More direct style and back to the pressing game

The pressing game we played under Stendel and Duff served us really well. But now under Collins we seem to play a side to side pedestrian game or little triangle passes that mean we take far too long to get to the opponents penalty area and the opposition have time to anticipate, set up and our forwards and find their way into dangerous positions blocked. We have talented players and pace but we are not utilising or getting the best from them. For example Watters kept trying to make runs into space behind the defence only for the midfield to ignore him. Luca Connell when he came on started moving the ball forward, playing a curving pass into the area and even pointing to players where to go. Let's hope we see more of him in the near future driving play forwards not sidewards or backwards.

 

Yep, as soon as Connell is back, hopefully things will quicken. Kane & Russell, certainly Kane when playing deeper, attempt forward passes so rarely. Always the safe pass, sideways & backwards, no risks. Which is a tad annoying because when Kane wants to turn it on, he's created some cracking assists, especially with the outside of his foot. Connell is just naturally a better footballer, he sees things, and he sees them quicker, and will attempt passes even if they don't always come off

 

Collins style of football is to play the ball around trying to pull the opposition out of shape before then attacking quicker, Tampa fans said this and they liked it because it brought them some relative success, can’t see that changing much.

 

Tampa were really on it. We ought to get in on the act.

Collins reminds me of Schopp but with victories. Both changed to this more passive style.

 

We're missing ambitious passes from our centre-backs too. Kitching used to play a fair number of long cross-field balls to Williams, which often started a potentially dangerous attack. McCart, in particular, very rarely does anything other than pass the responsibility to a fellow centre-back, which can become very frustrating. Admittedly, our goals per match ratio is very good so far, but I don't expect it to continue to be so good without a little more variety and ambition in our approach.

 

I think we're missing Shepherd. Better defender than Mccart.

 

Only forward with pace we’ve got is Cole

 

Better all-round from what I have seen so far.

 

I think Mael likes to do that, hes proven so far he does anyway. Especially running into midfield from the back. Doesnt always work out and doesn't work often enough purely down to a static midfield, nobody making space for themselves or him to pass or run into. I reckon we'll see it a lot more when Connell returns. I would like to give Shepherd another run out