Shack Attack 0 Posted August 28, 2009 I''ve been meaning to comment on this for a couple of weeks now but I''veonly just got round to typing it all out. There seems to be anabundance of posts which are basically variations on the theme of thetitle of this thread. Whether it''s the need to field a certain player,or to drop another, the need for good delivery from set pieces or toplay 4-4-2. All of them can be explained by the ''fact'' that "you haveto/can''t do this at League One level".The reason I''ve started this thread is to see if I can get to thebottom of this phenomenon and see whether anybody can actually produceany statistics that back up these comments. As far as I can make outfrom what I''ve seem so far there is not a huge difference betweenLeague One and The Championship. It''s reasonably physical, played atthe high tempo which is typical of British football and the ball spendsan awful lot of time in the air. Aside from that the rules are thesame, the goals are the same size and what you really need to be successful is to have better players in a better organised system thanthe opposition. Where is the difference between that and any otherlevel of football? What am I missing?A lot of the comments seem to centre on the style of football that isrequired ''at this level'' (yet another comment that seems to suggestwe''re playing teams from a completely different planet). The generalconsensus seems to be that any form of pretty football is out and whatwe really need is big, physical players who are capable of kickinglumps out of the opposition. Yet from what I''ve seen so far this issimply not the case. We lost against Colchester because our defence wasterribly organised and kept making ghastly individual errors (a fairfew of which were from that archetypal League One centre half Nelson)not because we were out muscled. Colchester mixed it up quite nicely bykeeping it on the floor on occasions and being more direct on others.We beat Wycombe because we pressed them high up the pitch and made gooduse of the ball when the inevitable happened and the coughed the ballup. We scored a couple of goals from set pieces (which are vitallyimportant ''at League One level'' so I''m told) but we won the gamebecause we were better organised than them and kept the ball betterthan them.One of the other points I keep seeing is that we have to play 4-4-2 ''atthis level''. I shouldn''t be surprised by this as it is not justconfined to supporters of League One clubs and it seems to stem fromthe feeling that it is an attacking formation. This is of coursenonsense as formations are neutral and it is the players that areplaced in it which determine whether it is attacking or defensive. Asan example Manchester United and Barcelona both play with one up fronton occasions as do Spain and nobody would accuse these teams of beingdefensive. Similarly one of our best performances of last season camein the home game against Ipswich where we played one up front and torethem a new one. I don''t see why this should be any different in LeagueOne.In conclusion my view is that we need a team which is capable of mixingup the way it plays and which takes to the field in a formation whichsuits it best. But that''s what you need at any level of football solet''s stop making out that League One is a special case. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arthur Whittle 0 Posted August 28, 2009 [quote user="Shack Attack"]I''ve been meaning to comment on this for a couple of weeks now but I''ve only just got round to typing it all out. There seems to be an abundance of posts which are basically variations on the theme of the title of this thread. Whether it''s the need to field a certain player, or to drop another, the need for good delivery from set pieces or to play 4-4-2. All of them can be explained by the ''fact'' that "you have to/can''t do this at League One level".The reason I''ve started this thread is to see if I can get to the bottom of this phenomenon and see whether anybody can actually produce any statistics that back up these comments. As far as I can make out from what I''ve seem so far there is not a huge difference between League One and The Championship. It''s reasonably physical, played at the high tempo which is typical of British football and the ball spends an awful lot of time in the air. Aside from that the rules are the same, the goals are the same size and what you really need to be successful is to have better players in a better organised system than the opposition. Where is the difference between that and any other level of football? What am I missing?A lot of the comments seem to centre on the style of football that is required ''at this level'' (yet another comment that seems to suggest we''re playing teams from a completely different planet). The general consensus seems to be that any form of pretty football is out and what we really need is big, physical players who are capable of kicking lumps out of the opposition. Yet from what I''ve seen so far this is simply not the case. We lost against Colchester because our defence was terribly organised and kept making ghastly individual errors (a fair few of which were from that archetypal League One centre half Nelson) not because we were out muscled. Colchester mixed it up quite nicely by keeping it on the floor on occasions and being more direct on others. We beat Wycombe because we pressed them high up the pitch and made good use of the ball when the inevitable happened and the coughed the ball up. We scored a couple of goals from set pieces (which are vitally important ''at League One level'' so I''m told) but we won the game because we were better organised than them and kept the ball better than them.One of the other points I keep seeing is that we have to play 4-4-2 ''at this level''. I shouldn''t be surprised by this as it is not just confined to supporters of League One clubs and it seems to stem from the feeling that it is an attacking formation. This is of course nonsense as formations are neutral and it is the players that are placed in it which determine whether it is attacking or defensive. As an example Manchester United and Barcelona both play with one up front on occasions as do Spain and nobody would accuse these teams of being defensive. Similarly one of our best performances of last season came in the home game against Ipswich where we played one up front and tore them a new one. I don''t see why this should be any different in League One.In conclusion my view is that we need a team which is capable of mixing up the way it plays and which takes to the field in a formation which suits it best. But that''s what you need at any level of football so let''s stop making out that League One is a special case.