Old habits die hard

[CroJack]

The game is 5 second old and Delcroix has four easy passing options.
He can pass the ball to O'Brien who can attack the empty space in the midfield and
move forward through the middle, but...Delcroix chooses the worst option and fires a long ball
towards Vipotnik who, together with Ronald, is surrounded by eight Watford players up front.
What's the chance we win the ball there, and if we win it can we do anything with it? No.







A miracle happens, Vipotnik wins the areal duel and we have a throw-in.
And now the same old story repeats itself - we don't want to progress with
the ball, we want to regress with it. Key doesn't want to give the ball to Franco,
who is in a position to attack and, instead, throws the ball back to our centre-back Cabango.



Now Cabango has the ball, and, as you can see, he has two options - the first and
the best one is to pass the ball to O'Brien, who obviously wants the ball and who can initiate an attack
through the middle, or to pass the ball to Delcroix, who can then pass it to Tymon to attack
the left flank. And what does Cabango do? He turns aorund with the ball and totally unchallenged
and without any pressure passes the ball to our keeper.



Vigouroux then passes the ball to Delcroix, who carries it forward and passes it to Eom.
This is something we want to see.



Eom, who has two excellent passing options, one is a pass to Tymon, who is totally free
on the left flank, and one to Franco, who has loads of space in the middle, chooses to run with the ball towards
our own goal and to pass the ball all the way back to Cabango.

​

 

[CroJack]

I don't like what Eom did but Cabango reacts really well and sends an excellent long ball
to Tymon who is alone on the left flank. We'll probably never know if Eom's move was a trap or not,
but the fact is that Cabango's ball successfully bypassed seven Watford players
and created an overload up front. Unfortunatelly for us Tymon is fouled and the Watford player who
fouled Tymon from behind doesn't get a yellow card.



In the next 'attacking' move Ronald has to make an obvious move - pass the ball to Franco who is running
forward - but, no, he for some unknow reason passes the ball all the way to our centre backs.



What follows is really god. One touch football and Cullen
releases Ronald on the right.




Ronald just needs to use his speed and he'll be in a
good situation to put in a cross.



Who do you think gets to the ball first?



Not Ronald. Ronald, physicality and speed can't be in the same sentence.​

 

[CroJack]

In the next move it's Cullen who does what he shouldn't do -
for no reason he passes the ball all the way back to our centre-backs.
He can pass the ball to Franco, who is running towards the
Watford goal, and, who, if he gets the ball, can pass it to Key,
who is already in the Watford box, or send a cross to Vipotnik.



Why simple when we can complicate things?
In the next move Cabango tries to send a long ball
to Ronald, he overhits it and we give the ball and possession away.



We win the ball again, Key carries the ball forward
and passes it to Ronald who can't do much. The next screenshot shows
the wrong possitioning of our attackers. They should be there where the green
dotted arrows are pointing to and not there where they are. All of them
(Eom, Vipotnik and Cullen) are hiding and jogging, instead of making
themselves available for a pass.



We are counter-attacking here and Franco is running with the ball at his feet.
And this looks totally strange to me - in my opinion both Franco, Vipotnik and Cullen are running in
the wrong directions. The green, dotted arrows show where they should be running instead.



Franco and Vipotnik are still running in the wrong direction. Cull is slowing down.

​

 

[CroJack]

Ok, Vipotnik gets the ball just outside the Watford box and he shoots.
It's an excellent curling shot but shots from inside box are much better and more
dangerous. The Watford keeper saves it. But where is Cullen running to?



Cullen is a poacher and he should be in front of the goal and not
30 yards away in this situation. Eom and
Vipotnik are too passive here.



Ronald is ready to put in a cross but no one is attacking the far post.



As you can see both Vipotnik and Cullen are too passive here.
The green, dotted arrows show where they should be.


​

 

[CroJack]

The ball is going back all the way to Key instead of to
Franco who is progressing in the midfield. See how disjointed we are here:
Cullen is between Ronald and Key and far away from his attacking midfielder
position. Vipotnik and Eom are not there where they should be.



Key passes the ball to O'Brien, who is surrounded by five Watford players.



And this is why I want us to sign O'Brien permanently. He turns around
and sends a perfect chipped pass to Tymon who is attacking the left flank.
He could've passed the ball back to Vigouroux but he rarely makes backward
passes.



Nine seconds later O'Brien has the ball again and he sends a prefect long ball to Ronald.



If Ronald could control the ball properly, we would
have a really good chance here.

​

 

[CroJack]

Tymon sends an excellent forward pass to Vipotnik.


​

This is what drives me nuts. Instead of running with the ball at his feet towards the Watford goal,
Vipotnik passes the ball to Eom, then runs towards the Watford box expecting a cross.
This has been a pattern in our attacking play since Martin took over.
Why doesn't he just run into the box and shoot?
I'm really not sure why our attackers almost always pass the ball to our
wingers or full-backs instead of going for a shot?



Eom's cross is poor and this attacking move is dead.​

 

[CroJack]

This is just about the first ten minutes of the Watford game, but it shows what's going on.

- We still try to pass the ball back instead of moving it forward at every opportunity.

- We don't see obvious ways to attack.

- We don't attack enough through the middle of the field.

- Ronald is not the most skilled player, he has poor technical skills, and he is a weak player, just like Eom.

- Our attackers should improve their positioning and be more active both outside and inside the opposition's penalty area.

 

[jackodiamonds]

This is what drives me nuts. Instead of running with the ball at his feet towards the Watford goal,
Vipotnik passes the ball to Eom, then runs towards the Watford box expecting a cross.
This has been a pattern in our attacking play since Martin took over.
Why doesn't he just run into the box and shoot?
I'm really not sure why our attackers almost always pass the ball to our
wingers or full-backs instead of going for a shot?​

Good stuff CJ. This part is my biggest frustration. Laudrup always favoured inverted wingers because he understood the goal is in the middle of the pitch. I'm not saying there isn't a place for wingers and crossing, but to concede a good central attacking position in order to push the ball out wide only for it to be crossed back into the centre again is bizarre. Talk about making things difficult.

It's been happening - as you rightly said - ever since Martin's time, and was a constant feature/bug of Williams' set-up. And it's definitely a coached pattern of play. No player naturally plays this way, especially attacking players. They all want to score, and it's natural to take the quickest and easiest route to do so. No wonder they gave up on Williams. This would drive me insane:

You have an onion. You're about to cut it up and fry it. Instead, you take the onion and put it back in the cupboard. Then you take it out of the cupboard again, and only then do you cut it up. This is how Swansea "attack", only a lot of the time the onion never comes back. Just cut the damn onion.

 

[KVetch]

This is just about the first ten minutes of the Watford game, but it shows what's going on.

- We still try to pass the ball back instead of moving it forward at every opportunity.

- We don't see obvious ways to attack.

- We don't attack enough through the middle of the field.

- Ronald is not the most skilled player, he has poor technical skills, and he is a weak player, just like Eom.

- Our attackers should improve their positioning and be more active both outside and inside the opposition's penalty area.

I wish we attack through the middle more because we have had success scoring goals when we do. Ronald is the only one who isn't afraid to nutmeg or just send it past the defender. It's not the most technical but it doesn't seem like anyone else is doing that. We have to make through balls then and in order to do that we need to play faster. Players have to be on the same page about when to make a run.