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That video is all very well but how often does it actually work even with top players? There were three examples in the Premier League on Saturday where it went horribly wrong. There must be less risky tactics to achieve the same end.
I admit not knowing much about tactics but it seems to me that the risk to the pressing team is much lower than that to the team with the goalkick which has to get its movement and touches spot on to get the play out and put the opposition on the back foot. Looks better in theory on a board than on a pitch in my opinion.
Like others, when I arrived I thought we had better win to justify such an extreme selection. I also remembered one of the guys on the podcast predicting he would change nine of the team in one of the games so he was almost right.
After we lost I hoped he would at least acknowledge the error of doing this in a league game. Instead we got him saying that Brackley did a smash and grab raid as if it was like when rock bottom Darlo beat us at Spotland in our promotion season. While it is true that their goals were their only real chances I felt they were pretty comfortable throughout and their keeper was not really tested. Perhaps it would have been different if we hadn't given away a penalty shortly after equalising. A Brackley fan I spoke to after the game thought we had wasted too much time passing the ball around between ourselves rather than attacking them and I had to agree. It was noticeable how their fans sometimes jeered us when we passed it back yet again.
Also, we have had performances and results like that against bigger clubs often enough ourselves over the years not to be patronising about it when we are on the receiving end. I didn't like him putting the opposition down like that, especially after he had in effect told them we think we can beat you with our B team.
On a separate note I thought Brackley were very welcoming from the guy in the ticket office who sold me a programme to the steward who greeted me after I went through the turnstiles. My other non- game related observation is that the programme was very good. The 4-page history of Dale was very well-written and so full of detail it could have been written by TVOS. There were also a couple of pages about the culture of the club, town and fanbase that was well researched and captured us well, I thought.
Watching him play against Oxford City at the moment. Didn't recognise him to start with. D'Mani Mellor has come on and so has Andy Fensome's son Lewis, who looks like him.
'With the arrival of Rees this particular side had bags of strength and that counted for much where the physical element was so important. Rees shirked nothing, but the same could be said of that half-back line and they were all put to the test in the fiery furnace of Rochdale.
Norman Gall was sent off after a dust-up with Bert Lister and a hail of missiles descended on the Albion team when the oldest spectator complained that Gall had smacked him on the nose. What actually happened was that Gall aimed a retaliatory punch at Lister close to the touchline, missed, and hit the innocent and elderly party.
A marksman mistook Brian Powney for a bullseye and hit him with a dart while team mates were struck by coins and washers and Rees ducked to avoid a china cup. Amid all the mayhem Barry maintained a cool and dignified presence.'
Of course, we now have a wealthy owner, so I presume the Ogdens are donating money rather than loaning it. If we are criticising other clubs then we need to be clear how our finances are different to them.
Has anyone else with a season ticket managed to log in and get a Spennymoor ticket? The instructions say to use my season card number to log in but it only accepts my email address and then only shows the upcoming league games.
I was there. A not particularly good Woking side equalised in injury time. The worst penalty shoot out I have ever seen followed. A City fan next to me said that they had had 3 penalties all season and missed all of them, which was a bad omen. 7 penalties missed in a row with 4 awful ones from City. Woking keeper scored their fifth to win it.
Good to hear about a decent performance from the Dale. Hopefully we can take this toward in to the league.
Are the highlights an accurate reflection of the game? Based on them Halifax did absolutely nothing offensively apart from the early shot and the late soft penalty whereas we spent a lot of time in and around their box with shots/passes getting blocked by massed defenders or blasted over from distance. It looked like another game where we found it difficult to get through teams who defend en masse and create clear chances.
Ignoring the two cup games, at home we have scored in the first 15 minutes against Braintree and Woking and away against Eastleigh, Aldershot and Boston. Solihull are the only team to have scored against us in the league at home in the first 30 minutes. Until Barnet, York were the only team to score against us away in the first 15 minutes. Eastleigh scored in the first 30 minutes away.
I don't think there is much of a difference in the overall quality of teams we have played home and away given how close it is in mid-table.
The idea that we tend give away early goals and are forced to chase the game is a bit of myth. In the 15 league games where there has been a goal we have scored first in nine (four at home and five away). A better point would be that when we take the lead we could do more to extend the lead. Having said that, if we score first we win, apart from Ebbsfleet. We also score a lot of goals in the last 15 minutes compared to our opponents in the league.
Things could change going forward as the sample size is still quite small, so a few more Barnets and Bromleys would change the picture.
The Woking manager has said that he came here to attack rather than sit back and now thinks that was a mistake. He also thinks their tactics forced us to play longer more than we normally do.
I would imagine that most teams, unless they are confident in their own playing style and abilities, are going to learn from this and the previous home games that the way to get something here is to frustrate us and not let us play like we did on Saturday. I anticipate that this is what will happen, so getting the first goal will be essential to get the opposition to come out of defence more. I would say the most important thing for the management to do is find a way to get through organised defences of teams whose primary object is obviously to get something from the game and not to give us an entertaining afternoon. Not every team is going to be as open and 'tired' (to quote their manager) as Woking were. It is not as if this is a new problem as it was the case under Parkin's first spell and Hill if I remember correctly.
Despite the sound issues at the start it was a very constructive meeting. Is is possible for the slides to be made available as they were not visible online?
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