We all know it, our sides largest thorn in the side is sides sitting deep in the low block and countering.

If you were Pochettino how would you break the low block sides with the resources you had in this squad? Who would you want recruited, in anyone, in Jnauary?

Edited November 15, 20232 yr by axman2526

5 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

We all know it, our sides largest thorn in the side is sides sitting deep in the low block and countering.

If you were Pochettino how would you break the low block sides with the resources you had in this squad? Who would you want recruited, in anyone, in Jnauary?

1.  A fox in the box striker. 

2.  More bodies in the box when delivering out wide. 

3. More individual attacking quality. 

 

If having all 3 prove difficult, than there needs to be other alternatives. @SydneyChelsea made a great point about ceding possession in order to attract more space to expose these low block sides, as we are very good in the transition. 

 

Nkunku, Sterling, and Palmer both in the lineup should help us tremendously. 

 

 

 

Low block vs a slow, stagnant and unprogressive side is a recipe for disaster.

We need to stop the slow, sideways/backwards rubbish, and play with high tempo and high intensity, overloading the final third of the pitch and moving the ball quickly.  We dont need a great goalscoring 9 to do this. Look at Liverpool a few years ago, with Firmino up top. They relied on pace, and intensity of play to break teams down.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

1.  A fox in the box striker. 

2.  More bodies in the box when delivering out wide. 

3. More individual attacking quality. 

 

If having all 3 prove difficult, than there needs to be other alternatives. @SydneyChelsea made a great point about ceding possession in order to attract more space to expose these low block sides, as we are very good in the transition. 

 

Nkunku, Sterling, and Palmer both in the lineup should help us tremendously. 

 

 

 

I wonder if it comes down to a couple of other things as well:

1. Picking one of Caicedo or Gallagher, not both. We need Enzo for his passing range, we should only need 1 of the other 2 when the other side sits deep.

2. Picking only 2 natural CBs. Those 2 need to be quick to deal with counters. Maybe Colwill and Badiashile.

3. Quick full backs that can get up to support and get back quickly to defend. Cucurella and James the ideal.

4. 3 behind Jackson being, on current form, Palmer in the 10 and Sterling right, with the left spot given to the returning Nkunku. Jackson and Nkunku will interchange and that should create openings.

 

Caicedo or Gallagher gas the job to hound and get back quickly on counters to support the CBs while the full backs run back. Enzo uses the space he is given to find the best option of of front 4.

Palmer plays a bit deeper to look for runs. Nkunku, Jackson and Sterling interchange and keep making different runs to pull defenders out of place.

If not working go play B. B for Broja, giving a physical option you can add in to replace one of the attackers, or if chasing a losing score, Gallagher or Caicedo.

I would like to see us play without Gallagher against low-block sides. I think Cole Palmer in the middle and two wide players with Enzo and Caicedo behind we might see a big difference. 

Low blocks are broken down by techical quality or the threat of scoring from deep forcing defences out.

It means the team needs less techical donkeys in attacking positions like Gallagher, Madueke and Mudryk and more technically gifted players like Nkunku and Palmer who can play in the tight spaces.

Breaking teams down is extremely hard it's why weaker teams set up that way and why big clubs spend big money on individuals.

We currently don't have the attacking quality to consistently break them down or anyone capable of regularly getting goals from distance so it's a problem we can only fix in the market rather than a coaching or structure issue.

More shots from outside the box. Just bypass the 2 rows of 4/5 by shooting over them.

 

 

 

5 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Low block vs a slow, stagnant and unprogressive side is a recipe for disaster.

We need to stop the slow, sideways/backwards rubbish, and play with high tempo and high intensity, overloading the final third of the pitch and moving the ball quickly.  We dont need a great goalscoring 9 to do this. Look at Liverpool a few years ago, with Firmino up top. They relied on pace, and intensity of play to break teams down.

This. 

Another thing Liverpool did and still do is wrestle the ball back and then quickly hit teams before they can get back into shape.

11 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Low block vs a slow, stagnant and unprogressive side is a recipe for disaster.

We need to stop the slow, sideways/backwards rubbish, and play with high tempo and high intensity, overloading the final third of the pitch and moving the ball quickly.  We dont need a great goalscoring 9 to do this. Look at Liverpool a few years ago, with Firmino up top. They relied on pace, and intensity of play to break teams down.

Our manager can try to do this but I guarantee you will see a lot of people here moaning why our manager can't coach defense or how they don't understand "state of the art progressive" football. 

 

Edited November 16, 20232 yr by Bob stark

I don’t think we should worry about low block, we will get better at attacking as the season goes on. We already are.  but reading there seem to be at least four ways. 

1 individual dribble  and shoot, Sterling, Palmer even mudryck. Soon nkunku.

