It's a bit early in the season to really judge what systems we're going to play, and as I've only managed to see one first team game so far, it's definitely too early. But what the hell, let's do it anyway.
Alan Pardew has been experimenting with formations - supposedly one of the plans is to switch fluidly between 4-4-2 and 5-3-2, depending on whether Matt Robinson counts as a defender or midfielder at the time. I have to say this completely passed me by during the Spurs game. All I could see was a pretty standard 3-5-2 set-up, with the three Adrians at the back, and Robinson and Graeme Murty playing at wing-back.
Apart from formation, the other radical change in the Spurs game (compared to the end of last season) was a definite plan to play the ball around on the ground. When Phil Whitehead got the ball, whether in his hands or for a goal-kick, the central defenders were always making themselves available to receive it around the edge of the penalty area instead of just running upfield. On those occasions when the opposition forwards pushed up in the middle and stopped the pass to one of the Adrians, the two wing-backs would look for the ball instead. In the Spurs game, we sometimes found that the player receving the ball was under immediate pressure, and so it went back to Whitehead. However, he was then still alert to the possibility of another pass rather than automatically punting the ball downfield.
Once the ball was with the central defenders, our standard move was clearly for James Harper to drop back from midfield to pick the ball up and look to see what options are available further forward. (This is exactly the way Simon Osborn used to play in the mid-90s, particularly at away games, although the distribution methods of the two players are different.)
If the ball went out to the wing-backs, the idea was generally to work it down either wing, with both Murty and Robinson the right type of players for this role. In the Spurs game, Robinson made a few runs and showed some signs that he might be back to the form when he first joined - however, he usually failed to take the defenders on, which I think was just because they were of a higher quality than we normally see. Murty made less runs in that game, but showed many times last season that he's perfectly capable of doing so against Division 2 opposition.
The question is whether these tactics will work in our League games - if we play against a team who continually harry the opposition, I can well imagine us making little forward progress until eventually someone hoofs the ball downfield. However, none of the sides we played last season really seemed to fit that description, and you would expect that we could move the ball around well enough to move through most Division 2 teams. This formation might even allow us to get something off Bristol City this season!
Assuming that we do play the ball out of defence in this manner, we should find it far easier to maintain possession, a serious problem last season. Although I'm no advocate of persistent sitting on a lead (see the last article), there are always going to be some occasions when the right thing to do is to keep possession and run out the clock, and the signs are that we might find that considerably easier.
If any of the three Adrians pick up an injury (and let's face it, the odds are that Adie Williams will do so sooner or later), then there is always the possibility of bringing in Chris Casper and keeping the same formation. Failing that, though, I expect a switch to 4-4-2. I rate Barry Hunter higher than most, although not as highly as the fan who told me last week that he considered Hunter to be the best of our central defenders, but I can't see him fitting too well into this style of play.
The real test will be whether Alan Pardew sticks with the new plans or if things don't start so well whether he will go back to a permanent 4-4-2 with April-style big welly.
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