FL2: Gillingham v Torquay Utd 25 Feb 2012

This is true, although there is the question of how many tactical options we can afford

Credit has to go to Ling in that he seems to have more of a plan B than Buckle ever had - there have been a couple of occasions where we've had to change tack, most notably parking the bus against Swindon on Boxing Day. But obviously to be able to park the bus, you've got to be in front, and it's the sort of tactic you should only use when desperate

The formation we've been playing isn't inherently negative - I wouldn't describe it as a 4-1-4-1; more as a 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-2-1 (4-5-1 gives the wrong impression). Equally, I wouldn't say that we've played particularly negatively in all the matches I've seen - we've tried to hold possession but we attacked a lot. I think some of the scorelines bely how many chances we created in those matches. We've been clinical enough to win the matches but not clinical enough to hit teams for 4 or 5, which wasn't an issue when we weren't conceding - in the last 2 matches we've conceded 4 so we'd have needed to have scored 6 to win them

I think we do rely a lot on O'Kane for creativity, which is an issue in that he can be quite inconsistent, and if he can be shut down we tend to be a bit limited going forward. I remember the game up at Port Vale where he was suspended and we didn't really create an awful lot and were outplayed for much of the game. However, shutting him down is easier said than done. There aren't many players of his quality playing at this level

I must admit I have been slightly underwhelmed by Morris so far this season, although he has had his moments. But I wouldn't say losing Bodin has been an issue, given the diminishing returns we got out of him. Another flair player on the wing would be helpful to add something different, perhaps as a late sub, but I can understand why Ling would stick with Morris. Equally, how many flair players do you get at this level? We're lucky to have one in Stevens. McPhee is currently effectively the back-up winger, and he's been poor in that role when I've seen him play there

At least no one's blamed losing Robertson yet...

The two most frequent scorers in Europe at the moment are both wingers - Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

very surprised our little friends at cambridge havent started re-posting yet,but given time and a few more blips out of the woodwork they will come for sure

From the moment that criteria applicable to every team was mentioned in the quote you highlight above.

Implying surely that such specialisation must apply to Real Madrid or Torquay or Barcelona or Rochdale.


The discussion on the need for specialist goalscorers is equally valid & once Stewart had claimed that every team backs up his argument the field of debate had obviously been widened & others wished to test the water to check the validity of his opinion.

It's all football, though, isn't it? It's all the same game

It's all about creating and using space. When Dennis Bergkamp and Gianfranco Zola arrived in the 90s, they were effective because they played slightly deeper, in between the 2 banks of 4. The options for the opposition were to let them have the space, or drop the midfield deeper, which then gave the Arsenal/Chelsea midfield more space. The way they dealt with that was with a new breed of defensive midfielders, the likes of Makelele

But eventually, what happened was the remaining main striker dropped deep as well so that it became 2 forwards vs 1 defensive midfielder, which has become known as the false 9 - hence the likes of Rooney when Man Utd won the Champions League, Totti at Roma, Aguero at Man City, and Messi, who has defined this role. Effectively what some teams are doing now is playing with no strikers - to all intents and purposes, a 4-6-0 formation

It does work its way down - maybe not to the extent of the best teams now, but certainly we've seen the the second striker go deep at Torquay like Bergkamp and Zola. Rodney Jack, I seem to remember, played a bit deep, as did David Graham, with McFarlane and Gritton as the 'big men' in front of them. We also see it now. O'Kane is effectively playing in 'the hole' - between the lines, number 10, trequartista, attacking midfielder, second striker, advanced playmaker, however you want to describe it. All it takes is for a team to play a defensive midfielder by him and he doesn't have the space to create opportunities. So either he has to keep dropping deeper (i.e. too far) or he's simply stifled and can't do anything

I haven't been for a few weeks but when I went over Christmas, Atieno was doing a lot of work coming deeper or holding the ball up himself. Howe was doing much the same. But obviously this is quite easy to figure out, given that I, a relative novice who's only managerial experience is on Football Manager, have been able to spot that. So it's inevitable that teams are going to find a way stopping us playing, and we haven't got the quality or fitness across the rest of the park to get around that like Barcelona have

But that's not to say we should stop playing like that. When Graham Taylor brought pressing to the English game in the 1970s, he did it not at the top flight but starting at our level with Lincoln and Watford. It took him 3 1/2 years at Lincoln to work it all out, but the result was that they won the title in 1976 with a record points haul and wins tally. He then went to Watford, who were also in the Fourth Division in 1977, and eventually took them up to 2nd in the First Division in 1983, into European football, and then into the FA Cup Final. He's got a lot of stick for the England job but he was a damn good manager, and he worked his way up from the bottom with new methods

My sentiments entirely ChelstonGull*, we don't need pages and pages of supposed deep insights of how a team is structured...what we need is a bloody striker!


*If I were to put up such arguements I would have been slagged off ad infinitum because i'm not in the thing that doesn't exist!

That post gets my vote...simple, uncomplicated and clear!