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Subject: National Team
well what other options did we have? there was no sense in attacking through the middle because Barnes and Huxley weren't available, using two wings instead of a double one wouldn't change anything in the matter about which you're talking...
You had a few options you could have used without changing the basic formation too much.
On the basis of using the same formation and with the 2 wings on 1 side:
1) Push Erdogan up alongside Griffiths on the inside of their outer defender. That gives 2 target men from our midfielders to hit and if he plucks the defender there's a chance Erdogan can tackle him before he gets rids of the ball.
2)Push the midfielders back to cover the holes (doesn't need to be excessive but there shouldn't be more than a 1 square difference between them at any stage imo) and give them more time to distribute the ball (both of which they can do easily enough). Then because of 1) you give them an opportunity to put one of the wingers into a hole and away for a cross or corner. You also block their quick counters by having less holes in your own defense.
3) Using a 5 man defense you need to push the outside defender across quicker or use a well positioned midfielder to restrict the option to their winger. If I suspect a winger of reasonable quality, I'd be looking to ensure they don't get any chance of breaking through. I guess given they used what appeared to be a 1st XI, their winger is likely much better than anticipated. Still if you expected a winger not to be very good you may as well gone in with a back 4 and used the extra midfielder to start to regain control of the midfield and block the pass to the wing.
It's difficult to say entirely whether that would have won us the game. I'd have been confident it would have but I guess if you expected an U27 game then it may well have turned out completely different had they used U27's. By no means was your tactic bad, it just had a few fine details I didn't like that to me got exploited repeatedly throughout the game.
You had a few options you could have used without changing the basic formation too much.
On the basis of using the same formation and with the 2 wings on 1 side:
1) Push Erdogan up alongside Griffiths on the inside of their outer defender. That gives 2 target men from our midfielders to hit and if he plucks the defender there's a chance Erdogan can tackle him before he gets rids of the ball.
2)Push the midfielders back to cover the holes (doesn't need to be excessive but there shouldn't be more than a 1 square difference between them at any stage imo) and give them more time to distribute the ball (both of which they can do easily enough). Then because of 1) you give them an opportunity to put one of the wingers into a hole and away for a cross or corner. You also block their quick counters by having less holes in your own defense.
3) Using a 5 man defense you need to push the outside defender across quicker or use a well positioned midfielder to restrict the option to their winger. If I suspect a winger of reasonable quality, I'd be looking to ensure they don't get any chance of breaking through. I guess given they used what appeared to be a 1st XI, their winger is likely much better than anticipated. Still if you expected a winger not to be very good you may as well gone in with a back 4 and used the extra midfielder to start to regain control of the midfield and block the pass to the wing.
It's difficult to say entirely whether that would have won us the game. I'd have been confident it would have but I guess if you expected an U27 game then it may well have turned out completely different had they used U27's. By no means was your tactic bad, it just had a few fine details I didn't like that to me got exploited repeatedly throughout the game.
1) Push Erdogan up alongside Griffiths on the inside of their outer defender. That gives 2 target men from our midfielders to hit and if he plucks the defender there's a chance Erdogan can tackle him before he gets rids of the ball.
I was considering that, but I've used an, as you called it, inside winger before and it had some problems. The main one was that the striker often had problems to keep up with the winger [faster start, especially after through ball] which led to winger making the shots or passing to the outer part of penalty area.
2)Push the midfielders back to cover the holes (doesn't need to be excessive but there shouldn't be more than a 1 square difference between them at any stage imo) and give them more time to distribute the ball (both of which they can do easily enough). Then because of 1) you give them an opportunity to put one of the wingers into a hole and away for a cross or corner. You also block their quick counters by having less holes in your own defense.
It was like that in the beginning, but I was too afraid of the space between midfield and attack formations. Had they used low defence, we'd be screwed 100%.
3) Using a 5 man defense you need to push the outside defender across quicker or use a well positioned midfielder to restrict the option to their winger. If I suspect a winger of reasonable quality, I'd be looking to ensure they don't get any chance of breaking through. I guess given they used what appeared to be a 1st XI, their winger is likely much better than anticipated. Still if you expected a winger not to be very good you may as well gone in with a back 4 and used the extra midfielder to start to regain control of the midfield and block the pass to the wing.
As you've mentioned, I wasn't expecting their winger to be that good since I was planning a game against their u27. As for 4 defenders and more midfielders - there was a lack of midfielders to use. Lozanovski is a good player, but had only solid form from what I remember...
It's difficult to say entirely whether that would have won us the game. I'd have been confident it would have but I guess if you expected an U27 game then it may well have turned out completely different had they used U27's. By no means was your tactic bad, it just had a few fine details I didn't like that to me got exploited repeatedly throughout the game.
Well the details is what matters after all, so the fact that in the basics the tactic was fine is not a big relief...I'd be quite afraid if the tactic wasn't good even in the basic part! ;)
Anyway...thanks to loses of USA, England and BiH we're still in the game. I thought that it was over but we still have a chance.
This week we're facing South Africa in B-squad game [check the last game against them - we agreed with their coach that we won't use any player that played in the first one]. Win is a must in our situation, hopefully a good win as well.
