Well done to the lads for a great effort on Saturday - Tytherington are one of the strongest teams in our age-group and so the fact that they won 4-0 shouldn't make us too downhearted. Remember that they won 9-1 last week and we've heard of other matches where there have been results like 21-0!!
First the good points - I thought that everyone who played made a contribution this week - I can think of little things that each and every player did that made a difference. Toby and Joe played strongly at the back, and did well on many occasions. Both Tom and Bill made a big contribution too. Tom in particular was much better than last week!
The wingbacks both worked moving forward hard throughout the match, as did the midfield. The strikers were all much more aware of going offside (well done Fergus!) All in all, everyone looked as if they wanted the ball more this week than they did last week.
Then my observations on what we could do better:
1) PASSING - on the few occasions that we passed quickly, we moved the ball from one end of the pitch to the other almost effortlessly. Tytherington are a side of large physical players, and so whenever we failed to pass and tried to take them on single handedly, we lost the ball. We still need to pass more and be more accurate.
2) TALKING - The biggest difference that I noticed was that the Tytherington players were far more vocal in appealing for offsides, fouls, throw-ins etc than we were. They also spoke to each other more than we did, and so were able to look out for each other. The message here is don't be shy, SHOUT!
3) SHOOTING - It's important to make a snap judgement when your in front of goal - do you shoot or do you pass? You won't always get it right, but you need to be quick otherwise you won't get a chance to do either!
4) GETTING BACK - Nearly all of the goals that we have conceded have been due to overhead balls, where the striker from the opposing team has got onto the ball behind our defence. Not only do our defenders need to be careful about not letting the strikers get past them so easily, but the midfield needs to be as quick at getting back as they are at getting forward.
Finally, I'd like to hear everyone else's comments - particularly on the relative merits of 5-3-2 and 4-4-2. Would playing 4-4-2 make us more solid at the back?
And also, thanks to eveyone who helped setting up and taking down the nets etc. It was good to get so many people helping. Now that we've had our first home match, it is a little bit clearer what needs to be done every week.
