Playoffs here we come

[MAD_MAGPIE]

But in all honesty what teams actually do this? Do City or Liverpool start going long, do Forest start playing possession football, teams play to their strengths and make more subtle changes, I.e get say Abbott further forward, overload a side more.

I think if there was proof this kind of thing had more chance of working I.e long throws or going long last 5 and say putting a defender up front then why don?t the best teams do it when chasing a game?

Football has become more orchestrated in modern times and those maverick players and chaos in games are virtually no more apart from the occasional goalmouth scramble.

The days of a Martin Allen sticking a defender such as Sam Sodjie up top who can jump and a head a ball with chants from the Kop of “score in a minute he’s going to score in a minute” and lumping high balls into the box to cause chaos for the last five minutes in a game seem like a different era. The old league two cross field diagonal ball from left back to the right of a front two and vice versa has all but died out.

Things have changed a lot in English Football in the last 10-15 years certainly since Spain won the 2010 World Cup and Pep coming to manage Man City.

As you rightly point out some teams do not change the way they play and put all their trust in their system and style of play and those patterns they work on in training. It was even mentioned in commentary in one of our playoff games I think it was the Boreham Wood game before JJ scored the winner that we do not change the way we play. It worked that day and we have scored late goals.

[ThePieWhoCameIn]

Just on the topic of plan Bs (plans B?) I was thinking the other day about offside after the controversy in the Mersey derby.

To get the ball up the 'other end' and win possession quickly, what's to stop this:

Our no. 9 takes position on edge of oppo's box. About 30 yards offside most likely.
We then launch it from deep at the corner flag but weighted well enough to give a winger a chance to chase it down.
In most cases the defender will get there first BUT because of the 9's starting position he can easily cut off any back pass. The defender should be under pressure from our winger and could make a mistake or concede a throw in. Ideally a quick throw in aided by a lively ball-boy (if at home).
The 9 is not technically offside for simply being in a position to cut out a pass - though in the good old days he would've been, and imo still should be.
Are there any downsides to this (apart from panic at the FA when everyone starts doing it)?

[Mark_Ross]

Just on the topic of plan Bs (plans B?) I was thinking the other day about offside after the controversy in the Mersey derby.

To get the ball up the 'other end' and win possession quickly, what's to stop this:

Our no. 9 takes position on edge of oppo's box. About 30 yards offside most likely.
We then launch it from deep at the corner flag but weighted well enough to give a winger a chance to chase it down.
In most cases the defender will get there first BUT because of the 9's starting position he can easily cut off any back pass. The defender should be under pressure from our winger and could make a mistake or concede a throw in. Ideally a quick throw in aided by a lively ball-boy (if at home).
The 9 is not technically offside for simply being in a position to cut out a pass - though in the good old days he would've been, and imo still should be.
Are there any downsides to this (apart from panic at the FA when everyone starts doing it)?

Thinking outside the box, eh? Whatever next?

BTW
The match I mentioned above was Argentina vs Netherlands world cup qf 2022.