Did Eddie Get His Tactics Right?

tednphil

UTC Legend
That was probably the worst team display and worst individual performance for a number of players, since we’ve been in the PL.

Once we took a 2 goal lead, we became overrun in midfield; passes were often misplaced; players were so often caught in possession; and we looked knackered as early as half-time. It was crying out for tactical substitutions, but no, Eddie delayed his subs longer than his usual timings. To me, Mings should have replaced Lewis and go to a 5 man defence, to counter their effective wingers and add height at the back.

We just about scrambled over the line but stats show :
Possession 33% - 67%
Shots. 6 - 23
Corners. 4 - 8

But we won, so was Eddie right or just lucky?
 
Firstly, I would say that the 2 early goals changed the match. It changed our players mentality.

As for the sub, I disagree. We needed more in midfield, not less. Lewis and Lerma were ineffective but were completely outnumbered. Removing one for an extra defender would have increased the pressure. Make no mistake, Gosling would have been on for King if he had been on the bench and fit.
 
Firstly, I would say that the 2 early goals changed the match. It changed our players mentality.

As for the sub, I disagree. We needed more in midfield, not less. Lewis and Lerma were ineffective but were completely outnumbered. Removing one for an extra defender would have increased the pressure. Make no mistake, Gosling would have been on for King if he had been on the bench and fit.

That's the one for me. I think we need to got to. 3 in midfield. One of Lerma or Cook needed to push up. I suppose we could have slotted Surman in

Alternatively I think we could have tried Brooks into the middle to get him more involved and swapped King out wide. We could have done that before halftime.
 
In part it was due to the players sitting back comfortable at 2-0 and the desire to hit teams on the break which works if you retain/recycle the ball but we just lost possession repeatedly.

Having lost control I thought earlier subs would have been good. Having said that, Eddie had faith in his defence to keep out the lowest scoring team in the league so he can argue he was right. It was terrible viewing though!
 
Even when we went 2-0 up we were under the cosh in that game. We had about a 3 minute spell which we scored the first in our only dominant bit of the game. The second was a counter.

They were all over us all game. It says we had 33% possession but at least 10% of that must have been Begovic.

They played the same as at their place, press high and make us make mistakes. 3 games against them in the PL and they've dominated every one of them, but we've some how won 4-0 and 2-1 at home. In fact, the stats say we had 2% more possession last night than we did last season at home! Bonkers.
 
Honestly, it's very difficult to say. It's not so likely the master plan was for our players, particularly L. Cook, Lerma, Francis and Brooks, to panic and sloppily give the ball away whenever Huddersfield pressed us. I wonder how the game would have developed had we kept our cool a little better. Early on we were dominant enough.
 
You get games like this sometimes, 4 or 5 players not firing on all cylinders, misplaced passes etc. I think the team was knackered after spending 90 minutes chasing the ball at City a few days before, a bit low on confidence after 4 defeats in a row, then subconsciously thought it may be easy after we went 2-0 up.
However we dug in in defence in the second half and kept them out. After the recent spell of playing well against top sides and getting eff all maybe we deserved a break or two.
As for Huddersfield well last night I thought they have enough to stay up, however on reflection if they can't score more than 1 against us after all that possession then maybe they won't.
 
I don't think any one individual can be targeted for any criticism last night... As a collective we were woeful, for the start to the finish...

I've heard quite a lot of "we were good for the first 20 minutes".. but we weren't... We scored twice with our 'only' two shots at goal in that first 20, but Huddersfield had us panicked and penned in from the off...

God knows how we won that game as there looked to be only one winner form where I was sat. OK, you could argue we defended well, but to be honest, if it hadn't been for some good saves and plenty of time wasting for Begovic, we'd have lost.

I actually don't think I can put my finger on if it was bad tactics, bad personnel, a great Huddersfield performance, or just an absolute shocking day at the office for 11 players...

Whatever it was, I dont want to see it again anytime soon.

I think we can all see where we need to strengthen though, and it has been the case for a long time. We all thought the addition of Lerma had answered our prayers, and he has been great for us so far, but one man can't carry the midfield (and even he was pretty poor last night). L.Cook hasn't cut it at all this season IMO, and maybe last night will confirm why EH has been quite reluctant to play him... We need some depth in the centre of the park and quality depth.

The only good thing is that we usually do come out firing following poor performances... Roll on Saturday...
 
In part it was due to the players sitting back comfortable at 2-0 and the desire to hit teams on the break which works if you retain/recycle the ball but we just lost possession repeatedly.

Having lost control I thought earlier subs would have been good. Having said that, Eddie had faith in his defence to keep out the lowest scoring team in the league so he can argue he was right. It was terrible viewing though!
Up to a point re the defence but we won’t get away with it again!
Too often we’re overrun with just the
two in the middle and as we’ve seen before if we have even a couple of players not fully at it our game falls apart quickly .
!
 
I thought we were pretty good right up to the time we scored our second. We had pulled them apart with our direct running and looked like we could get behind their slow defence at will. Why we suddenly started to get the run around I don't know.
 
