How to break down teams sitting deep?

[NeoGeo7 10,418]

Expect this to be the norm going forward whether at Ibrox or even away from home. Livingston and Aberdeen have shown how to do it and Hamilton came close so I can't see many teams trying to have a go at us and depending on how well organised their defences are we will see varied results if we keep plugging away at 4-3-3. I'm certainly no expert on this but some of the ideas that spring to mind are:

Better Attacking Players
Goes without saying that better players in particular a creative central midfielder capable of beating a man and drawing the back line out or picking a through ball or reverse pass that unlocks a defence would be hugely beneficial for us but we are currently 2 months from any potential additions plus getting a player like that within our budget will be very difficult. So that most likely means we have to work on what we have.

Variety
If we always look to do the same attacks then your opposition is always going to be in their comfort zone especially if the  way you play is the same way from your last 5 games. Predictability means managers can plan ahead for countering your playing style such as having your wide players man marked by fullbacks no matter where they went on the park. With a packed box you don't have much choice in terms of getting through. Lump it in the box from wide or from deep and its going to be cleared (especially when Sadiq is up against defenders like McKenna and Devlin who thrive of aerial defending).

Playing in to feet isn't going to work either as they will crowd you out. So perhaps try long range efforts some of the time and sometimes it might be blocked, other times deflected for a corner, other times work the keeper and perhaps even score but having the ball central and just playing it wide to Kent or Candeias or Tav is just going to mean the same thing. Close them down but keep the box packed and our crosses don't get past the first man or it gets cleared (or our forwards aren't in a good enough position to capitalise). This needs to be worked on in training.

Fluid front 3
I thought Gerrard would have gone for an interchanging front 3 without a main striker yesterday. It basically means that instead of Sadiq who sat between McKenna and Devlin all game you don't have anyone that is always in the middle. It causes the central defenders to have to concentrate far more rather than know they are picking up a certain player that they have to figure out who is the danger for each attacking move which if we change the front 3 it won't always be the same player. Candeias can strike a ball well as can Kent while Middleton has shown he too can finish and Grezda has been played through the middle for his country so you'd have to assume he can do a job there.

We had the options on the bench to change this but Gerrard stuck with the lone striker, pressing and holding up play which if its not Morelos it just doesn't work with our current squad. Gerrard stuck with Sadiq which either shows a) he didn't see he was awful and was never going to score or b) he didn't have faith in his bench to play a formation without a recognised striker. If its either of these thats slightly troubling to say the least.

Getting In The Lead First
This most likely means getting a goal from a set piece and it forces the other team to either accept a 1-0 defeat or hope to scrape a 1-1 draw or they open up to get back into the game that allows our natural game to give us better results.

Our set pieces in the last few games have been particularly poor, the delivery and the quality of finish if it does find a man in the box. For me this is an easy thing to work on since a packed defence is going to give away a number of corners and free kicks as was seen yesterday. For a start Tav needs to be taken off corners and free kicks and give it to Kent even if its just to get Tav to buck up his ideas and put in extra training for set pieces. I wonder how many corners and free kicks someone like Beckham practiced during his career?

Give the Ball Away
Aberdeen were happy to let us have the ball knowing that we weren't doing much with it and therefore just sat deep and waited for us to lose the ball and hit us on the counter. So instead of us playing to their game plan why not throw a spanner in the works by giving them the lions share of the ball and we sit deep and counter them. We don't have to change our personnel or play that way the whole game but even if we make a conscious decision to do this for a spell and we know its our choice rather than the opposition dominating then its controlled and we make sure we work on getting the ball to our outballs during training so that guys like Kent, Candeias and Middleton can hit them on the break. It's risky as we've played our better football when on the front foot and you may well lose a goal but it would certainly make the opposition change their game plan.

 

I can only hope that the management team are now (if they weren't already) fully aware of the issues that we face domestically (and in Europe when teams do what Spartak did) and that they need to come up with ideas and implement these on the training ground pronto.

Wednesday night will most likely see a Kilmarnock side that sit deep and look to counter so even with Morelos back and most likely Arfield starting it just might not be enough to break them down and get the goal. One thing is certain if we just keep sticking to Plan A this is going to end up the same way as it did under Warburton, looks good to begin with then get sussed out and don't have any answers.

[dummiesoot 15,990]

Being able to shoot accurately should be one. Look at Rogic he hits them from anywhere and is generally accurate and successful. 

[The Specky Forum Organiser 64,408]

Shooting from further than 18 yards out once every so often might help.

[lee-irvine 53]

We allow teams to comfortably defend against us, we should be pressuring them a lot more than we do force them in to mistakes. Echoed as above but it is mental to think we have a guy who made a career out of pinging it in top bin from 20+ yards out, yet no one in the team will take a chance.

[backup 4,724]

Good grief ! football has turned into rocket science, seems many think they are Iain Dowie !

[Big Al 55 9,241]

Quality of final pass is the only thing that matters, that of course includes set plays.

[.Williamson. 81,966]

Drop Sadiq from the squad 

[ForeverAndEver 71,348]

A winger/full back that can cross, a set piece taker

[ritchieshearercaldow 22,123]

We lack players who can make a killer pass, we lack a striker that can regularly hit the target ( hit the target without necessarily scoring) I we lack players who can create space in the box.

