After Blackburn it’s going to be interesting how teams ........

[Young_Nudger]

.......... line up against Barnsley.
Tony Mowbray plays a possession style - but totally threw those tactics out of the window - and employed long ball tactics.
He knew Blackburn would lose heavily if they tried to play out from the back - basically because the Barnsley press is so good.

So then - have we seen the last of the Barnsley press this season as other teams will have seen what Mowbray did and will also go long ball ???

Something for Val to dwell on.

[animallittle3]

Nudge

The whole idea of the high press is to encourage the opposition to knock it long .

That's the whole point of it .

Our three centre backs then come in and mop up , sometimes it offers us possession and sometimes the ball is returned back to the opposition .

The last thing we actually want to do is to press the opposition high up the pitch for the whole 90 minutes as we had to do against Chelsea because its energy sapping to say the least .

Whether teams want to try and play through our press is pretty much down to their ego .

Bournemouth fancied it .

Norwich fancied it .

Chelsea fancied it .

Swansea did not and Brentford changed from fancying it to a more direct approach after half an hour on sunday .

Forcing the opposition to be more direct and then dealing with that was something we weren't too good at last season which is why we were beaten regularly by the championship's hoof ball and physical merchants .

However we are far better under Val which is why the results have improved but the entertaining football is often missing .

It's not without risk even under Val because there's a huge amount of space behind our defence that can be exploited with a quality move like Chelsea's winning goal or a decent long pass and a well timed run that beats our offside trap .

[animallittle3]

Nudge

The best example I can give you where our tactics have worked perfectly is the second goal on Sunday at Brentford .

The Brentford left back Rico Henry goes long from the back early in the second half , as I said Brentford have given up on trying to beat our high press and are going long and looking to hit balls over our defence in to the space .

Brittain cuts it out with a good header and more importantly we retain possession , two seconds later Brentford are picking it out of their net and they are two down .

That's exactly what we are looking to achieve with this system .

https://youtu.be/tbSHtQRdAyA

[Young_Nudger]

Well my thoughts on the press is to win the ball in the final third - and play most of the game in the final third.
It’s not IMO to press opponents into going long ball.

Be interesting to see how other clubs cope with this.
Maybe at the end of the season the Chelsea and Brentford games will be seen as a watershed moment - when other clubs looked and decided they can’t play their normal game against Barnsley.

[pass_and_move]

Nudge

The whole idea of the high press is to encourage the opposition to knock it long .

That's the whole point of it .

Our three centre backs then come in and mop up , sometimes it offers us possession and sometimes the ball is returned back to the opposition .

The last thing we actually want to do is to press the opposition high up the pitch for the whole 90 minutes as we had to do against Chelsea because its energy sapping to say the least .

Whether teams want to try and play through our press is pretty much down to their ego .

Bournemouth fancied it .

Norwich fancied it .

Chelsea fancied it .

Swansea did not and Brentford changed from fancying it to a more direct approach after half an hour on sunday .

Forcing the opposition to be more direct and then dealing with that was something we weren't too good at last season which is why we were beaten regularly by the championship's hoof ball and physical merchants .

However we are far better under Val which is why the results have improved but the entertaining football is often missing .

It's not without risk even under Val because there's a huge amount of space behind our defence that can be exploited with a quality move like Chelsea's winning goal or a decent long pass and a well timed run that beats our offside trap .

Spot on.

[animallittle3]

Well my thoughts on the press is to win the ball in the final third - and play most of the game in the final third.
It’s not IMO to press opponents into going long ball.

Be interesting to see how other clubs cope with this.
Maybe at the end of the season the Chelsea and Brentford games will be seen as a watershed moment - when other clubs looked and decided they can’t play their normal game against Barnsley.

It is Nudge if they insist on playing out from the back as one or two teams do at this level .

However in the Championship most teams do not but we are still playing the game in their half if they knock it long and we recover it and retain possession as we did for that second goal against Brentford .

[perkytyke]

It made me laugh when Rovers started knocking high balls up to Armstrong, it's like us trying it with Chaplin as both are 5ft nothing!

Rovers should have stuck to tactic one as they got in behind us twice in the first half but failed to capitalise!

I love the way we press them, one goes, then another, then another and the oposition either hoof it or it goes back to the keeper to start again! The fitness of our team is outstanding at the moment and getting better as they master the routine.

[animallittle3]

It made me laugh when Rovers started knocking high balls up to Armstrong, it's like us trying it with Chaplin as both are 5ft nothing!

Rovers should have stuck to tactic one as they got in behind us twice in the first half but failed to capitalise!

I love the way we press them, one goes, then another, then another and the oposition either hoof it or it goes back to the keeper to start again! The fitness of our team is outstanding at the moment and getting better as they master the routine.

Where we need massive improvement is when in possession Perky .

Those three centre backs need to be finding a red shirt with when they've won headers or clearing the ball .

We need to cut out the aimless punt in to an area which more often than not turns possession straight back to our opponents and turns games in to a long ball fest .

Once we have possession we need to be better , much better , 10 to 15 pass completions .

If the advanced players are pressing high as much as they have to do presently with that intensity then they will be knackered after an hour .

Better in possession gives them the opportunity to take a breather and there's more opportunity to last the full 95 minutes .

This is where the next stage of the squads development needs to be and if the improvement is forthcoming then we really would have the makings of a very good championship team .

One capable of the top six in my opinion .

[Young_Nudger]

Where we need massive improvement is when in possession Perky .

Those three centre backs need to be finding a red shirt with when they've won headers or clearing the ball .

We need to cut out the aimless punt in to an area which more often than not turns possession straight back to our opponents and turns games in to a long ball fest .

Once we have possession we need to be better , much better , 10 to 15 pass completions .

If the advanced players are pressing high as much as they have to do presently with that intensity then they will be knackered after an hour .

Better in possession gives them the opportunity to take a breather and there's more opportunity to last the full 95 minutes .

This is where the next stage of the squads development needs to be and if the improvement is forthcoming then we really would have the makings of a very good championship team .

One capable of the top six in my opinion .

I’ve been saying for a while that we have to improve our accuracy when moving forward.
Time and time again I’m shouting aaaarrrggghhh !!! at the tele as a pass, which would set up a chance at goal, goes agonisingly astray.

And although we are getting the right results it’s incredibly frustrating at times to watch.

[EthelRed]

When they try to pass out from the back they give goals away. Did it all last season and Anderson was guilty of that on Wednesday (i thought it was Helik originally) for their goal.

So I agree huge improvement needed once we are in possession.