League One tactics and DCFC

[jimtastic56]

1 hour ago, Crewton said:

As you were at the game, did you notice the number of times we tried to "keep the momentum going" by taking a quick freekick only to have the referee call us back so he could have a friendly chat with a Northampton player or some other spurious reason? I think I can recall 3 occasions at least.

When that happened, it gave Northampton time to get back into shape, by which time on occasion waiting for Wildsmith to take the freekick made no difference.

Far from curtailing Northampton's antics, the referee all too often validated them, thus increasing the team's frustrations further.

I did notice that once near the half way line. Unfortunately we took it about 8 yards away from the foul. But fans were screaming around me - for us to get on with it , many times . We could also have given the ball to CTB when he was in space but took too long . Perhaps we missed Bird . In general I don’t like Wildsmith Lumping every free kick near the half way line .

[WestKentRam]

2 hours ago, angieram said:

I also thought we'd signed Sonny Bradley to be our own league one shithouser,  but he's not very good at it, is he? 

He gets riled himself rather than being the one doing the riling.

True, but in a way I have some sympathy with Bradley.

He has shades of the soldier, in the type of films I watch too often, who has to repeatedly put himself in harms way in the service of his country and his unit. However he is pushed over the edge and goes rogue, as everyone has their limits. 

[WestKentRam]

2 hours ago, TuffLuff said:

Good post, and if I may say it’s the type of content I’m here for and we don’t see enough on here!

What id say is that I think over the course of a season you are somewhat expected to drop points away from home where teams fancy their chances of an upset. Also you can expect a bit of leggyness/mental exhaustion after a big win like the Bolton one, it’s a really difficult league to find consistency in and I’d say all teams have suffered from that and hence it’s so close at the top. 
 

What’s becoming more of an issue I think is the points dropped at home. There’s been atleast 6-9 points, and that’s being kind, that we dropped. A better home record and you can excuse a trip like Saturday as one of those days and move on.

Cheers, 

I agree that our home record, until recently, has not been great for a variety of possible reasons.

Of course we can't win every match, especially away from home, but I've been pondering what happened after Saturday as it isn't an isolated occurrence.

It feels like we need tactics to overcome the so called 'dark arts', as at present it we just seem to play the same way the next time the opposition play like that and the game is very much stop-start.

Another thing that came to me was someone close by on Saturday commented that rain would be welcome as the pitch was dry as a bone. I can't recall seeing sprinklers so they must have deliberately not watered the pitch to stop us playing passing football, if we felt so inclined. Perfectly legitimate, but do we prepare for such eventualities?

It was a windy day, the stadium was very blowy due to the open corners and low stands, something their players must be used to. A bit like Barnsley away when they made us play into the sun in the second half, making it very hard for our players to see the ball. They used home advantage to the fullest extent. Can we prepare for this to minimize it?

It appears we can't just expect Derby to turn up, hopefully play the better football, then win more times than not.

We have to overcome a possible dry pitch, players going down injured to waste time and break up play, not being given the advantage of quickly taken free kicks, the opposition working to rile the players then congratulating each other when you get sent off, a mascot time wasting and winding up the players, a scoreboard that stops showing how long is left in the match etc etc.

These are things that I think we have to consciously work on psychologically and tactically overcoming, as otherwise we will repeatedly come unstuck in such games.

[jimtastic56]

1 hour ago, WestKentRam said:

Cheers, 

I agree that our home record, until recently, has not been great for a variety of possible reasons.

Of course we can't win every match, especially away from home, but I've been pondering what happened after Saturday as it isn't an isolated occurrence.

It feels like we need tactics to overcome the so called 'dark arts', as at present it we just seem to play the same way the next time the opposition play like that and the game is very much stop-start.

Another thing that came to me was someone close by on Saturday commented that rain would be welcome as the pitch was dry as a bone. I can't recall seeing sprinklers so they must have deliberately not watered the pitch to stop us playing passing football, if we felt so inclined. Perfectly legitimate, but do we prepare for such eventualities?

It was a windy day, the stadium was very blowy due to the open corners and low stands, something their players must be used to. A bit like Barnsley away when they made us play into the sun in the second half, making it very hard for our players to see the ball. They used home advantage to the fullest extent. Can we prepare for this to minimize it?

It appears we can't just expect Derby to turn up, hopefully play the better football, then win more times than not.

We have to overcome a possible dry pitch, players going down injured to waste time and break up play, not being given the advantage of quickly taken free kicks, the opposition working to rile the players then congratulating each other when you get sent off, a mascot time wasting and winding up the players, a scoreboard that stops showing how long is left in the match etc etc.

These are things that I think we have to consciously work on psychologically and tactically overcoming, as otherwise we will repeatedly come unstuck in such games.

Overcome a “Blowy Stadium” and a dry pitch ? What are they under 8’s .

