Come January.......!

[pele]

I am loving what Adkins has done in such a short time especially with the likes of reborn Seabourne and Kelvin passing it out to Fonte! It was a great game to watch Saturday and I know Adkins knows the league but what do we do at the likes of Exeter and the rubbish pitches and grounds we have to visit yet (no offence) we can not continue to play the passing along the ground stuff or can we? Just interested what people think, will our tactics differ during the winter months and the heavy pitches?

[Matthew Le God]

I think Davis rolling the balling to Fonte every time will only be seen against the weaker teams. Tranmere only had one striker and they weren't able to press the Saints back line when Davis had the ball, hence why he was able to give it to the defenders. Huddersfield will play two upfront and wide midfielders pressed on, thus they may force Davis into more long balls.

 

It is still very good to see and I hope it continues as it means Saints keep the ball and build the attack looking for an opening.

[pele]

Totally agree it seems so simple but worked a treat against Tranmere. They were awful though and didn't change tact once, by continuing to boot to thier tall guy on the wings everytime!

[The Kraken]

I think Davis rolling the balling to Fonte every time will only be seen against the weaker teams. Tranmere only had one striker and they weren't able to press the Saints back line when Davis had the ball, hence why he was able to give it to the defenders. Huddersfield will play two upfront and wide midfielders pressed on, thus they may force Davis into more long balls.

 

It is still very good to see and I hope it continues as it means Saints keep the ball and build the attack looking for an opening.

 

I'm not so sure. Both full backs were also always dropping off for a short ball, as was Fonte and on occasions Seaborne. Clearly Tranmere allowed us more space here and better teams will try to close us down more, but if there is a really strong desire to play it short its a real risk to go for a blitz to try and cut that out, as it leaves a big hole in behind.

[pele]

Anyway returning to my first point, can we continue to play that style dropping off etc? I hope we can, but feel we will have to adapt to the worse pitches a bit. It was great to see though!

[Pilsmer]

Hopefully Adkins will continue to add layers to our play so that we can adapt to any opposition on any surface. I think the passing from the back will always be the first thing on the defence's mind because Adkins has stated time and again his desire to win in style and this starts from building from the back. But he also said in his recent interview that we need to find as many ways as possible to win so I certainly don't think Adkins will continue with the tactic if for any reason it is risky/ineffectual.

 

I certainly think that Adkins is a thinker and will continue to evolve our style to counter teams working us out.

[The Kraken]

Anyway returning to my first point, can we continue to play that style dropping off etc? I hope we can, but feel we will have to adapt to the worse pitches a bit. It was great to see though!

 

The worse pitches in this league aren't ploughed fields. It was stated last season that we couldn't beat these teams away because of the state of the pitch, but it's not as if we passed the ball around like Arsenal, we were always quite a direct side. There will be some pitches worse than others, but we may even benefit from that as NA is trying to get us to play with more width, where the surface will be better than a congested middle.

 

I think NA is also smart enough to realise that we will need to adapt our style of play slightly to whoever we are playing.

[Matthew Le God]

The worse pitches in this league aren't ploughed fields.

 

Barely a blade of grass on Stockport County's pitch last winter.

[Alanh]

I think that the tactic of playing the ball out through Fonte will be a regular at home as the idea is to get the opposition to try to put pressure on the ball in Saints half of the pitch in an attempt to draw them out of their own defensive mindset. Away from home we should face more attacking teams and so won't need to draw them out of a 'parking the bus' type of formation as frequently.

[The Kraken]

Barely a blade of grass on Stockport County's pitch last winter.

 

There's just nothing I can do with hyperbole like that.

[sfc4prem]

I think that the tactic of playing the ball out through Fonte will be a regular at home as the idea is to get the opposition to try to put pressure on the ball in Saints half of the pitch in an attempt to draw them out of their own defensive mindset. Away from home we should face more attacking teams and so won't need to draw them out of a 'parking the bus' type of formation as frequently.

 

Exactly.

[SaintNeil90]

I think that the tactic of playing the ball out through Fonte will be a regular at home as the idea is to get the opposition to try to put pressure on the ball in Saints half of the pitch in an attempt to draw them out of their own defensive mindset. Away from home we should face more attacking teams and so won't need to draw them out of a 'parking the bus' type of formation as frequently.

 

this.

[Dalek2003]

If we win this weekend I will begin to believe that we have just started to turn the corner.

[pele]

I went to Exeter and that pitch although green was awful!

[beavis17]

We played them in August I seem to remember so I dread to think what it was like in the winter.

[beavis17]

Barely a blade of grass on Stockport County's pitch last winter.

 

We played them in August I seem to remember so I dread to think what it was like in the winter.

[Charlie Wayman]

I think Davis rolling the balling to Fonte every time will only be seen against the weaker teams. Tranmere only had one striker and they weren't able to press the Saints back line when Davis had the ball, hence why he was able to give it to the defenders. Huddersfield will play two upfront and wide midfielders pressed on, thus they may force Davis into more long balls.

 

It is still very good to see and I hope it continues as it means Saints keep the ball and build the attack looking for an opening.

 

That's not right, all successful teams build it up from the back. Davies always has 4 options and provided Schneiderlin and Hammond stay alert and mobile will always offer any of the back four a choice of forward passes after that. Puncheon seems to relish a roaming role in mid-field and is easily capable of dropping deep to give the back four a third option as well. We have already seen that fast precise passing can be made to stick and work, there were some excellent patches of such play last week. The other point is that even with two up, if either of the oppo strikers decides to hassle Davies then there is only one left to deal with the four back line players who may get the ball from Davies.

[JonnyLove]

I think Davis rolling the balling to Fonte every time will only be seen against the weaker teams. Tranmere only had one striker and they weren't able to press the Saints back line when Davis had the ball, hence why he was able to give it to the defenders. Huddersfield will play two upfront and wide midfielders pressed on, thus they may force Davis into more long balls.

 

It is still very good to see and I hope it continues as it means Saints keep the ball and build the attack looking for an opening.

 

We also did this against Bournemouth the week before

[paulwantsapint]

Great that KD is looking to roll the ball to back line but he has also got to look up & make sure it is the best option because if there is the chance of a quick counter attack on playing direct every now & again will get goals

 

Will be interesting come jan if NA is busy buying & selling or if he is content with the current squad

[rooney]

I went to Exeter and that pitch although green was awful!

Not any more as it was levelled and relayed in the summer.

[SAR Boy Saint]

I went to Exeter and that pitch although green was awful!

 

I seem to remember it was at the end of an extremely wet spell and there were puddles on the pitch, with the ball not bouncing, just going splat!!

[West End Saint]

Having managed at Scunny and I cant imagine there pitch was like St Marys so I am sure he has a plan of how to play on a surface that isnt up to standard most of his time at Scunny was in this league so it cant be a shock to him.

 

Loving the way NA has us playing hope we cant get something out of the game today and keep our momentum going.

 

It will be interesting to see if NA adds to the squad in Jan Chaplow would be a good signing and I still think there is room for a winger that is direct and has pace.

[VectisSaint]

Great that KD is looking to roll the ball to back line but he has also got to look up & make sure it is the best option because if there is the chance of a quick counter attack on playing direct every now & again will get goals

 

Will be interesting come jan if NA is busy buying & selling or if he is content with the current squad

This is the point, KD has to be flexible and decide the best option. In my opinion this is one of the main weaknesses of his game, he is predictable. Play the short options and make the oppposition push up to counter, then play the long option when it is a better choice. Be alert and flexible, if KD can learn that then it will transform our game. But he needs also to be able to communicate effectively with the defenders so that they are alert to the options.