Tuesday night with Venkys

[ChrisC]

The outcome of this one will be down to our defence. If we keep Rhodes quiet then I think we will win this one.

Blackburn seem poor on corners. They conceded from 3 against Leicester in one game. With Dawson in our armory we should have a field day

Blackburn have no win in 5 so expect at least a draw from this one. I think we will win this by the odd goal though.

2-1

[BWFC_Insane]

I wasn't there, but people keep saying we defended too deep with the lead.

We conceded like what a minute after half time then a few minutes later. Sounds more like a slow start than a symptom of sitting too deep all of a sudden. But I will defer to those who went.

Dougie attributed it to a change in Barnsleys system after half time that we took a while go get to grips with.

Not something I'd be saying publicly for other managers to read really. Keep em up the field a bit more and forget inviting them to come and score. As has been mentioned, it's something we do a bit too often.

I suspect he meant more from individuals adjusting to who they were picking up and marking etc rather than any overall tactical issue.

[thebish]

I wasn't there, but people keep saying we defended too deep with the lead.

We conceded like what a minute after half time then a few minutes later. Sounds more like a slow start than a symptom of sitting too deep all of a sudden. But I will defer to those who went.

Dougie attributed it to a change in Barnsleys system after half time that we took a while go get to grips with.

Not something I'd be saying publicly for other managers to read really. Keep em up the field a bit more and forget inviting them to come and score. As has been mentioned, it's something we do a bit too often.

I suspect he meant more from individuals adjusting to who they were picking up and marking etc rather than any overall tactical issue.

we did the same under Coyle... it's nowt new! maybe Dougie just hasn't fixed it properly yet? also - some that went said their second was a bit of a goalie-error - not tactics...

[Salford Trotter]

Blackburn are there to be beaten, I think. They're a team in decline after the initial positivity with the appointment of Appleton, so hopefully we start quick and go in with a lead at half time.

I'm not sure who is start up front. I think Sordell will be our most prolific striker at some point but it'd be unfair to break up the Davies/N'Gog partnership. I would also like Wheater back in the team ahead of Knight but, again, you'd be breaking up a successful partnership. The same goes for Holden and Medo, actually.

But yeah, I'm optimistic about this game. I'll go for us, 3-1.

He's a fecking nutter

But he's our nutter....

true but I'd love him more if he controlled his on-field tantrums a touch more

[Salford Trotter]

a view from the dark side
http://www.brfcs.com/mb/index.php/topic ... vs-rovers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SmokinFrazier]

I wasn't there, but people keep saying we defended too deep with the lead.

We conceded like what a minute after half time then a few minutes later. Sounds more like a slow start than a symptom of sitting too deep all of a sudden. But I will defer to those who went.

Dougie attributed it to a change in Barnsleys system after half time that we took a while go get to grips with.

For the first goal we conceded, we had 8 men inside our own box. For the second goal, we had 8 men either inside our own box or hovering around it.

This is the wrong gameplan just after half time, I think. You know what their team have been told at half time - Attack them quickly and try and get an early goal. For me, the best way to kill off any enthusiasm they have is to keep hold of the ball and dominate the first 10 minutes by not letting them have possession. Pass it back to the keeper, play it around at the back, have your midfield drop down and be as negative as you can be, but just don't let them get into it. If their manager could have any ideal scenario, it'd be for us to sit back deep straight after half time because the only thing that does is invites pressure. When they're going forward and throwing everything they've got at us, the worst thing you can do is allow them come onto you. You need to force them back a bit, which we didn't do.

This is a fault of ours defensively. When defending, we have far too many men back and that sort of strategy rarely works. Players get in each others way and there's no marking or anything like that, it's just far too frantic for me, and I think both of the goals we conceded were avoidable.

[officer_dibble]

We'll smash em

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

For me, the best way to kill off any enthusiasm they have is to keep hold of the ball and dominate the first 10 minutes by not letting them have possession. Pass it back to the keeper, play it around at the back, have your midfield drop down and be as negative as you can be, but just don't let them get into it.

So you're saying sit deep when we have the ball? But we're sitting too deep when we don't have it? Maybe when we lose possession everybody should sprint forward 20 yards...

[Athers]

Their first goal can be traced back to Alonso being one of our furthest men forward on the left touchline as the ball was lost. When they attacked our team shuffled over to cover and they eventually worked an opening on the other side.

Alonso having licence to go up that much wasn't exactly keeping a rigid two banks of four and waiting for pressure.

Later on I'll agree we were more cautious.

[Salford Trotter]

Their first goal can be traced back to Alonso being one of our furthest men forward on the left touchline as the ball was lost. When they attacked our team shuffled over to cover and they eventually worked an opening on the other side.

Alonso having licence to go up that much wasn't exactly keeping a rigid two banks of four and waiting for pressure.

Later on I'll agree we were more cautious.

