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The Diamond 4-4-2


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3 hours ago, beararse said:

It was a MUST win game for them.

Their most important game in years. Of course they came out flying.

I expected nothing less from them, but more from us.

Unfortunately our midfield was off the boil: Aribo had a stinker of a first half. Up front/out wide Kent did little and, it transpired, Roofe had a niggle.

For all our faults, they didn’t register a shot on target after 22 mins.

It wasn’t pretty but a change at half time did the trick.

I’d happily face their diamond again and again. On form, we’ll rip them a new arsehole every time.

 

We are their Cup Final now.

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17 minutes ago, tm91 said:

They didn't play the diamond all the time. It transitioned into a 4-3-3 on the attack. They matched us then and we were taken by surprise.

Yes, their transitions were very quick and effective - it led to situations at the start of the game like Barisic losing Turnbull who had run in behind him and he hadn't realised as he had stepped out onto Frimpong and nobody from our midfield tracked him. 

Aribo was lost tbh. Which is a concern, because in bigger games you will get more tactical so he needs to learn that side of the game and execute better. 

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5 hours ago, sassaaaa said:

Had fuck all to with a diamond or any other formation , they wanted it right from the start. We thought we just had to turn up.....

Nonsense. 

Their shape, formation and discipline within it meant we couldn’t get out at all & the marked our key players out the game.

Even with that, Morelos’ chance in the first half is a better chance than either of the 2 Griffiths chances. For all their dominance we restricted them to one good chance (Edouard in the first few minutes) and maybe Bitton from a corner.

As expected, they couldn’t sustain it for more than 45 minutes and we began to impose ourselves in the second half and then it was all ours after the red as we began to find much more space. 

To say it had nothing to do with formations etc is nonsense.

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They looked so effective because everytime we got the ball near their half Soro fouled us and stopped us pushing on. I reckon he had 7 fouls before being booked on 41 minutes. If the ref had booked him early their game plan would have been out the window. 

Our front 3 were poor as well, Hagi gave us a much better balance in the 2nd half.

If we had Jack or Arfield playing, I think it would have been very different.

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Sportscene actually did a decent job of showing how their wider midfielders tired of shutting down our full backs and that led to Bitton’s sending off (the ball from Tavernier). Laxalt and Ajer’s dodgy positioning helped as well. 

They didn’t have the energy to play that way for 90 minutes. Think we would have taken over regardless.

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37 minutes ago, Shearer said:

They looked so effective because everytime we got the ball near their half Soro fouled us and stopped us pushing on. I reckon he had 7 fouls before being booked on 41 minutes. If the ref had booked him early their game plan would have been out the window. 

Our front 3 were poor as well, Hagi gave us a much better balance in the 2nd half.

If we had Jack or Arfield playing, I think it would have been very different.

TBH it’s a clever tactic to use.

Man City used it all the time to great effect for a couple of years.
As soon as the opposition gets the ball, foul them. 
The other team can never find a rhythm and you get to regroup.

 

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Just now, the goal machine said:

Sportscene actually did a decent job of showing how their wider midfielders tired of shutting down our full backs and that led to Bitton’s sending off (the ball from Tavernier). Laxalt and Ajer’s dodgy positioning helped as well. 

They didn’t have the energy to play that way for 90 minutes. Think we would have taken over regardless.

I actually thought, for once, that Sportscene did well in their coverage and reflections on the game.

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1 hour ago, eskbankloyal said:

Nonsense. 

Their shape, formation and discipline within it meant we couldn’t get out at all & the marked our key players out the game.

Even with that, Morelos’ chance in the first half is a better chance than either of the 2 Griffiths chances. For all their dominance we restricted them to one good chance (Edouard in the first few minutes) and maybe Bitton from a corner.

As expected, they couldn’t sustain it for more than 45 minutes and we began to impose ourselves in the second half and then it was all ours after the red as we began to find much more space. 

To say it had nothing to do with formations etc is nonsense.

I thought we were brilliant as a team yesterday after 25 minutes I thought you could see us taking control.

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1 hour ago, eskbankloyal said:

Nonsense. 

Their shape, formation and discipline within it meant we couldn’t get out at all & the marked our key players out the game.

Even with that, Morelos’ chance in the first half is a better chance than either of the 2 Griffiths chances. For all their dominance we restricted them to one good chance (Edouard in the first few minutes) and maybe Bitton from a corner.

As expected, they couldn’t sustain it for more than 45 minutes and we began to impose ourselves in the second half and then it was all ours after the red as we began to find much more space. 

