Putting away fans in the side stand removes oppo incentive to kick towards the away stand in the second half. Kicking towards us first half is an atmosphere killer. Always has been.
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Are away teams more likely to swap us round on sunny afternoons when our players are looking into the sun during the second half?
One of the best goals from a purely footballing perspective you will ever see.
If a " big" club had done this it would be all over the media.
And to think there were people saying we are a hoof ball team who can’t keep possession.
There’s possession, then there’s Possession.
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Prior to Saturday’s 30 passes goal, this was the best passing goal I can remember. Not as many passes but quick and incisive.
Saturday provided us with 2 goal of the season candidates, and DJ’s vs Bradford wasn’t bad because it started with another Taylor Allen sweeping pass.
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TV view of the 2nd goal
Opta’s recreation
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Another euphoric post match debrief yesterday, I really could get used to this. The only thing that we could squabble over was who the Leamore Windows match hero was, several very worthy contenders. The scary thing is I don’t think we actually played all that well on Saturday, we were playing an in-form and dangerous opponent and yet we still won 4-0. We are getting it right in both boxes, clinical with the chances we create and incredibly well organised at the back and when out of possession, a lethal combination.
Whilst there were several who disagreed with me, my Leamore WIndows Match Hero was Ryan Stirk who kept up his impeccable early season form with another commanding display. He gets through so much work and covers so much ground, he started off last season well and then faded and my only concern is that Sadler manages his workload to keep him as fresh as we can through the relentless nature of a L2 campaign. My S&S Steelstock match rating was an eight (8).
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I thought on Saturday Walsall were very much under the cosh in the first half especially the first half hour.
Colchester played some decent football in that period but we gradually got on top and the rest is now history.
As far as motm goes Stirk is a great shout as were a number of other players.
My own opinion is that rather than an individual player being the outstanding candidate the more important thing was that it was a complete team effort. If we can continue in this vein of form then the P word is a real possibility.
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I am sure I am not the only one to have received an email this morning from the club with a link to a survey - customer satisfaction on the “visitor experience”. It’s easy to ignore these things but fair play to the club pro-actively seeking feedback. Took me a few mins to complete and there’s an open text box to say more about how you’d like things to improve.
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Absolute joy to watch, knocking it around with composure and swagger and then, when it finally comes to Barrett, he sees he’s one-on-one with the defender and no hesitation; he is so incisive, drives past him, into the area and to the byline and once again, an intelligent ball at the end of it. It deserved the finish!
I showed my son in law (Liverpool armchair supporter) the clip of Jellis’s goal. He said, “great ball and great touch and finish. Typical lower league route one goal though”. I nearly spat my coffee out (not that Liverpool have used that tactic during Klop’s reign).
I said hang on a minute, how about this one, this was our second goal. He watched it 3 times and then said, “that’s a bit special. Can you send me those 2 clips so I can show my mates”. I just thought, spread the word my son… spread the word.
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Wasn’t it Doncaster who promptly ‘out-bastarded’ us 3-0 at home and the bastardry never reappeared?!
Excellent footage from the club:
Was thinking about this, such different goals in that game, 1st long ball great control and finish, 2nd patient passing play, 3rd curled into the far side from distance, 4th breakaway with selfless cut back for a tap in.
If your an opposition manager looking to stop us scoring, what the F@#& do you tell your players?
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Yeah, I mean it is almost as if people were commenting on what they had watched.
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We do still play the long ball a lot. Sensibly, the back three put safety first but more generally, we play long passes rather than aimlessly hoofing it. The first goal on Saturday was clearly planned with Jellis going hell for leather as soon as he realised Allen had spotted him. The execution was brilliant - Alexander-Arnold and Salah.
The long passes do mean we can lose possession easily but when they work, they are super dangerous. And Colchester’s passing, for all its ease on the eye, was nowhere near as effective.
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I have no problem with our style of play as long as it is effective, which it clearly is at the moment.
I have been wanting to see us be able to be able to retain possession a bit more at certain times of the game to manage the game better and we did it brilliantly Saturday.
My comment above was in response to yet another post having a dig at other fans for having an opinion. Let’s not pretend we have been keeping the ball like that all season, it has mainly been very direct, which is fine.
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Please don’t think I’m having a go but we have shown on more than one occasion that we can retain possession and score goals in that way. I think we watch how a team plays and then deploy a bespoke attack to nullify it. Sometimes it’s a cross field pass or long ball and other times it’s possession based.
I believe we allow other teams possession to stretch them between midfield and attack which enables the high press counter attack.
Maybe it’s by design and the criticism for a lack of possession, while true, is invalid. We don’t play possession based football, until we decide to.
If I were to change anything it would be having more players outside the box when defending corners, but then again Matt has been class defending our own box.
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I don’t mind not having possession, that wasn’t the point. Plenty of ways to win a football match.
There have been games where keeping the ball would at certain points of the game would have helped us, and we didn’t. You won’t find many passages of play like the one in that video, even if it didn’t result in a goal or even a chance. Having Earing on the pitch definitely helps with it though.
I don’t mind if you are having a go, everyone has their opinions, I’m not a fan of digging out other fans for having theirs though, not posts like yours which explain your thought process just random digs.
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So I do agree with you about possession but I suspect it’s by design and when I sit at the game and think “could do with keeping the ball” we tend to do something quality.
When I think back to Bradford and their spell of successive corners and high pressure it would have been ideal to keep possession a little better… Partly down to having all our players in the box.
Similarly during the Colchester game earlier in the first half, maybe that’s the plan though. Someone else described it as strangling teams… makes us less predictable which bodes well for the season.
I agree ,lot of that I feel is down to a poor first touch .or a sloppy pass across the back line very evident in the fist half Saturday but you have to give credit to The opposition they had us under the cosh first 20 mins but it continued up to half time .Whatever was said at half time the passing and possession was much better .like you say safety first don’t mess about in your own box even if it means it’s coming back at you .at least gives you chance a second chance .
Don’t you think that there are a number of people on here who appear to be much happier when things aren’t going well.
Look we are going to have tough times moving forward hopefully there’s a bit more patience and common sense shown
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