Stemming the flow of goals/chances against us

[Jim Smith 2,314]

Watching the last two games (and the Liverpool game before that) a clear pattern is emerging in terms of how teams are being presented with or are able to work chances against us. Its not dissimilar to the start of last season or indeed throughout last season with perhaps the difference being that at the championship level teams were not good enough to take advantage but in the premier league they are. We are conceding 2.5 goals per game and to be honest had Chelsea and West Ham taken some more of their chances it could have been a lot more than that. We will get relegated if we continue to allow teams so many chances in every game.

Although much praise has rightly been given to West Ham for the quality of some of the play from their attacking 4 (and the week prior to that the same with Chelsea) it is so, so obvious to me watching the games that as soon as we lose the ball the opposition are able to run at our defence, often unchallenged, far too easily and often to get the ball into our area and have a shot at goal without having to play more than one straight forward pass. Typically the pattern seems to be that:

1. Midfield give the ball away cheaply or are dispossessed due to opposition team pressing.

2. Both Trybull and at least one of our full backs are up the pitch giving the opposition free reign to run at our defence who are either outnumbered or 3 on 3.

3. Direct run from a player at our defence or an easy pass/one two gives the opposition a chance to shoot on goal.

We saw this time and time again on Saturday and the week before against Chelsea and it happened quite a bit at Anfield as well. Tough fixtures admittedly but even Newcastle had 3 fantastic chances to score against us.

So really my question is how should Farke address this and will he? His post match comments for me after the last 2 games have been a bit worrying as he does not seem to see an issue with how we are playing and whilst I get the "stick to your principles" and "this is how we play" mantras to a degree, I don't want to see us abandoning our attacking intent completely and we've been unlucky with injuries but surely we have to make an adjustment here or we could concede over 90 goals this season?

Obvious improvements/tweaks:

1. Midfielders need to stop giving the ball away in our own half. This is perhaps a learning curve for the likes of Todd and Buendia but there were several occasions on Saturday where they tried flicks or risky passes in our own half and gave it away, one leading to their second goal;

2. Do the full backs push up a bit less? Sacrifices some of our attacking threat but there was one occasion on Saturday where (the generally excellent) Lewis got stuck up the pitch, they broke and by the time the attack had ended with (I think a corner for them) he was still jogging back over the half way line. If he;s going to play like that surely we need an extra defensive midfielder to cover?

3. If Amadou is needed at CB or is not quite ready do we just stick Tettey in front of the back 4 for the next few games and tell him to just stay in that area in front of the back four to sweep up in these types of situations. He is a very good exponent of the cynical foul to break up an attack which I think this team is missing at the moment and also is more physical than Trybull.

4. As I've seen someone else allude to do we try three at the back against Man City to give us an extra man back there? Our fullbacks basically play as wing backs anyway and the City game is in my view a free go to try something as I don't think we have a hope in hell of beating them.

 

[king canary 7,580]

4 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

2. Do the full backs push up a bit less? Sacrifices some of our attacking threat but there was one occasion on Saturday where (the generally excellent) Lewis got stuck up the pitch, they broke and by the time the attack had ended with (I think a corner for them) he was still jogging back over the half way line. If he;s going to play like that surely we need an extra defensive midfielder to cover?

I think they need to keep pushing on they provide width. We need more discipline from our midfield though to allow it. For instance, if Lewis bombs on Cantwell maybe needs to stay a bit further back to stop a swift counter. Similarly, our defensive midfielder should be dropping back in between the two central defenders when our fullbacks push up, allowing them to split and cover the width of the pitch with less of an issue. Basically when we're attacking and our fullbacks push up our formation should be more 3-4-3 rather than the 2-4-4 it too often ends up looking like at the moment.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

I agree with that king and whilst I like Trybull my concern with him is I don't think he always drops back into that slot and i'm not convinced he and Mo are athletic enough to cover the amount of ground needed when the opposition attack swiftly.

[king canary 7,580]

1 minute ago, Jim Smith said:

I agree with that king and whilst I like Trybull my concern with him is I don't think he always drops back into that slot and i'm not convinced he and Mo are athletic enough to cover the amount of ground needed when the opposition attack swiftly.

Yes, his mobility is my main concern. He's neat and tidy but he needs to be able to play 'horizontally' at times and cover across a large space. 

I maintain I think when everyone is fit we're much better suited to a 3-4-3 type formation in general with Godfrey 'stepping out' from the back 3 when needed and Aarons and Lewis having more cover in behind.