MATCHWATCH : Burton Albion (h)

[Hound]

Paid zero attention to this game and only now about to watch the highlights

Tbh, after the season we’ve had, it’s no surprise we played poorly after finally getting over the line and getting safe. I can certainly allow Selles and the players that

Be nice to finish the season well next week at home mind you

[leon]

Paid zero attention to this game and only now about to watch the highlights

Tbh, after the season we’ve had, it’s no surprise we played poorly after finally getting over the line and getting safe. I can certainly allow Selles and the players that

Be nice to finish the season well next week at home mind you

I'm not massively impressed with losing to Burton tbh. I'd like to see us win next week and take the positives into the close season.

[South Coast Royal]

You may want to send a note with your world beating ideas to Pep and Arteta, amongst others

An old fashioned idea perhaps but at our lowly level I think the better set up is to have a winger playing on his "correct" side and being able to cross a ball that comes away from the keeper when using the player's best foot.
IMHO by playing the left -footer on the right it means that the player will often come inside to add to the midfield or when Scholes or Rooney for example were pushed out wide left for England they overcrowded the midfield and brought an imbalance to the set up.

Also Silva, Foden and Saka don't have exceptional pace so they aren't able to beat their man on the outside so well and cross with their much weaker right foot.
It may just be a current fashion-Villa also do it, as do Spurs and Liverpool but maybe there is just a dearth of natural right wingers around.
At our level I feel that an orthodox winger would suit us better because the midfield players don't have the skill and dexterity to cope well with wingers cutting in and making up the 5 man midfield.

Oh for the days of Stanley Matthews and even our beloved Steve Coppell who never played on the left. .or a Ronaldo, Charlton or Figo who were genuinely two-footed and could play on either side.

Anyway, let's see what Reading do next season.

I get trying to defend your position, but to say that Foden, for example, doesn’t have exceptional pace is ignoring what’s obvious

All the right wingers are playing on the left

Yes and the idea that the full back such as Trent, Robertson, Walker etc move into the space created when the winger inevitably cuts inside.
Unfortunately Reading have Yiadom and Dorsett who aren't the best on the ball.

[Stranded]

Disappointing to lose but frankly Burton knew they were close to last chance saloon and to have a team like us roll up, a team who have had an incredibly stressful season but managed to scramble to safety with a game or two to go must have been a real boost.

Having said that, if Smith does better with his chance after 28 seconds, its a vastly different match. Need an improvement next week, ideally a win so we can leave this season behind on the up rather than on a run of 3 games without a win.

As for our away form, given we started with 8 straight defeats to then go W4 D6 L5 Pts 18 is a solid midtable effort - only the Wigan and the game on Saturday could be considered poor results really (poss Fleetwood too but their equaliser was offside).

Interesting* to look at the breakdown of where our points have come from to date, with 1 to go:

Top 6: P12 Pts 10
7-12: P11 Pts 15
13-18: P10 Pts 13
19-24: P12 Pts 18

So a pretty even spread with our record against the bottom 6 being the best but will be matched by our record against the sides 7th to 12th with a win on Saturday.

All shows that the side has been relatively inconsistent this side and are pretty much just as likely to beat a promotion chasing side as they are to lose to one about to get relegated.

[stealthpapes]

Can't help but think that if we needed a point or more, we'd have got it. Burton not great, we already had one foot on the beach. Explains a couple of soft goals.

Did like it when both sets of fans were singing three little birds. Burton's home end very noisy, well organised. We sing our songs ever so slightly too fast.

It's a cocaine thing, right?

[stealthpapes]

All shows that the side has been relatively inconsistent this side and are pretty much just as likely to beat a promotion chasing side as they are to lose to one about to get relegated.

Feels like most sides in division are inconsistent. Few at top a bit better, few at bottom a bit worse, teams in the middle have runs of bad and good.

Think getting out of League 1 requires not only talent but some proper grit.

One thing I would like to see next year is more hardened performances - number of times we'd almost pull up at half-fouls and incidents or get wound up. Someone a bit older, wiser to help the younger heads avoid that would be a great asset.

[Greatwesternline]

An old fashioned idea perhaps but at our lowly level I think the better set up is to have a winger playing on his "correct" side and being able to cross a ball that comes away from the keeper when using the player's best foot.
IMHO by playing the left -footer on the right it means that the player will often come inside to add to the midfield or when Scholes or Rooney for example were pushed out wide left for England they overcrowded the midfield and brought an imbalance to the set up.

