Team Talk

last SG · 2003-02-24T23:16:27+00:00

Hi mates, thanks for your concern. I have confirmed my flight on Friday morning and will be back on Monday night. Cheers and all the best for this Sun game.

kai28 SG

colin will be out for at least the next 2 weeks…damaged ligaments

Robin.G SG

Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked ..............
Sad Sad Sad Sad Sad Hope he is going to be ok.

Hmmmm.....let's see whether I can do a "Houliier-Dudek" thingy with Robin-keeper.

Anyway, he has made quite spectacular saves before + with our solid 4 behind. I'm sure we can be equally good. Heads up.[/b]

Boon__ SG

Yo robin Personal feeling abt yst match, maybe if khai had play at centre mid. it would have given our midfield a better creativity?? but since he may have a new role as a striker or even as a left mid..i would like to try out centre mid if khai is not there...but anyway khai u like to play centre mid or prefer wings or no preferences?
I got to say that it has not been easy playing as a winger down at our home ground..wouldnt mind to try centre mid .Performances are bad at the wings Sad

Shadow_R SG

Ah Boon?? Shocked Is that you?? Steady lah! Mr. Green

Anyway, my personal view about the match was that we gave our opponents too much space (if that is at all possible in our small field!). Looking at the way they played, they were thriving on space to play passes and looking out for teammates. When we play with teams like these, teams who are better at passing the ball around, we should try to cut off the space. Our opponents were pulling back to the defenders to create more space for themselves, so we could have either pushed up a bit to restrict space to their midfielders, or really sit back in our own half to defend. I don't think we want to do the latter, so the former should have been done instead.

Among other things, I feel that we need to have more specific instructions going into the game. Firstly is what I mentioned above, which is our style of play defensively. Basically what do we do when we do not have the ball? Do we pressure our opponents to get the ball back? Close them down early? Or do we play just sit back in our half and contain our opponents? This can be told before a game or even during a game, but it is important because only if the whole team does the same thing, then will it be effective.

Secondly, is our style of attacking play, in other words, what do we do with the ball? Are we going to play a more direct style (which is what we do)? Or do we want to slow down the attacks with more passes? Of course this can be quite dynamic during the game, just because we decide to play a passing game doesn't mean you don't play a long ball to an open player. However, with the common understanding of a general style of play, we will be able to support each other better with the right type of runs and passes.

Last but not least, I think there should be more specific instructions with the formations that we use. Again, this can be quite dynamic as a lot will depend on our opponents, but with a proper understanding of each others' roles and positions, we will be able to perform better with the increased synergy. If any player has to drift due to our opponents' playing tactics, then it means that we should be switching our tactics too.

The main thing is that there are no right or wrong ways to play the game. More importantly is that we are playing a similiar style, singing to the same tune. With the proper understanding, we will definitely be able to play better as a team. Wink

Boon__ SG

Yeah it's me Ah boon Smile hopefully i can try to contribute more online
from now on

You are right that we give too much space away in midfield the last match.Got to say that our midfielders was not marking the opp at all when the opp player nearest to them doesnt have the ball.Many a times we are guilty of ball watching and trying to covering up spaces only when the opp midfielders recceive the ball.By then play would have been dictacted.A certain level of marking in midfield by all midfielders would make oppenents have a harder time in passing and easing some work load off the defenders.Marking by midfielders in not only during corners and throw in.

Regarding our style offensively, maybe we should have a game plan as to which man to target in attack(russel??)and which playmaker to look out for.This would make passing much easier.For example derrick or khai could keep themselves free on the far left and our team mates could immediately look out for them when starting a attack.
I hope the midfielders could push up a bit more to support the attack and shoulder some responsibilty in scoreing some goals.Thumbs up to jimmy and jeremy in this area.

Preferably, we should actually plan our game plan taking into account our opp's strengths, formation and weakness too.Changes should be make asap if the need arises.If we need to score goals, a defender should be sacrificed for a striker or even to the extent of pushing the defender up.For example when the chips are down, bara could be deployed as a extra striker near the far right penalty box and hopefully use his forte in excecuting the kind of shots he has done previously at hcjc.

kai28 SG

i'm gonna say this again juz this once after which i won't be bothered bringing this up again...