I have to do some diplomacy now, as after SA we were supposed to play against Scotland. While a win against them would do us a lot of good, they seem very strong - I wasn't expecting that when I was making the schedule for this season. I have an idea how to make things work though, let's hope it works...
I was considering that, but I've used an, as you called it, inside winger before and it had some problems. The main one was that the striker often had problems to keep up with the winger [faster start, especially after through ball] which led to winger making the shots or passing to the outer part of penalty area.
2)Push the midfielders back to cover the holes (doesn't need to be excessive but there shouldn't be more than a 1 square difference between them at any stage imo) and give them more time to distribute the ball (both of which they can do easily enough). Then because of 1) you give them an opportunity to put one of the wingers into a hole and away for a cross or corner. You also block their quick counters by having less holes in your own defense.
It was like that in the beginning, but I was too afraid of the space between midfield and attack formations. Had they used low defence, we'd be screwed 100%.
3) Using a 5 man defense you need to push the outside defender across quicker or use a well positioned midfielder to restrict the option to their winger. If I suspect a winger of reasonable quality, I'd be looking to ensure they don't get any chance of breaking through. I guess given they used what appeared to be a 1st XI, their winger is likely much better than anticipated. Still if you expected a winger not to be very good you may as well gone in with a back 4 and used the extra midfielder to start to regain control of the midfield and block the pass to the wing.
As you've mentioned, I wasn't expecting their winger to be that good since I was planning a game against their u27. As for 4 defenders and more midfielders - there was a lack of midfielders to use. Lozanovski is a good player, but had only solid form from what I remember...
It's difficult to say entirely whether that would have won us the game. I'd have been confident it would have but I guess if you expected an U27 game then it may well have turned out completely different had they used U27's. By no means was your tactic bad, it just had a few fine details I didn't like that to me got exploited repeatedly throughout the game.
Well the details is what matters after all, so the fact that in the basics the tactic was fine is not a big relief...I'd be quite afraid if the tactic wasn't good even in the basic part! ;)
Anyway...thanks to loses of USA, England and BiH we're still in the game. I thought that it was over but we still have a chance.
This week we're facing South Africa in B-squad game [check the last game against them - we agreed with their coach that we won't use any player that played in the first one]. Win is a must in our situation, hopefully a good win as well.
I have to do some diplomacy now, as after SA we were supposed to play against Scotland. While a win against them would do us a lot of good, they seem very strong - I wasn't expecting that when I was making the schedule for this season. I have an idea how to make things work though, let's hope it works...
I turned the game off when it was 0:1 and red card...what the hell happened?!
Anyway...that's a nice comeback I guess.
Really disappointed with their coach, he tried to trick me and play his first team against our B team. We agreed before the season, to use B-teams. I wanted to confirm it, but even though he was logged in a lot and responded to other mails [I know people who he wrote with during that time] he was ignoring my messages so I thought that he might be trying to cheat and decided to use the first team. It was a good call since he did use his first team...
Anyway...that's a nice comeback I guess.
Really disappointed with their coach, he tried to trick me and play his first team against our B team. We agreed before the season, to use B-teams. I wanted to confirm it, but even though he was logged in a lot and responded to other mails [I know people who he wrote with during that time] he was ignoring my messages so I thought that he might be trying to cheat and decided to use the first team. It was a good call since he did use his first team...
I turned the game off when it was 0:1 and red card...what the hell happened?!
A few sloppy throw setups and unmarked holes for their winger and striker, that's what happened and in all fairness they should have been further in front. Bowyers dismissal was unfortunate though.
2nd half we started playing a little better and as they started to tire out we ran over the top of them and probably end up deserved winners but the 1st half wasn't very good.
I'd look at a few things in particular, some I've previously mentioned:
1) Fix the positioning to prevent wingers getting free space all the time. It was improved this game but it still left acres of space to get past Dodd and I was waiting for Dodd to be shown the red.
2) Offensive throws are all the same and predictable and leaves us exposed for counterattacks almost all the time as defender throws to mid who gets tackled and well the defender is out of position and it's a free pass to their winger. Vary them a bit and not always straight down the line throws.
3) Vary the winger and striker position a bit more. A lot of the time the winger sat on the sideline in the same straight line and that's easy enough to mark. Similarly a lot of the time our striker sat in the middle easily contained by defenders when there were holes either side if we were good enough to exploit them.
Anyway, I thought the 2nd half went well and we created more chances then in the 1st half.
(edited)
A few sloppy throw setups and unmarked holes for their winger and striker, that's what happened and in all fairness they should have been further in front. Bowyers dismissal was unfortunate though.
2nd half we started playing a little better and as they started to tire out we ran over the top of them and probably end up deserved winners but the 1st half wasn't very good.
I'd look at a few things in particular, some I've previously mentioned:
1) Fix the positioning to prevent wingers getting free space all the time. It was improved this game but it still left acres of space to get past Dodd and I was waiting for Dodd to be shown the red.
2) Offensive throws are all the same and predictable and leaves us exposed for counterattacks almost all the time as defender throws to mid who gets tackled and well the defender is out of position and it's a free pass to their winger. Vary them a bit and not always straight down the line throws.
