Minority Report v Chelsea (FA Cup 5th round)

When I was a kid, I used to love watching the Reds play the giants in the FA Cup. My very first memories of football are of being taken to Oakwell by my father in 1961 to watch Barnsley beat Luton Town in the 5th round with a late Jacky Lunn goal. Those were great times, but the game has moved on. The FA Cup has been relegated to the back burner as fixture pressures and financial pressures have increased upon teams at the pinnacle of our game. For a number of years, I have been unsure whether the top sides were all that interested in it, and weakened teams bore testament to that lack of commitment, especially in the early rounds. As a result, my own interest in the competition has waned, and this is the first Barnsley match I have watched in the FA Cup this year. It is my hope that the game will be an end to end affair that is packed with chances, near misses and plenty of goals, but my expectation is for the opposite.


Many have queried why Toby Sibbick was pick to start instead of Michael Sollbauer. They are obviously not readers of Minority Report. Sollbauer has lots of experience, and he is a very good player. Nevertheless, he does not have pace, and if you want to play a high line, especially against opponents who will have pace, then you need your quickest players in the team. I do not say that the move will succeed, because Sibbick does make more errors than Sollbauer, particularly in his reading of the game, but that is why Ismael picks him. Personally, I would have picked Romal Palmer in preference to Herbie Kane, but Palmer was injured at the start of the week. Daryl Dike starts on the bench, along with fellow newcomer/striker, Cameron Thompson, who was signed for the U23 team during the transfer window, and who I did not expect to see until next season. Chelsea make 10 changes to their starting 11.


The first half was a lesson in patience. Barnsley played a high press for much of the time, supported by a high midfield and a high back 3 camped on the half-way line. They hit most of their ball forward from back to front and they worked like Trojans to win the ball back. They were patiently awaiting an error, or a lucky break. They got two, but failed to convert either. For Chelsea, it was also a patient wait. A wait for Barnsley to tire and for our press to become less effective. In the first half, they were very poor and they created very little apart from a possible penalty for a foul on Abraham by Sibbick. For those who were watching, it was also a question of patience. A patient wait for something significant to happen. I spoke about the FA Cup in former times, when everything was blood and thunder. When 50/50 challenges were the norm, and when the bravest were able to win games against the odds. In that first half, there were just 3 fouls by Barnsley and 0 by Chelsea. It is a very different game, and I question whether it is a better game for the absence of physical contact.


The much vaunted Thomas Tuchel was at a loss to understand why all his planning was for nought. He had worked out in detail how his team would win, but in their anxiety to keep hold of possession, they invited the press, and having got it, they were not good enough or accurate enough to pass their way through it. Of course, the poor pitch helped neither side. It quickly cut up, and it made accuracy doubly hard. Nevertheless, Tuchel is finding English football a bigger challenge than he expected. At half-time, Chelsea were still favourites, but he needed to do something different. When the Chelsea changes came, I expected them to go more direct. I expected Giroud to come on, and I expected the disappointing Ziyech and Pulisic to make way. Instead, he changed 2 defenders, and Chelsea continued to struggle with our press.


The usual Barnsley changes after the hour saw 2 of the tiring front 3, Adeboyejo and Chaplin, replaced by Dike and Frieser. It could be argued that Woodrow dropped slightly deeper, but it was still the basic 3-4-3 that Ismael always uses. It is Dike’s first game, and a lot was expected. The system means that he has to work. The sort of ball he was getting hit forward towards him and in his general direction, is not what he is used to. He barely got a chance to do what has got him this move. That is, he barely got a chance to get into the open, turn and use his pace against a retreating central defender. I counted only one potential chance as described, and he fluffed it. It seems like he will be a work in progress, rather than the finished product that many expected.


In the 64th minute, Chelsea carved out their one chance. There was a lack of pressure on the ball, and from just inside our half, the ball was switched over to the right, where we were caught without cover. When the ball was passed back into the centre, Abraham could virtually walked it home. The game was up. We made a game of it, we had some half chances, we had more of the ball, but Chelsea were in control. It had not been easy, but they had got the job done.