4-4-2 is not for us, for 2 obvious reasons; 1)we dun have the players for it, 2)our style of play does not suit the system.

4-4-2 relies largely (although not totally) on flank play. we need fast, skillful players on both wings who could attack the flanks and put in crosses into the box. the key to a successful 4-4-2 formation however is a pair of good overlapping wingbacks (btw this is a pro's view not mine). the wingbacks need to push up to make up the numbers in attack. players like bara and derrick are more suited in that right/left forward position rather than the conventional winger's role. this will give them the license to cut into the middle and take shots which is wat i noe they are craving for.

with our direct style of play, it is no wonder that our wingers are not getting enough of the ball, let alone send in crosses. juz to recap i only had 5 miserable touches in the first half (bara, this shows it happens on the left as well).

i personally feel that we are more suited for the 4-3-3 formation. i thought we had a good half when we played 4-3-3 in the previous game. i'm surprised we totally gave it up after juz that one game...of course there are certain areas we need to work on but obviously it would take some time for us to adapt rite?? it's been said that with 4-3-3 our centremid is empty, but did anybody notice how empty our centremid was even when we played 4-4-2 in the last game?? i really like the robin-jimmy-boon combi in midfield...i feel boon is under-valued in the team and shld be played in the middle.

as for the last game, to be real honest i was confident i could have caused their defense some problems if only i had continued to be played as a forward as in the previous game. not trying to sound arrogant but when u've been scoring goals it's only natural that ur confidence will be boosted (russ, u shld noe wat i mean).

anyways, juz some of my humble views...btw got a meeting this sat morning and class in the afternoon, dun noe if i can make the game.

Mit SG

Very Happy I'm back and sad to see the result. But don't worry, I believe when we settle down, we will perform well.

I totally agreed with what kai's point of view on 4-4-2. We need our left, right midfield to overlap the attacks at the frank and that require high level of fittness. The 2 strikers will stick to our opp last man, waiting to beat off-side track or hold the ball and switch it to the left or right frank or back to the centrs mid to recompose. This is really a fast attacking game which I believe our fittness level can't cope with it. If we want to play this formation, we need to practice more on cross, header and trapping the ball in the air. Just my point of view.

Another thing, trust me, don't miss this chance. You will love the field. But advise not to slide. will have abrasion.

Predator SG

Originally posted by kai28:
i'm gonna say this again juz this once after which i won't be bothered bringing this up again...

4-4-2 is not for us, for 2 obvious reasons; [b]1)we dun have the players for it, 2)our style of play does not suit the system.

4-4-2 relies largely (although not totally) on flank play. we need fast, skillful players on both wings who could attack the flanks and put in crosses into the box. the key to a successful 4-4-2 formation however is a pair of good overlapping wingbacks (btw this is a pro's view not mine). the wingbacks need to push up to make up the numbers in attack. players like bara and derrick are more suited in that right/left forward position rather than the conventional winger's role. this will give them the license to cut into the middle and take shots which is wat i noe they are craving for.

with our direct style of play, it is no wonder that our wingers are not getting enough of the ball, let alone send in crosses. juz to recap i only had 5 miserable touches in the first half (bara, this shows it happens on the left as well).

i personally feel that we are more suited for the 4-3-3 formation. i thought we had a good half when we played 4-3-3 in the previous game. i'm surprised we totally gave it up after juz that one game...of course there are certain areas we need to work on but obviously it would take some time for us to adapt rite?? it's been said that with 4-3-3 our centremid is empty, but did anybody notice how empty our centremid was even when we played 4-4-2 in the last game?? i really like the robin-jimmy-boon combi in midfield...i feel boon is under-valued in the team and shld be played in the middle.

as for the last game, to be real honest i was confident i could have caused their defense some problems if only i had continued to be played as a forward as in the previous game. not trying to sound arrogant but when u've been scoring goals it's only natural that ur confidence will be boosted (russ, u shld noe wat i mean).

anyways, juz some of my humble views...btw got a meeting this sat morning and class in the afternoon, dun noe if i can make the game. [/b]

hi Kai,
Just would like to comment that at times it depend on how strong or weak our opponents are, that decide our formation of playing. There is never a definite formation we are extremely good at if you might agree with me, which is why I find that it might be good to try out various formation and see how well we can cope with.

