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Mark Molesley interview Sky Sports News today @ 2.30pm

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I appreciate the time given to that post so this is in no way meant as to contradict your opinions or thoughts only to offer a view from the other side shall we say?
Football is a simple game, which is often unnecessarily complicated by some coaches.

I completely agree. I posted long and thoughtfully recently on the passing checklist and how and when players should pass forwards (hopefully you read it?) using examples of Charles Hughes who was labelled a hoof ball merchant. The object of football has never changed and formations and terminology has often only muddied the waters and made too many people sound much cleverer than they actually are.

You're probably too young to remember the Bill Nicholson push and run team of the early sixties, the Brazil team of 1970, the Argentina team of 1978 and the Blues team of the late sixties.

I am too young to have seen them but not to have watched them or appreciated them. But as we both said above, football is a simple game and although the concept hasn’t changed, the game has evolved. There are many teams playing that way now and science, facilities and equipment are allowing them to do it better and faster and for longer and the levels of the lower leagues (Champ and below) have progressed and gone up. With that so have the levels of coaching ideas and philosophies and also fans expectation levels. Which when taken into consideration as a whole, means tactically there is much more to consider when coaching and managing teams at all levels now than ever before.

Game Plan.

The objective should be to win each game so:
  • each player should be playing in the position that he is most comfortable
  • each player should know his job and what is required of him individually and for the team (shape etc)
  • each player should think and play in a positive manner - that also includes hoofing the ball into touch when the situation dictates
  • let the opposition worry about us and certainly not change our plans to worry about them unless they are significantly better than us or have one or two outstanding individuals (neither should often apply in the fourth division)

This wasn’t really what I meant by game plan. This may be more a philosophy for you as a manager / coach or for your team and or club.

In my opinion your game plan will or could change from week to week depending on so many different factors but ranging from :-

Home / Away
Position in league
Stage of the season
Availability of players
Weather / Pitch conditions
What you feel is a realistic outcome
What your objectives are for that game (using all the above)

As well as who your Opponents are (and the above relative to them)

To not play a towering cf and put balls in the box when playing a team with 5,11” centre backs and a young keepermakes no sense.

To go to Newport and play all your ball players and try and pop the ball about makes no sense.

To play 3 at the back when the opposition has two flying wingers makes no sense.

To only play 2 centre mids when your best 3 players are all centre mids makes no sense.

To go all out attack when you need a point to stay up makes no sense.

To play 5 at the back when a win gets you promoted makes no sense.

Playing everyone in their most comfortable position is fine until all your left backs are injured or your best available centre forward is actually an u16.....

Each player should know his job and what is required of him and the teams shape I agree 100%. The best coaches make sure there are several options for this and that also means players playing in positions that are NOT their most comfortable but the position that best serves the team on that particular day.

Completely agree about playing in a positive manner and clearing their lines when necessary. Again this is more a philosophy I’d implement than a game plan for me. However playing positively can also mean defending a lead, and being positive in your decision making and actions...hoofing it into the stand can be a positive action, if it best serves the chance of a result.

I think in the modern game not worrying or not having a focus on the opposition is a thing of the past. How you do that and how much focus is important but to neglect the opportunity regardless is a mistake. I listened to Graeme Souness on a Robbie Fowler podcast recently and he was very ‘old school’ in his memories of being at Liverpool under Paisley / Fagan et al. They would dismiss opponents with barely a sentence five mins before kick off....but this was one of the greatest club sides in football history!!! I’m pretty sure most games they lost probably came from their opponents sticking to a tactical plan that focussed on trying to negate them as opposed to just rocking up at Anfield and throwing **** to the wind hoping you played well and Dalglish, Souness, Hansen and Rush played badly.

I have also heard many top managers say that if you think you’re better than any given side then match up like for like in a similar formation and go toe to toe...if you’re better than them you’ll more often than not come out on top. However if you feel they are better than you you have to do something different and try and out fox them.

