Tactical awareness......

[Matt (GNFC)]

Its been a while since i posted and have read the a lot of the postings with interest. Some of it may be old ground but id like to go over a few points and it would be nice if we may get a reaction out of some members of the management team. Its very easy to criticize when things are going wrong but there are a number of issues where i feel we are falling away. Our last clean sheet was on August 28th vs York City. That is some 21 or 22 competitive matches ago. We have tried any number of combinations in defence but we still concede goals and week in week out we hear the excuse that individual errors have cost us plus lack of fitness costs us goals. I think we are tactically poor with our defensive set up. I feel that we really need a midfield marshall just to sit in the back four. We have 3 of these in Mckimm Surey and Saunders but all to often we get caught and the back four are getting no protection from these guys as they are too far up the pitch. If we have one holding and one going fwd we will tighten up.

The second point is that i cant remember how many goals i have seen which have come down our right flank Skins or Lovells side. I cannot work out still why one of these two players has to go all the way over to the other side of the pitch every time to take a corner. Itspoor tactical awareness as we get caught soooo many times down that flank and its no wonder why some of our players tire if they are forced to run from one corner of the pitch to the other.

The third point id like to raise is the long ball game. Ever since Andy has come to the club its evident and he´s said before that he likes a big man upfront. This then when the chips are down as the have been for 10 or so games means we become even more dimensional as a long ball team. We have been playing two wingers virtually all season but the service to Roy from quality crosses has been very poor. Andy needs to get it into Drury and Moussa that they need to take people on and get the quality crosses in. This is where we the crowd come in as Drury IS VERY talented but the crowd needs to get off his back and encourage him to go past people. Roy in my opinion is a one trick pony in that he´s very good with his head and shocking with his feet but if we go back to football basics he will score goals from crosses.

The squad size - The squad is now at something like 23 players. I have mentioned it before but what do others reckon? If we had a really good squad of 15 would we do better than paying a lot of fringe players who cant even get a game. I know injuries suspensions come into play but i just feel we would be a better team if we went this way. I know its all very good for the community to have PASE youth teams but we really need to start getting real talent from these schemes and yet we never have, we end up just picking up ex Arsenal, Fulham youth players etc etc who might or might not come good, it seems a waste of resources to me.

Cashflow - It would be nice if the club was a bit more open with the fans with regard to profit and loss etc etc. I am a businessman too and i really fear that the club is throwing away a lot of money on pointless things, and if Victor doesnt sponsor us again we´ll end up doing a Dover and going bankrupt.

Have we really progressed this season from last, statistics will tell u we have but our outgoings on player, staff wages, admin wages in my opinion is probably higher than where we were atlast year. I dont expect us to be in division 3 of the football league and Brian has plans to take us forward, i just hope that its not at the clubs long term expense. I have pointed this out before but i still believe our best way forward is to be a merged Gravesend and Dartford football club. We talk about being proud of our sole existence but we know that we wont get crowds of 2500 coming through the gate unless we´re in the top 2. With a merged Gravesend and Dartford the people of Dartford have a real club they can identify with. When Dartford were doing well they were getting crowds of over 1000 and that wasnt even in the Conference. I still believe that with a combined north kent football club we can become a force in non league and even through to division 3 yet without such an alliance we have no chance. What is there to lose by merging with Dartford and creating this club with a combined population of around 160,000 people?

These are some of my thoughts fleet fans, all the best for 2005.

[carjam]

Lots of good points in there. Too often the team have been caught with fast breakaway goals. Most annoyingly when the scores are even. The squad may nee trimming but first the best team has to be found. I really dont know what it is at this time.

Dartford and Gravesend United...that's not going to go down well. Both clubs have potential for higher football. There are not many clubs in Kent that do. It's not something I would like to see happen. Infact i would sooner return to the Ryman.

[behindthegoal]

...I agree with your analysis of our tactical shortcomings but would not like to see us become Dartsend or Gravesford fc..that would be a last financial resort in my view.

