Let's discuss making runs...

[bulivye]

owen, i guess, makes them, but does anyone else really know how, when, or even whether to make a run?  our movement off the ball has been poor. what gives? 

[Guest jcricthon]

Poor coaching, lack of understanding, playing most of the season under poor guidence and tactics (Allardyce), lack of confidence, lack of fitness, lack of care?

[lovejoy]

i was thinking the same thing earlier, our movement is fucking awful.

 

i was also trying ot think of the last time damien duff beat a man and got his cross in.

 

oba and owen up front against blackburn for me, oba should give us another dimension

[bulivye]

we (rightly) criticize those players who can't pass, but perhaps our off-the-ball movement is a real culprit.

[Guest jcricthon]

i was thinking the same thing earlier, our movement is f****** awful.

 

i was also trying ot think of the last time damien duff beat a man and got his cross in.

 

oba and owen up front against blackburn for me, oba should give us another dimension

 

Correct! Zog on the left, Milner on the right and we'll get balls in the box and we'll have Oba and Owen getting on the end of them! Emre in the middle making runs with Geremi picking up the ball from defense and picking out passes.

Easy peasy eh?

[lovejoy]

aye, have to say i agree.

 

zog emre geremi milner

 

would be my midfield for blackburn. although im pretty certain emre is out for a few weeks

[sparta]

aye, have to say i agree.

 

zog emre geremi milner

 

would be my midfield for blackburn. although im pretty certain emre is out for a few weeks

 

it certainly would be interesting to try

but we should have subs for them both... (emre geremi)

[Mick]

This is like the chicken and the egg, why make runs if you know your team mates can't find you?

[bulivye]

This is like the chicken and the egg, why make runs if you know your team mates can't find you?

b/c it's the right thing to do?   

[TRon]

We haven't got players with the legs. Butt and Barton are too slow so if they make a run forward, they can't get back if we lose possession. Plus they are shit so they might as well stay in the centre circle to be honest.

 

 

 

 

[Guest YANKEEBLEEDSMAGPIE]

This is like the chicken and the egg, why make runs if you know your team mates can't find you?

b/c it's the right thing to do?   

 

what are you guys, overachievers?  exertion is for quality sides!

[Guest MaetihS]

don't talk of making runs. Our players cant even pass properly...cannot believe they are pro players. eg Taylor's passing makes schoolboys look world class to be honest.

[Guest Stephen927]

Our movement up front and in midfield makes it easy for the opposition to defend our attacks, and for them to then go on and create their own attacks easily due to lack of movement.

 

Just wish a few of our players would take a chance and make a run into the flanks or gamble and go forward.

 

When our team is in possession, its hard to pick a pace because of the lack of space due to bad movement. A smart run can drag a defender out of position, it isn't exactly rocket science and it's annoying to watch.

 

Our players are almost rooted into their positions, take a chance, swap positions, would make the world of difference and will stop our attacks becoming so predictable, ie full back > winger > turn, turn, cross, cleared, opposition attack > score.

[Guest Milburnthedog]

Those old enough to remember of first few seasons back in the Prem will remember Beards, Sellars, Malcolm Allen, Cole, Lee etc cutting open opponents with sharp incisive passing. KK put them together. KK knows what a good footballer looks like and will turn us into a team to challenge once again. Lets just concentrate in supporting him and the team and the future will be bright.

[Guest Dr. Richard Kimble]

The players just don't care to make runs -  they're eveyrone elses cast offs. I think some of them actually enjoy it when we lose.

[bulivye]

Those old enough to remember of first few seasons back in the Prem will remember Beards, Sellars, Malcolm Allen, Cole, Lee etc cutting open opponents with sharp incisive passing. KK put them together. KK knows what a good footballer looks like and will turn us into a team to challenge once again. Lets just concentrate in supporting him and the team and the future will be bright.

 

i agree with you, and look forward to what KK will do to improve the movement, passing etc...  my purpose for this thread was more to point out that, as a previous poster said about the chicken/egg, it takes both good passing AND good off-the-ball movement to generate consistent offense.

[Yorkie]

Martins' movement isn't particularly brilliant (i don't think it's as bad as a lot of people make out, i don't think it's his main weakness), but he has more mobility than Owen and Smith, and our 'on-rushing attacking centre-mids' put together. When he gets the ball he will run at people and push defenders back, immediately giving us a better chance of us scoring.

 

He was being withdrawn by Allardyce in games like at Chelsea, at home to Man City, and it was absolute madness. Like i say, he's not great off the ball, but when he does have the ball he will get it and run and does fit into the cliche of 'attack is the best form of defense'. Let's face it, in the two games i mentioned, the opposition's attacking became much more prominent after he went off.