[S8TY]

1 hour ago, WestKentRam said:

Cheers, 

I agree that our home record, until recently, has not been great for a variety of possible reasons.

Of course we can't win every match, especially away from home, but I've been pondering what happened after Saturday as it isn't an isolated occurrence.

It feels like we need tactics to overcome the so called 'dark arts', as at present it we just seem to play the same way the next time the opposition play like that and the game is very much stop-start.

Another thing that came to me was someone close by on Saturday commented that rain would be welcome as the pitch was dry as a bone. I can't recall seeing sprinklers so they must have deliberately not watered the pitch to stop us playing passing football, if we felt so inclined. Perfectly legitimate, but do we prepare for such eventualities?

It was a windy day, the stadium was very blowy due to the open corners and low stands, something their players must be used to. A bit like Barnsley away when they made us play into the sun in the second half, making it very hard for our players to see the ball. They used home advantage to the fullest extent. Can we prepare for this to minimize it?

It appears we can't just expect Derby to turn up, hopefully play the better football, then win more times than not.

We have to overcome a possible dry pitch, players going down injured to waste time and break up play, not being given the advantage of quickly taken free kicks, the opposition working to rile the players then congratulating each other when you get sent off, a mascot time wasting and winding up the players, a scoreboard that stops showing how long is left in the match etc etc.

These are things that I think we have to consciously work on psychologically and tactically overcoming, as otherwise we will repeatedly come unstuck in such games.

Great opening post but I think we too easily slip into percentage football and Saturday was a prime example ....I still say a good football side have different ways of winning but most of the gripes seem to come when we resort to non football just get it forward and or cross it into the box....we had a collective off day on Saturday but I still think when we try and zip the ball about quicker we look a much more dangerous side and on Saturday some of the passing was woeful (and not just because of the pitch because PP is hardly great )but a lot of our passes were bobbly slow passes behind the intended player and we are better than that ..

When I've watched coaching sessions or poor surfaces being played on this can be nullified more by passing into someones feet with purpose and rely on a players first touch more not trundle a slow ball to someone so it bobbles and eventually reaches its intended target, it was all far too slow and predictable and we must be better in the last 6 games ...we hope

.I commented on Saturday that the football from both sides was absolutely terrible and I stand by that 

I've seen much better non league games this season , the most disappointing thing from my perspective is, we can't say it won't happen again this season. Going to be a tough last 6 games if we play like that again 

[WestKentRam]

38 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

Overcome a “Blowy Stadium” and a dry pitch ? What are they under 8’s .

Nope, but if they are mainly used to play in particular conditions, then it helps to have been exposed to what they will face in a game to be able to adapt to what is in front of them.

I'm sure that they are used to different conditions in training, but they don't seem to be able to cope when the weather and pitch dictate that a different approach might need to be taken.

Yes, I'm nit picking here that is my forte, but in L1 were going to face such environments repeatedly and need to do better.

[WestKentRam]

20 minutes ago, S8TY said:

I still say a good football side have different ways of winning but most of the gripes seem to come when we resort to non football just get it forward and or cross it into the box....we had a collective off day on Saturday but I still think when we try and zip the ball about quicker we look a much more dangerous side and on Saturday some of the passing was woeful (and not just because of the pitch

I agree, and thought this once again during the game on Saturday that it does my head in playing overly optimistic blind balls in the air down the wings to a wide man who has three or four defenders on him. They are 'passes' with a low % probability that they will come off. It often makes me think of John Beck at Cambridge in the 90s and somehow I am watching this instead of Derby.

[WystonRam]

We still created three very good first half chances that probably should have been converted.

[angieram]

48 minutes ago, WestKentRam said:

Nope, but if they are mainly used to play in particular conditions, then it helps to have been exposed to what they will face in a game to be able to adapt to what is in front of them.

I'm sure that they are used to different conditions in training, but they don't seem to be able to cope when the weather and pitch dictate that a different approach might need to be taken.

Yes, I'm nit picking here that is my forte, but in L1 were going to face such environments repeatedly and need to do better.

It's not nit-picking, it's those fine margins for improvement. 

That's how the England cycling team suddenly started winning all those gold medals. (Although illicit substances allegedly may have played a part! 🙈😂) 

[WestKentRam]

38 minutes ago, angieram said:

It's not nit-picking, it's those fine margins for improvement. 

That's how the England cycling team suddenly started winning all those gold medals. (Although illicit substances allegedly may have played a part! 🙈😂) 

Yep, it made me think of Dave Brailsford instituting things like Team Sky (booooo) taking the cyclists own mattresses with them so they didn't have a bad night's sleep on stage races due to a dodgy hotel bed. 

I/we as fans often concentrate on the actual football, but it seemed to me after frankly spending too much time pondering this, that a lot of non-footballing factors that we can control and adapt to are involved in whether a successful outcome occurs or not. The Groundhog Day experience of some games makes me wonder if we aren't being savvy enough related to these.