Also Silva, Foden and Saka don't have exceptional pace so they aren't able to beat their man on the outside so well and cross with their much weaker right foot.
It may just be a current fashion-Villa also do it, as do Spurs and Liverpool but maybe there is just a dearth of natural right wingers around.
At our level I feel that an orthodox winger would suit us better because the midfield players don't have the skill and dexterity to cope well with wingers cutting in and making up the 5 man midfield.

Oh for the days of Stanley Matthews and even our beloved Steve Coppell who never played on the left. .or a Ronaldo, Charlton or Figo who were genuinely two-footed and could play on either side.

Anyway, let's see what Reading do next season.

I get trying to defend your position, but to say that Foden, for example, doesn’t have exceptional pace is ignoring what’s obvious

All the right wingers are playing on the left

Yes and the idea that the full back such as Trent, Robertson, Walker etc move into the space created when the winger inevitably cuts inside.
Unfortunately Reading have Yiadom and Dorsett who aren't the best on the ball.

#Modern managers dont like crossing because they've data analysed the game to death and concluded that crosses lose possession more than the lead to goals, so they favour keeping the ball and working it closer to goal to create better chances statistically speaking.

A cross is often a hopeful lob into a dangerous area, but normally defenders outnumber attackers in the box so percentage wise they normally get cleared.

My own view is that too much passing and probing at the fringes of the box never leads to good chances either but a cross can often create a very easy chance to score.

At League 1 level i think there should be crosses galore because they players struggle stringing enough close control passes together in a tight space to make cutting in from the wing work.

[WestYorksRoyal]

All shows that the side has been relatively inconsistent this side and are pretty much just as likely to beat a promotion chasing side as they are to lose to one about to get relegated.

Feels like most sides in division are inconsistent. Few at top a bit better, few at bottom a bit worse, teams in the middle have runs of bad and good.

Think getting out of League 1 requires not only talent but some proper grit.

One thing I would like to see next year is more hardened performances - number of times we'd almost pull up at half-fouls and incidents or get wound up. Someone a bit older, wiser to help the younger heads avoid that would be a great asset.

Where we are is not uncommon for a team at our stage in its development. I remember a couple of years under Coppell before 05/06 where we'd match the top teams and then get poor results against those lower down which cost us.

Consistency takes time to develop. I think we'll be better next season but still not the finished product. If you look at some results since our form instead, we beat Derby and Stevenage, drew at Barnsley and Oxford and held Lincoln at home in a game we should have won. We also lost at home to Wycombe and Shrewsbury, lost to Burton and only got a point at Fleetwood. Hopefully we can reduce the bad days next season, but I think we'll still have too many to be in the top 2.

We also need more games where we're below our best but get out with a result anyway. Northampton is the only win of that nature I can think of.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

All shows that the side has been relatively inconsistent this side and are pretty much just as likely to beat a promotion chasing side as they are to lose to one about to get relegated.

Feels like most sides in division are inconsistent. Few at top a bit better, few at bottom a bit worse, teams in the middle have runs of bad and good.

Think getting out of League 1 requires not only talent but some proper grit.

One thing I would like to see next year is more hardened performances - number of times we'd almost pull up at half-fouls and incidents or get wound up. Someone a bit older, wiser to help the younger heads avoid that would be a great asset.

Where we are is not uncommon for a team at our stage in its development. I remember a couple of years under Coppell before 05/06 where we'd match the top teams and then get poor results against those lower down which cost us.

Consistency takes time to develop. I think we'll be better next season but still not the finished product. If you look at some results since our form instead, we beat Derby and Stevenage, drew at Barnsley and Oxford and held Lincoln at home in a game we should have won. We also lost at home to Wycombe and Shrewsbury, lost to Burton and only got a point at Fleetwood. Hopefully we can reduce the bad days next season, but I think we'll still have too many to be in the top 2.

We also need more games where we're below our best but get out with a result anyway. Northampton is the only win of that nature I can think of.

No way will be anywhere near top 2 m8

[Snowflake Royal]

Disappointing to lose but frankly Burton knew they were close to last chance saloon and to have a team like us roll up, a team who have had an incredibly stressful season but managed to scramble to safety with a game or two to go must have been a real boost.

Having said that, if Smith does better with his chance after 28 seconds, its a vastly different match. Need an improvement next week, ideally a win so we can leave this season behind on the up rather than on a run of 3 games without a win.

