Vertical Football

You wanted to know what vertical football means, that was it. Smart, possession football playing the percentages.
We've now got a free hit on Friday and Bournemouth are losing.
If Victor can sort out his first touch we've got a gem. Freiser did great when he came on, rushed em and then produced a nice long throw.
We look so organised out of possession it's great, hunting in packs.

 

Lovely non-BBS esque post, sir.

 

It's less easy on the eye, but I love that we're moving it quickly up the pitch and trying to get shots and crosses in early (albeit not many of them find the target) - more work is needed but 5 wins out of 8 playing this system is impressive.

 

I find it quite enjoyable to watch personally. Nothing better than a good counter attack.

 

This is the victor we saw in league 1, a nuisance, strong and has pace..... Iv got to admit I expected a better return from his loan spells away but you really can't fault him over these last few games.

 

The thing I like to see is the opposition blowing out of their arses knowing they've been in a game. Blackburn knew how good we are, tonight a big physical team who play non football got bullied by a team of Jack Russell's.

 

It’s certainly not hoof it football mate. A la Wimbledon and Sheffield United many years ago.

 

mmmm..... I’m not sure that’s the “Victor we saw in League one’. I thought he had a decent game.

 

Whilst happy with the result we won’t play teams like Brum every week.

 

Not sure there's a fair few teams in the division who play non threatening football and hope to get a goal against the run of play. Teams will have looked at us as a soft young team, we're proving we've got a bit of bite to us.

 

I enjoy the pace at which we counter attack but at times we’re just forcing it too much. Playing balls that just aren’t on. It doesn’t have to be a quick counter every time

 

Jack Russells rarely lose TBH.

 

What is vertical about possession football?

When you say smart, and playing the percentages, do you mean hoofing it up top or playing it short? I saw very little smart about our play tonight. I have seen it many a time in our games recently, but not tonight. Usually we have been smart in possession, but just crap in finishing. Tonight we booted it away all the time.

As an aside, Victor won't sort out his first touch if he hasn't sorted it out by now. He's a footballer who obviously has a problem in controlling the ball. You can't teach that. Why should he learn it now when it's the obvious aspect that makes the difference between his being a Championship footballer or not? He'll have been trying his best for years. He's got certain attributes - the goal at Derby was brilliant.. He can make it as a professional footballer. But he isn't good enough for this league. He might be if we send him out again. Who knows?

 

We played the game in areas where they couldn't hurt us. Long throws attacking the second the ball and organising behind the ball. Same with the long balls, we pressed most of em and didn't allow them to dictate the play or get any kind of rhythm.
We didn't just press for the sake of it, we timed our press and hunted in packs, marked tight at throw ins and made it scrappy. It's not pretty but its effective, we'll have games when we'll see more the ball but against Brum that was never going to be the case.
I'd call that smart and football by the percentages.

 

Well they did hurt us because they went 1-0 up.

Are you talking about our long throws and balls? Throwing and kicking it up top and then pressing them?

Well that's glorious football to watch.

Is that what you mean?

Ronnie Moore told his teams to do that 20 years ago.

 

You can't play Brazilian football against all opposition. If you look at what the Germans did to the Brazilians a few years ago at the world cup. They didn't play tippy tippy stuff early, they organized and hit em off direct balls. Once they'd got 3 up they knocked it about a bit, but the Brazilians didn't wise up so they hit em with some more. An extreme analogy but you play what's in front of you. Our scouts will have fed back what Birmingham would be like and we exploited them. Their goal came out of nothing and was the only defensive **** up we had. Typically we conceded, but our organisation and game plan was great for this game.

 

The result was great. I'm never going to back myself in a corner to get to a position where I ever think about us not wanting to win.

But that was a poor game. and we never looked like scoring because we don't have the talent to finish.

Plus I think we can play our version of Brazilian football - well, busy bees anyway - and do better. We can do much better if we have better finishers.

 

We certainly need another striker, it's a big month for Chaplin I think. Victor tonight though his first touch needs work have us an interesting platform to build off. He run his socks off and with 5 subs being allowed now gives us options. Miller and Schmidt I'm afraid will be out the door. 2/3 quality signings in January and who knows where this team could finish.

 

What do you think that VI has brought to the table that Struber didn't?

There's the "new manager" syndrome I suppose. It seems to me our build up play was better under Struber. Mowatt whacked in a few long range goals recently. I'm still not sure what that has covered up.

I hope it's more than the rub of the green.

VI needs a window to get a prescence in the front three.

 

Mel Machin invented vertical football.