Ravabeerbelly

An unfashionable opinion I dare say, but Fozzy is having a decent game.

Yes, this is the correct way to support young players breaking through.

That isn’t fair mate. He’s at the sharpest end of the pitch. Give him a chance. I thought he was excellent midweek and today is another step in the right direction for him. He’s already looked a threat just with his movement. 

That isn’t fair mate. He’s at the sharpest end of the pitch. Give him a chance. I thought he was excellent midweek and today is another step in the right direction for him. He’s already looked a threat just with his movement. 

Festy earned his chance to start but I maintain that he is a very very good and effective attacker…..from full back. Playing as pet of the attacking midfielders is a different ball game altogether.

I mean in the context of today’s game only obviously!!! Going forward this is a disaster!!

Yes he did

Bird has been far superior today to Shinnie. Can’t understand the calls for Bird to be dragged off at half time. He’s tried moving the ball forwards. Some of it not good enough quality but I can’t remember Shinnie trying to pass forwards once today. 
 
Tell Max to stay central. Pull Shinnie wide to allow Forsyth to push forwards. Get Byrne overlapping Ebosele because he provides quality into the box rather than making him come inside. 
 
Tell Morrison to stay closer to CKR. 

The main problem we have is lack of anywhere to go with the ball.
Lawrence and Morrison both want to come and and get the ball deep when they should be the players Bird and Shinnie are getting the ball to. Byrne can’t get forward because Festy is in his space and by Festy being out wide we are missing g one of our attacking midfielders coming inside and getting in pockets of space. 
It just means CKR gets so isolated when he should have at least 2 maybe 3 getting closer. 
Personally Id have Morrison deeper anyway. I don’t think he has the desire to run behind and get in the box. He may be creative but not at a forward player. 
I think it’s where we miss Sibley and / or Joz….and to a degree even Hutchinson….where midweek (granted it was only Salford) they looked to get in the box and beyond Stretton. 
I’m sure most would’ve taken 0-0 at HT though and we do have options on the bench to change that later on.

Would have picked Jozwiak ahead of Ebosele.its harder to go on those runs when you start higher up and in a tighter situation. 

If there's a convoluted way of deploying the pair of them that plays to none of their strengths, then I'm sure our coaching team will find it.... ?

Always find myself so disinterested when you draw a team from the same division. 

I’m not sure players were necessarily getting out muscled. Of course there are always times when you lose a physical battle - that happens to any player at anytime. But they did target our left hand side and Watson and Williams struggled to get to grips with it initially. There was more than one occasion where Williams tried to come towards a ball that Forsyth was already challenging for and the loose ball then finds it’s way to to the spare player. It’s a simple rule of one challenges and one covers and once we’d been caught Williams learned pretty quick just to drop off and anticipate us losing the first challenge.
Hutchinson was caught trying to come out with the ball which resulted in a long range effort, I felt it was a foul tbh, but that’s not because he was young, he was just caught by someone reading the play. Ravel Morrison was asking bundled off the ball in midfield for the second goal and no ones raised an eyebrow!
Salford are a big physical combative unit and it highlights once again my point that league 2 is a very very difficult league to play in especially if you’re a technical player.
The switch for Morrison to drop deeper worked but only because a) the game had settled down and slowed a little (because he didn’t do anything there that Hutchinson and Watson weren’t already doing he just had a bit more space to do it….and b) Hutchinson is better suited to playing higher up and created more options and more space by doing so. He also offers an option to stretch the game so we had him and Sibley doing so and in turn getting closer to Stretton - this was highlighted perfectly for the first goal.

ok point taken?. Jordan Brown in for Cashin then.

Why are you bringing Cashin into a squad when it was clearly stated he wasn’t included in the last one due to restrictions on players of “professional standing”?

