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Scooby

Long balls??

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I''ve trawled through the last weeks posts but if this has been touched on I apologise.

Was anyone else concerned on Saturday at the amount of long balls played from the back, Marshy and Grounds in particular, straight to Sibs?  It appears to me, judging from Saturday and QPR to a lesser extent, that now we have our "target man" we have started to revert to the long ball game for large periods of the match.  Agreed, Sibs is 6ft plus, but against the large centre halves in the past 2 games he''s had a right kicking and has not won a great deal.  Could this perhaps be a by product of Stef not playing on Saturday, with his ability to start play from the back? Or maybe we''re missing Sammy more than we think?  I have to say I found it a little worrying as the midfield were failing to pick up the return headers too.  Lots of possesion given straight back to the opposition.  Given the quality of football we were playing before Sibs, especially against Brum, I was wondering if you all thought this was the start of a worrying trend or perhaps a result of injuries to our more constructive players?  I''m sure that Sibs, given his quality on the ball, would prefer a pass to his feet and to save the high balls for crosses to be knocked down for Lupi.  Or perhaps I''m being a little paranoid without reason.

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This is a sensible & interesting post; why has nobody replied?The only comments I have noticed suggest that there weren''t any players it was safe for Marshall to throw the ball to. Whether this means the opposition have lately been better at closing players down, or whether the injured players were better at finding space is the question. Alernatively, laziness has simply crept in. Does anybody have a view?

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to be honest, from what i have noticed, Stefanovic has been the main culprit, if any of putting the high ball through.  When we have ripped teams apart this season it has 95% of the time been from slick 1 ans 2 touch passing in and around the box and not a high ball.  Sibierski in my opinion should be winning more than he has done, but it seems like it isn''t his game.  The high ball in the area to have a go at goal seems to be the only high balls he wants.  thats what we need to do, a high ball should only be used for us when all other options at that time have been exhausted. 

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was thinking the very same myself.

I really believe this current blip has more than a little to do with Sammy''s injury. He was quite superb at keeping the play ticking over ...the type of player I thought our captain was not so long ago.

Anyhow, now that we have the Sibs option to hit with a longer ball I''m afraid it looks like we are going backwards with our football without Clingan.

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Good post Scooby. I always like to see play built from the back - it''s usually better to watch and we keep possession longer. Against QPR (wasn''t at the United game) it was very much the long ball in the first half with Marshall more than doing his bit. Even with Sibierski up front it was usually no better than 50:50 if the ball was won. But I''m sure that wasn''t the manager''s wish - and things certainly changed in the second half, with Marshall throwing out more.

I think we''ve missed a Damien Francis type player ever since he left but I''m sure Clingan will continue to make his mark. Against QPR no-one wanted to run with the ball - the captain wasn''t nor did he encourage his team mates to do so - so maybe Marshall felt a good kick might pay dividends - and of course sometimes you can get lucky. Sibierski can certainly attack high balls, but much better for these to be coming back in from the wing and as close to to line as possible, than from the back four.

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[quote user="bigbear"]to be honest, from what i have noticed, Stefanovic has been the main culprit, if any of putting the high ball through.  When we have ripped teams apart this season it has 95% of the time been from slick 1 ans 2 touch passing in and around the box and not a high ball.  Sibierski in my opinion should be winning more than he has done, but it seems like it isn''t his game.  The high ball in the area to have a go at goal seems to be the only high balls he wants.  thats what we need to do, a high ball should only be used for us when all other options at that time have been exhausted. [/quote]

I agree and disagree with you there Bigbear. Cetainly agree that high balls should only be used when there is no other way through but if our passing game is working that shouldn''t be necessary, unless it''s a cross or cross pitch ball.  I have to disagree with you where Stefanovic is concerned though.  I believe it''s his general coolness and quality on the ball that''s helping us to be a better team this year.  You tend to see him asking for the ball from Marshy and rarely hitting the long ball towards Sibierski''s head.  However, without Clingan there coming to collect the ball, as in against QPR, he often didn''t have much choice as none of the midfield were coming for him, hence the hoofed ball as he had no other option.

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Some good point here. I have been disapointed thaty are style has changed since the Birmingham game. I think we used the long ball more in the QPR and Sheffield Utd game because they were two very physical teams, compared to us. I agree that Sib hasn''t been winning as many balls up front as I had hoped he would. Will be interesting to see how we fair against Barnsley and if we revert to that lovely, slick, one touch football we saw against Birmingham!

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[quote user="Yellow Submarine"]Some good point here. I have been disapointed thaty are style has changed since the Birmingham game. I think we used the long ball more in the QPR and Sheffield Utd game because they were two very physical teams, compared to us. I agree that Sib hasn''t been winning as many balls up front as I had hoped he would. Will be interesting to see how we fair against Barnsley and if we revert to that lovely, slick, one touch football we saw against Birmingham![/quote]

You would have thought that the long ball game would be least suitable against the big strong teams wouldn''t you?  Anyway, here''s hoping we tear Barnsley apart with the slick passing.

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[quote user="Scooby"]

[quote user="Yellow Submarine"]Some good point here. I have been disapointed thaty are style has changed since the Birmingham game. I think we used the long ball more in the QPR and Sheffield Utd game because they were two very physical teams, compared to us. I agree that Sib hasn''t been winning as many balls up front as I had hoped he would. Will be interesting to see how we fair against Barnsley and if we revert to that lovely, slick, one touch football we saw against Birmingham![/quote]

You would have thought that the long ball game would be least suitable against the big strong teams wouldn''t you?  Anyway, here''s hoping we tear Barnsley apart with the slick passing.

[/quote]

Not necessarily! Aston Villa struggled to score against QPR mid week, and failed to break them down. QPR don''t give you one second on the ball. I think we''ve always struggled against an Iain Dowie team, because they are quick to shut you down and stop you from playing pretty football

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