Brum v Cardiff: 1st half tactical observations

[Keyser Soze]

Tetchy game. Not much in it. But two main observations from the first half for me

First the goal and general threat of Adams. Now I rate Warnock in this division very highly. But this one has me scratching my head. Any pre match preparation should involve your opponents strengths and weaknesses. Clearly Adams is a right footer. For the goal, he cuts inside the left wing on his favoured right foot and beats a player - I think Morrison? That's the first mistake. He should show him onto his weaker foot, his left. Second mistake was Bamba didn't cover the cut inside. He was lazy there and slow to react. Mistake number two. But credit Adams with the goal - a great take. But the mistake was repeated it 10-15 minutes later, Peltier allowing Adams to cut in again on his right foot. You would think they would have learned their lesson. Now some managers prefer to allow opposition to cut inside, others like to allow to go on the outside. But Adams pops up on the left 10 minutes later again. What does the defender do? Again, allows him to go on his right foot again but this time on the outside. So there is no obvious strategy here for forcing players inside or outside, but every time they are allowing Adams onto his favoured right foot. Golden rule of defending - either force the opponent onto his weaker foot or number two, stick to a collective strategy of inside or outside. At the moment we are doing neither. Puzzling.

Second point is Bamba. I love Sol Bamba in defence but I do not understand his role tonight. If you told me that his role was to read and break up play I would get that. But as above, he failed to cut out the Adams dangers. Secondly, they seem to be asking him to distribute complex passes. This isn't his game, or of it is he cannot do it under pressure. I have counted three times when in possession he has been pressured quickly and he has lost possession in key areas and it has allowed Brum to break quick. Cotterill is a tactically shrewd manager. It looks to me, either by accident or design, as if they are creating "trigger presses" on Bamba when he goes too high up the pitch. A trigger press is when either a weak player gets on the ball, or a good player in a weak position gets the ball, they shut that player down with speed and apply pressure to force a mistake. Fine to play Bamba in front of the defence but he should not press high and should keep his game simple with short passes because any higher up the pitch or with any complex passes and the attack just breaks down.

See if this pattern follows in the second half. Let's hope we get it right.

[Fine Lines]

Tetchy game. Not much in it. But two main observations from the first half for me

First the goal and general threat of Adams. Now I rate Warnock in this division very highly. But this one has me scratching my head. Any pre match preparation should involve your opponents strengths and weaknesses. Clearly Adams is a right footer. For the goal, he cuts inside the left wing on his favoured right foot and beats a player - I think Morrison? That's the first mistake. He should show him onto his weaker foot, his left. Second mistake was Bamba didn't cover the cut inside. He was lazy there and slow to react. Mistake number two. But credit Adams with the goal - a great take. But the mistake was repeated it 10-15 minutes later, Peltier allowing Adams to cut in again on his right foot. You would think they would have learned their lesson. Now some managers prefer to allow opposition to cut inside, others like to allow to go on the outside. But Adams pops up on the left 10 minutes later again. What does the defender do? Again, allows him to go on his right foot again but this time on the outside. So there is no obvious strategy here for forcing players inside or outside, but every time they are allowing Adams onto his favoured right foot. Golden rule of defending - either force the opponent onto his weaker foot or number two, stick to a collective strategy of inside or outside. At the moment we are doing neither. Puzzling.

Second point is Bamba. I love Sol Bamba in defence but I do not understand his role tonight. If you told me that his role was to read and break up play I would get that. But as above, he failed to cut out the Adams dangers. Secondly, they seem to be asking him to distribute complex passes. This isn't his game, or of it is he cannot do it under pressure. I have counted three times when in possession he has been pressured quickly and he has lost possession in key areas and it has allowed Brum to break quick. Cotterill is a tactically shrewd manager. It looks to me, either by accident or design, as if they are creating "trigger presses" on Bamba when he goes too high up the pitch. A trigger press is when either a weak player gets on the ball, or a good player in a weak position gets the ball, they shut that player down with speed and apply pressure to force a mistake. Fine to play Bamba in front of the defence but he should not press high and should keep his game simple with short passes because any higher up the pitch or with any complex passes and the attack just breaks down.

See if this pattern follows in the second half. Let's hope we get it right.

good post. I agree. Need to get Tomlin and ward on. Get on the ball.