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Robbo007

Defending deep may become an advantage....

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The main (and only) thing that really worried most of us, including me, last year was defending deep (especially when protecting a lead after 5mins!!!). My point is that this season we will be mostly up against quick strikers (ie, henry,owen,defoe...). If we play deep then these players won''t have the opportunity to be played clean through on goal, and thus get less chances of one on ones.
Last season we were up against teams who just lumped the ball into the box for their lanky strikers to get their bonces on to it. This is wear our tactic of defending deep got us into trouble alot. Next season is going to be very different, if we play deep we are likely to invite players to shoot, but that is a risk maybe worth taking. In players like Bentley, Huckerby and Jonsson we have pace to counter attack teams, and so if we play deep, the opposition will commit bodies forward, and hence we score goals on the counter

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This could be a good point! - thinking back to the Mike Walker days (round 1) we tended to play quite deep, soak up the pressure and then bam catch them on the break with players like fox and sutton running like hell. I am pretty confident we have a defence which can soak pressure quite well - the key thing is to have a players that can bring the ball out - in the case of Charlton, Drury, Flem and helveg and also Eddy I think we have that ability no good just hoofing it upfield in the Premier - I think the team is taking a good structure - might just need another C.Sutton though! - waiting with excitement for Saturday!

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You''re right about shooting. I sit in the Barclay lower and so many times last season we watched as opposition players advanced towards our box but then saw a wall of defenders and started to pass sideways around the edge of the box. I remember thinking ''if they (the opposition strikers) were any good they''d have unleashed a shot from just outside the box by now'' but they rarely did, and tried to walk it in instead. I fully expect this season to see more shots from the edge of the box, because the better quality players will know they''ve got a chance of scoring where div1 strikers know they''ll only stick it in row Z if they try it!

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I honestly think that Huckerby might make or break our season for us - this will be the first time since Coventry (where he was ace) that he is a first regular in the Prem without the worry than an Anelka, Keane, Fowler etc. is gonna be bought and take his place.

If he is on form and proves what we all hope he is capable of then we''ll be deadly on the break and other teams will worry about him. If not then we''ll at worst have a creative attacker who doesn''t score much and whose runs are a touch too obvious for better defences. Ho hum.

I think he''s burning to prove people wrong and will be a massive hit this year. Fingers crossed.

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All fascinating stuff - i can''t wait for the season to start and to see us on the MOTD/Sky so we can at last have a closer look from our armchairs at our tactics and how we defend with the help/hinderence of Hansen, Gray and co.

Although some are rightly a little concerned still about the lack of cover in central defence or of a big man mountain like Primus, i really think Worthy has the right idea in making experience the priority in defence. One of the things that has impressed me most about Charlton has been the way he marshalls his fellow defensive troops.

Whether instructions are to defend deep or play the offside trap, there needs to be a leader in there. We didn''t have that with England in Portugal. I don''t believe that Sven/McClaren TOLD the players to defend on top of David James, I just think they paniced and fell deeper and deeper as it is so easy to do - as we, NCFC have often done.

If you watched the defensive masters of the tournement, the Greeks, they had that Dellas bloke who was constantly moving his defenders around, keeping them disciplined, pushing them up. At one point, they showed in the analysis, Dellas running back behind one of his midfielders, who had drifted deep and was oblivious to his gesticulations, and physically shoving him up the pitch "get the **** OUT of there damn it"!

That''s what we were all shouting at our tellys when England played and it''s great to have people in a team who are able to see with the same vision that we have from behind a myriad of tv cameras.

In Charlton (and hopefully Helveg too) i think we might have that, people who can organise the defence in accordance with the tactics employed, and not just organise the defenders but the whole team into a defensive unit.

Roll on Saturday!

OTBC

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