West Upper Seagull
Well-known member
- Oct 31, 2003
- 1,601
Throughout this season i’ve constantly read comments from people slating Chris Hughton’s tactics suggesting that when we go in front we sit back and defend to try and protect a lead, which frequently costs us. The debacle of last night has to be a new low point for this season and I’m now fed up reading these same comments about Hughton’s tactics. There is absolutely no way he is instructing his team to sit back and defend and I wish people would wake up and recognise the real problem.
In simple terms, our big weakness this season, which shines through in our away form is that we are simply not good enough at retaining possession and protecting the ball. Last night this was more blatantly obvious than ever. We take 2 glorious chances and go into a 2-0 lead but at half time I never felt comfortable and that was because we still conceded far too much possession to Fulham in the first half. This continued in the second and their early goal gave them them the lift they needed. If you give opposing teams the ball so cheaply and allow them to dominate possession like Fulham did last night then naturally any team is going to create a lot of goal scoring opportunities. When this happens it forces us back and we find ourselves defending for our lives and all too often we find ourselves singing the praises of Ryan, Dunk and Duffy because they have been outstanding at putting their bodies on the line to protect our goal - but last night was the straw that broke the camels back and even they caved in. We didn’t change our tactics to sit back and defend - we were pegged back because we failed to keep the ball long enough and allowed Fulham to dominate possession. This has been the theme in the many away games I’ve been to and it’s even been apparent in home games too (West Ham & Wolves immediately spring to mind where we cling on to a 1-0 lead).
Most notably in away games we seem to frequently lack composure on the ball, it’s almost as if we get a bit overawed and we panic at times and give the ball away far too easily. This is why our away form is so poor. We end up being dominated by the opposition for large periods of the game and they create a lot of chances as a result. When we go in front in a game this is usually because we’ve taken a good opportunity to score but this can often mask the fact that we’ve still not been great in keeping possession and when we find ourselves under the cosh people think we’ve sat back.
So people need to stop suggesting this is a tactical approach - CH has a far bigger job on his hands trying to coach our team to be better in possession, learn how to keep the ball and take the sting out of the game when needed. Sometimes we can appear lazy when I see a player in possession and he has very few options to make a pass because there is so little movement from more than one player trying to make themselves available to receive the ball, and other times you see a forward make a great run and yet the player on the ball fails to spot an early pass and then gets caught in possession.
In short, we do not sit back and defend a lead, we invite pressure on ourselves because we can’t retain possession for long enough.
Rant over - I feel better now !
In simple terms, our big weakness this season, which shines through in our away form is that we are simply not good enough at retaining possession and protecting the ball. Last night this was more blatantly obvious than ever. We take 2 glorious chances and go into a 2-0 lead but at half time I never felt comfortable and that was because we still conceded far too much possession to Fulham in the first half. This continued in the second and their early goal gave them them the lift they needed. If you give opposing teams the ball so cheaply and allow them to dominate possession like Fulham did last night then naturally any team is going to create a lot of goal scoring opportunities. When this happens it forces us back and we find ourselves defending for our lives and all too often we find ourselves singing the praises of Ryan, Dunk and Duffy because they have been outstanding at putting their bodies on the line to protect our goal - but last night was the straw that broke the camels back and even they caved in. We didn’t change our tactics to sit back and defend - we were pegged back because we failed to keep the ball long enough and allowed Fulham to dominate possession. This has been the theme in the many away games I’ve been to and it’s even been apparent in home games too (West Ham & Wolves immediately spring to mind where we cling on to a 1-0 lead).
Most notably in away games we seem to frequently lack composure on the ball, it’s almost as if we get a bit overawed and we panic at times and give the ball away far too easily. This is why our away form is so poor. We end up being dominated by the opposition for large periods of the game and they create a lot of chances as a result. When we go in front in a game this is usually because we’ve taken a good opportunity to score but this can often mask the fact that we’ve still not been great in keeping possession and when we find ourselves under the cosh people think we’ve sat back.
So people need to stop suggesting this is a tactical approach - CH has a far bigger job on his hands trying to coach our team to be better in possession, learn how to keep the ball and take the sting out of the game when needed. Sometimes we can appear lazy when I see a player in possession and he has very few options to make a pass because there is so little movement from more than one player trying to make themselves available to receive the ball, and other times you see a forward make a great run and yet the player on the ball fails to spot an early pass and then gets caught in possession.
In short, we do not sit back and defend a lead, we invite pressure on ourselves because we can’t retain possession for long enough.
Rant over - I feel better now !