As for last Sunday game, that is the 1st time we are playing 4-5-1 formation and I think we did well to hold them who is playing much better than us where their midfield is concerned.

On the other hand, if our opponent is a weaker side, I am sure even when we are playing 4-4-2, we are able to adapt to it as this is what we are applying for most of our games. Laughing

Boon__ SG

I have to agree that 4-4-2 doesnt really suit our team so far.We have been trying it for many games, but seriously not many a times have our wingers have not been effective due to some reasons, A lack of speed and the the small width of our homeground.Igot to admit that i have been struggling to make even one decent run down the byline.Many a times i am caught falling too deep in trying to mark out the left midfielder.
A 4-3-3 fomation suits our team pretty well in sense that we have left right forwards in bara, kai and derrick.Playing 3 central midfielders would also give everyone a chance to rotate during the game and tighten the marking in midfield.
Though we should plan our plan against our opp, maybe we can start playing well in our 4-3-3 and let the opp worry abt us and alter their own fomation Smile

kai28 SG

robin,russ,bara...
we wld really like to hear from u guys on this since all decisions are made by u 3...

bara_cuda SG

Ahem... I am hardly involved in the decision making. Like the rest of the team, I offer my views to Robin and its really up to him. Of course, I do try to influence Robin's decisions but I am only as successful as any of you. In fact, it was you and russ who were left in charge when robin was away in KL.

4-3-3 is a very attractive option and yes, we did reasonably well when we tried it two weeks ago. We were playing well offensively but problems surfaced in our defensive plays. These problems were caused by our center mids' eagerness to defend the flanks. When the opponents attack down the flanks, the center mids should just fall back and mark out any other players near or at the center and trust the left or right back to move up and contain the player with the ball.

No matter what formation we play, we should all be very clear about our roles, both offensive and defensive.

Robin.G SG

First thing first....we got to be clear on a few things. Please take all comments constructively. It is nothing personal, okie? Wink

Decisions are not soley made by the 3 of us. Our decisions are based on discussions and feedbacks from the team. As the team's manager, I am trying to execute the decisions and strategies with the best of my abilities. Thus I continuously try to solicit feedback from all of you during half time and after the game. If you say nothing, I will take it that you are happy or you have nothing to say. Another thing is; even if there are changes to be made. It has got to be done at the right time. This change, that change.....in the end, all confused. I try to do it as it comes. If you tell the players 1001 instructions, you will have him walking off rather than enjoying and playing the game. Shocked

Please also bear in mind that decisions are not easily made or executed as it seems. Decisions would mean compromising other players' playing position, maybe playing time, the way we go about rotating players, very specific instructions on our style of play etc. If any one thinks it's easy, pls fill my shoes (this is said on a lighter note). Decisions may benefit some but may cause others to feel uncomfortable. I am trying to strike a balance thus I always check to know if all of you are comfortable playing in your postions. Try not to tell me "anything", more difficult for me in certain sense. Confused

For example, I appreciate Lancer's direct approach as he told me that he hopes that he can stick to only the striker's position, I respect that. Boon, I will also look into your suggestion to play u in the centre. In fact, I know you can play in the centre thru' a few matches previously. Yourself, Ang and Bara fitted nicely in the centre for the 4-3-3 formation as well. Khai, I dun think that you are boastful but all I can say is that how you feel or perform during the game does affect the whole morale of the team (I mean it!!). Can you tell me what position you really want to play? You told me that you dun mind trying out the left as you felt that you were not effective in the centre. I did the change. However, you did not seem comfortable during the last game and when approached, you said that it was one of your OFF days?? For old times sake, I need you to be more transparent with me. Bro, tell me in the face if you want to, I juz want to know wat the hell you are thinking so that I can try my best to see to the arrangement, can?? Rolling Eyes This goes the same for all other players as well. Wink

My 1st priority for the team is try to ensure that every single player plays a fair and enjoyable share of the game which is why we set up the team in the first place....PASSION. We will play to win but if it's becomes too much about winning only, I dun think we will enjoy the game as much. I personally like to play the whole game myself but I will rather sub myself out than take any one of you out. Fun, fun, fun....... Laughing Razz

