Play-Off Semi-Finals Second Leg

IanABS94

Key Player
CroJack said:
By the why, what has happened to Woodman? Can anyone explain what is going on?
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He's always been a decent shot stopper, no one in their right mind can deny that but yes he's clearly been told to be more confident in command of his area. He's been more aggressive in coming for the ball and calling for it when necessary. Long may that continue; his distribution is still utterly appalling though.
 
ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Two other stats that hardly impressed were that Barnsley OUTPASSED us 354 to 326 and touches in opposition box were 21-6 in their favour.
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
Yankee_Jack said:
what do you mean. He’s still the weakest keeper we have had between the posts in the last 12 years
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See the answer in the post #141.
The whole season Woodman has been reluctant to leave the goal line, and suddenly he goes out to close down opposition attackers. He looks more assured in the air as well.

Though, his distribution is still awful.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
@CroJack ... so what has suddenly gotten into Woody. Are our two CBs playing a higher line requiring him to close the gap. Is it a result of Barnsley hoof-ball and the anticipation of long balls over the top of our CBs requiring Woody to be more advanced to deal with that threat.

Are we likely to see a reversion of Woody to the goal-line at Wem-bel-ee.
 
Behindthegoal

Behindthegoal

Key Player
I watched the match from seat v272 in the East Stand. For those of you not familiar with the Liberty, that is the top row in the very south east corner, so virtually level with the goal line. For all the first half I thought the extreme angle was distorting my vision because it seemed that every time Woodman kicked long it went to or beyond the left touch line. In the second half I realised it wasn’t an illusion, the kicks were still to the left.
why should this be?
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
Yankee_Jack said:
@CroJack ... so what has suddenly gotten into Woody. Are our two CBs playing a higher line requiring him to close the gap. Is it a result of Barnsley hoof-ball and the anticipation of long balls over the top of our CBs requiring Woody to be more advanced to deal with that threat.

Are we likely to see a reversion of Woody to the goal-line at Wem-bel-ee.
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I have no idea, but I quite like how he has improved some aspects of his game lately.
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
Behindthegoal said:
Yeah but why not have an occasional crap kick to the right? Kyle Naughton called for it often enough.
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There were many of them. Woody made sure his crap kicks were equaly distributed to the both sides of the pitch. With other words, he had a perfect distribution of his crap kicks. 😂
 
Victoria Swan

Victoria Swan

Key Player
CroJack said:
When you want your team to play a certain way you have to be brave as a manager, and accept defeats as a part of the process
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Wouldn't want this approach of accepting ANY defeats when we have one game at Wembley to make it to the Prem. Risk averse is the name of my game in that case!
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
Victoria Swan said:
Wouldn't want this approach of accepting ANY defeats when we have one game at Wembley to make it to the Prem. Risk averse is the name of my game in that case!
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I can't believe you believe that being under constant pressure is "risk averse". Especially against Brentford who have far better players than Barnsley.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
To beat Brentford, we need to be the best version of ourselves. We were not against Barnsley, unless you consider rope a dope to be a valid version. We didn't stamp any sort of authority on either game, and nothing indicated adoption of the the fundamental philosophy that the team without ball can't hurt you. Years gone by we could own the ball in-play for many minutes at a stretch and were totally comfortable and confident in that mode ... today the longest we own the ball is when taking a throw-in or a corner or a goal lick.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
What I've noticed is that Woody now avoids passing to his CBs, FBs and deep midfield when he has the ball like the plague. He seldom takes short goal kicks anymore. Does he not have confidence in them to be technically competent and make the correct decisions or is he under instruction to boot long and pray.

Clearly our CBs, FBs and midfield have superior technical ability with their feet. We gift possession too easily too often with this boot and hope play. Against Barnsley it seemed the only way we could get the ball into their half of the field the majority of the time ... rugby tactics ... kick for touch and gain ground.
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
So, the question is was the hoofing tactics effective against Barnsley? Sure, to some extent. Barnsley are the second-worst passing team in the Championship, so they are not very comfortable in possession. But they immediately hoof the ball back in hope to create chaos in our half. Which they did in both legs. In the first leg they created better chances, and a couple of Woodman's saves prevented them to score. In the second leg Bidwell's excellent last man block was the difference. They also had a couple of dangerous headers. Only in the dying minutes, when they threw the kichen sink, we were able to create a couple of good chances (Smith and Roberts).

Against Brentford this tactics won't be enough. Brentford are one of the best passers in the league, and they are much more clinical than Barnsley. They've scored most goals in the Championship this season. 80.
 
CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
Yankee_Jack said:
Does he not have confidence in them to be technically competent and make the correct decisions or is he under instruction to boot long and pray.
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He was clearly under instruction. Not a completely bad tactics against Barnsley who are hyper-agressive. But, as you know, hoofing is like a coin-flip. When I'm all in in poker I'd rather have a pair of aces and odds on my side than flip with AK against a pair of deuces. When you control the ball you control the time and game, and when you control the time and game your odds are higher.

It's simple, the more possession you have the less time your opponents have to create something. Less time to create someting is equal with fewer shots. Fewer shots means fewer goals against you in the long run. Of course, your opponents can be lucky and score from one shot on target, and at the same time you can miss ten clear-cut chances. But how likely is that?

I know the game at Wembley is a special game. 1:0 could be enough, and a defensive approach is a reasonable solution. But not hoofing all the time, because hoofing is not a defensive approach.
 
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