Those in red shirts who stood out were mainly defenders. The back 3 all looked good players, but the outstanding player in red was Brittain. I thought that Kane, Mowatt and Styles looked out of their depth at times as the pitch ruined their touch, and the game simply passed the rest by. Regular readers of Minority Report will know that I am not fond of 3-4-3, the press and the long ball. Once again, the system allowed the game to pass we watchers by with very little to excite us.

 

I think Kane, Styles, Mowatt found it tough because Chelsea protected their defence very well. It was very tight in that midfield. I think it’s pretty unfair to suggest they were out of their depth.

 

I was expecting to throw the book at you.

In the main you got it right. Especially Britain. I was extremely disappointed he was taken off.

But you spoilt it with your last sentence.
Having a pop at 343. Which is to be expected because it isnt what formation you ever want to see

 

By all means defend 3-4-3. Tell me what you like about it. I have explained my dislike in detail, especially when it is linked to the long ball. That is all that I want, that someone explains why it is a good system, and particularly and entertaining one. About the only thing that I see in its favour is that it is hard to break down, but for me, there should be more to the game than being hard to break down. Above all, it makes for dull games of football.

 

Well,

I put a post earlier.

1 chance chelsea had on target tonight.

1.

Now tell me a team in the last 20 years who has restricted chelsea of all teams to that 1 target.

I personally dont know I'm edging my bets, but let's call it a challenge

 

I thought Alex Mowatt was very, very good tonight.

 

We played very well. Would’ve loved to have Sheff U round for a match, but there you go. Efficiency report. Why waste paper?

 

I readily accepted in my last post that the system makes us harder to break down. However, It also makes us very dull going forward. We create fewer chances and score fewer goals.

 

Mowatt mom for me. Brittain did ok, but while he gets crosses in, we rarely look like scoring from them, and he should’ve buried that chance early on

 

Well I enjoyed the game. We didn't need to foul, we were matching them with our press. I found it quite refreshing that there were no cards tbh, the game flowed much better.

 

In the same game tonight


We had a keeper who save at point blank range

We had our own striker who we could argue deflected a shot on target wide

Oh, and abraham clearing one off the line.

If we were to line up our squads and costs.

I think we should be bloody extactic after tonight.

And 343 was a massive part of it

 

Interesting that you think that Mowatt looked "out of his depth at times". Micah Richards singled him out for special praise at the end of the match, and the BBC Sport website has him as Man Of The Match, just ahead of Brittain and ahead of any Chelsea players.

 

Why was 3-4-3 a massive part of it. Why is 3-4-3 superior to a different system, say 4-4-2.

 

Lol

You make me laugh.

You hate 442 as well. And went to great lengths to dismiss that too

Why dont you tell everyone just what formation you would like.

Because it seems whatever formation we do use, it's not to your satisfaction

 

Vals tactics were a massive part of it. We got hammered 6 0 at their place remember.

 

Surely you saw, in fact I can see that you saw it because you wrote about it, the press that we adopted severely restricted Chelsea. That was due in no small part to three strikers pressing their defenders being backed up by 4 midfielders. And we created a golden opportunity to go 1-0 up, which we really should have scored. Against Chelsea. Had Brittain scored, this would be just as memorable a game as any of our great results in the past. We actually played much better than we did when we beat Liverpool 2-1 and very similar to how we played when we beat Chelsea 1-0. Odejayi scored, Brittain didn't. That's the difference.

 

Well, Mowatt takes the majority of our dead ball kicks. He connected with no-one. Mowatt had 2 shots at goal, both off target and both badly mistimed. That may not be his fault entirely because the pitch was poor and it did not encourage accurate passing/shooting. Our basic tactic was the long ball, so Mowatt got few chances to direct play as we know he can, but many of the passes he did make were misplaced, misdirected or simply hit out (again the pitch was poor). Defensively, he did OK, but midfield players are judged more for their positive effect on the game, rather than the defensive/negative effect. Why did you believe he was our best player, better than Brittain?

 

I like 4-4-2 when not linked to the press. I like 4-3-1-2 as use by Gerhard Struber last season.

Now why do you like 3-4-3, the long ball and the press?

 

Long ball.

Yes cos that's all we did tonight.

I give up

 

We were more than in the game from first minute till the last against a very expensively assembled team of internationals, and you weren't excited???
Maybe your superior knowledge of football demands a team like Man City to support ?
Blue Rains minority reports got a ring to it.