Changes with a certain style of play does not mean that we will see improvement so quickly. Khai and Boon, I personally also like the 4-3-3 formation which I feel suits us but we need time to adapt. For last week's game, I started with 4-4-2 cos I knew that the opponents was good before the game started. I wanted to play safe in the midfield area by playing 4 rather than 3. Eventually, they had about 3 play makers who took on our 4 so easily. In the end, we got to pull back one more to midfield. For this week's coming game, I would like to try the 4-3-3 formation again but bear in mind that the field is much bigger. We might not cope that easily but we will try. I will also have very specfic instructions for the centre mid from now on. I think we lack communication and discipline in the centre. Mad

Ah Boon, I'm glad you are sharing so much online. Your suggestions will be taken into consideration. Laughing

Russ,as what I have told you, I fully understand what you are saying about specific instructions but let's put it this way, let's get our fundamentals right like marking, corners kicks and throwings before anything else. At this point of time, we can give some simple instructions on the style of play but not too many and not too complex ones. Rolling Eyes

And yes, I agree, with our "cute" home gorund, we cannot play by the flank.....one pass and it's out to neverland. Mad

One last thing, when everyone gives me different suggestions and opinions, it's difficult to come up with a decision that makes everyone happy but of course, I will try to come up with a "Win-win" situation. Cool

Khai, try not to miss this week's game, you will regret missing playing on a nice ground. I'm sure we can play some beautiful soccer this Sat (after all the hedious condition at home ground). After our game, I will be continuing to play the 5pm game with my church team on the same ground. That's how much I enjoy playing there!! Mr. Green See ya guys this Sat. Cheers.

Boon__ SG

i have to agree that team talks are for our guys to speak up, if we dont..robin will never know what we are thinking about.But due to fatigue during half time or a lack of ideas on what to say yet after the game, not many of us have really poken up alot.Online posting is good in the sense as it has given the players some time to sort out their thoughts.Hopefully more of our team mates will come in and find it meaningful too.We can discuss the match the next week as we dont have the luxury like pro team who meet up the day after or soon after the game.Hopefully we can still remember what happen during the last match.

Robin has his pt that he wanted to use 4 midfielders against our opp last week.The fomation inefficency could be due to many factors, our players weakness, our opps strength, game form.Many factors.But one thing for sure, having 5 in midfield would mean only a lone striker.Even if we are playing 4 midfielders, we could push them to be a bit more compact in the centre.

No doubt about it, the main piority of the team is not to win and win but to have fun and enjoythe game.AFter all we are a social team , therefore enjoying the game and friendship is the most important.No ones likes the losing feeling but even if we lose, it is still right that everyone in the team have a fair share of the game and be able to enjoyed the game.I would never wan too major a share of the game as it will mean less playing time for my fellow fren Smile

Lets see how this week game goes and on this pitch, it could be a diferent story.See you guys this sat and remain optimistic Smile

kai28 SG

robin,dun get me wrong...i'm not trying to question the effort u'v put in in running the team.like i said b4 u'r the very reason i decided to join this team as i'v played under u b4 back during our police days...so no hard feelings ok bro! Wink
juz wanna be honest with my views...i can pretend to be full of praise for evry1 but that wld make me a hypocrite rite... Laughing
anyways,it's only through this kind of fiery discussions that i can draw the others ( especially the quieter 1s Wink ) to participate and give meaningful "sincere views" instead of those "diplomatic" ones..
at the end of the day, being a social team, the most impt thing is to have fun on the field and to achieve this,we need to find a certain system of play which evry1 is comfortable with and happy to play...being a newborn team it's only natural that we'll get a lot of these conflicting opinions at this stage but personally i feel it's probably good for the team in the long run...btw i got to noe about this open league through a fren and i was thinking maybe we can participate in about a year's time..quite interesting,the competition is broken up into 2 parts, league and fa cup.

i have decided to skip my cls this sat so i'll be down for the game..

to all sim-ers,there's a meeting in school this sat at 8.30am with the admin dept n the other clubs and societies...colin and i will be attending.i wld really appreciate it if u guys can come down too but i won't force u...but do let me noe if u're coming.

looking forward to sat's game,feeling good about it.. Wink

Robin.G SG

[b]Boon, I guess you are right about giving feedback in here but if possible, it will also be good to hear some during the debrief so that everybody can discuss about the issue involved there & then. Nevertheless, it also make sense that we put our thoughts right before expressing. Very Happy

Khai, can I conclude that you feel better in the striking position? Rolling Eyes Things that come to my ears will not be left unattended (I know about certain things but I won't change things that easily unless you talk to me). A few have said that you are better in the striking position but......

the question to you," Is that wat you want?"

