After we'd spent the whole of December telling each other that January was "going to be brutal", the fact that we've been proven right so far oughtn't to alarm anyone. There were though some worrying aspects creeping in against MK, and like most fans I should think found it a much tougher watch than the defeat at Wrexham.
I described the first half at Wrexham as just about the best I'd seen us play under Johnnie Jackson. High praise indeed, but given the circumstances I thought we were superb. Yes we were eventually ran out of it, but given the available players we could take much from the defeat.
So why was MK so different? Particularly as we still had no Ali, no Omar etc? Well the glaringly obvious difference was that our trip to Wales saw us play with a clear mindset, an obvious method which all of the players bought into. It was fairly obvious for example that we'd have taken a 0-0 draw there if it was offered. We sought to contain, frustrate, pick our moments to press and then see if we could nick something. Had Josh buried his chance it may have worked, but in any case against a very good team we applied ourselves with credit, only going down narrowly.
Unfortunately against MK for whatever reason we got distinctly muddled. It was far less obvious to these eyes anyway what our actual plan was, the players too were left looking confused at times. We seemed unsure whether to press effectively in numbers or to just drop off and contain. Standing mid court in tennis never works, and in pretty much all sport you need to commit within the contest to either defending, containing or attacking at a given moment. Confused dot com is no way to play football, and us leaving the back five in situ but pressing their ten players with our other six (they left one up top) was always doomed to fail. Johnnie Jackson is in my view a much improved manager this season, if he's as good as I think he is he'll already have worked out that we got this one totally wrong.
Fortunately for us there are only three teams in our league which play the extreme possession style favoured by MK & Notts County. Unfortunately our next opponents (Mansfield) are the other, and they are certainly the best team of the three. In Aden Flint they have probably the best centre half in the league, and in Davis Keilor-Dunne one of its best players. If we play in such a befuddled fashion as we did against MK, we will be beaten more heavily than the 3-1 inflicted upon us last night.
So it is time in my view for a reset. We need a root and branch look at it from the players and the management, how are we going to play? Either we're going to let them have the ball in their half, or we aren't. If it's the former we drop off, if it's the latter we press properly, with bravery and in numbers.
Now it's always safer to drop off in the sense you are harder to play around, but you do become very passive. Equally, as Ali isn't around it's not easy for us to build and create chances, we are better in transition. So if it was me, I'd be up for getting MUCH bolder with the press. My guess is that we are going to have to score AT LEAST once in order to get anything from the game, so we may as well get onto the front foot.
That means nudging the full backs on into midfield at opportune moments, going man for man when their goalie has it, commiting Reeves and Little into the press as well etc. It's a risky strategy, but at least it's a clear one which everyone can understand. We'll avoid those "everyone looking at each other not knowing whether to stick or twist" moments we had last night, and we'll be far more dangerous.
A quick word to the fans too. These are a REALLY good team. If we do get beat, it's not the end of the World as we know it to quote Michael Stype. What it is, is the end of a really tricky January, and if we win this game then three points out of nine will be not too bad at all.
COYD
No comments:
Post a Comment