Tactics Now We Are Feared

I have decided that the reason we don’t play as well against teams that are struggling in the league is because they defend in a way that they only do against a top team. It is a compliment that we are finding teams difficult to break down as it means the other team respect us and see us a as a team who are hard to beat.

Often these teams play for a draw which means that they often defend their box. As we have Donaldson, who isn’t particularly blessed with pace, it’s hard for little darting runs to occur. We often rely on playing the ball into Donaldson for him to release others beyond him. If the opposition defends deep, this limits the space to play in terms of Donaldson passing the ball on or flicking it on.

Therefore, we need to be more adaptable. We really need to be able to get players running in behind. Unfortunately, we have a team that is better at playing the pass than making the runs. Toral, Fabbrini, Kieftenbeld are all brilliant passers of the ball and will spot runs but they very rarely make them when the defence drops. I see this as something to work on against a more resolute team.

It is a positive as I have mentioned above that players feel the need to implement these tactics against Birmingham City and I am delighted that we are considered a title contender! But now that we are, we have to adapt our style of play. We have done really well in terms of defending of late and this is partially due to the rejuvenation of Robinson, but there is no point defending well, if we don’t take our chances at the other end.

Overall, I feel that we have a team that is more than capable of challenging for a play off position and if you look at the skills of our players then this is 100% the case. But I think that we need to just adjust the dynamism and the intensity which we play at in order to penetrate oppositions back lines.