Derby showed us how to attack at pace

Seagulltonian said:

For most of the match last night I thought we played pretty predictably, with the slow build up from the back/possession style. We didn't seem to be able to attack quickly from the back, which Derby did, and other teams have against us this season at the Amex.

We still need to mix up our styles of play, and break quickly occasionally, because we do have the players to do it and hurt the opposition.

Hopefully, a change of tactics in the 2nd leg, with a "go for it" attitude rather than a defensive attitude!

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I don't see how you could interpret last night's efforts as a "defensive attitude". We had far more shots than them, and 5 on target as opposed to their one. We also had two (or three) good penalty shouts turned down, one of which was in front of me in the first half and looked pretty nailed on.

chunky44 said:

Took their best 2 off and then brought on 2 quality players then Lee Hughes, that is strength in depth!

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100% agree.
The lack of pace all round in our team, and a slow (not his strength whatsoever) Ulloa, make it easy for opponents to counter against us and relax in the knowledge that we cannot against them. In modern football, that means so much.

DavidinSouthampton said:

I don't see how you could interpret last night's efforts as a "defensive attitude". We had far more shots than them, and 5 on target as opposed to their one. We also had two (or three) good penalty shouts turned down, one of which was in front of me in the first half and looked pretty nailed on.

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Actually for the first 20 minutes we played the best football, and at a reasonable pace, like we did against Leicester at home.

Then in the 2nd half we went back to the slow build-up play from defence. Too many side ways balls, not enough quick breaks. All the time you play like this, the opposition can get players back in numbers to defend and snuff out any threats. You have a better chance to score with 3 on 3's, than with 6 on 9. It seems when we have shots from the edge of the box, the defenders are there in big numbers and the ball hits one of them and goes to safety. Best example last night. Calderon had a shot, defender blocked it, and it went 50 foot over the crossbar!

DavidinSouthampton said:

I don't see how you could interpret last night's efforts as a "defensive attitude". We had far more shots than them, and 5 on target as opposed to their one. We also had two (or three) good penalty shouts turned down, one of which was in front of me in the first half and looked pretty nailed on.

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I've seen these statistics on a few threads, but they really don't tell the story of the effectiveness of the tactics, or who was in control. For the first 25mins, we looked like we might have a real chance, they were wobbling big time after the goal, and we really needed to capitalise. But a series of misplaced passes and slowly retreating and they broke time after time, often leading to dangerous balls being flashed across the box (something a stat doesn't pick up). They got their lead, 2nd half set up tactically so as not to give us any space and not concede. We gave it a reasonable go, but their pace frightened us so much in the first half, our defence rarely squeezed up, and JFC and Andrews continued to sit even when we were looking for the equaliser.

The sad thing for me was that on 80mins, we ran out of steam and ideas. Only CMS was pressing toward the end, we didn't press as a team, and lost our shape big time. I thought OG should have gambled, left Lingard on and swapped JFC for March. Would have left us vulnerable, but to my mind worth the risk. LuaLua was having success, but once Lingard disappeared, we seemed to lose someone who looks up when the ball is at their feet.

Eric Youngs Contact Lense said:

Attacking at pace is easy/necessary when you don't have possession. Teams know that they have to concede possession against us, and playing on the counter attack is the only option. A team that does it well, or has the personnel to do it, such as Derby can look great when it works. Real Madrid are possibly the best exponents, but they can also come unstuck vs a team that concedes possession to them. The shame last night for us was giving the penalty away : 1-0 into the second half would have forced Derby to play a different game and we might have been the team attacking at pace on the counter-attack...look at the home matches vs. QPR and Leicester. My personal opinion is that Lua Lua is the one who needs to up his pace...all too often he slows down to a walking pace to try and set up a 10-20 yard sprint from a standing start..the problem that is creating is allowing the opposition to get 2 or 3 bodies around the ball, and set up in the middle for any cross...we played pretty well last night, and were close to winning the game...

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Bang on the money. The style we are trying to attain is very hard but it's worth chipping away at! In the cold light of day the personnel might not be there yet; we probably could get promoted sooner if we adopted a counter attacking style but in the long run we are trying to develop a passing game philosophy through the club. The journey is worth taking and enjoying even in it's up and downs.