Modern high level football games between evenly matched teams are won and lost in the offensive and defensive transitions. I’ll expand…..
Take the Spanish team at the World Cup excellent team on paper passed the ball to death without any penetration and it allowed teams to setup defensively and pick them off when they turned the ball over.
Take Swansea’s last 6 games. We’ve passed the ball often in “safe” areas along the back and into midfield where we’ve often given up possession though a poor touch or control. The opposition has been able to pick the ball up in transition and attack the space causing us to concede a good chance against our goal. For good examples looks at Bristol and Birmingham.
Going forward because our build up play is methodical though the pitch without the required pace/width it we spend a lot of time probing around the box giving teams time to move form side to side and get into their defensive shape. It’s such a precise way of playing that in the absence of genuine pace or width it’s nearly impossible to be successful at and hardly anyone plays this brand of football anymore.
Modern, progressive teams now want to do their attacking work in the transition i.e through winning the ball high up the pitch and attacking the space or through a misplaced pass. If you want a good example take a look at Preston’s 4 goals at Blackburn on Saturday and how unstructured the Blackburn defence was when pressed.
We spent a lot of time chasing an equaliser against Norwich but our crossing was largely ineffective in open play, why? Because when we cross the ball the opposition are nearly always in their defensive shape in numbers which means it’s either got to be perfect it’s a low % play. If you cross the ball having won the ball back high up the pitch the defensive line has lost its structure, they are running towards their own goal and the midfielders can’t support.
No better example of this than the phase of play before Norwich scored. A dreadful pass from Latibeaudiere in our defensive zone, Norwich turn it over and it’s a good opportunity to score as there’s no structure in our defence and too late for the midfield to get back.
It’s telling that the recent FIFA study showed goalkeepers are more involved than ever because teams are pressing higher forcing defenders to turn back and more goals are coming from wide areas through crosses when the ball is turned over.
In the Championship you’ve got an extremely competitive league with very little point of difference between a lot of the teams. The evidence suggests the extreme passing method is becoming easier to play against because it brings so much structure the opposition can easily plan for it.
It just feels like Russ and his style of play would have been more suited in a previous era and modern football has simply moved on…….
Take the Spanish team at the World Cup excellent team on paper passed the ball to death without any penetration and it allowed teams to setup defensively and pick them off when they turned the ball over.
Take Swansea’s last 6 games. We’ve passed the ball often in “safe” areas along the back and into midfield where we’ve often given up possession though a poor touch or control. The opposition has been able to pick the ball up in transition and attack the space causing us to concede a good chance against our goal. For good examples looks at Bristol and Birmingham.
Going forward because our build up play is methodical though the pitch without the required pace/width it we spend a lot of time probing around the box giving teams time to move form side to side and get into their defensive shape. It’s such a precise way of playing that in the absence of genuine pace or width it’s nearly impossible to be successful at and hardly anyone plays this brand of football anymore.
Modern, progressive teams now want to do their attacking work in the transition i.e through winning the ball high up the pitch and attacking the space or through a misplaced pass. If you want a good example take a look at Preston’s 4 goals at Blackburn on Saturday and how unstructured the Blackburn defence was when pressed.
We spent a lot of time chasing an equaliser against Norwich but our crossing was largely ineffective in open play, why? Because when we cross the ball the opposition are nearly always in their defensive shape in numbers which means it’s either got to be perfect it’s a low % play. If you cross the ball having won the ball back high up the pitch the defensive line has lost its structure, they are running towards their own goal and the midfielders can’t support.
No better example of this than the phase of play before Norwich scored. A dreadful pass from Latibeaudiere in our defensive zone, Norwich turn it over and it’s a good opportunity to score as there’s no structure in our defence and too late for the midfield to get back.
It’s telling that the recent FIFA study showed goalkeepers are more involved than ever because teams are pressing higher forcing defenders to turn back and more goals are coming from wide areas through crosses when the ball is turned over.
In the Championship you’ve got an extremely competitive league with very little point of difference between a lot of the teams. The evidence suggests the extreme passing method is becoming easier to play against because it brings so much structure the opposition can easily plan for it.
It just feels like Russ and his style of play would have been more suited in a previous era and modern football has simply moved on…….
