What's wrong?

[Chalky]

In my opinion theres not much to worry about (yet). To me, this is what we should do. When we are at home we play two up, press the opposition, play the ball wide, cut inside, put balls into the box and approach the game in a direct attitude and display intent. When we are away from home play five in the middle, play shorter passing and keep the ball and remain in a tight unit.

This is what I would like to see.

 

[mrsblue]

Even though the last 2 year's we have struggled to score and this season it's been 1 0 0 0 0,nearly 23% think there is nothing wrong:stunned:

 

[EastStandBlue]

In my opinion theres not much to worry about (yet). To me, this is what we should do. When we are at home we play two up, press the opposition, play the ball wide, cut inside, put balls into the box and approach the game in a direct attitude and display intent. When we are away from home play five in the middle, play shorter passing and keep the ball and remain in a tight unit.

This is what I would like to see.

Simple as that, eh?

What happens when we're at home against two imperious centre-halves capable of plucking everything out of the area, organised full-backs who show our wingers down the channel knowing their centre-halves will pluck everything out of the air and a 10 operating in the space our midfielders have left behind them?

Or away from home when the congested midfield doesn't allow for shorter, tighter passing, suffocating the lone striker and leaving us open to losing the ball in our defensive third?

Far too much emphasis is placed on the formation. We could play 4-3-3 but if those three central midfielders are not given any licence to break forward in support, chances are there'd be too much space between the midfield and forward lines and we'd be picked off with balls in behind the full-backs. The 4-5-1/4-2-3-1/however Brown sets us up isn't the problem. Brown's a defensive coach and has us set up to defend first and attack second, which results in us creating fewer genuine goalscoring opportunities. That's why Brown's crowing about needing a goalscorer, as we need one who's unerringly accurate and patient enough to work the opposition defence on his own, feeding off scraps.

Unfortunately for Brown those cost money.

 

[Beefy]

Under Phil at the Hall in league only,we have managed 55 goals in 51 games,his new fangled formations clearly don't work that well with only 1 goal on average per game,pretty crap really.

Aside from the whole promotion thing.

 

[mrsblue]

Aside from the whole promotion thing.

Which we we made hard work of,still thanks Piggy Bents and every single player!

 

[londonblue]

Under Phil at the Hall in league only,we have managed 55 goals in 51 games,his new fangled formations clearly don't work that well with only 1 goal on average per game,pretty crap really.

How many goals have we conceded in that time?

 

[mrsblue]

How many goals have we conceded in that time?

30 which is excellent !

 

[londonblue]

30 which is excellent !

So maybe it is working...to an extent.

 

[Smiffy]

What is wrong is that the opposition GK's in our 4 league games have been tested a maximum of 5 times in any one game. That includes simple shots to save as well.

40% shot accuracy so far and not many of those bar Worral's goal and a few other efforts have really tested any keeper.

Carry on like that and there will be a lot of "Southend Nil" results. Luckily the defensive side is pretty sound or we would be in real trouble.

What is the answer? More shots on goal. Whether that be using the current squad or new additions, we have to test the keeper more. 3-5 shots on target per game is not good enough.

 

[mrsblue]

So maybe it is working...to an extent.

It worked to an extent playing league 2 dross,but in league 1 we need to be far cuter as the results have proved,you get punished in this division and if you don't score your in trouble.

 

[amsemp]

I actually think we flatter to deceive a little bit. So often we'll be well on top of the game and bombard their box with crosses and runs all over the place. It looks like we're all over them, but in actual fact we're still struggling to create clear cut chances. Our crossing for a while has been very below par for me. I think certain players seem to panic when they're wide with the ball and deliver rushed crosses at chest height (Leonard is guilty of this, as is White) which are easy pickings for any decent centre half. Worrall, for everything great he does, doesn't always deliver good enough crosses and Coker can be guilty a lot of the time of not putting in early crosses when he has the chance.

All of this aside, we don't really have anyone in the box who can get their head on it since Barry left anyway. In my opinion, the key to us scoring more is to practice the living daylights out of our crossing (seeing as wing play seems to be a big part of Brown's game), to the point where not one single crossing opportunity is wasted. Couple that with signing a new target man striker who you can put your house on winning 95% of aerial battles and we might be getting somewhere.

Then I would be playing 4-4-1-1 with the big target man up front and Noel Hunt/Jack Payne just behind as second strikers. Play with two good wingers (Worrall and McLaughlin) and two overlapping full backs. This means that when we go wide and get the good crosses in, the target man can either go for goal with his head or knock it down for the onrushing Hunt/Payne.

I know it's not as easy as that. But it's frustrating at times seeing such poor crosses being delivered that nothing comes of.

 

[Fish]

I think we've been unlucky in the fixtures we've had. So far we've played 3 of the top 7 (will be 4 when we play Coventry next week). We've got good draws against 2 of them, and have been unlucky to lose one of the other 2. I didn't see the Walsall game so can't comment.

The thing about those fixtures is that for the last 2, we've effectively been forced to play 5 in midfield to counter the same for the opposition. Certainly before the Doncaster game, it was felt that was what we needed to do, and if we hadn't done the same on Saturday, we'd have been torn apart.

