In this edition, although the focus is on his beloved Arsenal and what they need to do to recover from the defeats by Chelsea and Man U, there are some points that both the Pandas and Panthers will benefit from I think, in particular, the need to have an intelligent and disciplined defensive midfielder in our teams to cover the back four.
Let me quote the following paragraphs as teasers to the column:
On the need for a defensive midfielder-
"You need someone to break things up; someone with a bit of intelligence who knows where to be in that area, when to push forward, when to support and when to drag someone back."
On the need for the midfield pairing to work together-
"Vieira was not a particularly good passer but he broke things up and then gave a simple pass that started the attack. He made runs forward but when he did you could guarantee Emmanuel Petit would stay there and cover him. They never went together and exposed that area in front of the centre-backs."
Please take some time to read the full column by clicking on the graphic below. It is a good read and should prompt some thoughts for discussion that you can post as a comment below.
7 comments:
How true..we never had that discipline..no one really sits back and cover the defence…
In football..once you run up, you have to run down, then whatever formation we play, the defence will always have some protection.
I always thought Derrick and Kee Min will make a good pairing. Whoever sits in the DM role will have to be aggressive, mobile and physical.
Our next match is against TCFC. They have been scoring goals like its water polo…if we can't shut the doors on them..it’s goona be 20-0…
And conversely, when the forwards push up, the defence moves up with it.
No 3.
I agree with James that Derrick and Kee Min are most suited for that centre of the park role. The trick is for them to coordinate so that one of them always stays back to cover the defence.
With James behind them as stopper, I believe we will have enough defensive cover to clamp down the quick counter attacks that happen to us so often.
Agree with James on the H20 Polo comment. Btw, I hate water polo. Those guys get such good bods just from playing the sport. Look at us soccer players.
Haven't seen Derrick play much, never really played with him, so can't comment. But Kee Min is EXCELLENT at breaking up play. I've always disliked playing against Kee Min. (Are you reading this KM???)
TCFC sound like a young, fit, and physical team. We need to watch our backs and not get caught for speed. Full Backs (with speed) will need to cover Center Backs.
We are essentially a slower team. No need to rush attacks and lose possession of the ball. We need to learn to play at a pace that suits us.
Tim (#24)
Hi guys, thanks for the thoughts. My only additional input would be that the ST and AM also play in tandem, like the 2 DMs. This way, we don't have 2 players high up the pitch waiting for the ball. 1 needs to move more and come receive the ball in midfield to carry it while the other takes a good position to be a threat on goal. The Torres-Gerrard combination for Liverpool will be a good illustration (esp. the move that led to their first goal against West Ham last weekend).
We should do this on Facebook so that we all get notifications when there's a new comment. I love FB. Apparently, so does James. Heh heh.
Yah, but not everyone has a FB account you see. You can also get notifications of new comments if you use Google Reader or a similar News Feed app.
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