Our style of play | Vital Football

Our style of play

T

Trashbat

Vital 1st Team Regular
A lot was said about BFSE’s ‘long-ball, low-possession, counter-attack’ style of play by PS, SL and dissenting fans alike.

However, I notice that out style is exactly the same as under BFSE when we were being successful. Tight at the back, well organised, long diagonal balls up to Big V from Max and Jack, long throws from Jacko.

Personally, I don’t care as long as we’re winning. And, seemingly, all of these football purists have forgotten too. I don’t hear any of them moaning about Harris’s hoofball. Only thing that really matters is the result at full time.

We’re staying up!
 
Trashbat said:
A lot was said about BFSE’s ‘long-ball, low-possession, counter-attack’ style of play by PS, SL and dissenting fans alike.

However, I notice that out style is exactly the same as under BFSE when we were being successful. Tight at the back, well organised, long diagonal balls up to Big V from Max and Jack, long throws from Jacko.

Personally, I don’t care as long as we’re winning. And, seemingly, all of these football purists have forgotten too. I don’t hear any of them moaning about Harris’s hoofball. Only thing that really matters is the result at full time.

We’re staying up!
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I’m maybe not best placed to judge because I haven’t watched all the games under NH by far (or under SE for that matter).

But imho I’d say we have shifted the bar between direct hoofball versus more passing play from 80/20 to 70/30 or even 65/35.

And TBF, I think Millwall fans all say that NH does prefer to play a pretty direct style anyway. So I doubt he’s going to change that aspect of us much, even if he changes our personnel, tactics and formation.

But I reckon I’ve seen a few more nice passing moves, and a few more dribbles and taking players on under NH than previously. 2nd goal yesterday was a great team move.
 
Trashbat said:
I don’t hear any of them moaning about Harris’s hoofball.
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You've also stopped the "see, told you they shouldn't have sacked Evans....", "didn't I say this would happen...." posts.

You stated clearly that any slight chance of staying up ended when Evans went.
 
When you are appointed a couple of days before the transfer window shuts and you (may) have been dealing with an embargo, you have to make do with the players you have, and they were signed to fit in with BFSE's style of football.

So hardly surprising.
 
I was there yesterday, and have seen most away games and all home games this season. Are we less direct under Harris than Evans? Yes, I think we are, although we still consistently pump the ball to Oliver .
What is interesting to note is our organisation without the ball. Lincoln did have the majority of possession but did very little with it, and we certainly had the better chances as evidenced on the highlight programme last night.
What we did do is stick to our game plan, and stick to it well. We pressed and harried them throughout the game. Appleton whilst not defending his team states we were physical which always get thrown at us. Tough, football is a physical game, get over it.
A few weeks ago we looked to have no chance of survival, at least now better organised we do.
 
ThreeSixes said:
You've also stopped the "see, told you they shouldn't have sacked Evans....", "didn't I say this would happen...." posts.

You stated clearly that any slight chance of staying up ended when Evans went.
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In TBs defence, so did I. And posted as much at the time.

We had an experienced lower league manager and assistant with a good contacts network, that had overseen our best two campaigns/finishes for years. I though ditching him was madness for these very reasons. Then when the saviour appeared in the form of Steve Lovell (tbh, I still wonder if he would’ve got it til the end of the season had he managed an early win) I did think “that’s it. We’re down” as I’m sure most did.
 
ThreeSixes said:
You've also stopped the "see, told you they shouldn't have sacked Evans....", "didn't I say this would happen...." posts.

You stated clearly that any slight chance of staying up ended when Evans went.
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You’re right. I truly thought we were going to appoint a non-league nobody / ex-player. That would have been the nail in the coffin.

