Analysis of the goal conceded against Bolton (2/5)
Nigel Reo-Coker’s goal – Boyata’s throw is headed on by Davies, and then back-heeled into Reo-Coker’s path by Ngog. Reo-Coker finishes first time past Friedel without breaking stride.
As Boyata takes the throw-in, we seem to be relatively well organised. Note Modric just outside the penalty area, with Reo-Coker (the eventual scorer) just a little deeper than him.
As Davies eases Sandro out of the way with his arm, and then wins his header, Modric is caught ball-watching as Reo-Coker starts to make his move toward the box.
Davies’ header drops for Ngog, who plays a wonderful first time back-heeled flick, right into Reo-Coker’s path. Gallas isn’t touch-tight to Ngog, which allows him the space to carry this off.
Reo-Coker doesn’t break stride, he just moves on to the ball calmly, with Modric still at the edge of the box, and gets a clean shot on target.
Friedel is quite slow down, and the ball goes through the gap between his right hand and his body – it was a big ask to save from that close in.
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Friedel's done a solid job this year but, I agree, think we need to plan for the long-term.
Against Man City for Dzeko's 3rd goal
Against Newcastle for Demba Ba's goal
Against Man Utd for Ashley Young's goal
Against Bolton for Reo Coker's goal
Now obviously Modric is a repeat offender but the question is that doesn't the management ever sit players down and work on weaknesses like this, don't we have dvd's of this so that players cut this kind of rubbish out of their game? It really makes you wonder if we actually work on the tactical and more worryingly the more basic stuff like this?
Modric not great at letting runners go, and Parker is equally poor at defending from set piece situations - both avoidable with a focus in training.
Both are intelligent players, so I'm not sure whether Gee's point stands or not...
We are of course talking about professional football players here who are still learning all aspects of their game and with the aid of coaches they're meant to assist them to make their overall game better, it's a very basic concept to grasp and should be expected in all walks of life, not just football.
You think this would be acceptable at a team like Utd, SAF would be ripping his hair out!
Secondly it's pretty certain that that particular comment that keeps getting bandied about is light hearted over elaboration to reinforce the persona.
You must have played football at some level at some time, so you must know that feeling when the world slows down and you can see things in perfect clarity that moments later you look back at your actions and think what in the world was i thinking, why did i even try that? well, its good and its bad, sometimes we see a player and his instinctive decisions equate a goal from nothing outside the box, sometimes it means a player that scores is left to wander while you hang back to anticipate a counter attack, you can't credit Rednapp with Modric's goal, he can't really be held responsible for his individual mistake either.
Yep, we cartainly can train that over and over again, I spent ages as a kid learning to kick with my weak foot, I can volley and take penalties just as well with either now, doesnt mean i dont ever spoon it with my good one though.
I have here criticised Harry for poor rotation, for poor selection and for poor formations, but I'm not about to expect him to keep clean sheets by will power, not everything can be his fault no matter how much has changed over the last few months
I read it every week. Please carry on mate.
Alan
On to those couple of thoughts for you....
I'll bet most fans would get annoyed if they watched Adebayor apparently not trying to tackle a centre back as he moves forward with the ball out of defence? I've heard people roaring "you lazy b****rd" at him for this at times. However, on certain occasions, that's exactly what he should be doing! Why? Because, the centre back might be moving towards an area which is well-covered defensivley and, if he loses the ball, then the quick break will now catch him out of position and Ade and others might well be able to exploit the gap he has left. This has to be calculated depending on the score etc.
A second point, more generally on tactics....the ordinary fan talks about 4-4-2 being better than 4-2-4 etc but rarely do top teams play to these kind of rigid formations. More accurately, they will play in a way whereby it is extremely rare for there to be four in a line across the pitch (except when maybe defending rigidly). Instead, we are trying to get the four midfielders for example to create triangles of three so that there are angles to play the ball inside. Then when it moves to the other side of the pitch, there will be a renewed attempt to create a new triangle which would be completely impossible if they were playing a rigid system like 4-4-2. The intelligent footballer will know which triangle he is supposed to be a part of and will play accordingly. Again, watch VDV creating these triangles. You will appreciate it better if you completely ignore the ball for five minutes during a game. It's very difficult to do but it's what the top coaches are doing all the time!
I just found this website through the Spurs site and I'm thrilled. Love spurs, love the game, can read new analysis and tactics all day.
Thanks for your contribution, I'll read all the time now.
2. If anyone is caught ball watching it was Kaboul and not Modders. Kaboul had the best (frontal) look at what was going down (while R-C was behind Luka’s back) and still didn’t make an attempt to meet R-C’s run-in. Instead, he was at all times guarding no one.
3. Modders was at the edge of the box where he should be (in fact he’s a box-to-box and not goal-to-goal midfielder) covering the anticipated area where the ball might bounce from that header, and from which position he can start quick counter, as he did successfully many times before. However, during opposition set peaces (corners, etc.) he goes deeper into our box to help defenders by often standing at the goal line where he actually saved us few goals.
4. In fact, Bolton’s goal was a product of lucky bounces and not necessarily players’ skills, and to single out Modders as the only responsible player for it is outright stupid, malicious and ignorant.
I prefer Modric in space acting as a springboard for our next attack.
You can't be in space and closely marking someone at the same time.
We have three players marking two at the beginning and three marking three at the end.
Modric who is not noted for his defensive abilities probably felt that things were covered.
It was a good quick move though and credit Bolton.
Friedel should have got something on it, basically it went through him.