As for our away form, given we started with 8 straight defeats to then go W4 D6 L5 Pts 18 is a solid midtable effort - only the Wigan and the game on Saturday could be considered poor results really (poss Fleetwood too but their equaliser was offside).

Interesting* to look at the breakdown of where our points have come from to date, with 1 to go:

Top 6: P12 Pts 10
7-12: P11 Pts 15
13-18: P10 Pts 13
19-24: P12 Pts 18

So a pretty even spread with our record against the bottom 6 being the best but will be matched by our record against the sides 7th to 12th with a win on Saturday.

All shows that the side has been relatively inconsistent this side and are pretty much just as likely to beat a promotion chasing side as they are to lose to one about to get relegated.

I think it's also a different game if Pereira doesn't make it Mission impossible on 11 minutes with a lobbed pass out direct to their midfield with a gaping hole in front of them.

[MartinRdg]

#Modern managers dont like crossing because they've data analysed the game to death and concluded that crosses lose possession more than the lead to goals, so they favour keeping the ball and working it closer to goal to create better chances statistically speaking.

A cross is often a hopeful lob into a dangerous area, but normally defenders outnumber attackers in the box so percentage wise they normally get cleared.

My own view is that too much passing and probing at the fringes of the box never leads to good chances either but a cross can often create a very easy chance to score.

At League 1 level i think there should be crosses galore because they players struggle stringing enough close control passes together in a tight space to make cutting in from the wing work.

I do often think that stats are taken into account too often and players seem to be afraid to take a risky pass which would lower their pass completion percentage and prefer to go for the easier pass instead - same applies for crosses - too many crosses by a player would reduce their pass completion percentage.

[Snowflake Royal]

#Modern managers dont like crossing because they've data analysed the game to death and concluded that crosses lose possession more than the lead to goals, so they favour keeping the ball and working it closer to goal to create better chances statistically speaking.

A cross is often a hopeful lob into a dangerous area, but normally defenders outnumber attackers in the box so percentage wise they normally get cleared.

My own view is that too much passing and probing at the fringes of the box never leads to good chances either but a cross can often create a very easy chance to score.

At League 1 level i think there should be crosses galore because they players struggle stringing enough close control passes together in a tight space to make cutting in from the wing work.

I do often think that stats are taken into account too often and players seem to be afraid to take a risky pass which would lower their pass completion percentage and prefer to go for the easier pass instead - same applies for crosses - too many crosses by a player would reduce their pass completion percentage.

We've seen often enough on here the tendency to over emphasise stats and misinterpret them, so it's no surprise it happens with football managers, who often aren't exactly the brightest or good with numbers and logic.

[Millsy]

Compare that to Parj who's main mission was simply to increase the number of crosses into the box.

[Hound]

To GWL’s point; which I believe is broadly correct, think we saw Pauno take this to the extreme. We never seemed to put the ball into the box and the whole pissing about on the edge of the box, Ovie ‘slow the game down’ Ejaria etc seemed to all be an overly negative way of attacking

Fwiw I think it largely depends on personnel

If you are putting low percentage crosses into sub 6ft strikers then it’s a recipe for counter attack and disaster with 4+ of your players out of the game. Quality balls into peak Andy Carroll and that percentage obviously goes right up

With Smith, Kelvin E, Knibbs and Azeez to aim for, it’s probably worth getting balls in fairly quickly, which we generally do

[Snowflake Royal]

To GWL’s point; which I believe is broadly correct, think we saw Pauno take this to the extreme. We never seemed to put the ball into the box and the whole pissing about on the edge of the box, Ovie ‘slow the game down’ Ejaria etc seemed to all be an overly negative way of attacking

Fwiw I think it largely depends on personnel

If you are putting low percentage crosses into sub 6ft strikers then it’s a recipe for counter attack and disaster with 4+ of your players out of the game. Quality balls into peak Andy Carroll and that percentage obviously goes right up

With Smith, Kelvin E, Knibbs and Azeez to aim for, it’s probably worth getting balls in fairly quickly, which we generally do

Oh he's certainly not wrong about that bit.

It's just another example of fads and copy cat tactics with no thought to the strengths and weaknesses of your squad, and why things are successful for the innovators though.

It's like Bodgers passing football. He prioritised possession so much it was to the almost total exclusion of quality chance creation, and at the risk of catastrophic turnarounds.

Some managers seem to think that if you just pass enough, a magic tunnel will appear to the back of the net.