Split Midfielders

[OoooMarkWright]

Can someone explain to me the rationale behind the split midfielder tactic? I’ve never seen anything so ridiculous. We push both full backs high, and replace the full backs with our central midfielders Meaning our attackers drop deep into midfield to receive the ball, leaving the centre of the pitch exposed. Very bizarre. 

Early days, but so far I see very little benefit. The midfielders are 60 yards apart. We can’t build up play, can’t create angles and everyone, bar the full backs, drops deeper. I’m guessing the idea is to create overloads on either side, but we barely get the ball higher up the pitch to make this effective. Weird tactic. 

[Mucker1884]

Phew.  What a relief!

Read the title, and thought "Bloody hell.  That's all we need!"  ?

[Cool As Custard]

Because our esteemed glorious leader El Wazzo thinks he is the next Pep Guardiola

Because he has seen Man City employ it tactically at times last season he thinks it will make him look like a genius if he is doing it

The problem is he doesn't have a team capable of playing with the sophistication required to make the tactic work or experienced assistants to tell him what a fool he is being. No experienced manager would dream of doing what he is doing right now.

Just shows how clueless he really is - the sooner he decides he's had enough using our club as his own personal plaything & disappears back home to Coleen the better

[Ramarena]

21 minutes ago, enachops said:

Can someone explain to me the rationale behind the split midfielder tactic? I’ve never seen anything so ridiculous. We push both full backs high, and replace the full backs with our central midfielders Meaning our attackers drop deep into midfield to receive the ball, leaving the centre of the pitch exposed. Very bizarre. 

Early days, but so far I see very little benefit. The midfielders are 60 yards apart. We can’t build up play, can’t create angles and everyone, bar the full backs, drops deeper. I’m guessing the idea is to create overloads on either side, but we barely get the ball higher up the pitch to make this effective. Weird tactic. 

Rooney and the split midfielders tactic in real time

Edited August 14, 2021 by Ramarena

[Ghost of Clough]

The idea is for players to move into positions making it harder for the opposition to mark them and dragging them out of position to open up space for us to exploit.

CM to FB, FB to W, W to AM, AM to CM

I think I remember one of the players describing Clement trying to use the same tactics.

I think the main problem is we need CBs capable of being playmaker, and Forsyth hasn't got it in him to play the LB role - it needs to be Buchanan or Williams who have the energy to bomb up and down the wing all day. Having Bielik/Knightb in at CM instead of Shinnie would make a big difference.

[OoooMarkWright]

4 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

The idea is for players to move into positions making it harder for the opposition to mark them and dragging them out of position to open up space for us to exploit.

CM to FB, FB to W, W to AM, AM to CM

I think I remember one of the players describing Clement trying to use the same tactics.

I think the main problem is we need CBs capable of being playmaker, and Forsyth hasn't got it in him to play the LB role - it needs to be Buchanan or Williams who have the energy to bomb up and down the wing all day. Having Bielik/Knightb in at CM instead of Shinnie would make a big difference.

It’s not going to drag anyone out of position when it’s played at snails pace. Mind you, given the age of our back line walking football won’t be far off! 

[Ravabeerbelly]

I posted on this in an earlier thread. I agree with GoC above and it also relies on the wide att midfielders being able to come inside to play in what they call the half spaces and to know when to run off and beyond the striker. Sibley can do it and to a degree Joz can do it. It was perfectly highlighted in our first goal v Salford where I read a super tweet on it :-

 

It’s why I was never sold on Festy playing that role today who likes to hug the line while both Lawrence and Morrison like to come towards the ball and receive it to their feet. It offered no threat beyond the forward and it’s why we looked instantly more threatening when Sibley came on.

[OoooMarkWright]

36 minutes ago, Ravabeerbelly said:

I posted on this in an earlier thread. I agree with GoC above and it also relies on the wide att midfielders being able to come inside to play in what they call the half spaces and to know when to run off and beyond the striker. Sibley can do it and to a degree Joz can do it. It was perfectly highlighted in our first goal v Salford where I read a super tweet on it :-

 

It’s why I was never sold on Festy playing that role today who likes to hug the line while both Lawrence and Morrison like to come towards the ball and receive it to their feet. It offered no threat beyond the forward and it’s why we looked instantly more threatening when Sibley came on.

I agree. We looked a lot better when Sibley came on, he occupied that space further inside. First half, Ebosele and Byrne were standing on each other’s toes. Never going to work. 

[Van der MoodHoover]

I'm sure my old nan used to say that there was no point in crying over split mids..... 

?

 

[Barney1991]

Pep said he got tactics from a pack of flying geese from a drone as it looks like Rooney got his when the drone flew over 2 otters on the opposite side of each other drowning while building a damn and the others otters standing around watching 

[Barney1991]

11 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

The idea is for players to move into positions making it harder for the opposition to mark them and dragging them out of position to open up space for us to exploit.

CM to FB, FB to W, W to AM, AM to CM

I think I remember one of the players describing Clement trying to use the same tactics.

I think the main problem is we need CBs capable of being playmaker, and Forsyth hasn't got it in him to play the LB role - it needs to be Buchanan or Williams who have the energy to bomb up and down the wing all day. Having Bielik/Knightb in at CM instead of Shinnie would make a big difference.

Can’t play this game plan with shinnie he’s not cleverer enough on the ball and can’t play it and also bird to an extent it would be far better with a bielik and Watson combination 

[Dimmu]

It wouldn't be a bad tactic if it would suit to our strengths. Now it's just a schoolboy stuff...

I'm a firm believer that tactics should be created to, first and foremost, suit the attackers available. In some first games to my surprise Rooney even managed to do this. Directly to CKR and let him do what he thinks is the best option.

Now without CKR, it's up to Rooney and his team to earn his money. Blackburn with Armstrong and Norwich with Pukki have shown that those kind of players can play as a lone striker in this division. Stretton is obviously not on those levels yet, but we need to start playing like we mean to score from open play some day.

We have players suited to play to his strenghts in Watson and Sibley. Lot's of through balls and even more direct running and at least we can challenge most of the teams in this league.