If Eagles had been stronger in the tackle too we might had avoided the first goal too, he really did bottle it

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

For me, the best way to kill off any enthusiasm they have is to keep hold of the ball and dominate the first 10 minutes by not letting them have possession. Pass it back to the keeper, play it around at the back, have your midfield drop down and be as negative as you can be, but just don't let them get into it.

So you're saying sit deep when we have the ball? But we're sitting too deep when we don't have it? Maybe when we lose possession everybody should sprint forward 20 yards...

I'd also add that asking Zat Knight to 'play it around the back' is a bit like asking Abu Hamza to hold a grenade for you

[thebish]

my nerves would simply not take the spectacle of Bolton passing at around at the back!

[BWFC_Insane]

Their first goal can be traced back to Alonso being one of our furthest men forward on the left touchline as the ball was lost. When they attacked our team shuffled over to cover and they eventually worked an opening on the other side.

Alonso having licence to go up that much wasn't exactly keeping a rigid two banks of four and waiting for pressure.

Later on I'll agree we were more cautious.

Right, as I thought.

So when we did actually drop deep we did not concede and held onto the lead?

Phil Brown was chuckling away on the commentary when Wheater came on saying 'Reminds me of Sam this'. He was saying that when defending a lead Sam always liked to get big headers of the ball on and also liked to go 5-4-1 towards the end.

Simply sometimes you need to just see out periods in games. It's why we consistently failed under Coyle because we were never prepared to dig in and scrap out the win or the point. We didn't have that ability.

You just have to do that. Every team does at times.

[danardif1]

Their first goal can be traced back to Alonso being one of our furthest men forward on the left touchline as the ball was lost. When they attacked our team shuffled over to cover and they eventually worked an opening on the other side.

Alonso having licence to go up that much wasn't exactly keeping a rigid two banks of four and waiting for pressure.

Later on I'll agree we were more cautious.

Right, as I thought.

So when we did actually drop deep we did not concede and held onto the lead?

Phil Brown was chuckling away on the commentary when Wheater came on saying 'Reminds me of Sam this'. He was saying that when defending a lead Sam always liked to get big headers of the ball on and also liked to go 5-4-1 towards the end.

Simply sometimes you need to just see out periods in games. It's why we consistently failed under Coyle because we were never prepared to dig in and scrap out the win or the point. We didn't have that ability.

You just have to do that. Every team does at times.

Exactly. Coyle never understood that 10-20 minutes of ugly stuff is sometimes a necessity to get the game won/drawn. Some of his substitutions were borderline insane for the circumstances we'd be in at those times.

Dougie does seem to understand that Plan A isn't always the plan you'll finish the game on.

[gavlat2872]

a view from the dark side
http://www.brfcs.com/mb/index.php/topic ... vs-rovers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers for that. hopefully their team will put in as much effort as the author of the article. the fans comments were interesting.

COYWM!!!!!!

[Bruce Rioja]

I won't be there so we'll win 5-0

[danardif1]

We'll shit 'em...

[SmokinFrazier]

Simply sometimes you need to just see out periods in games. It's why we consistently failed under Coyle because we were never prepared to dig in and scrap out the win or the point. We didn't have that ability.

Except we didn't see out that period. The first 10-15 minutes after half time are crucial in defending a lead. It's when you need to kill the game off and we simply didn't do that. We gave away two goals and threw away our lead because we defended far too deep.

This argument works for the last 20 minutes or so, especially going 4-5-1, but Freedman's ultra defensive set up after half time did not work. It cost us two goals and we had to fight back to win the game.

For me, we need to sit back far less than we do. Every time we get a lead, the mindset seems to change to camping inside our own box and desperately try to scramble the ball away. We're a better side than that, and when we are more positive, we defend better.

[thebish]

This argument works for the last 20 minutes or so, especially going 4-5-1, but Freedman's ultra defensive set up after half time did not work. It cost us two goals and we had to fight back to win the game.

did it though? didn't a goalkeeping blunder cause the second? and didn't the first arise from a missed tackle?

i think your direct correlation theory might be a little bit over-simplistic..

[SmokinFrazier]

This argument works for the last 20 minutes or so, especially going 4-5-1, but Freedman's ultra defensive set up after half time did not work. It cost us two goals and we had to fight back to win the game.

did it though? didn't a goalkeeping blunder cause the second? and didn't the first arise from a missed tackle?

i think your direct correlation theory might be a little bit over-simplistic..

There'll always be some individual errors which cost goals but I think you're putting yourself in a bad position by defending so deep. For the first goal we conceded yesterday, we had 8 men inside our own box, and that's far too much for me. Not only does it allow them to create good chances out of nothing, but you're less likely to defend well because 8 men inside the box is chaotic.

They were individual errors but I don't think they'd have taken place if we hadn't sat back so deep, you know? There's a time and place for that, but I don't think it's straight after half time.