01 Nov 2018 13:37:07
I'm getting on a bit now (63) and some will no doubt call me a dinosaur. At the Championship level I am really at a loss as to why teams continue to play out from the goalkeeper when being closed down. Whilst many players had bad games at Burton the main problem was the tactic of playing out from the back that Burton put lots of resource into preventing us doing successfully but we continued to do it anyway for the entire 90 minutes.

Goals are scored by and large from the opposition penalty area and within a few yards around it and only the opposition are likely to score when its in your own half so why the fixation of having the ball for so much of the time in your own half just for the sake of trying to keep it. The outcome of the game was so predictable the other night in the sense that space in our own half was so limited we kept giving the ball away. When we had to go long all our players bar one were in our own half so there was no one to win the first ball or pick up the second ball as everyone was so deep.

The tactic was clearly not working and the manager should have seen that and changed it. However he comes from the ever growing "we want to play like Barcelona" school of managers and clearly Championship players are not good enough to do that on a regular basis unless the opposition gives them the space to do so. The point I am trying to make is that the manager must take most of the blame for Tuesday and needs to have a plan B for when the opposition sets up like Burton to stop us playing from the back otherwise there will be more "Burtons" this season.


1.) 01 Nov 2018
01 Nov 2018 13:49:14
Syred spot on mate


2.) 01 Nov 2018
01 Nov 2018 14:12:22
Totally agree mate


3.) 01 Nov 2018
01 Nov 2018 14:52:02
As said above,spot on there!! If only AK could read it and sort the tactics out😡


4.) 01 Nov 2018
01 Nov 2018 14:52:06
Nice post " Old lad"


5.) 01 Nov 2018
01 Nov 2018 16:21:08
Syred, your tactics are as old as you!😁 Seriously, the players on the pitch have to know when to 'mix it'. If you're given space, play your 'pretty football'. If you're closed down, go more direct but not straight to their players. The 'long ball' should be in the channels, get their defenders facing their own goal and get Forest up the pitch. Burton played a blinder, forced mistakes and had us defending like nervous kittens on the edge of our box. A recipe for disaster. As someone pointed out Appiah would've been a perfect player to turn defence into attack. FTID.


6.) 01 Nov 2018
01 Nov 2018 16:23:06
All makes sense you old dinasaur!! 🤣 Your age is irrelevant mate - keep posts like that coming and with a bit of luck more will think that way 👍


7.) 01 Nov 2018
01 Nov 2018 23:08:12
Great post but Barca don’t pay one up front all the bloody time.


8.) 02 Nov 2018
02 Nov 2018 00:29:56
If it was under 10s football then I would agree but I'm sure Steele, Dawson, Hefele and Watson have enough footballing experience between them to know whether to play or hoof it. They just played rubbish. All of them.


9.) 02 Nov 2018
02 Nov 2018 13:19:07
The point is they didn't 😐.