3) Vary the winger and striker position a bit more. A lot of the time the winger sat on the sideline in the same straight line and that's easy enough to mark. Similarly a lot of the time our striker sat in the middle easily contained by defenders when there were holes either side if we were good enough to exploit them.
Anyway, I thought the 2nd half went well and we created more chances then in the 1st half.
(edited)
What is it with lying NT managers? Are they that desperate to win?!?!
I wouldn't go so far as labelling their manager a liar just yet without further proof. Wouldn't surprise me if they just never got around to setting a tactic and lineup outside of those injured/suspended. A lot of foreign managers jump at any opportunity to manage a NT and treat it as a trophy, forgetting completely about the job at hand and end up halfway through the season losing interest because of the effort it takes.
Unfortunately as the users we can only go by what they say during the elections and if you haven't got a better alternative you end up stuck with someone you don't really wish to have. It's one of the reasons I try to obtain information during candidates who I know little about before I decide to vote because most people say the same stuff as their campaign speech, I want to make your country better, I'll keep database of players, I'll spend hours on tactics etc.
Edit: I'm even more certain of my view now. The side selected against us was the same side and tactic they used last week, with the only exception being their 1st reserve defender came on to replace the injured defender, with no added to the bench. Thus my guess is a tactic wasn't even set and it took the default from last week and just removed and replaced the injured player with the first suitable from the bench.
(edited)
Unfortunately as the users we can only go by what they say during the elections and if you haven't got a better alternative you end up stuck with someone you don't really wish to have. It's one of the reasons I try to obtain information during candidates who I know little about before I decide to vote because most people say the same stuff as their campaign speech, I want to make your country better, I'll keep database of players, I'll spend hours on tactics etc.
Edit: I'm even more certain of my view now. The side selected against us was the same side and tactic they used last week, with the only exception being their 1st reserve defender came on to replace the injured defender, with no added to the bench. Thus my guess is a tactic wasn't even set and it took the default from last week and just removed and replaced the injured player with the first suitable from the bench.
(edited)
The thing is, he didn't read my sk-mails on purpose as I have proof that he was reading and answering to other mails. After the game he read the mails and ignored them...
anyway, we're playing Ireland instead of Scotland this week for obvious reasons. Still not in top 32, still with some chance to make it...we must win against Ireland this week and New Zealand week after, then hope for some bad results of our indirect opponents...
anyway, we're playing Ireland instead of Scotland this week for obvious reasons. Still not in top 32, still with some chance to make it...we must win against Ireland this week and New Zealand week after, then hope for some bad results of our indirect opponents...
we're playing Ireland instead of Scotland this week for obvious reasons.
Why?
Because we wear kilts?!
;-)
Why?
Because we wear kilts?!
;-)
Was that meant to be our 1st XI vs their 1st XI or did we go in with a number of 2nd XI players?
Lucky to get away with that result.
Griffiths over Erdogan? Why?
Lucky to get away with that result.
Griffiths over Erdogan? Why?
Erdogan was still injured when I was setting up the squad, as well as Midtsian, Puca and Dodd; Bowyer had a red card
lucky...well we made twice the shots they did :)
lucky...well we made twice the shots they did :)
Erdogan was still injured when I was setting up the squad
Fair enough, though I could have told you he would have been ready anyway and you obviously didn't have a last day check ;).
lucky...well we made twice the shots they did :)
Means absolutely nothing to me when half our shots came from halfway. Quality chances were closer.
Fair enough, though I could have told you he would have been ready anyway and you obviously didn't have a last day check ;).
lucky...well we made twice the shots they did :)
Means absolutely nothing to me when half our shots came from halfway. Quality chances were closer.
Well, we're 50pts behind top32...
we have to win with at least 3 goals against NZ and hope that England and Bosna will lose their games. England will play against Italy so there is a big chance that it will happen, no idea about Bosna.
we have to win with at least 3 goals against NZ and hope that England and Bosna will lose their games. England will play against Italy so there is a big chance that it will happen, no idea about Bosna.
4:1...a bit disappointing since we had 26:3 advantage in shots :/. Still...if two of Lietuva/England/Bosna/Bulgaria lose then we might make it to top 32. Would've been much easier with 6:0 or sth like that :p
Good result. Nice to see a positive tactic to utilise our strength in midfield. Throws can still improve but otherwise can't fault that. Should have converted more though but it's nothing you could control.
Australia 4:1 New Zealand
Bulgaria 1:5 Slovensko
Lietuva 3:3 Argentina
Italy 5:1 England
Bosna 4:2 Belarus
most probably we will be veryt close to reaching top32, but we won't make it...unless Bulgaria loses lots of points because of that defeat. No chance to overcome Lietuva or Bosna, most probably will make it past England. Not sure though even about that...
Bulgaria 1:5 Slovensko
Lietuva 3:3 Argentina
Italy 5:1 England
Bosna 4:2 Belarus
most probably we will be veryt close to reaching top32, but we won't make it...unless Bulgaria loses lots of points because of that defeat. No chance to overcome Lietuva or Bosna, most probably will make it past England. Not sure though even about that...