Gillingham 3-1 Saints - Match Thread

[Lighthouse]

26 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Quite so. Zones don’t score goals, players do.

So we shouldn’t play the ball into space, because spaces don’t score goals?

[Saint_clark]

3 hours ago, suewhistle said:

Funnily enough we were doing a defending corners session at our most grassroots of grassroots teams on Tuesday. We didn't mark zonally and as most of the team are short arses the instruction was to disrupt so that the attackers didn't get a clean jump. Wish Saints could manage that..

I said this about the Sheffield Weds goal we conceded. People were moaning the fact that Smallbone was marking the player who scored, when all he had to do was jump at the right moment to disrupt the attackers view of the ball and nudge him slightly out of position. 

I don't have a problem with having two players assigned "zones" while the rest man mark, with the two players attacking the ball to clear it if it's heading for their area and the man markers just focusing on disrupting the attackers. But to assign half our team to zones is mental. 

[Whitey Grandad]

9 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

So we shouldn’t play the ball into space, because spaces don’t score goals?

False equivalence.

The reason for playing a ball into space is so that one of our players can get on the end of it. There’s no point in playing a ball into space if it’s going to get picked up by the opposition.

[suewhistle]

11 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

I said this about the Sheffield Weds goal we conceded. People were moaning the fact that Smallbone was marking the player who scored, when all he had to do was jump at the right moment to disrupt the attackers view of the ball and nudge him slightly out of position. 

I don't have a problem with having two players assigned "zones" while the rest man mark, with the two players attacking the ball to clear it if it's heading for their area and the man markers just focusing on disrupting the attackers. But to assign half our team to zones is mental. 

Without trying to give the impression that we are in any way a competent side (there are lots of divisions these days in Hampshire Ladies league!) we actually did practice with one of the better and faster players given a free role and the others getting in the way. 🙂

Either way, the new set piece coach has his work cut out: Saints have been vulnerable to free kicks for ages now.

 

[david in sweden]

At least we didn't lose three points on Tuesday night, but it gave RM an opportunity to evaluate his " B team / bench squad " and access their capabilities.

A lot of has already been written (above) about various individual performances.... those who surprised, and others who (sadly) disappointed. 

I expect to see a few of them being farmed out on loan, or even sold before the end of the month.