Being the camera man on the last match. i managed to observe how
our team and every individual players play. Basicallty its kinda of
a shocker to see the way the Reds loses the ball so Very easily.
Our long passes may "look good" but usually supplied to strikers at
50-50 chances. Some players are not comfortable wif the ball.
lacked confidence. As if the ball is a "bomb" and the next thing is
to get it off as soon as possible.
The opposition, looks much betta. short passing, off-the-ball
running etc.
however the score is 0-0. sometimes, even then we play diz way, we
still wins.
Reason? to me .... its becos our players are defensive minded.
seldom u see opp strikers left free, unmarked for too long.
we play the italian style. lose possession easily, but, we pack the
defence. strikers cant take proper shots at goal. at times when
we
lose possession, the player who loses it.. will usually back track
and build up numbers in defence. or another player will do
so.
Qn: But then we can only defend. how come we can win games?
my reason... becos we soak up the attack, the opp starts to lose
their ideas and starts to tire. their defenders will wana join in
the attack. push up their off-side trap or even shag themselves by
joining the attack, tinkin dat we are incapable of scoring against
them.
this leaves gap behind.... and the chance for our strikers, who
usually doesnt do much defending ( except russell) and are still
packed wif energy to slip into the gaps and score.
guys if u ever realised, most.... in fact almost all of our goals
are either thro counter attack or set pieces.
wat i'm trying to say here is dat we are playing effective italian
football. little possession, but we can win pyschologically and the
game. overall speaking, despite limited endurance
(fittness and stamina) and skill level, our team players are
generally well disciplined and seldom plays out of team
instructions. We're in fact playing as a team and we knows the
limitation of our teammates and ourselves. if not, there's no
reason why our team can remain unbeaten for so long. its rather
flattering if u ask me....
(most of the teams we played against possess better passing and
ball skills than us)
Short passing game... currently i tink we may not be ready for it.
to me, short passing requires good skills ( one touch is not easy
esp when the pitch is lousy) and confidence. and most importantly
good overall fittness from the team. cos it requires alot of
off-the-ball running as every player has to try make themselves
available to receive a pass.
i wittness on sunday's match dat khai, bernard and jimmy trying to
do short passes. however... it broke down very soon as there are
limited options around. most are waiting for 50-50 long ball
passes.
i believe our winning formula is our current conservative style of
play. i guess we shld only try short passing when we are atleast 2
goals ahead. where there is more confidence in our players to
explore their skills.
