Differences tonight

[Born Sinner 298]

More direct, more no-nonsense defending, less controlled, more getting in behind the opposition defence, more pressing.

Didn’t always keep possession as good as we should and missed some decent chances but that was refreshing to watch. 

[billscott 2,463]

i liked in his after match interview when he said they told morelos to spend more time in the box  that showed tnite  and thats where a centre forward should be

[SIRB_72 4,000]

I thought we masked our weaknesses really well tonight. Hard to tell if it was meant after two days but I thought when we couldn't play our strengths we did the other bit brilliantly

[LaaRFC 4,755]

Created maybe 5/6 really clear cut chances which I don’t feel we’ve done in a while. 
 

An encouraging start. 

[Leftpegcoopz11 4,734]

10 minutes ago, billscott said:

i liked in his after match interview when he said they told morelos to spend more time in the box  that showed tnite  and thats where a centre forward should be

Just said it in another thread regarding Morelos. That's what I like to hear coming from our manager. He's been wasted too long dropping deep, though he still did do it at times today, probably habit now. But he also found himself more on the shoulders of their CBs. 

[GaryMc 2,394]

Getting in behind and having a striker in the box were the two obvious ones. I'm  confident after a few more weeks of training we'll kick into gear.

The talent is there in our team but lets be honest the players and us supporters were fucking bored of Gerrard and his tactics this season. He knew he couldn't create the spark needed so left to protect his reputation before it went to complete shit.

We all knew a change of personnel was needed and it's cheaper changing the manager.

I'm looking forward to the season now.

[Bearsinblue 165]

Glad to see Morelos in and around the box and not as deep as he’s been all season. Aribo pushed up a bit further too and could of had a hat trick himself🔴⚪️🔵

[Super Ally Scores Again! 472]

More like our old selfs - Pressing higher, winning the ball back as a unit, clean sheet…. (Thanks to McGregor)

Decent start and room for improvement.

Delighted to hear GVB wants Morelos further forward and in and around the box, we’ve been crying out for that for months - Give Alfie some support and he will score

[superallysbears 7,583]

Sat too deep at times but I think that's more to do with us letting goals in of late.

[McEwan's Lager 30,522]

Width. Plenty of it. Hallefuckinglujah. 

Full backs and wide men hugging the touchlines on BOTH SIDES when we have the ball. Such a simple Dutch concept - when you have the ball make the pitch as large as possible.

Also - Gio urging the players to fly down the wings when they get the ball in space.

 

 

[King Jela 20,361]

Defence looked more organised I thought even if McGregor did have to bail us out in the second half. Liked how direct we were, there was times we should have been more direct when the opening was there but kept the ball instead and the chance was away. Fuck it though, good start. More optimistic than I have been after most games this season. 

[philiprfc 1,799]

Thought we looked really good in spells. Later on when we sat off them, looked like we changed to a 352 with Tav RCB, rode our luck at times but they had about 5 up top and tbh the offense is clearly the strongest part of their team. All in all a pretty good showing. Thought Bassey and Goldson were excellent along with Kamara.

[Fergie_6 1,078]

1 hour ago, billscott said:

i liked in his after match interview when he said they told morelos to spend more time in the box  that showed tnite  and thats where a centre forward should be

Seems so simple, was the way he did play down to magic mick Beale?

[AberfeldyBlue 1,550]

im a simple fan and i liked to see shagger kick the ball the fuck intae their half now an then and not play it out from the back fannying around getrting into trouble. Big boy Bassey was great too. 

[SURRENDERNO 250]

Difference tonight ATTITUDE 

[SonicWill 804]

Seems like we're willing to go more direct, although there were spells (ten mins in the first half and basically 70 mins onwards) when we couldn't keep the ball or get out. That was concerning.

Also seems like the midfield is much more fluid than under Gerrard, particularly whilst pressing. There were a few occasions where the team clearly didn't know who should be pressing or where they should be, but that's to be expected with a new system. I think at points Aribo was actually in the striker slot.

I like that we're playing in behind quicker and trying to break the offside trap. It's good to try and play the through ball early rather than on the edge of the opposition's box, which was becoming the norm under Gerrard.

Plenty of positives but definitely areas to improve. Can't ask for more than a win, a clean sheet and European qualification though. Pleased!

 

[DietofWorms 2,063]

Didn't lose the first goal.

[STEPPS BOY 73,916]

Think you can see from the way we used full backs tonight that there’ll be less expected of them.

Not sure we’ll see the Barasic to Tav cross again in the bigger matches.

The onus will be mainly on the front 4 to create and score our goals.

[SuperLeeMcCulloch 2,330]

Would say thats probably our best performance of the Season tbh, still room for improvement but very encouraging signs to say the least, pressing was good for most of the game think a couple of the players started to tire a little, a lot quicker moving the ball as well which at times was good to watch. 

On to Sunday now and a totally different challenge ahead. 

[evenstevens 890]

2 things I thought we'd do

 

1. Crash the box and get balls in earlier (we did that better) 

2. Have a higher starting position 

When we did 2, I thought we were excellent. Should have had 5.

But when we dropped off we looked vulnerable tbh. 

Encouraging signs tho 👍

[eskbankloyal 19,446]

Playing with a no.10 makes a big difference and gives is an additional threat. 

That being said, I’m not sure we actually have anybody suited to play there. Aribo & Hagi have their strengths but not sure either have enough to really cement that position. 

Jack & Kamara as the 2 looks pretty exciting though. 

[ShanksRFC 3,869]

Morelos rolled a Sparta player twice with his arse again. I can't remember the last time that happened, he will be in amongst the goals again in the weeks to come. Guaranteed.

[docspiderman 1,228]

So much better than our usual play along the back and let the opposition get set to defend than eventually get the ball wide for the cross to packed defence. The through balls tonight were superb and we really should have scored 5 or 6.

The last 25 minutes were horrible sitting back deep again and giving up the pressing game. Lack of fitness or fear? Overall a great result and a better system and movement.

[Jackal 548]

7 minutes ago, eskbankloyal said:

Playing with a no.10 makes a big difference and gives is an additional threat. 

That being said, I’m not sure we actually have anybody suited to play there. Aribo & Hagi have their strengths but not sure either have enough to really cement that position. 

Jack & Kamara as the 2 looks pretty exciting though. 

It’s the most congested area on the park in our games and don’t believe any of them move quick enough to play it. 

[Sparkle 53,587]

Maybe having a manager who clearly wants to be here?