I’m not sure players were necessarily getting out muscled. Of course there are always times when you lose a physical battle - that happens to any player at anytime. But they did target our left hand side and Watson and Williams struggled to get to grips with it initially. There was more than one occasion where Williams tried to come towards a ball that Forsyth was already challenging for and the loose ball then finds it’s way to to the spare player. It’s a simple rule of one challenges and one covers and once we’d been caught Williams learned pretty quick just to drop off and anticipate us losing the first challenge.
Hutchinson was caught trying to come out with the ball which resulted in a long range effort, I felt it was a foul tbh, but that’s not because he was young, he was just caught by someone reading the play. Ravel Morrison was asking bundled off the ball in midfield for the second goal and no ones raised an eyebrow!
Salford are a big physical combative unit and it highlights once again my point that league 2 is a very very difficult league to play in especially if you’re a technical player.
The switch for Morrison to drop deeper worked but only because a) the game had settled down and slowed a little (because he didn’t do anything there that Hutchinson and Watson weren’t already doing he just had a bit more space to do it….and b) Hutchinson is better suited to playing higher up and created more options and more space by doing so. He also offers an option to stretch the game so we had him and Sibley doing so and in turn getting closer to Stretton - this was highlighted perfectly for the first goal.

He uses his pace to make up for not reading the situation quick enough, but that shouldn't be used against him, just like for Tomori.
Decent in the air for a wing back and strong in the tackle - he loves a sliding challenge

Was just about to post this. Watching last night I wasn’t sure if Joz had contributed much at all but on seeing the clips again he was involved in almost all our better goalscoring moments inc the first goal. 

If it's Marcus Maddison that you're on about then he now plays for Spalding United in the 7th tier 

Was just about to post this. Watching last night I wasn’t sure if Joz had contributed much at all but on seeing the clips again he was involved in almost all our better goalscoring moments inc the first goal. 

Funnily enough, I would say Watson's been guilty of trying to force too many passes which aren't on. 

A couple of glimpses of why Hutchinson was so highly rated at Brighton. 

Here’s the plan….
Imagine the pitch divided up lengthways into 5 strips….
1 2 3 2 1 with 3 centrally being the widest one.
You don’t want players in the same strips occupying the same lines.
He is asking his CB to play a little more narrow than the conventional set up for playing out from the back where the CBs split and leave themselves exposed on turn over. So the CBs come short in zone 3 drawing forwards in for a press. 
 
The CMs then split and drop deeper but in zone (line) 2 and the FBs push on very high in zone (line) 1.
The 10 now drops into spaces left in zone 3 and the 11 and the 7 come inside and play in zone (line) 2 and get closer to the CF.
Almost like this :-
                     1    
               5.         6.   
      4.                            8.  
                     10. 
2.                                       3.  
            7.               11.  
                      9. 
 
The aim is to give width with the full backs and an overload with the 4, 8, 10, 7 and 11 in central areas but also to provide defensive strength centrally on the turn over. It’s an alternative or an evolution of Peps inverted full backs. 
One of the problems we had yesterday with this working was the 7 and 11. Joz and Watson. Joz wants to play more as an orthodox winger and stays too wide and he blocks off the areas we wanted to expose for Byrne to get forward. Watson did similar and never quite got into the game enough to enable us to retain possession and get close to CKR. The only real time it worked was for Birds through ball where’s Watson's movement inside was timed perfectly. 
It’s why Sibley looked more effective as he is happier playing in those inside areas, getting in good areas and also stretching the game giving centre backs more to think about allowing CKR more space. 
Ebosele didn’t do it as effectively on the other side and my feelings on Festy are that he is going to suit the system far better coming from the full back position working in line 1 than he will as the 7 or 11 and being asked to play in the pockets. 

Morrison will also suit this system however the jury for me is out on how effective he’ll be and whether he will do the required work out of possession or whether he will change history and perform for longer periods of fine now he has secured a contract. 
In summary, at the moment, Joz may well suit a role from the bench and exploiting tired legs and stretching teams. My front three midfield players would be Morrison / Sibley / Lawrence in any rotation. Watson for me may well be better suited to the Bird role and I see him as his back up ahead of Thompson and the reason Carrol isn’t really needed. 
 

Here’s the plan….
Imagine the pitch divided up lengthways into 5 strips….
1 2 3 2 1 with 3 centrally being the widest one.
You don’t want players in the same strips occupying the same lines.
He is asking his CB to play a little more narrow than the conventional set up for playing out from the back where the CBs split and leave themselves exposed on turn over. So the CBs come short in zone 3 drawing forwards in for a press. 
 
