Clearing it long yesterday

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,131]

Struck me in yesterdays game that we had a lot of joy beating Cardiff's press by playing it long to Hugill and Vrancic who's excellent touches often got us away on a quick counter attack. Then because Cardiff became wary of our threat over the top they stopped pressing us in numbers and that allowed us to play out from the back easier than we would have otherwise and they didn't know how to stop us. 

Imo we've struggled more this season playing against pressing sides than those who sit deep and I'd like to see us try this more often when we play teams who press us high try to stop us playing out from the back. I know it's not really our way but with Hugill and Vrancic up top it worked well for us and I hope it's something we try more often against certain teams. 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Yes, that was something I noticed. I wasn't sure with it was a tactic or just getting Hugill into the game.

[Thirsty Lizard 3,155]

Hugill brings this option to our team. You can knock it long and there's a reasonable chance that he will be able to get on the end of it and hold it up or quickly flick it on.  It's obviously a complete waste of time when Teemu's playing up front. 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Thirsty Lizard

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,131]

Vrancic was also important picking up second balls, Hugill occupies two defenders leaving Vrancic often unmarked as the opposition midfield is busy pressing our backline and it got us through on goal so many times yesterday. It means for me when we play teams like Cardiff or Preston/Huddersfield/Luton etc there's definitely an argument to be had for starting those two over Pukki or a player like Stiepermann who doesn't have the best first touch instead of playing into the oppositions hands a bit. 

 

This is the first time I've seen us use Hugill in this way, we normally play as if we've still got Pukki up front and it doesn't work. there's nothing wrong with mixing it up a bit and we have ball playing defenders who can hit those accurate long passes

[Rich T The Biscuit 562]

I commented on this a few weeks ago in another thread.

To play the way we play with Pukki you need pace to do exactly what we did yesterday because Pukki hardly wins a header.

To many times we give the ball back to the opposing team when we get pressed and all that does it out continual pressure on the back line.

Hugill does give us that option.

[Dr Greenthumb 746]

I liked the throw ins where Mclean was charging away from his defender and the throws were getting us into excellent positions.