[/quote]Great post Shack mate!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Harleston Canary 0 Posted August 28, 2009 Great post, wholeheartedly agree. I can''t see it either. I think it smacks of a certain level of ignorance to make the suggestions you quote. Leicester played ''football'' and got out last season. League One teams are in their position because in most cases they are made up of players who are capable of playing third tier football.The only thing I might add is the level of protection (not) given to so-called ''flair'' players by referees. That could have a limiting effect on certain players, but I can''t support that with evidence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Harleston Canary 0 Posted August 28, 2009 [quote user="suffolk canary"]Great post, wholeheartedly agree. I can''t see it either. I think it smacks of a certain level of ignorance to make the suggestions you quote. Leicester played ''football'' and got out last season. League One teams are in their position because in most cases they are made up of players who are capable of playing third tier football.The only thing I might add is the level of protection (not) given to so-called ''flair'' players by referees. That could have a limiting effect on certain players, but I can''t support that with evidence.[/quote]To clarify: ''ignorance'' on the part of others - not you in your post. Re-read my comment and it is a bit ambiguous. Sorry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Excited Canary 19 Posted August 28, 2009 Hey Arthur you nicked my avatar! [;)] Lets try and get everyone with a ashes avatar!!! :P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pak mei 0 Posted August 28, 2009 [quote user="Shack Attack"]I''ve been meaning to comment on this for a couple of weeks now but I''veonly just got round to typing it all out. There seems to be anabundance of posts which are basically variations on the theme of thetitle of this thread. Whether it''s the need to field a certain player,or to drop another, the need for good delivery from set pieces or toplay 4-4-2. All of them can be explained by the ''fact'' that "you haveto/can''t do this at League One level".The reason I''ve started this thread is to see if I can get to thebottom of this phenomenon and see whether anybody can actually produceany statistics that back up these comments. As far as I can make outfrom what I''ve seem so far there is not a huge difference betweenLeague One and The Championship. It''s reasonably physical, played atthe high tempo which is typical of British football and the ball spendsan awful lot of time in the air. Aside from that the rules are thesame, the goals are the same size and what you really need to be successful is to have better players in a better organised system thanthe opposition. Where is the difference between that and any otherlevel of football? What am I missing?A lot of the comments seem to centre on the style of football that isrequired ''at this level'' (yet another comment that seems to suggestwe''re playing teams from a completely different planet). The generalconsensus seems to be that any form of pretty football is out and whatwe really need is big, physical players who are capable of kickinglumps out of the opposition. Yet from what I''ve seen so far this issimply not the case. We lost against Colchester because our defence wasterribly organised and kept making ghastly individual errors (a fairfew of which were from that archetypal League One centre half Nelson)not because we were out muscled. Colchester mixed it up quite nicely bykeeping it on the floor on occasions and being more direct on others.We beat Wycombe because we pressed them high up the pitch and made gooduse of the ball when the inevitable happened and the coughed the ballup. We scored a couple of goals from set pieces (which are vitallyimportant ''at League One level'' so I''m told) but we won the gamebecause we were better organised than them and kept the ball betterthan them.One of the other points I keep seeing is that we have to play 4-4-2 ''atthis level''. I shouldn''t be surprised by this as it is not justconfined to supporters of League One clubs and it seems to stem fromthe feeling that it is an attacking formation. This is of coursenonsense as formations are neutral and it is the players that areplaced in it which determine whether it is attacking or defensive. Asan example Manchester United and Barcelona both play with one up fronton occasions as do Spain and nobody would accuse these teams of beingdefensive. Similarly one of our best performances of last season camein the home game against Ipswich where we played one up front and torethem a new one. I don''t see why this should be any different in LeagueOne.In conclusion my view is that we need a team which is capable of mixingup the way it plays and which takes to the field in a formation whichsuits it best. But that''s what you need at any level of football solet''s stop making out that League One is a special case.[/quote]I think you can do anything in league one if you are able to attract the players capable of what you''re trying to produce, this however is not easy so the style of play is dictated by the low standard of players available Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mastoola 204 Posted August 28, 2009 good football beats bad footbal....its as simple as that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Longy 1 Posted August 28, 2009 Very good post, if you look at teams like Doncaster they have got out of this very league playing a passing game relying on creative to break teams down. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
one 4 the future 0 Posted August 28, 2009 [quote user="mastoola"]good football beats bad footbal....its as simple as that.[/quote]Not necessarily England 1-1 Germany Germans win on penaltys. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arthur Whittle 0 Posted August 28, 2009 [quote user="Norwich"]Hey Arthur you nicked my avatar! [;)] Lets try and get everyone with a ashes avatar!!! :P[/quote]LOL. Just noticed, great minds think alike!!! Got the ashes back and we should all be proud!!![B] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pak mei 0 Posted August 28, 2009 [quote user="mastoola"]good football beats bad footbal....its as simple as that.[/quote]Yeah but that''s not what we''re saying I don''t think. A team of average league one players trying to play premiership football will finish well below the team that plays to there own capabilities and utilises their strengths Share this post Link to post Share on other sites