It wasn't long ball as such, most of the criticism has been about the frequent head height balls to Rose.
Last few minutes when we were desperate, apart from that I thought we tried to play football. Didn't always succeed like, but tried.
There were also plenty of stuff that came in to his feet/chest that he failed to control, too. Danny was going nuts on the sideline with him.
I saw a few long balls played to Rose earlier in the game too. I used this in Rose's defence when he was getting pelters on here yesterday.
That's the only time I remember it, too. For the rest I saw Rose/Winnall dropping deep, majority of it going to feet/chest & then midfield getting close to 'em. I thought there were some good signs. The problem is that people expected to win yesterday, we haven't so we're ****.
I thought there was a fair amount of aimless balls, and we certainly didn't put together enough periods of possession. If we are going to play Winnall and Rose we need to be slotting balls in behind and turning the defence (very hard to do) or pulling the ball back from the byline (much easier to do). My biggest disappointment yesterday was that the full backs didn't push on to allow us to do the latter. We started like it, first 10 minutes. Both pushed on when we had the ball with Bailey almost dropping in to form a back 3, but then we just stopped. I thought Jennings was poor yesterday, but I have a degree of sympathy when the full back isn't going outside him to either give an option or create space.
You must have missed the 90 minutes then pal. We lost 1-0. The few times we got the ball down, it was extremely sloppy and slow. The front two looked very lightweight, and the right hand side looked non existant. Overall, not good enough.
Winnall went up for 5 headers int first ten minutes, Crainie and Tanga`s outball was mainly hoofed just reminded me of all the get out of jail kicking Foster did in his time with us. 4 or 5 passes in midfield that finished up with the central defenders coming under pressure. Differing views on here eh, whoda thowt it. I know hoofing only applies to other teams but that is what I saw at times yesterday.
Isn't that because, after the first quarter of an hour, we went with 3-5-2 when attacking? Brown pushed forward on the right, Berry moved inside, while in defence we made a three of Dudgeon, Nyatanga and Cranie. Dudgeon didn't overlap because he wasn't asked to do it, he was part of a back 3. We had some success down the right and got a few decent crosses in as Berry helped out Brown. On the left it didn't happen. I would imagine Hourihane (who had a good game) was supposed to help out Jennings, but he didn't really get in that position. That's what I saw anyway. Early days for a fluid system like that. I guess, because we lost, you could argue it failed, but we had a number of players in the box every time we got a cross in (that was the purpose of the system), far more than at any time last season and if Jennings had kept that header under the bar, like he really should have done, I think we would have seen a different result. I doubt Jennings would have been sent off as the goal would have alleviated his frustration and I could see us holding out for the win. He missed the header, we went down to 10 men and we conceded. Fine margins.
Don't get me wrong Jay, I'm certainly not stamping my feet. There were positives yesterday. I didn't post last night because it was a feeding frenzy and anyone making constructive criticism gets seized upon by those who are often keen to write us off. I think we have the makings of a really solid defence and I thought Bailey was very tidy in front of the back 4. But first half we were certainly too deep and there was not enough link between attack and defence meaning we were stretched and went too direct to the forwards. And because of that any crosses were also from way too deep. It has to be some ball in to score a goal from a cross 35 yards back from the byline. Jennings' chance came from one of the few balls in from further forward. But it's was too early to judge players, formations and tactics. It'll come, and I completely agree about fine margins. Plus it was really good to see a central midfielder pushing on in Hourihane. Haven't seen that since Mellis first came back and we had a good spell at the start of 2012/13 season.
I thought the passing up to Rose and Winnall was fairly long and aimless. We fell into the old Hill problem of holding the ball for ages I'm midfield without being able to make any incisive passes then wellying it.
It depends what you view as long ball I suppose. I suspect "Nyatanga to Rose" would have been one of the highest "pass attempt" pairings yesterday, which was just brainless. Additionally, is it any better to continuously pass the ball backwards to the goalkeeper for him to hoof it and lose possession? That's still "long ball" in my book to some degree. Good to meet you at Jonno's do yesterday, Dyson.
Pass short sideways, pass again short sideways, pass back to defender, and wallop. Was like that for a good spell in the first half. On one occasion, we passed it well along the floor from side to side, stretched their defence, Jennings was free on the left and after Nyatanga received it on halfway, he punted it straight out for a goal kick and I was looking and thinking "what exactly was that meant to be?". It's not the end of the world, it will get better. But I'd be a knob if I didn't give my honest opinion and in my honest opinion I saw far too many long, aimless balls fired at or above Rose (in particular) and Winnall. It wasn't so bad second half, and I do think that had we scored first we'd have probably scored again. But we never learn at set pieces. And once behind, the heads went down as per every BFC side over the last few years. Early days though.
I felt we only really hit it long when we were under pressure. The vast majority of balls were early & to feet. I was annoyed with our right hand side though, neither Brown or Berry looked to run at the full back & get a ball in the box
The one real time we did so, and Brown cut it back for Winnall on the edge of the 'D', Sam dwelled on it. I think it'll come good. But yesterday it wasn't. Crawley won, deservedly. If we played as they did when we go to Brammall Lane, we'd say we deserved it. At times in the first half we looked like the away side.