 

The movement in attack is abysmal, although Owen's has got better recently, it's still pretty in and out. It's mainly due to the midfield though; as someone said earlier, you can't expect them to chase stuff if they're not getting service.

 

Playing Smith isn't helping like.

[Cronky]

We need a striker who can drop back and a midfield player who can get forward. That's the basics of the kind of movement that can unsettle defences. At the moment we're playing along tramlines.

 

The '96 side had Beardsley dropping back and Rob Lee getting forward. Sir Bob had Bellamy going back and Dyer going forward.

 

I'd give Duff the withdrawn striker role and get Barton moving forward. They won't be as good as the above combos, but it would be better than what we have now.

 

At the moment, we're pinning all our hopes on Owen's finishing skills, such as they now are after his injuries. We won't improve that way.

[Wullie]

We need a striker who can drop back and a midfield player who can get forward. That's the basics of the kind of movement that can unsettle defences. At the moment we're playing along tramlines.

 

The '96 side had Beardsley dropping back and Rob Lee getting forward. Sir Bob had Bellamy going back and Dyer going forward.

 

I'd give Duff the withdrawn striker role and get Barton moving forward. They won't be as good as the above combos, but it would be better than what we have now.

 

Maybe if Barton and Duff weren't both diabolical.

[Bad Mongo]

we (rightly) criticize those players who can't pass, but perhaps our off-the-ball movement is a real culprit.

 

I've been saying that for a while. Our passing is shit not only because our players can't pass, but because when someone makes a run with the ball, the others just stop up to watch or come trotting behind, and when someone looks to make a pass, the rest of the team will stand with their hands on their hips and watch, while the opposition is free to close them down. This is one thing that should be possible to improve without bringing in better players, and I think the one reason why we're under-performing with the arguably mid table quality players we have.

[Dave]

It's depressing how Darren Fletcher - who most would go completely fucking spare should we sign - fitted into the Man Utd team yesterday effortlessly. In fact I never actually noticed him, he just did his job and his team won at a canter.

[Incognito]

We'd best sign Ricky bastard Ponting!!!!!!

[BONTEMPI]

We need a striker who can drop back and a midfield player who can get forward. That's the basics of the kind of movement that can unsettle defences. At the moment we're playing along tramlines.

 

The '96 side had Beardsley dropping back and Rob Lee getting forward. Sir Bob had Bellamy going back and Dyer going forward.

 

I'd give Duff the withdrawn striker role and get Barton moving forward. They won't be as good as the above combos, but it would be better than what we have now.

 

At the moment, we're pinning all our hopes on Owen's finishing skills, such as they now are after his injuries. We won't improve that way.

 

We need to start shooting from outside the box for a change!

 

Think Emre was that last one to do it and actually get it on target.

 

We'll be a different side with Martins back, he's the only unpredictable one in our whole squad

[Guest wuthering ballsack]

We'd best sign Ricky b****** Ponting!!!!!!

 

Knowing our luck he'd appoint Monty Panesar as batting coach.

[ElDiablo]

The players aren't flexible enough, they stick religiously to their own position and rarely interchange. Which makes us piss easy to play against and ultra predictable. It's not necessarily about making runs, it's finding space. Look at Arsenal, if their right winger sees a gap in the middle he won't hesitate to run into it and make himself available, even if he doesn't recieve the ball he's dragging a player out of position and creating space for another midfielder/attacking full back, whoever. None of our players do that so we're a soft touch to play against.

 

Also connected to that is getting players close to the player with the ball (on our team). There's never a simple pass on due to the attacking playersnot getting close enough to the man on the ball. If one goes it's predictable, he'll recieve the ball under pressure and it usually goes back and the process starts again. But if two get within 5-10 yards and show for it the man on the ball can fake to go to one, pass to the other, move on recieve it again etc thus dragging opposition players out of position, that's how gaps are created and you get in behind. Again, we never do this. Butt receives it, turns and will have nothing simple on so he has to try one of his long balls out to one of the wingers who are hugging the touchline, and as we know his execution is pretty bad most of the time so we lose possesion.

 

That's why I think Emre who gets quite a lot of stick, some fair some unfair imo, makes such a difference to the side. When playing with Butt under Souness and Roeder that looked our best CM pairing by far, cos Emre's the only one who gets close to to others and gives them a ball to play, creates triangles and gives the opposition something to think about. At the moment we're absolutely toothless. In the summer hopefully we'll get someone who's fit to play every week in who can do that but until then Emre and to a lesser extent Martins (imo) are the only ones who will come in and change things a bit and make us a bit more unpredictable and potent going forward.