Have we kicked Hoofball into touch?

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Many fans have said that the second half against Northampton was the best half they had ever seen Southend play. It was absolutely exhilarating attacking wise. Hoofball was out as they passed with ease, speed and accuracy from the back to the front which always seemed to end with a shot or a headed chance. We now have great wingers, strikers and substitutes and look likely to score at any moment in a game. Do you think this was a one off? or do you think we now have the players to play this style all the time?

As for me, I really hope it's the latter, as I don't think that even the best teams in this league would be able to cope with us.

 

[silentshrimper]

Hopefully it shows Sturrock that the lads he has are better than just hoofball, to be honest I thought we mixed it up in the second half, there was still long balls and balls over the top, quite a few over to Hall which seemed to pay off every time, also for example the penalty incident was from a lobbed ball played randomly over the top. Think now we have 2 proper wingers, we will be able to play a larger variety of football.

Need to see how we play at home a few times before we can tell I guess.

 

[maninasuitcase]

Certainly in the second half it was just wave after wave of good attacking play that created 4 chances before we got the penalty. And certainly during the first period we were hitting the ball too long too often. We just need to mix and match and we definitely have the players to knock it around a bit. We played good passing games at Crewe, Rotherham, Port Vale and, up until the sending off, at Oldham so it can be done.

 

[shrimperjon]

The one thing i have noticed this season is that we seem to play better football away from home. Partly because you generally play more on the break as an away team, whereas at home there is more emphasis to get on the front foot early. We seem at home to start off quite well and if we score early settle down. If we dont, we seem to panic and thats when the so called hoof football come into play. It might also be down to the mentality of our home fans as well. Away we seem to be so more positive in the stand even when we are up against it. Maybe there is a lesson to be learnt.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

I think the introduction of Martin has been key. We now have a threat from both flanks, which pulls the defence around more, creating more space to play. We are still direct, but are able to mix it up more. I think a lot of the signings Sturrock made has one eye on League One.

 

[Strykr]

Let's hope so. But I think we'd all be ok with a bit of hoof,as long as there's also bit of football!

Frankly, for me its getting to that stage in the season where im beginning to think play whatever football you like as long as it gets us out of this crap league!

 

[Supa Shrimpa]

I didn't have a problem with our Direct Play. I just resigned myself to the fact that we're in Div 2 and if that what Luggy thinks we need to do to get out of this Division, then so be it.

However, there were times (particularly at home to Plymouth) when we obviously had better players on the pitch than them, and it was crying out for us to just keep possession, rather than hit 50/50 balls to our strikers. If we had poor midfielders I could understand it more, but when you have the likes of Hall, Timlin, Kane, Kalalalalala, Grant etc, who all like the ball on the deck, it was quite frustrating.

Still...we have a great manager who isn't afraid to change things and the signings he has made in this window all look good players. We were starting to look very predictable, but the news boys have blended in very quickly and they allow us to play various systems coming into the run in. The 2nd half last Saturday was exhilarating stuff and I can't wait for the next match.

UTB

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

Yes, in agreement with almost all of the above views ..........:thumbsup:

1st priority is to get promoted ...... and if that means direct football, then I will live with that for another 15 to 20 games.

Ideal is to mix it up - using styles appropriate to the team selected, the opposition's qualities, state of pitch etcetera.

I do think that keeping possession of the ball is under-rated in this division - but then earlier this season I saw Accrington play the ball out from goalie to defence to midfield but they couldn't then score against us. Still, if you have the ball at least the chances of scoring are higher than if you don't! :omg:

Overall, I am looking forward to seeing less direct play and more flowing football through the midfield in the remaining games .......... and would therefore expect to be seeing more of Grant and Kane ......... and Sawyer.

 

[Jam_Man]

Last week was against the bottom team in the division who have only won 1 in 16.

Its great that we played better against them but can we do the same against better teams ?

 

[Beefy]

If we win people say we didn't play hoofball and congratulate Sturrock on listening to the fans.

If we lose then we get eight page long threads bemoaning the lack of entertaining football.

From the games I've seen, there seems to be little difference in the style when we win to win we lose, the difference is down to whether or not we get the rub of the green and how well our strikers (Liam Dickinson in particular) is playing that day. Our tactics are wholy dependent on the strikers to hold the ball up and make things happen. If they have a stinker then we don't create much and the style looks ugly.

 

[Bromley Blue]

Yes, in agreement with almost all of the above views ..........:thumbsup:

1st priority is to get promoted ...... and if that means direct football, then I will live with that for another 15 to 20 games.

Ideal is to mix it up - using styles appropriate to the team selected, the opposition's qualities, state of pitch etcetera.

I do think that keeping possession of the ball is under-rated in this division - but then earlier this season I saw Accrington play the ball out from goalie to defence to midfield but they couldn't then score against us. Still, if you have the ball at least the chances of scoring are higher than if you don't! :omg:

Overall, I am looking forward to seeing less direct play and more flowing football through the midfield in the remaining games .......... and would therefore expect to be seeing more of Grant and Kane ......... and Sawyer.

OK understood Rattus Norvegicus

 

[Bromley Blue]

If we win people say we didn't play hoofball and congratulate Sturrock on listening to the fans.

If we lose then we get eight page long threads bemoaning the lack of entertaining football.

From the games I've seen, there seems to be little difference in the style when we win to win we lose, the difference is down to whether or not we get the rub of the green and how well our strikers (Liam Dickinson in particular) is playing that day. Our tactics are wholy dependent on the strikers to hold the ball up and make things happen. If they have a stinker then we don't create much and the style looks ugly.

I agree with this. We were still quite direct against Northampton at times. The defence were pinging the ball forward to Ryan Hall and we were building from there. I can't believe they couldn't find a way to deal with that ball coz Hall's not the tallest. Surely they should have just stuck a big lad next to Hall and tell him to go win those balls before Hall could bring it down and start playing the 1-2s with Clohessy. That said we were really on form so it might not have been that simple.

 

[mattytheshrimper]

1st half against Northampton was pure hoofball. the amount of times Morris got the ball played back to him by the defence and then he had no choice but to hoof it out was un-real. 2nd half was excellent, so extertaining! all out attack with some really decent play. We probably should have scored another 3 aswell.