Ringwood Jack said:
I think if we play a high press and on the front foot might suit MW.. Teams currently play through us quite easily to the half way line as we don't defend higher up the field
Cooper didn't use the high press and very quickly dropped back to negate the lack of pace in areas of the back four to resolve Potter's team poor defensive issues.(also see Premiership relegation stats for our previous defensive decline)
Martin did employ the high press but given how deep we were sat initially the press was almost totally ineffectual at times especially after we just scored and our central midfield duo dropped so deep teams just played through us. Martin's second season with two new quicker defenders meant that when we played four at the back we could employ the high press better and meant the gap in the middle of the park was smaller except when we reverted back to 3 at the back or when the middle of the midfield dropped too deep.
Many teams picked us off in the last two seasons either because the team was too stretched leaving gaps all over the pitch or committed too many players forward leaving gaps in behind our defence that didn't deal with properly or we didn't leave enough players with pace to cover.
We lacked pace up front hence the reason Martin picked Manning to play as part of a three man forward line but to do that Martin knew we had to play four at the back
Totally agree a high press would aid MW but that press has to be executed selectively and properly, we will also need pace in more areas of the park to counter breakaways as we press forward.
Just hope we don't lose all our "star" players, Ntcham, Piroe and Whittaker.
Hope Duff can develop the likes Congreve, Ogbeta and others who seem to have pace or the abilities to take players on in wide areas and they are not sidelined early on like Martin did with a number of players.
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