Playing through the press and our press (lots of words)

Having watched every minute of every game this season on the Telly I’ve been more and more impressed with our tactical set up, the way we play out from the back is so deliberate, we are coached so brilliantly. I’m sure most of you will have noticed that Skipp and McLean drop into full back positions to receive the ball from our centre halves, this usually means the opposing midfielders doesn’t go out of position with them. When they receive the ball they’re on the half turn which opens up the pitch to a ball into the feet of one of our 3 attacking midfielders or a pass down the line to our high up full back. If the forward pass isn’t on we simply go back to one of our centre backs or all the way to Krul. If the opposition does a full press and Krul doesn’t have an easy pass he pops it over the press to one off the full backs.

Our own press Wednesday was superb, it’s all about the timing and the willingness of our players to commit. Generally we let the opposition play the first pass the Pukki leads, he presses very quickly(unlike Grabban) and directly and we all follow. All our Attacking midfielders press towards one of the opposing defenders giving them little option but to pass to their keeper who generally hoofs it. The only team who successfully played through us time and time again was Brentford who are also well coached. Also a massive part of our success is our willingness to win the ball back in midfield, the way we hunt down the ball in packs is 2nd to none and certainly a reason why we don’t concede so many.
I personally think we’ll compete much better next season in the Prem although playing from the back will be much tougher. A couple of good additions to the squad, players who fit our mould and buy into Farkeball and we’ll be ok.

Enjoy the game later Wrathers.

I apologise in advance for poor spelling or grammar issues.

Posted By: strap_on sally, Mar 20, 10:49:36