To say it had nothing to do with formations etc is nonsense.

Garbage , if that game was played again tomorrow and they caught us on a good day we would gut them......

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A few things at play i think here:

1. Our middle to front 3 was way off form which didn't help at all. We really missed Arfield and Jack in midfield to turnaround second balls. Our hold up play in the front three was dreadful as well, so think it made them look a whole lot better as we couldn't get out.

2. We do struggle a little at times when teams press us high though. Was the same at home to Benfica. Yesterday in the first half, the two strikers pressed high and Turnbull just sat on Davis. Given most of our play stems from playing from the back it seemed to throw us a bit with short goal kicks etc.  If we need a 'plan B' maybe it should be how to play better against a high press, missing out the short passes from the back and getting it wide quickly or pushing up and playing more direct sometimes to Morelos/Itten and looking for second balls.  

But I do think its a little exaggerated how much they 'dominated' yesterday, apart from early saves they didn't cut us open, for all their bluster about how good their strikers and attacking players are.  We've had more dangerous opponents in Europe this year.

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I don't think the shape is so important, more the personnel and form. 

As others have said our front 3 did not work hard enough in the first half and this put additional pressure on our midfield, who have been off form for the last few weeks and missing Jack and Arfield who are both important in these games. 

They've played their best football of the season in the last few weeks and had Turnbull on really good form. All the "top first team players" they complained about missing in the last game were back. We've not been as good recently, but we still beat them. That is championship winning form. We need to take the massive lift and run with it and slay this mob to the title. 

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10 hours ago, CoGerfficiency said:

It worked to a degree, but our midfield was out injured, and you have to take that into the equation.

Which no one outside of Ibrox is.

I just hope that more people start appreciating more exactly what Jack and Arfield bring to the team.

 

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5 hours ago, eskbankloyal said:

As expected, they couldn’t sustain it for more than 45 minutes and we began to impose ourselves in the second half and then it was all ours after the red as we began to find much more space. 

I said elsewhere (think it was on the Balogun thread) that Griffiths was blowing out a hole in his arse after 20/30 minutes, he wasn't alone doing that. They gambled to try get an early goal and then they were going to try cling onto it. Their tactical masterplan never worked and they ran out of ideas and energy. 

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18 minutes ago, plumbGER said:

I said elsewhere (think it was on the Balogun thread) that Griffiths was blowing out a hole in his arse after 20/30 minutes, he wasn't alone doing that. They gambled to try get an early goal and then they were going to try cling onto it. Their tactical masterplan never worked and they ran out of ideas and energy. 

The thumb is a good player but can't last a full game and won't be long til he fucks it and falls aff the wagon again.

 

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1 minute ago, pollok-bear said:

The thumb is a good player but can't last a full game and won't be long til he fucks it and falls aff the wagon again.

 

He's only a good player if you allow him space to play, mark him.tight and he's bang average.

That's why he has never been effective in Europe for them, failed miserably at Wolves and (apart from 2 free kicks against Joe fucking Hart) has been pish for Scotland.

Most over rated Scottish striker of a generation.

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I feel we lack a bit of energy or zip in middle of team at moment.   Too many times in recent weeks we have opted to turn back or play safe when players have had opportunity to drive into space or at opposition players.  But we’ve just become a bit ponderous it seems.  Kent was bought precisely to be that kind of ‘drive’ player, but his form and confidence  has dropped off a cliff of late.  He did it twice yesterday in first half and caused them problems, needs to do it far more often and consistently. Just encourage him to be direct. But he’s not only one, and we need to be braver sometimes in those situations. I actually think Hagi always looks to go forward more than Kent does currently. 

 Also just sometimes try an early pass. Twice yesterday in 2nd half, Hagi looked for early ball form Tav, who stood on it and then recycled it backward.  Need to move ball quicker. We hardly ever do 1-2s either. 

And as much as I love Davis ability to keep and recycle possession, I still feel he slows us down unnecessarily.  In last couple of games he’s also sometimes been sitting between our two centre half’s. Needs to be at least 10-15 yards further forward. Just invites opposition right on back line. Feel A midfielder who can dictate play and drive forward is the missing piece of jigsaw for me.

At the end of the day, despite what I’ve said above, players off the boil, , missing other key players and a poor opening 25 mins yesterday, we rode that storm out. Got a foothold in game and a superb early pass from Tav, and roll from Morelos changes the game and leads to us winning. So I’m effing delighted despite my gripes above 😀

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7 hours ago, Copeland1983 said:

A few things at play i think here:

1. Our middle to front 3 was way off form which didn't help at all. We really missed Arfield and Jack in midfield to turnaround second balls. Our hold up play in the front three was dreadful as well, so think it made them look a whole lot better as we couldn't get out.