The CMs then split and drop deeper but in zone (line) 2 and the FBs push on very high in zone (line) 1.
The 10 now drops into spaces left in zone 3 and the 11 and the 7 come inside and play in zone (line) 2 and get closer to the CF.
Almost like this :-
                     1    
               5.         6.   
      4.                            8.  
                     10. 
2.                                       3.  
            7.               11.  
                      9. 
 
The aim is to give width with the full backs and an overload with the 4, 8, 10, 7 and 11 in central areas but also to provide defensive strength centrally on the turn over. It’s an alternative or an evolution of Peps inverted full backs. 
One of the problems we had yesterday with this working was the 7 and 11. Joz and Watson. Joz wants to play more as an orthodox winger and stays too wide and he blocks off the areas we wanted to expose for Byrne to get forward. Watson did similar and never quite got into the game enough to enable us to retain possession and get close to CKR. The only real time it worked was for Birds through ball where’s Watson's movement inside was timed perfectly. 
It’s why Sibley looked more effective as he is happier playing in those inside areas, getting in good areas and also stretching the game giving centre backs more to think about allowing CKR more space. 
Ebosele didn’t do it as effectively on the other side and my feelings on Festy are that he is going to suit the system far better coming from the full back position working in line 1 than he will as the 7 or 11 and being asked to play in the pockets. 

Morrison will also suit this system however the jury for me is out on how effective he’ll be and whether he will do the required work out of possession or whether he will change history and perform for longer periods of fine now he has secured a contract. 
In summary, at the moment, Joz may well suit a role from the bench and exploiting tired legs and stretching teams. My front three midfield players would be Morrison / Sibley / Lawrence in any rotation. Watson for me may well be better suited to the Bird role and I see him as his back up ahead of Thompson and the reason Carrol isn’t really needed. 
 

Here’s the plan….
Imagine the pitch divided up lengthways into 5 strips….
1 2 3 2 1 with 3 centrally being the widest one.
You don’t want players in the same strips occupying the same lines.
He is asking his CB to play a little more narrow than the conventional set up for playing out from the back where the CBs split and leave themselves exposed on turn over. So the CBs come short in zone 3 drawing forwards in for a press. 
 
The CMs then split and drop deeper but in zone (line) 2 and the FBs push on very high in zone (line) 1.
The 10 now drops into spaces left in zone 3 and the 11 and the 7 come inside and play in zone (line) 2 and get closer to the CF.
Almost like this :-
                     1    
               5.         6.   
      4.                            8.  
                     10. 
2.                                       3.  
            7.               11.  
                      9. 
 
The aim is to give width with the full backs and an overload with the 4, 8, 10, 7 and 11 in central areas but also to provide defensive strength centrally on the turn over. It’s an alternative or an evolution of Peps inverted full backs. 
One of the problems we had yesterday with this working was the 7 and 11. Joz and Watson. Joz wants to play more as an orthodox winger and stays too wide and he blocks off the areas we wanted to expose for Byrne to get forward. Watson did similar and never quite got into the game enough to enable us to retain possession and get close to CKR. The only real time it worked was for Birds through ball where’s Watson's movement inside was timed perfectly. 
It’s why Sibley looked more effective as he is happier playing in those inside areas, getting in good areas and also stretching the game giving centre backs more to think about allowing CKR more space. 
Ebosele didn’t do it as effectively on the other side and my feelings on Festy are that he is going to suit the system far better coming from the full back position working in line 1 than he will as the 7 or 11 and being asked to play in the pockets. 

Morrison will also suit this system however the jury for me is out on how effective he’ll be and whether he will do the required work out of possession or whether he will change history and perform for longer periods of fine now he has secured a contract. 
In summary, at the moment, Joz may well suit a role from the bench and exploiting tired legs and stretching teams. My front three midfield players would be Morrison / Sibley / Lawrence in any rotation. Watson for me may well be better suited to the Bird role and I see him as his back up ahead of Thompson and the reason Carrol isn’t really needed.