why have we stopped pressing high??

[JoeDerby]

Can anyone answer this? Is there a reason we have stopped forcing teams in to mistakes? Pressing in 3's and 4's? Giving teams no time on the ball? Controlling games WITHOUT the ball? 

[AdamRam]

Yes because teams were bypassing the press with a long ball. Without the players to protect your back 4 if you commit too many forward it’s easy to counter, hence why we are subjective when pressing now.

Football isnt about pressing a button, 442, 352, long ball, press etc....that can all be implemented in a second, the other team also tries to win a match, unbelievable I know, but it does happen ?

[DCFC1388]

3 minutes ago, JoeDerby said:

Can anyone answer this? Is there a reason we have stopped forcing teams in to mistakes? Pressing in 3's and 4's? Giving teams no time on the ball? Controlling games WITHOUT the ball? 

The players that pressed so well during our good patch were - 

Marriott - Clearly still not fully fit to do this sort of press

Lawrence - Out injured

Mount - Out injured

Wilson - Can only press from his position if the striker is

Waghorn - Only one who doesn't have a reason not to press but no point in just 1 going to press

Backup players that have come in due to the injuries etc -

Nugent - tries his best but just doesn't have the legs to do it any more

Bryson - see Nugent

King - not his game

Holmes - see Wilson

So overall a lot seems to be down to the fact the players are either missing or simply not fit enough to do it. 

[Ghost of Clough]

8 minutes ago, JoeDerby said:

Can anyone answer this? Is there a reason we have stopped forcing teams in to mistakes? Pressing in 3's and 4's? Giving teams no time on the ball? Controlling games WITHOUT the ball? 

Because we don’t have the players who can do it. Mount, Bryson, Lawrence, Waghorn/Bennett, Marriott are the only attacking players who seemingly can. With just a single one of those missing we struggle to play that way. 

It also doesn’t help when opposing teams take on a more direct style against us, negating the ability to press them high up the pitch. 

[TuffLuff]

Simply put, aside Hull, teams have pressed us further up the pitch which has caused us to play more in our own half.

The problem is how we have dealt with it. Huddlestone, or the defensive mid,  should be pivotal in pushing us forward over the halfway line but he’s far too comfortable turning back and looking for the easy pass. A lot of times last night Forest easily had 9-10 players behind the ball and it was because he has turned back for the easy pass. This pushes the midfield back, Holmes and Wilson you want to see firmly in the opposition half bit a lot of their work is around the half way line with no space. Endeavour to move forward with the ball or move the ball quicker isn’t there which stems from the build up.

The other Huddlestone issue is that he doesn’t make the room for our two ball playing cb’s to pass the ball forward themselves, he’s stuck to being around the centre circle which pushes players towards that area and not away.

You could argue that there’s maybe not enough movement in front but to be honest I thought King, Holmes and Wilson were in decent positions forward at times and the pass went back to Keogh or Tomori. The lack of confidence collectively and individually has been on show for weeks now.

The other smaller issue is that we can’t hold the ball up top. Look at Murphy last night, sometimes the simple ball forward, attacker holds on to the ball and then brings others into play is simple and effective. Neither Waghorn or Marriott really fulfil that role.

Essentially we are playing 10 yards behind where we should be. In the 4-3-2-1 formation the DM is so important and Huddlestone doesn’t cut it. That player needs to set the tempo, style as being others into the game by giving them the ball in good positions.