Jones or Langstaff time their runs.
Seems to me the preferred option for Stone is to play the ball out (and he is very good at it). His options are to kick it long if there are no obvious advantages to playing out to feet or he needs to push the opposition back or to just throw something into the mix. As for the 1in4 not finding a player, isn't the player involved in there as well? Looking down the line on Friday, Stone was pumping the ball to where Didzy was (or where he was expected to be) and found him nearly every time.
That long ball offers unpredictability and must be a LW approved option.