please STOP the long ball

[fanoftheblues]

I think a lot of people have said that the long ball game isn't working for us. Spot on! Although some of our attacking players are decent in the air and can run onto balls over the top, they all seem to prefer having the ball at their feet and passing it around and are better at that. The times on Tuesday when we did play a high tempo pass and move game we looked good, but then someone would punt it up the field for Danny to chase.

 

No-one seemed to want the ball on Tuesday, how many times did you see a man in blue put their hand up and look to get a pass? When we are in possession the wide players should be looking to get into space, both centre midfielders looking at all the options and looking for the ball. It seemed to me, with the exception of Hockton who chased after a lot, only Kerrigan and Macca had any desire to get the ball in the attacking half. Some have said Nathan chased a lot when he came on, he chased a bit down for a while but needed to chase down and get everything. We needed to put the pressure on but no-one had the desire or hunger to do it.

 

Perhaps we could even learn to cross the ball at some point?

 

I know we all fancy ourselves as pundits but do we all agree the long ball, especially against so called lesser opposition isn't the answer for us?

[GazzaBTFC]

I'll agree with that. I think even the bench would agree with that with the amount of shouts of "pass" coming from that area.

[fanoftheblues]

No, I think they were just playing along to Mastermind on the telly they must have in there!

[Lufbra_Paul]

Whilst i agree with FOTB's comments to an extent, i would just like to suggest that it isn't simply a case of eradicating long-balls per se, rather selecting the appropriate pass at the appropriate moment/situation. I think it would be fairer to say that some people are getting fed up with the long-ball being played needlessly from the back when there are other options that are more likely to result in the team retaining possession. I agree that on too many occasions on tuesday night pat and dobbo resorted to the long-ball forward when they had time and space to exploit. However that's not to say there isn't a time and place for the long-ball route and some points during the game

[GazzaBTFC]

Pat Sap passing the ball out of trouble...now there is a thought. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />