Running off the ball

[NavMan 0]

Did anyone else notice yesterday the difference in the two teams with regards running off the ball.  When Middlesborough broke away they always seemed to have players in space who were running to receive the pass and before we knew it they were outside our penalty area.  When we had it I lost count of how many times it was squared or passed back. 

At one point we had a throw in near the Barclay and it took three times as long to take it because everybody was just standing still and not prepared to give the thrower an option of giving it to someone who had created space.  I remember saying to the chap sitting next to me that we looked like a Fizzy league side in that respect where they did look Premier. 

[clacton_canary1 0]

I agree completly, we are not very good at passing and moving at all, if you look at the 3rd goal i think it was, when hucks cuts inside, there is no one running of the ball to give him any options, i think it was Ashton, Mcveigh and Mckenzie all standing in a line along the area, the only movement was from Francis who was tryin to get foward. This is defo an aspect we can work on.

[beelsie 0]

Agreed Nav Man, I don''t know how many times I have mentioned this on these boards both this year and last year.

We were the same in the fizzy pop league where it did''nt count so much, where also, we made some abysmal defensive errors but were lucky not to be punished. The gap that has again been mentioned about class, really shows.

To be alert and know who you''re marking should be simple for set pieces, but only if we have somone to take charge of the team on the pitch. 

To be fair, to come from 3-1down to 4-4 was remarkable.

But to be more fair, as my father used to say if they made the mess, they should clear it up.

I would have settled for the wonderful start of 1-0 to us, being the finishing score, than to have witnessed this abysmal attempt at defending a lead. 

Mulryne is woefully short of fitness, effort and speed in mid field.

Our team organisation is what''s lacking more than anything else. If we were a factory work force turning up on time and not knowing what one anothers job is, is creating a production line failure.

There was much effort on that pitch yesterday but it suffered from lack of direction.  OTBC!!!!

[nycanary 1]

me too...i''ve mentioned numerous times that our movement off the ball may be the single most important weakness on our team. given that we don''t have the best talent in the prem, we have to make it up with intelligent tactical movement to create space.

we don''t do that nearly well enough. it''s also part of why losing bentley was so unfortunate for two reasons -- he can pick out players who do show a little movement (better than our other players) and he comes from the arsenal school of great movement and when watching him, you could see him making little sprints into pockets of space to be ready to collect the ball.

[StevenageFan 0]

I agree with everyone on this, fair points.

Helveg  and Charlton will be a welcome return and so too will Svensson.  The sooner those three take Flemming, Mulryene and McKenzie out the better in my opinion.