However, we 've been the better side in the last 2 games, and with a bit more luck could easily be sitting with 7 points. So, I don't think anyone can really criticise the formations / tactics. FWIW, I think PB has got it tactically spot on so far this season.

Summing up, we need to get the Coventry fixture out of the way, if we get a point, that will be fantastic. And then we can hopefully have some easier fixtures, where we can be a bit more open in the way we play. I'm still convinced we'll be mid table by the end of the season.

:hilarious: They're all in the top seven because they've taken points off us!!! After only 4 games, that makes a huge difference (and makes your argument a circular one).

We clearly need to wise up a bit to compete better at this level. That might come with experience (by which I mean a few more games).But we also need a bit of confidence. 360 minutes is a long time to go without scoring and it will no doubt start playing on the player's minds, especially as we hardly scored loads of goals pre-season either.

We're in a higher league, we will concede more. Last season we went up becuase we conceded few, rather than scored loads. Now we're conceding a few more than last season, small wonder the points have dried up.

 

[Jam_Man]

What is wrong is that the opposition GK's in our 4 league games have been tested a maximum of 5 times in any one game. That includes simple shots to save as well.

40% shot accuracy so far and not many of those bar Worral's goal and a few other efforts have really tested any keeper.

Carry on like that and there will be a lot of "Southend Nil" results. Luckily the defensive side is pretty sound or we would be in real trouble.

What is the answer? More shots on goal. Whether that be using the current squad or new additions, we have to test the keeper more. 3-5 shots on target per game is not good enough.

Gillingham arent testing the keeper much more.

Gillingham, top of the league have on average 5.5 goals on target.
6 on target. 2 goals.
4 on target 2 goals
5 on target 1 goal
7 on target 4 goals
so 22 shots on target 9 goals

Compared to us at 4.25:

4 on target
5 on target
3 on target
5 on target
17 on target 2 goals

So over 4 games they have only had 1.25 shot on target more than us yet have 8 more goals.

 

[londonblue]

It worked to an extent playing league 2 dross,but in league 1 we need to be far cuter as the results have proved,you get punished in this division and if you don't score your in trouble.

You seem to have moved the goalposts yet again. You pointed out that we had scored just over 1 goal a game as proof that his formations haven't worked in the past. I pointed out that those same formations have led to us conceding far less than 1 goal a game as proof that maybe that have worked (to an extent) in the past.

No-one said anything about the future.

 

[mrsblue]

You seem to have moved the goalposts yet again. You pointed out that we had scored just over 1 goal a game as proof that his formations haven't worked in the past. I pointed out that those same formations have led to us conceding far less than 1 goal a game as proof that maybe that have worked (to an extent) in the past.

No-one said anything about the future.

Not at all,

League one is far more lethal than league 2,we kept out league 2 but will be hard to repeat that feat over this season.

 

[londonblue]

Not at all,

League one is far more lethal than league 2,we kept out league 2 but will be hard to repeat that feat over this season.

I'm not denying that, but that wasn't the point of your first post.

 

[onceknownasrab]

Gillingham arent testing the keeper much more.

Gillingham, top of the league have on average 5.5 goals on target.
6 on target. 2 goals.
4 on target 2 goals
5 on target 1 goal
7 on target 4 goals
so 22 shots on target 9 goals

Compared to us at 4.25:

4 on target
5 on target
3 on target
5 on target
17 on target 2 goals

So over 4 games they have only had 1.25 shot on target more than us yet have 8 more goals.

So they have players who can score and like to play two up top. Chances are a premium and spurned chances are a luxury not afforded to successful teams. Another thing you need to be sure of is the shots on target. How many of ours were actually causing the keeper a problem compared to those of Gillingham. Stats deceive.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

Nothing has gone particularly wrong in my opinion. We're playing teams with better, stronger, faster players in the main and we need to adjust to the pace and quality of the game in this division.

At times against Walsall, and to a lesser degree Swindon, we looked unable to respond to the fact that the opposition would more often than not find a teammate with a pass, and that that team-mate would be in space, and then do something useful with the ball.

The fact that we aren't a million miles away from these teams suggests to me that we can hold our own in League 1; it might take a bit of work and some time and patience though.

That said, I think we could do with getting our GK situation sorted out; the current situation can't be helping no matter how professionally Dan behaves. Also 2 or 3 new players in could make a lot of difference; another CB (Unfortunately I think Adam is going to get found out in this division), a Stephen McLaughlin to provide service, and that elusive 20 goal a season striker (in all likelihood though a youngster loaned from a Prem or Championship club).

 

[Napster]

If 2 up top is the answer, why not 3? 4? 5? let's go krazee.

 

[Jam_Man]

So they have players who can score and like to play two up top. Chances are a premium and spurned chances are a luxury not afforded to successful teams. Another thing you need to be sure of is the shots on target. How many of ours were actually causing the keeper a problem compared to those of Gillingham. Stats deceive.

Nothing to do with two up top, we have almost as many shots on target they do. If it makes that much difference they should be getting far more on target.

We had 4 very good chances on Saturday. That's not stats deceiving anything.

The key point is that they convert far more than we do.