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Tactics TFC's Tactical Autopsy Thread

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I am still trying to work out this GD anomaly we have rewritten the rules this year. Last time I checked the table pre Stains it should have put us about 4th. Some statto on here will be able to come up- with the explanation all I've got us when we win we normally win big but when we lose it's normally small margins.
 
When we take a lead game usually opens up significantly. Teams start to be more proactive, push more men forward, take more risks and so on. Some of our pacy frontline players, who especially struggle against teams sitting back, start to flourish. Add to the fact that our manager is not very fond of the concept of game management and wants his team to stay gung-ho for 90 minutes, we often keep scoring and scoring. We still occasionally give up leads, but taking a lead more often than not leads to a big win.

By contrast, when we go down teams usually start shutting up shop. They aren't that open to begin with, but when they go ahead they lose any incentive to push forward. They sit back, stay as compact as they can be, and just wait for us. Since most of our attackers struggle mightily in these situations, we struggle to break teams down. If they capitalize on breaks they can extend their lead even further, but they're understandably content with a one goal lead. Result usually is a small margin win for the opposition.

Essentially while we're stat-padding after taking a lead, and sometimes shooting ourselves on the foot trying to do so (Brighton and Chelsea come to mind) , opponents don't go for it because it's a high risk low reward strategy for them. Hence the said discrepancy.
 
Brian Fantana said:

View: https://x.com/jon_mackenzie/status/1870167472869146861?s=46

I agree with this, I don’t think it’s just down to getting better players in to improve us, he’s got to changes tactically too.
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So he's basically saying:
  1. We shouldn't press high every time, but instead should be selective based on match tempo and triggers
  2. We should be less fluid with our positional rotations /overloads in possession
The main reason being that both of the above make it potentially easier to play through our midfield, when the high press is beaten or when we turn over possession when highly rotated.

I don't really disagree with either. I think we've already improved a bit on (2), our rotations in possession seem more mindful of defensive shape (most of the time), and that has contributed to a lower GA so far this season.
 
SeeSpotRun said:
So he's basically saying:
  1. We shouldn't press high every time, but instead should be selective based on match tempo and triggers
  2. We should be less fluid with our positional rotations /overloads in possession
The main reason being that both of the above make it potentially easier to play through our midfield, when the high press is beaten or when we turn over possession when highly rotated.

I don't really disagree with either. I think we've already improved a bit on (2), our rotations in possession seem more mindful of defensive shape (most of the time), and that has contributed to a lower GA so far this season.
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Certainly, before the mass of injury disruptions, it felt like we were being a bit smarter and more efficient?

It’s all gone a bit messy in the last couple of months, and hard to gage.
 
It’s so predictable, it’s become annoying.

It’s no rocket science, when a strong(est) teams come to town, play it a little differently.
Then, play your champagne football against the others ( I won't classify B'mouth/Fulham/Brighton/Brentford as others :-) ).

That won’t make you lose your “brand of football”. In fact, it makes you a tactician!!

Ohhh what's a Tactician in Angeball - Tactics are obsolete!!
 
Yes, key players missing (gk, cb’s) and also lack of squad depth through poor recruitment and injuries, means it was hard for Ange to rotate for two big games.

But yesterday was soo poor.

It’s not like the problem was we went heavy metal high press. The problem was a total lack of cohesion to what we did do. Single players (forwards) pressing solo ad hoc, pulling us out of shape, which pulled midfielders out as hoc behind them, leaving huge gaps between lines and through channels - which exposed that already weakened defence.

The problem wasn’t the Ange “system” the problem was no fucking cohesion, effectively no system. It just looked like a Redknapp era game, as have a few others lately.

Again, I get that the poor squad depth/quslity and players available is contributing to this, but it’s still really disappointing, and hard to fathom how we are looking so disorganised. Against City away we didn’t go full steam but were smart and cohesive.

Also Ange hasn’t always helped himself with his selections, rotation choices, subs and game management.

I could get behind Ange, even with bad results, when I can see a methodology, and the underlying metrics say good things, but chaos and incoherence is very much my cut off point.

Ange has been dealt a pretty shit hand, but he’s not playing it great at times.
 
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