2 outside shooting, Caicedo Reece  

3 effective use of width. This will mean playing wingers as wingers. 
 

4 deception. Pausing on the ball like in rugby which encourages the defence to move up. When the move up you attack. Or letting them have the ball early on and getting them to attack. Essentially they don’t get into the low block. 
 

Stop being sh*t.

We were creating chances against the low block in the games we've played so far this season. The problem was we weren't finishing them off. i always believed that once we started scoring, many more of those chances would be converted. this is wht our xg as been so high. With the talent at our disposal i always considered it to be a matter of time, and increased cohesion within the squad.

1 hour ago, Ajbod said:

We were creating chances against the low block in the games we've played so far this season. The problem was we weren't finishing them off. i always believed that once we started scoring, many more of those chances would be converted. this is wht our xg as been so high. With the talent at our disposal i always considered it to be a matter of time, and increased cohesion within the squad.

This. 

4 hours ago, Ajbod said:

We were creating chances against the low block in the games we've played so far this season. The problem was we weren't finishing them off. i always believed that once we started scoring, many more of those chances would be converted. this is wht our xg as been so high. With the talent at our disposal i always considered it to be a matter of time, and increased cohesion within the squad.

There's truth to that, but we most certainly need to get better at breaking teams down, players wandering aimlessly in the same line and in the same direction as one another. Endless sideways passing that we need to eliminate from our game (it's getting better) instead of putting our energy and intensity to good use which we have the tools to do. And stop sh*tting ourselves when we go a goal behind, if we go a goal behind it's usually gameover. The last two games we've shown we can comeback, that experience should be massive for the players. 

This stuff will come in time, team cohesion, and chemistry, they just need to play together more. 

That's why I'm confident things will get better because I honestly don't think we've played badly this season at all, the results haven't gone our way a lot of the time but it wasn't like last season. This season we've easily outplayed the overwhelming majority of teams and could've easily got a result. 

Put away our chances. that simple. 

Shoot from outside the box pretty much, if the opposition are performing a low block that means more space 20-25 yards out.

We don't shoot enough in those areas.

By the way, what is this nonsense of XG? surely the only stat that matters is the ball in the back of the net, who played the pass... anything else is just for statos to get their lingerie in a twist

 

Not sure if there is a general fix, the team needs to specifically prepare for every opponent but I agree that we should shoot more and not worry too much about having possession per se.

Our struggles against low blocks is not as acute as some are making out to be. It’s a case of picking the right options in the attacking third and taking our chances and not making silly mistakes at the back..

had we put away relatively simplE chances any epl team will do - we will be fine. A confident Jackson and a Palmer will help us in that regard now. I think players like Mudryk will be essential in this - with their skill to take on players with their pace..

we also should do better with our set pieces. small teams concede a lot of tactical fouls yet we hardly seem to take advantage. Our corners are atrocious in attacking and defending. We have scored only 2 goals all season from corners against pool and city.. while arsenal have 7 and city have 8. That is a huge difference. if we are a threat from set pieces they can’t foul us that much either

 

We can certainly win 70-75% of our matches against these teams with the current quality .. teams like city and pool win 90-95%. For us to get there we need more quality. we currently don’t have world class attacking players .. some like sterling can hit those levels on their days but aren’t consistent like a salah or KDB.. others are competent players but can’t perform near that level even when they are playing good.

City has had problems breaking down low block this season without DeBruyne. I think we have players to break them down in the squad. I think we need more intelligence in the moves we make. 

Broja

Sterling  Nkunku  Palmer

Enzo  Caicedo

Give the ball to Enzo and let him get the ball forward quickly to Sterling or Palmer and let Nkunku focus on getting in the box to help the striker. 

On 15/11/2023 at 17:57, Scott said:

More shots from outside the box. Just bypass the 2 rows of 4/5 by shooting over them.

 

 

 

Can't really disagree with that, but just absolutely hate those stupid "sensational" thumbnails.

A shot from there is no way near 55m lol it'd have to be from before the halfway line to get near that. 

One thing the squad can learn is don’t play like England last night! There were some similarities, wingers cutting in on their favoured foot instead of taking on fullbacks crossing or cutting in to play a simple pass for on coming support. 
 

Watching England has been really bad this international window 

14 hours ago, Richard P said:

One thing the squad can learn is don’t play like England last night! There were some similarities, wingers cutting in on their favoured foot instead of taking on fullbacks crossing or cutting in to play a simple pass for on coming support. 
 

Watching England has been really bad this international window 

Worst i've seen in a while, got to be demoralising for the squad to see players like Henderson/Rashford/Maguire playing every game with zero form to back it up. 

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Worst i've seen in a while, got to be demoralising for the squad to see players like Henderson/Rashford/Maguire playing every game with zero form to back it up. 

Guéhi making Maguire - and Tomori for that matter - look very second-rate.