[crazy bob swollenbaws 1,861]

Excellent original post.  Can i also firect to look at abergreen goal. From a corner. 

I feel that when we take corners we aim for our players. I would rather we aim for a space in the box that one of our players knows to run into. 

Much harder for defenders to mark then. See the running the aberdeen scorer did for the goal.

[Bronzy 26,095]

22 minutes ago, ForeverAndEver said:

A winger/full back that can cross, a set piece taker

Barisic hopefully.

[DrLaudrup 4,563]

Great post. I'd agree with all of that. 

I said in another thread that we should have gone for a fluid front line yesterday instead of Sadiq in a big game, as he is clearly not up to standard. 

Teams sitting in against us is nothing new - happened continually through 9IAR. Difference then is that we had far more quality. We had better finishers and also we had midfielders that could score from outside the box. Albertz is the obvious example but Ian Ferguson and Gazza used to score a lot from there too.  Our midfielders are really shot shy and have been for some years. A lot of celtics goals against us recently have come from midfield as even if we play defensively they possibly have more players there that can strike the ball from outside the 18 yard box. 

I'm not necessarily against 1 up front but it relies on Morelos/Lafferty to work really hard for 90 mins which is tiring over a game/season, requires really accurate wing play and passing and should have midfielders busting a gut to get into the box to support. Morelos has improved a lot under Gerrard but we seem to always play 2 sitting midfielders and there is very little support for our forwards. Grezda/Middleton seem as though they could be the type to push forward but we haven't seen this yet. For me if we are going to play one up we can't be playing two sitting midfielders. We are comfortable in possession - our problem is the final third and we need a midfielder further up the park. 

[steven33jackie 1,917]

Our biggest problem yesterday and in many games like yesterday is that when the ball does come into the box our attackers are always standing behind the defenders. You them have an easy clearance and the guy crossing the ball takes the flak with the usual shite cross quote. But its not always a shite cross sometimes its a lack of movement from the attackers.

 

[backup 4,724]

[To Be A Ranger 4,032]

Move and play quick direct passes. And the occasional shot would help as well.

[NeoGeo7 10,418]

2 minutes ago, steven33jackie said:

Our biggest problem yesterday and in many games like yesterday is that when the ball does come into the box our attackers are always standing behind the defenders. You them have an easy clearance and the guy crossing the ball takes the flak with the usual shite cross quote. But its not always a shite cross sometimes its a lack of movement from the attackers.

 

Look at the space ejaria had there and clearly he was frustrated he didn’t get the ball here. Pick him out and get him to just shoot from 20 yards.

[plumbGER 24,518]

53 minutes ago, Jeffrey said:

Shooting from further than 18 yards out once every so often might help.

We tried that yesterday but they need to be on target to go in the goal, at least work the keeper.

[docspiderman 1,220]

Play at a faster tempo,quick passing and movement then be prepared to react and take shots. The slow slow build up which ends in the ball going wide for a cross to a box filled with defenders is so predictable.

[crazy bob swollenbaws 1,861]

8 minutes ago, NeoGeo7 said:

Look at the space ejaria had there and clearly he was frustrated he didn’t get the ball here. Pick him out and get him to just shoot from 20 yards.

Correct. Then its either,

Deflection for corner

Deflection for goal

Straight in goal

Save or goal kick. 

I see no issues with any of that for an attacking team. So what is the issue?

[eejay the dj 31,964]

Having someone that can hit a good cross ball with accuracy and  pace will always bring goals 

Not someone who kicks it into an area and hopes for the best 

Or someone who can't get the ball over the first man on a frighteningly high amount of times 

Having better back up strikers would be good

[Johnsey 1,540]

I love Candeias work rate and at times he can be class, but his crossing is always hit and hope, most of the time he doesn't even look. Regularly crosses with just 1 guy in the box.

We could do with players that can shoot from distance - That lot have Rogic, McGregor, Ntcham and even Christie that are all very decent from distance. When the opposition is sitting in, it really helps having a player that can score from distance. 

Kent likes to cut in and shoot sometimes, but rarely goes either side of the keeper. Ejaria holds the ball for too long which usually stops any chance of a shot. If any others are in that position, they don't really have the ability or history of scoring.

Corners and set pieces have to be better.

We can't rely on every goal coming from nice football in and around the box.

[Ibroxholm 2,274]

Having difficulty breaking down a packed defence is not unique to the current team.  We have have teams in the past with far better players who have struggled to get through well marshalled defences.  Sometimes you just need a bit of luck but you also need players with both skill and composure to take the few chances that come along.  Unfortunately, I think our current players lack that commodity.   We had a number of opportunities against Spartak last week that called for a bit of composure rather than just lashing out.  Less so yesterday but there still were opportunities if we had players who could keep a cool head.

[Shuggy 1,308]

As i said elsewhere, too often Aberdeen players got between the Rangers player and the ball for a clearance. Total lack of mobility to create space.

Having said that, it only takes one goal to force them to come out and the whole sitting deep plan crumbles.

 

[HG5 11,067]

Too much fannying around as we move up the park.

Every turn away from goal by the likes of Kent & Ejaria means another one or two opponents back to defend.

We make it harder for ourselves than we need to.

[gsa 3,906]

Centre midfielder who can pass forward woud help.