If that's what you want, I will play around with the positions and arrange accordingly. Bro, I need a confirmation. If you tell me anything again, I will put you as [email protected]# Mr. Green

Few things I would like to highlight:

During play, it is difficult to switch play/formation if we encounter problems. Russ and Khairul, you have been appointed to assist in identifying possible switches or changes. I cannot do everything, too many things on my mind.

We play to win with the best of our abilities but like wat Predator had said, we also have to learn to lose at times. Being a social team, our NO 1 OBJECTIVE is for everyone to play a fair share of the game regardless if we are losing or winning. I will try to balance such arrangements.

If anyone thinks I'm wrong in certain things, tell me. I am not God!! I am not perfect.

Previously, before the birth of the Reds, when we were all in a mess and wearing a mixture of continental colors, we tried 4-5-1 but it didn't work that well.

Now, we have tried 4-4-2. I feel that it not's working cos' not enough balls are going to the left and right wings due to a lack of discipline in the centre midfield + small size of our home grounds. We also did not utilise the potential of our full backs during this formation as well. I personally feel that we can play 4-4-2 if we want to BUT not at homeground and more specific instructions got to be given to players.

We shall attempt to try out the 4-3-3 formation and let's see how we fare from there. We will switch accordingly depending on the situation.

All said and done, let us all enjoy this beautiful game till we grow old together!! I am glad to have a team of 20 (including Chester) committed, disciplined (have to monitor) and passionate players/friends. It's only a "few" hours from our game tommorrow. Looking forward to it. Very Happy Razz Laughing Surprised Razz Wink Wink

Mit SG

Ya man! We're one bunch of passionate, committed soccer "sioew". Let's enjoy the game and play like a pro.

In fact, we have been trying almost all the formation and still haven't really found which one suit us best. As mentioned b4, we need to adjust our formation according to out app strenght and I agree with robin that we can't easily change play during the game. But I believe we can provided we have good communication during the game. We should have a mutual understanding to what role to play if we were push up or pull down during the game. That can be done throught experience in the past games and discussion before the game. That might be quite confusing to switch play in the game but we need to adapt to it. We are not like those pro that can access their opp strenght before ttheir game. we only know when the whistle first blown. But I still strongly believe we should have just one formation set and change only when can't hold our opp.

Don't miss this sat game. Very good field to play in. If possible, I will try to arrange padang field in the future with SRC. But they are still too strong for us now.

kai28 SG

the problem is we have too many players who are only comfortable playing upfront, and in midfield most are comfortable in the middle rather than the wings...with 4-3-3 i guess we can accommodate to evry1's wishes,no problems there..i'm most happy playg in any of the fwd positions and damien,jimmy,boon,urself,etc can fill the midfield spots...

but when we have to revert to 4-4-2 the problem is who to push to the wings? there's yet to be any1 who's really happy in wide positions juz like what boon had pointed out...i dun mind making way to either wings (i really mean this) but it must be made clear to the players that the style of play must change too! if we r gonna continue the direct approach to goal the 2 wingers will be isolated and will be totally left out of play...to be honest it's quite frustrating
when pple then ask me after the game why i had a quiet game on the flanks.. Laughing

Mit SG

I really got the same sentiment with kai in regards to wing play. very demorlaised and frustrated when not many balls come to you. and follow by losing cconfident and can't play to your best and....... Mr. Green

Why not trying tomorrow one more time tomorrow as the field is good for passing and is wide enough. Very Happy

lancer78 SG

Mr Manger, i have already upload the team photos to the net Mr. Green I dun think i can show the photos here so i need all the guys' email address Wink Please send all the email address to my email.. Thks Cool Cool

bara_cuda SG

Alvin, sent it to me at [email protected] and I will post it up on the forum.

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