2. We do struggle a little at times when teams press us high though. Was the same at home to Benfica. Yesterday in the first half, the two strikers pressed high and Turnbull just sat on Davis. Given most of our play stems from playing from the back it seemed to throw us a bit with short goal kicks etc.  If we need a 'plan B' maybe it should be how to play better against a high press, missing out the short passes from the back and getting it wide quickly or pushing up and playing more direct sometimes to Morelos/Itten and looking for second balls.  

But I do think its a little exaggerated how much they 'dominated' yesterday, apart from early saves they didn't cut us open, for all their bluster about how good their strikers and attacking players are.  We've had more dangerous opponents in Europe this year.

This is easily the best response to my OP.  When I seen the celtic strikers split it creates space between them (because our CBs follow).  Then midfielders like Turnbull have that space to run in to.  It's a formation that works when used properly.

As I said in the OP, not sure how much celtic's success was down to there formation, or did we have an off day?  I suppose we wont know until someone tries it again.  

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9 hours ago, Smile said:

I thought we were brilliant as a team yesterday after 25 minutes I thought you could see us taking control.

We really weren't brilliant though after the red card we controlled and killed the game. Efficient after 60 mins maybe. Brilliant? Come on.

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25 minutes ago, SeparateEntityMyArse said:

We really weren't brilliant though after the red card we controlled and killed the game. Efficient after 60 mins maybe. Brilliant? Come on.

It was always going to be a tough match but after 20 odd minutes what did they do?

 

This is all they did.

 

 

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18 hours ago, SIRB_72 said:

It worked in the first half because we were playing right into their hands: We were playing with two strikers who like to come deep rather than wide and we couldn't get Kent into the game because he was just coming into bodies as well, he had one run in the first half and had to go by six celtic players before he found space.

They also had a pretty effective press which we played right into their hands as well because we couldn't play more direct. It also meant we couldn't get Tav or Barisic in the game or our central midfielders.

When we were defending we were pretty lost as well because as soon as their full backs came into our final third one of their midfielders came out to support. This left our full back with a decision on who to take and it left our central midfielder with a choice as well: leave the full back 2 v 1 or leave the centre of the park a man down. There were a few ocassions in that first half were all the celtic full back had to do was play it across our 18 yard line were they always had a spare man.

So yes it worked really well but because it suited playing against our tactics yesterday in the first half.

As soon as we made the change to bring on Hagi it evened up the game. It meant with two widemen plus Morelos we could be more direct which nulified the celtic press and could turn them which the sending off is a perfect example.

Going to the 5 in midfield also meant we could play out because it gave us an extra body to pass to. We could double up down the wings against their sole full backs which left celtic with the same dilemma it left us in the first half; do celtic's midfield stick or twist? If they come out to help the full back it moves the whole diamond and left space for us centrally and we could move the ball to the other wing. 

The Hagi shot is a great example of this and there were another couple examples of us moving the ball and moving celtic's diamond in the 15 minutes before the red card. 

celtic played their "best" 45 minutes of the season according to the pundits and it took us that amount of time to nulify lennon's masterplan and for me it could have been done after 20 if it wasn't for the manager's trust in the players.

Do I fear other teams using the diamond against us? No

Do I want us to use the diamond? No and only because our game is about creating triangles whether we play one up top or two up top and it has been pretty effective.

 

:848696413_goodpost:

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5 hours ago, Smile said:

It was always going to be a tough match but after 20 odd minutes what did they do?

 

This is all they did.

 

 

We were brilliant at Hampden. We were very good twice away at their place. We've had some brilliant individual performances and goals in these games. Saturday's result was brilliant but I just don't think our performance was. 

First half few got pass marks. 2nd half we competed far better, and controlled more of the game especially after the red card. We snuffed it out other than odd half chances.

Even having watched the full game back I really dont think we were remotely as good as we can be. I'm surprised anyone can view the performance as brilliant but each to their own.

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On 03/01/2021 at 15:58, slimjim1690 said:

For all the chat about Lennon's tactical genius the subs he made after the red made me chuckle.

I was thinking that during the game. In normal circumstances aye, after a red you'd maybe bring a defender on to keep things tight but given it was an absolute must win game for them they should have thrown caution to the wind and brought on another attacking player. Also bringing off their best striker (on his day, as much as i absolutely despise the cunt his record is outstanding for them) at the same time was just laughable. 

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