[Guest]

Excellent post. A number of players have been left out of the side recently when they've been playing well. Surey, Skinner, Shearer, Moore, Gledhill etc and that can't help morale. We need to have a settled side whatever it is. We haven't kept a clean sheet since York, but some consolation, we haven't failed to score in our last 24 home games!!

[Guest]

Interesting viewpoints...

 

A further area that leaves room for improvement is getting into the opponents penalty area without the assisted play from corners and free kicks. This obviously depends on how good the opposition play. However, It has been the situation for a few games now that when smart quick wing play evolves the final cross is either lacking or there is often no one available to reallistically pick out in the penalty area. The ball is passed back to mid-field and momentum is lost. Both Drury and Sidibe are shadowed by at least two defenders when they look dangerous with the ball. This creates space elswhere and generally the Fleet take good advantage of it. At times though this advantage is wasted by below form poor passing or lack of support from front players. Hopefully Macallister will work this space to good advantage. Manny can often be relied on to find the space but his confidence to quick shoot seems a little down at the moment. Hopefully with a little more luck and confidence it will all click together again.

[Robbo]

Yeh some good points raised in that post. The Dartford thing though is unrealistic. Even though on paper it would help both clubs, it just wouldn't happen. The Darts fans would be totally opposed to it I can imagine. They would lose their identity, just as we were afraid of if the Gills were to move into the town.

[Guest]

I raised this very subject a while ago.

Last year our turn around co-incided with Adrian Pennock playing as sweeper alongside Moore and Shearer. The defence tightened up, got confident of their own abililty and we started our unbeaten run.

Just for a trial, could we not try 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 to bolster the defence and get a clean sheet.

The options of who fill the places are almost endless, but something has to change to rebuild the defence - as we lack confidence and ship a lot of poorly defended goals.

I would start with:

Pullen

Pops Bunce Moore

Conkers McKimm Saunders Drury Skinner

Essandoh McAllister

Subs

Wilko Prothers Moussa Pinns Manny

[FleetFanatic]

Away games might warrant 5-4-1 or 4-4-1-1.

 

However at home, given our options regarding attacking players, why not 4-3-3? Aldershot use it regularly with good effect.

[Hempstead Gaz]

4-4-1-1, 3-5-2, 5-3-2, 1-4-4-1, 4-1-4-1, 4-3-3 anything but 4-4-2 as it simply isn't working at present.

[Paulo GNFC]

Some good and valid points raised but can't see the merger ever happening.

 

The defense is very poor at times and hasn't ever been great for some time now. Strange considering Ade's (squeeze) experience!

 

I'm also sick and tired of hearing we'll never do this or that until we get over 2000 crowds &/or we go full time etc, etc.. Agree it's tougher but it is possible with our current set up.

 

Ok, our recent run is relegation form, no win in 3 months blah, blah... But the majority of the squad were part of the fantastic run previously so they CAN do it. We all have our opinions of where it's going wrong but it does come down to the management team in the end. They're responsible for the tactics, team selection, new players, training and motivation and so on... If things don't turn around this next month, I am not afraid to say serious changes should be made. Some forum users don't or won't say what they truly feel because of the abuse they get from the staunch AF supporters. Without going over history, we should look forwards not backwards. Brian is doing a fantastic job at the helm but the playing side is letting him and all of us down badly, at the moment. Who knows if Gladwish will continue sponsorship, he has Crawley stickers in his car (apparently) and they are his 'top' side. As we get nearly double the money they get, it wouldn't surprise me if things changed in the future.

 

Anyway, today is and should be the start of the revival and hopefully a win followed by many.

 

Come on u Reds..........

[Hempstead Gaz]

I agree with the Gladwish money, Paulo. I think what is missing at present is managerial imagination. We have the players who CAN play an attractive, effective passing game, but theyneed to be in a system that allows it. Too often route one is seen as the answer. It is not.

What we do at the moment (442) is not really working. We have nothing to lose by changing things around a bit.

I'm not convinced a change of manager is the answer either.

We would be back to the start again, rebuilding a completely new team from scratch, which would undo any progress made in the past 4 seasons.

[Harry J Allstars]

What you writing there Matt, a novel?