Pressing

[can u sit down please 0]

Anyone a bit under whelmed at how we failed to press Everton on saturdaŷ as the home team?

We did it for a spell in the second half and looked good, Everton also found it harder to keep the ball when we did.

This isn''t a Hughton out post, just an observation.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

No!

They were useful.

We were under-manned.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Which players didn''t press Everton buddy?

 

And which ones did?

 

This isn''t a Hughton in question. Just interested in what you observed?

 

 

 

 

[can u sit down please 0]

I don''t think anyone pressed nige, short of men or not. We let them settle.

We sat 10 men behind the ball and let them have it, as reflected in the possession stats.

Biggest example was in the first 15 mins when we, as the home team should be going at teams, but we hardly had a touch and let them play.

[Salopian 1]

We certainly had only about one third of possession, or a little more. We have to remember that we were playing with a single striker, and Wes who did not have one of his better games. We also had five potential first team out injured or suspended.

Everton have a very strong side, even if their forwards failed to score. If there was a defensive attitude, that would be understandable. In large measure we succeeded - Falaini and Baines, scourges of many teams in the past, were kept fairly quiet. Ruddy had relatively few shots or headers to save.

 

This was achieved by our double defensive wall of 4-4, breached ultimately because of failures to concentrate or block. The cost of this is that it requires both wingers to get back and become the widest part of the front wall. Even RvW came back to defend. While Benno is experienced at defence, it seemed a bit too much for Redmond, although he did try. The problem, of course, is that when wingers are required to get back to defend, they are a long way from the forward positions where they do their effective work.

 

So the lack of pressure is mainly due to the personnel we lacked, and especially Bassong and Fer. I think that we might be a little more progressive next week at Hull, if we have everybody available, especially as Hull have a reputation at the back of struggling against pace. 

[morty 0]

Surely we pressed them at least twice?

[BOO 0]

Their mid field was a lot stronger than ours IMO and we struggled to hang on to the ball as well as they did, but they do have a great mid field.

To have expected anything more than we got when you look at the 2 teams is expecting a lot. When I saw the team sheet I was worried, we did really well with the players we had out there.

Sufficient pressing all things considered!

[walks on water 0]

Yeah I noticed it ...especially from the front,

and although am probably going to get panned for noticing this ...RVW barely jogging to get up with play during one of our attacks in the second half - really puzzled me at the time that he wasn''t busting a gut to get into the area. Was really pleased that he scored that fantastic header, because otherwise was really wondering what the verdict was going to be on here regarding his first competitive outing.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

[quote user="can u sit down please"]I don''t think anyone pressed nige, short of men or not. We let them settle. We sat 10 men behind the ball and let them have it, as reflected in the possession stats. Biggest example was in the first 15 mins when we, as the home team should be going at teams, but we hardly had a touch and let them play.[/quote]

 

Ok buddy. But do you think it possible that if we''d gone at them as you suggest we could have lost. Quite heavily. Or do you think we''d have got more than a point?

 

 

[barclay_boy111 0]

If you are talking about when we are off the ball then I compleatly agree, last season we lacked this and it drives me mad.

During pre season it looked as though we had worked on it especially against panathinaikos we really pressed them back in to their own half and won the ball back a lot higher up the pitch.

If we had pressed Everton back they wouldn''t have scored their second we stood off and stood off and bang it''s in the back of the net!

[morty 0]

I think a salient point here is that perhaps a few of our fans underestimated Everton?Personally I did. Right up until they read out the teamsheet and I thought "Yeah actually thats a pretty good team"Combined with players that were unavailable I don''t think a point was a bad result.Lets face it, its better than our first game last season.

[Redders Right Foot 22]

I think, that for the Quality that Everton have thoughout their midfield and defenders, we played a smart game while we were missing a potential of 5 first team players. a heavily injured norwich side didn''t lose to a full strength everton and scored two nice goals along the way.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

They might not have scored the second goal they scored but they might have scored another 5 they didn''t.

 

As RVW not pressing. Well he certainly didn''t press like Grant Holt used to. But then again I really don''t think Holty would have scored that second goal.

 

 

 

[walks on water 0]

I really like the idea of Hughton as our manager - love his dignity and he''s frankly brilliant in the transfer market, BUT really worry about our play, in, and out of possession. Thought when we did win possession, the man on the ball had very few options (if any) and we certainly didn''t press collectively, aggressively, to win the ball back high up the pitch when possession was inevitably lost as a result of poor supporting play. I really hope that CH as an extremely well respected coach, sorts this out.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Well while we are getting points from teams like Everton I wouldn''t be surprised to see Hughton back his own judgement against that of a couple of message board wannabes.

 

 

[can u sit down please 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Well while we are getting points from teams like Everton I wouldn''t be surprised to see Hughton back his own judgement against that of a couple of message board wannabes.

 

 

[/quote]

Oh dear. People discussing something against nuttys opinion.

