Back 6

[ncfcog]

I have just looked at our nominal back 6 players of goalkeeper, 3 centralish defenders and 2 wingbacks.
In all 4 league matches to date 5 of the 6 were at the club last season.
Now to my mind, if they weren't able to cope with a high press last year then why should we expect them to this year?
This appears to be a failure of recruitment, not of playing style.
Pivotal to our owners' desire to play a certain style of football is the goalkeeper who sees a lot of the ball and needs to be good with his feet.
I like Sam Slocombe but he is not the player we need in that situation and must be the first to be replaced. Now I don't think we could be so lucky as to get another Patterson but he does need to be better than Jaros.
I'm hoping that something will happen after the league transfer window closes on 1st Sept when clubs know what they have got and who needs to go out on loan.
Same with other positions maybe.
And lets hope RR and/or MP don't go the other way though.

I think the way to beat a high press is two-fold. Firstly, employ a high press of your own to tilt the unwanted pressure in your favour and secondly move the ball forward quicker. I think we have seen that both of these are something LW has been working on and it shows in the stats. We currently have one of the best PPDA (Passes Allowed per Defensive Action) stats in the league and I've definitely noticed an intention to get the ball forward a lot more than last season.

As you point out though, other than Baldwin, our other defensive players have just spent more than a season learning how to play it out from the back, now they're being asked to get the ball forward sooner and be a little more direct. Hopefully they'll get the hang of it sooner rather than later.

[countygump]

I think the way to beat a high press is to-fold

Nah, we've tried that and it's never worked for us before, Oggie.

Trouble is, it truly is a back 6. Two fullbacks who are expected to get forward is not ideal. We need to try to play, or adopt a formation that allows us to play, further up the pitch. We have also had a very high W.A.L.O.C, rating in a couple of matches.

[ncfcog]

Nah, we've tried that and it's never worked for us before, Oggie.

Arrgh, bleddy auto-correct!!

We have also had a very high W.A.L.O.C, rating in a couple of matches.

Not as many as last season though!