Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Chirping Canary

Lambert's 10 man tactics

Recommended Posts

I don''t know about you but I feel confused about Lamberts tactics when we went down to 10 men. As I remember, we went into a 4-3-2 formation when we were 1-0 up. I would have played 4-4-1 formation and perhaps brought on a more tough tackling midfielder myself. Yes I know towards the end Holt was playing defensive towards the very end but not that long.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Like which tough tackling midfielder? With Crofts and Johnson on the pitch there wasn''t really that option.

 

Pilkington was brought off as he was obviously tiring after a long time out through injury, Surman came on to provide a bit of balance and play on the left hand side. The only other change possible was Fox on for Martin - but with only Holt up front we would''ve had no hope of retaining the ball.

 

I can see why Lambert left 2 up front as he wanted players such as Huth and Wilson to stay in the Stoke half knowing Norwich still had the ability to counter attack.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="Chirping Canary"]I don''t know about you but I feel confused about Lamberts tactics when we went down to 10 men. As I remember, we went into a 4-3-2 formation when we were 1-0 up. I would have played 4-4-1 formation and perhaps brought on a more tough tackling midfielder myself. Yes I know towards the end Holt was playing defensive towards the very end but not that long.[/quote]With a bench of Rudd, Russell Martin, Ayala, Surman, Fox, Hoolahan, and Jackson, which one of those "tough tackling midfielder" would you have brought on?Personally I think bringing on Jackson and punting the ball into the far corner was the right thing to do.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It was a difficult situation to deal with. I think the main issue we had was that once Bennett went off we didn''t really have an outlet other than hammering the ball long and it was that which resulted in the relentless pressure for the last 15 minutes.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Lambert''s 10 man tactics were spot on. We didn''t concede because we only had 3 in midfield, we conceded because we sank back too far in the closing stages, which is easy to do when you''re under the cosh. What Lambert was trying to do with his 10 men, i think, was set us up as best as possible to prevent us doing that, and it nearly worked. Having Pilks/Surman on the pitch instead of Martin/Jackson (in order to keep 4 in the middle) wouldn''t have made any difference for the goal at the end. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

[quote user="a1canary"]Lambert''s 10 man tactics were spot on. We didn''t concede because we only had 3 in midfield, we conceded because we sank back too far in the closing stages, which is easy to do when you''re under the cosh. What Lambert was trying to do with his 10 men, i think, was set us up as best as possible to prevent us doing that, and it nearly worked. Having Pilks/Surman on the pitch instead of Martin/Jackson (in order to keep 4 in the middle) wouldn''t have made any difference for the goal at the end. 
[/quote]

I think it would. The reason we conceded was because we dropped too deep yes, but Whelan had too much time to just dink that ball in. If we had 4 in midfield at that point, we wouldn''t have been stood 30 yards from goal completely unmarked.

Surman was helping Tierney deal with Shotton and Etherington so had to go wide, which left a huge gap for Whelan to just stand in. If we had another midfielder, that gap wouldn''t have been there.

They were also knackered, which is to be expected playing against a load of meatheads with 10 men for half an hour!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I actually think Paul Lambert''s 10 men tactics are quite refreshing. It seems that every time we go down to ten men, he leaves two strikers on - yesterday wasn''t the first time. As soon as we take one of our strikers off, the opposition will counter this by taking off one of their defenders and replacing them with another striker, therefore putting our defence under more pressure. You''ll always be outnumbered 10 against 11, but I''d rather that against two strikers than against three.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
We did well in the circumstances, and had we held out for another 2 minutes we''d be praising all the to skies.I thought Surman struggled in the 3-man midfield though, and we were getting hammered down our left flank as a result. The back line sank deep because of this, allowing Stoke to push further and further forward. Eventually working time and space to set up the goal. But again, another 2 minutes...One note on Jackson though. With a man down you are always reliant on players working their guts out

and putting their body on the line. Can''t say Jackson did this by

jogging after long balls. I don''t care if they are lost causes, you sprint, again, and again, and again.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think Lambert made some good decisions, considering the bad situation the ref left him in.

 

personally i wasn''t that thrilled to see both Surman and Jackson come on as neither are prone to getting stuck in.  I can see the logic with Jackson as he can run with the ball (well, he would''ve done had we got hold of it).

 

problem is who else do you play?  Hoolahan vs the Stoke giants would''ve had a tough time .  I think if it were me i''d have stuck Fox or R Martin in a defensive midfield position just to whack the balls away when they came in, but that may be too inviting for Stoke and what do i know anyway.

 

in the end, i think it was inevitable that Stoke were going to score.  the ref ruined a fantastic NCFC display and denied us our first win of the season - cheers pal!

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It''s all to do with the oppositions defenders. As one team team attacks the other, the attacking team''s defensive line moves up, leaving more options for the attacking team (the defenders retain possesion or, in Stoke''s case, allows all other players to pile in or around the box for a long ball) if you play with one striker and four deep midfielders, and the midfielders will be deep because they fear to push on, then the defence has nothing to fear and will push on to their hearts content and, they can also put one of their tall centre backs forward and still be comfortable defensively. With the two strikers Stoke''s defence feared going forward and didn''t press high making the options Stoke had even more limited (They were reduced to attacking down the left wing or high, hopefull balls into the box), they also couldn''t risk playing one of their CB''s as a striker in fear of a 2v1 situation. The 4-3-2 formation worked until 90+3 mins, about 30 mins after Barnett was sent off, the Stoke goal came about because Norwich''s youngest CB (Ayala) was out jumped by an experienced Premier League striker in Jones. The midfield could''ve, and prehaps should''ve, pressed higher. But after (in Crofts and Johnsons case) 90 minutes of a physical battle it is understandable they were slow of the mark in terms of thier pressing. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I thought we were looking under pressure but safe for the points until Holt pulled further back. Then we just had Jackson on his own who didn''t have much success holding possession or chasing the long balls.

We''re definitely missing having Vaughan and Morrison available, in the short time he was on I wasn''t impressed with Jacksons contribution. Coming on as fresh legs I don''t think he took the weight off for the team as much as he could have. He showed he has got the ability at the end of last season, hopefully he can reach that level again.

At the end of the day without being reduced to ten men we would have picked up the three points against a established prem team. Reason to be hopefull!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...