Good point against a good team. Pressing the ball wouldn''t have necessarily exposed us defensively. That''s a fact.

We say missing 5 players.

I would say only fer and Bassong would''ve started.

[can u sit down please 0]

Oh and some good sensible debates for a change

[nutty nigel 7,902]

[quote user="can u sit down please"][quote user="nutty nigel"]

Well while we are getting points from teams like Everton I wouldn''t be surprised to see Hughton back his own judgement against that of a couple of message board wannabes.

 

 

[/quote] Oh dear. People discussing something against nuttys opinion. Good point against a good team. Pressing the ball wouldn''t have necessarily exposed us defensively. That''s a fact. We say missing 5 players. I would say only fer and Bassong would''ve started.[/quote]

 

Oh dear CUSDP! It''s not about my opinion. It''s about taking it as read that with different tactics we wouldn''t have conceded any different goals but would have prevented one that we did concede. Would we have scored two as well with these new tactics? Or would we maybe have scored 5 or 6. FFS it was only Everton after all...

 

 

[morty 0]

[quote user="can u sit down please"][quote user="nutty nigel"]

Well while we are getting points from teams like Everton I wouldn''t be surprised to see Hughton back his own judgement against that of a couple of message board wannabes.

 

 

[/quote]

Oh dear. People discussing something against nuttys opinion.

Good point against a good team. Pressing the ball wouldn''t have necessarily exposed us defensively. That''s a fact.

We say missing 5 players.

I would say only fer and Bassong would''ve started.[/quote]I would say that had our player of the season and possibly potentially the best midfielder we have signed in years started, we would have been having a very different discussion right now.I really believe that the missing players can''t be discounted.

[can u sit down please 0]

I''ve not said we would''ve scored more or conceded less.

We are one of the only teams that play in the prem that doesn''t press. We invite teams and let them have the ball.

Have you ever tried playing footy and having someone putting you under pressure, not letting you get your head head to see "that" pass?

Everton were a good team but maybe we helped them look good by letting them have time and space?

[can u sit down please 0]

I agree about Bassong and fer, mortu.

But would those two players got us pressing more? We will never know.

[Lavanche 0]

We tried to press and get the ball at first 5-10 minutes. It didnt work. Not that we would have pressed very high or with lot of men power, but we started pressing when they got over middlefield.

After that I think we just tried to pull them enough high that we could counter trough the wings as Howson and Bradders couldnt open the game with short passes.

In my opinion tactic worked quite well and we used pressing few times after that when whole unit was up in the positions. This is something that Hughton wants. Strong solid formation that our defence wont get in too many 1 vs 1 where bigger teams will punish us because of quality difference.

I would love us to have more posession, but without improvement of passing in our deep middlefield it would be useless to use our legs for pressing and then just lose the ball again. Better get the ball deeper in our own area and use Hoolahan or whoever plays in pocket to link up with wingers when short passing is working bad as saturday.

[can u sit down please 0]

"Our deep midfield"

Surely if we didn''t sit so deep we would be higher up the pitch. We defended as if Everton had loads of pace.

Well reasoned post tho lavanche. Personally I don''t think we did press first 10.

Lets agree to disagree [;)]

[Lavanche 0]

Well we have two holding players to make overlapping and incutting wingers possible. So that is reason why I called it deep middlefield. Our unit got up quite fast and we had more than tree or four players supporting the attack near the box. We really didnt sit that deep all the game along, just lured them bit further on the pitch and made their attacks quite comfortable for our defence.

But yes I agree to disagree ^^

[BOO 0]

Nutty said. "Well while we are getting points from teams like Everton I wouldn''t be surprised to see Hughton back his own judgement against that of a couple of message board wannabes."

"Message board wannabes" eh, and you are?

[walks on water 0]

What is it that is celebrated about Swansea City''s approach to playing football (since Martinez) ??? I''d like Norwich to adopt this more progressive approach. Some may have missed my tenure as England Manager, but I didn''t care for our movement on Saturday, or for some of the decision making where we conceded possession in very dangerous areas ...but then I''m not qualified to see that.

[snake-eyes 13]

Nutty,

to be fair the OP''s statements are not unreasonable.

l felt that when we pressed we caused them problems and it eventually led to our first goal. However we then backed off as last year and let them back in it. They never really looked like scoring until they equalised.

You have to press against teams who like to keep possession!

Snake

[nutty nigel 7,902]

[quote user="Vanwink"]Nutty said. "Well while we are getting points from teams like Everton I wouldn''t be surprised to see Hughton back his own judgement against that of a couple of message board wannabes." "Message board wannabes" eh, and you are?[/quote]

 

A message board bod Winky. And I never pretend to be anything else. I''m not a wannabe though...

 

You always seem keen to iron out a few flaws that you seem to see in other posters. I wonder winky, have you got an opinion about this pressing?

 

 

[BOO 0]

I''ve already posted if you care to read the thread!

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Sorry winky.. so you thought we did press them. You must be on your own buddy but we all see different games.