In short be better than someone or be different to them....just being you regardless of who you’re up against is very difficult to be successful. More so now than ever with teams that are so fit, so we’ll trained and so well drilled they can use more than just football ability to compete with

Tactics
  • the team should be instructed to push on together in shape with the objective of playing as much of the game as possible in the opposition half
  • give 100 percent effort and never give up
  • no tippy tappy crap in your own half but positive short passing in your own half when there is no danger is fine
  • above all else be positive

While I don’t necessarily share your playing philosophy ideals much of what you say here I agree with but again I wouldn’t really have this down as tactics more a philosophy of what’s expected from your teams.

Playing in the oppositions half is always preferable where possible and where the opposition allow. Of course how you get there is open to debate and I’m sure we’ll have different ideas on that ?

100% effort and never giving up is non negotiable for me in any philosophy for any team at any age and any level. I can’t say I see it as a tactical plan. Same with being positive in various forms, as I mentioned earlier.

As for tippy tappy crap ? well I agree. I don’t like it and I don’t see the need for it. However it’s not to be confused (in my eyes anyway) with playing creative skilful football moving the ball around the pitch trying to create goals.

All I would say in contradiction to you is that actually “positive short sharp passing, in your own half, when there is no danger” is in fact (in my eyes) pointless tippy tappy crap!

Formation
  • my preference is 4 4 2. It's easy, everyone has been coached to play it and it's effective (mind you - I liked 2 3 5 back in the pre Ramsey days)

Formations are of course entirely a personal choice. I can’t argue if one persons choice is a 442 or another ones is 532 or 343. Formations I’ve said before are over rated and over stated. To within a few yards there is little difference and with any good side they are ever evolving during a game anyway to suit the situation and the ball, in or out of possession. What they should always do though is suit the players you have.

Where I would contest your post is where you say everyone has been coached to play it, that it’s easy (to understand I presume?) or that it’s effective.

Actually what you will find now, is that very few players or teams have been coached to play it. The onset of 7 a side and 9 a side for junior teams upto u12s has changed that and within the academies, which lets be honest most of these pro players come from, it is almost obsolete as something that’s played or coached.

It gets mentioned on here a lot that actually it’s not the players that have difficulty understanding formations other than 442 it’s actually fans that struggle. That’s not meant as derogatory towards anyone whatsoever that’s just the simple truth. Whether (our) players are any good at other formations is another argument (based on recent results particularly!) but that’s where maybe the manager got his tactics or his game plan wrong or indeed he just came across teams that were better or better prepared than his....or maybe players just couldn’t or didn’t perform well enough on the day.

However, players themselves understand the intricacies and changes that a different formation requires, far more than us fans. They have grown up with a football education that is of degree level in any other industry. Wayne Rooney may come across a thick thug to many of us but in football playing terms he’s Einstein (remains to be seen if that applies to his management!) Mario Balotelli may not be able to put on a vest but he has a brain of a genius processing millions of decisions in split seconds on a football pitch.

The players will spend hours and hours practicing and working at the tactical requirements of a formation and its shape in and out of possession and each players positions relative to all sorts. It’s not, as many people think, thrown together on a Friday or when Chris Phillips asks for the team to be read out an hour before kick off.

As I say this isn’t meant to come across as condescending at all. I hope you or anyone else doesn’t take it that way. But whether it’s tactics or philosophy or game plan, to suggest that it’s not changed to suit opposition or venue doesn’t make sense.

However situations change in football all the time. When we played Sunderland two years ago and needed to match other teams results or win to guarantee staying up many suggested that to be certain we had to go out and throw the kitchen sink and try and win....it made no sense when risking losing only to find out a draw would’ve kept you up was ludicrous. I urged caution and to stay in the game, keep it tight and see if you needed a win if you could force it late on......going gung ho and being 3 down at half time was not an option. George Graham was a perfect example of this in 1989....he needed to win 2-0 at anfield to win the league or Liverpool won it. He went there and played 5 at the back for the first time that season and told the players he wanted 0-0 at half time. Liverpool thought they’d go for it and would be able to pick them off...instead they kept it tight, scored early in second half, Liverpool got nervous and th rest as they say is history!!!
 
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What 2 players are we leaving out that know how to shoot more than the players already being selected?

I would start with JD as previously stated the second would be ANG. Goodship should start up front alongside Akinola with Kyle Taylor playing alongside Dieng and JHF in midfield. McCormack then sitting in front of the back 4
 
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