You get games like this sometimes, 4 or 5 players not firing on all cylinders, misplaced passes etc. I think the team was knackered after spending 90 minutes chasing the ball at City a few days before, a bit low on confidence after 4 defeats in a row, then subconsciously thought it may be easy after we went 2-0 up.
However we dug in in defence in the second half and kept them out. After the recent spell of playing well against top sides and getting eff all maybe we deserved a break or two.
As for Huddersfield well last night I thought they have enough to stay up, however on reflection if they can't score more than 1 against us after all that possession then maybe they won't.
That's a very measured assessment of last night RH.
The question was about Eddie getting his tactics right, but there is no doubt that the work that has been done recently on the defence has made a big difference. Make no mistake, a woeful midfield performance like that in all our previous PL seasons would have resulted in defeat, but this year the greater resilience provided by the Bego, S. Cook and Ake combination generated by a lot of hard training ground work and consistent selection means that we are able to keep out teams who would previously have beaten us in games like that.
David Wagner's comments about his defence and attack were perhaps a bit harsh on his players, but did contain a strong element of the truth. For all their superb midfield play, their defence for our two goals was paper thin, and they were simply unable to capitalise on their dominance when it came to taking the many chances that they had.
 
thanks Lew. Last night I just felt relieved that we had got 3 points and like many very frustrated that we hadn't played well. Today with a clearer head and a more chilled out perspective it's a "take 3 points and move on" approach. Over the years we have been so lucky to watch this team and have got used to us dominating sides with fast free flowing football - maybe last night was a timely reminder that sometines you just cannot do it and have to try and grind out a result - not pretty but you don't get to 6th in the PL by being crap. I trust EH to learn from this one and the players will too.
 
Lets be honest we were shocking, we have been stuffed in recent years but have played better. As said above quite a few players misifiring and that happens, and somehow we got 3 points, next time we fail to pick up 3 points but deserve it maybe we will look back at this game.
Mid season need was 20 points and now on 23 with 4 games to go, sop overall performance aside its been good
 
I don't think any one individual can be targeted for any criticism last night... As a collective we were woeful, for the start to the finish...

I've heard quite a lot of "we were good for the first 20 minutes".. but we weren't... We scored twice with our 'only' two shots at goal in that first 20, but Huddersfield had us panicked and penned in from the off...

God knows how we won that game as there looked to be only one winner form where I was sat. OK, you could argue we defended well, but to be honest, if it hadn't been for some good saves and plenty of time wasting for Begovic, we'd have lost.

I actually don't think I can put my finger on if it was bad tactics, bad personnel, a great Huddersfield performance, or just an absolute shocking day at the office for 11 players...

Whatever it was, I dont want to see it again anytime soon.

I think we can all see where we need to strengthen though, and it has been the case for a long time. We all thought the addition of Lerma had answered our prayers, and he has been great for us so far, but one man can't carry the midfield (and even he was pretty poor last night). L.Cook hasn't cut it at all this season IMO, and maybe last night will confirm why EH has been quite reluctant to play him... We need some depth in the centre of the park and quality depth.

The only good thing is that we usually do come out firing following poor performances... Roll on Saturday...
Fancy 'only' scoring twice with our first two shots...

We were far from a good team last night, but the two-goal lead turned out to be an effective cushion. Midfield hassled and overrun but we still got the three points.

Someone in front of me said tv showed our 1st goal was definitely offside. Anyone confirm?

Oh, and ball boys/girls are kids just doing their job.
 
Someone in front of me said tv showed our 1st goal was definitely offside. Anyone confirm?
Hi Rob, on the replays LERMA was slightly offside but was deemed not to be interfering with play ( Callum put the ball in the net before it reached him ). Wilson was definitely onside though, just. He timed his move to perfection again ! So the goal was definitely legal. Wagner is claiming that before that they should have had a free kick though.
 
Won ugly, lost the previous 4 beautifully?

Worst performance in ages, but 3 more points.
The performance analysers and individual review sessions will be something for many to reflect on.
Mooy shouldve gone, and Charlie’s booked moments later, inconsistency again? But was his first a yellow? and there #8 was a menace, surprised they subbed him.
 
...Roger East has been the villan in matches for us before (penalty turned down at Stoke when Wilson was hacked down...crunching tackle on Ritchie at Sunderland that was a straight red but he bottled it)...however tonight he excelled himself with his incompetency...absolutely no doubt that Mooy should have got a second yellow for his tackle on Fraser as he broke away, then he was arguing the toss with East all game, I think that he bottled it....some petty yellows for both sides with nothing tackles...
 
Someone in front of me said tv showed our 1st goal was definitely offside. Anyone confirm?

I have seen countless replays and my conclusion is that it's genuinely too close to call. Lerma is clearly offside and stands to the left hand side of Wilson, but to the right of the Huddersfield defender who is allegedly playing Wilson onside. The TV angles just can't capture the relation between the most forward position of the defender and Wilson.
 

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