Harris is a very good appointment. He’s done well and I don’t think it’s a new manager bounce…. …I feel like our performances have just returned to the sustained levels when BFSE was doing well.
 
iangfc said:
I was there yesterday, and have seen most away games and all home games this season. Are we less direct under Harris than Evans? Yes, I think we are, although we still consistently pump the ball to Oliver .
What is interesting to note is our organisation without the ball. Lincoln did have the majority of possession but did very little with it, and we certainly had the better chances as evidenced on the highlight programme last night.
What we did do is stick to our game plan, and stick to it well. We pressed and harried them throughout the game. Appleton whilst not defending his team states we were physical which always get thrown at us. Tough, football is a physical game, get over it.
A few weeks ago we looked to have no chance of survival, at least now better organised we do.
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I’m really not complaining btw. I think there is a hidden beauty in the way that we absorb pressure, let the opposition play in non-dangerous areas, organise well and counter attack. Like a previous poster said - we have to play to our strengths. IMO, we’ll never be a slick passing team because of budgetary constraints. We have to play within our means and find a way to be successful. That means low possession football.
 
PhilK66 said:
The turnaround can be summed up in one word: confidence.

Unlike some posters I always thought that we had decent L1 players it was just that confidence had drained out of them for whatever reason under SE.
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Right.

Harris has had the advantage of returning players from injury. I don’t recall him having to put any of the kids in the starting line up. He has managed to get the best out of some players who were previously sidelined - I’m think Reeves in particular.
 
PhilK66 said:
The turnaround can be summed up in one word: confidence.

Unlike some posters I always thought that we had decent L1 players it was just that confidence had drained out of them for whatever reason under SE.
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Confidence. And a back 3 system that is working.

From afar it appears that adding Masterson to go alongside Jack and Max has been a master stroke (see what I did there?).

In the 5 games before NH arrived we scored 5 and conceded 16.

In the 7 games since he arrived and we switched to a back 3/5 we have only scored 5, but conceded just 4.

So, no change in the forward half. But massive difference at the back. We no longer need to score 2,3 or more to win games.

We have also had the “luxury” of playing some lower sides in poor form (Lincoln, Crewe, Morecambe and AFCW). But that is a little offset by also playing top half sides (at the time) Cambridge, Ipswich and top 6 Plymouth. Those 3 are all high up in the scoring charts.
 
Oliver wins more headers than anyone else in our division. We don't have another, different and experienced striker to play alongside him. We'd be mad not to send lots of balls directly up to him, especially when opposition sides try to press us.
 
It was Lovell brought the previously sidelined then injured Reeves back in and I said at the time how well he was playing then he got injured again. Not taking anything away from the way NH has got the team playing mind
 
To be fair, I think the way Harris has as playing is not too dissimilar to the way Evans and Raynor had us playing when we were decent last season. With a limited budget and squad, we play to our strengths. Harris has found a way to make us solid at the back - Ehmer was getting exposed and we now have a solid back three, which gives Max more protections; we've added the very solid, but pretty mobile Masterson, who can get forward too. Wing back roles suit both Jackson and Tutonda who were getting exposed defensively in a four. Like under Evans last season, our midfield is robust now with O'Keefe and Phillips getting stuck in and ticking things over.

Thompson has pretty much stepped in for Dempsey and is busy and creative and we seem to be employing Lee or Reeves as an extra midfielder instead of a second forward, which we are lacking - I am not fully convinced with that, but it certainly worked on Saturday. Oliver is our only striker of note and the best attacking headerer of the ball in the league, so we play to his strengths. However, we do mix that up with getting the ball down when we can - with most things going through Thompson.
 
jogills said:
Oliver wins more headers than anyone else in our division. We don't have another, different and experienced striker to play alongside him. We'd be mad not to send lots of balls directly up to him, especially when opposition sides try to press us.
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Oliver may well win more headers than others in our division, but he very rarely has control of the direction it goes in. therefore what chance have the other players got of reading his so called flick ons.
As for the hoofball tactics that appears to be standard lower division defensive play, just get rid of it to relieve the pressure. The managers can say what they like, but when push comes to shove, that's what they will do.
 
Just to add a touch of controversy; on the Facebook page, every Gills defeat has been followed by a barrage of, “There’s only one person to blame for the shit we’re in and that’s Scally”. These comments all seemed to be based on the apparent fact that we couldn’t afford players that are competitive in League 1. Firstly, those comments have diminished as results have improved. Secondly Harris has shown that whilst the players aren’t necessarily world beaters, they can be competitive at this level if properly organised.
 
The main difference is that NH wanted the job and will not surrender until mathematically relegated.

SE on the other hand wanted out and had given up
 
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