Originally Posted by
Freeman25
Do you think Notts invented this tactic or do you think that possibly we're doing it because it's a far more effective way of taking a goal kick than booting it to the half way line and hoping your player wins his header and the second ball drops to a team mate? There's a reason most of the top teams do it, exactly the same as why we (and a lot of top teams) don't leave anyone up front when defending a corner anymore, it's just not effective and with all the analytics and data in football now people have worked that out. Ardley went into detail last season about defending corners but fans in the Pavis seemed to have forgotten again.
Not sure if you're based in the US but if you've watched our goal kicks then the way we set them up we very frequently play it to a Lacey or Cameron and they play it straight up to Wootton on the half way line if the opportunity is there, with only one defender on him and we're immediately on the attack, this is far better than just lumping it and hoping for the second ball.
That's what a lot of this "pointless" passing around at the back is, it's waiting for an opportunity, if it doesn't come then we keep the ball until it does, while we're keeping the ball they aren't threatening us and are tiring themselves by chasing it. A few times this season we've seen players with their hands on their knees, knackered, at HALF TIME, that's probably why we haven't been scoring in the first 30 minutes, it's a patient game and fans need to be patient with it.
I'd say the main problem today, despite Stallard being adamant it had nothing to do with it, was that our ball playing defenders that were missing are key to the way we start attacks and when there are cracks at the back the rest of the teams structure isn't as steady. Alex Lacey is basically our Virgil Van Dijk and look how Liverpool did without him.