A brief intoduction here. I am a United fan of over 40 years from first being taken to a United game against Celtic which I can't remember but apparently my dad and grandad fell out with a policeman at because I had my feet the wrong side of the wall at the front of the Shed, to seeing us stuff Dundee 4-0 with the likes of Bannon, Narey, Heggy, Gough and my hero Sturrock all running riot back in early 1985, to attending the UEFA Cup final as an 8 year old which I remember more vividly than the instructions my wife gives me most days, to relegation twice (I was at Pittodrie and the game against Celtic in 1995 but I never went to Dens in 2016, after the Hamilton game which preceeded it I just couldn't take any more), to numerous Scottish and League Cup finals, great, bad and heartbreaking (re. M Kerr). This blog is mostly about DUFC but occasionally may dip into Tayport Juniors, Scotland and even Forfar Boys. It will not be a weekly thing, that is best left to Perennial Underachievers who provides the best United blog by far and the Dode Fox Podcast which is a great, interactive United addition. I'll try to look at things a wee bit more tactically than some others to try and differentiate myself. So...
Last night United played East Fife in the Betfred League Cup. We were in a strong position, a game in hand on Hearts knowing that a win would potentially win the group but certainly guarantee 2nd place and a best runners-up place in the next round. A draw with an unlikely penalty shoot-out win would also probably be enough to progress. Performances have been mixed so far although results have been good. I was at Tynecastle. We scored a brilliant goal which will probably be up there for goal of the tournament, then proceeded to give the ball away. A lot. And when I a say a lot, I mean virtually every time we had it, we gave it away. That said, we stuck to our task, worked really hard, still made two really good chances and following the substitutions, actually finished the game strongly against 10 men. I didn't go to the Stenny game but my mate described it in two Whatsapp messages: "We've still not been practising passing" followed by my response from listening to Arabzone, "It sounds shite" and finally, my mate saying, "Aimless balls to no-one, simple passes going astray. Pure bile." Anyway, onto last Friday and what we saw was much more encouraging. 4-4-2, passing out from the back into midfielders who wanted the ball and best of all, playing with pace and directness thanks to two wide players who wanted to take players on and get balls into the box, supported by full backs overlapping. The bonus being, one of the two wide players, Scott Banks, a 17 year old kid making his first start, was actually crossing the ball for players in the box, rather than seats in the stand like Paul McMullan was doing. However, as with the Brechin friendly, my excitement was diluted by the very poor standard of opposition we were facing.
Last night against East Fife, what we saw was not the worst United performance I have ever seen, but one that was certainly in the top 10. I would add that most of these ten have came in the last 4 years. Where did it all go wrong for us last night?
1. Tactics: We started in a 4-4-1-1 (as we often do regardless of opposition) but then because East Fife played a midfield diamond with 2 up front we quickly pulled Nicky Clark back, from a number 10 role into what actually looked like an orthodox midfield role in a 4-5-1 formation. Why? It appeared that Neilson was worried that it was 3 or even 4 v 2 at times in midfield and when we gave the ball away, we were getting caught on the break, a lot. However, Clark is not a number 10, he's a centre forward who looks to me to have dropped back either by his own request or at the managers insistence because he has lost a yard of pace through whatever reason. Unfortunately, he's no Eden Hazard or Ryan Gauld in the much maligned 10 position and is not going to split defences on a regular basis. In saying that, he most certainly is NOT a central midfielder. In the second half we then took Scott Banks off who had done little of note and appeared to be worried that Stewart Murdoch was going to smash him every time he got the ball (but never once switched him and McMullan to protect him) and put Louis Appere on, went 2 up although now Lawrence Shankland was dropping off to try and make things happen. Bizarrely Nicky Clark, who was STILL on despite being rank rotten and looking like a fish out of water, was now playing as a left midfielder, coming inside to allow Jamie Robson to overlap (for some bizarre reason, this was our first sub with Sporle going off). He then put Chris Mochrie, a central midfielder and a kid, on to do play the same role, again looking uncomfortable. In my opinion, the game was crying out for Logan Chalmers to go on and play wide and this should have been the first sub made for Banks along with Appere for Clark with us going a bit more direct. I'm almost tempted to say the subs looked pre-planned and the manager was more interested in trying out certain players in certain positions and formations, than trying to win the game. The final sub virtually confirmed that. It looked like Neilson had given up and it all had shades of Laszlo last summer about it. Worrying.
2. Style: A real bugbear of mine is how Scottish football mainstream media journalists NEVER question managers about their style of play or comment on it in match reports or columns. I had a bit of a ding-dong with Jim Spence about this late last night on Twitter and Spence basically said it's not their place to do this. I think this is rubbish. Down south this happens frequently at press conferences, in quality newspapers and even on the Sky Sports programme 'Hold the Back Page'. In European countries like Holland, Italy and Spain managers are pressed about style of play and tactics even more vigorously than in England. Why does that not happen here? It appears to be an unwritten rule between managers and the media in Scotland that these issues are never raised and tactics and style of play are never questioned. I seem to remember a few years ago, Paul Hartley getting very uptight when Sportscene did a bit about his tactics using that ActivPanel board that they (badly) used. Now granted, the Sportscene analysis was basic, bordering on crap but it was clearly an attempt to mirror the stuff you see on MotD and particularly, Sky Sports. It appeared that Wee Pep Hartley took umbrage at someone, not in the Largs Mafia, questioning his genius. Now whilst Hartley is a prick, I suspect you could have substituted him for any other manager in Scottish football and they would have reacted in the same way to their tactics and style of play being put under media scrutiny and taken a major strop. God knows how these guys would cope if Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher covered a Scottish game. The Sportscene analysis seems to have stopped either because of this criticism or maybe because Thompson and Stewart's smart-casual attire is just too tight for them to get up off their seats and walk across the studio. As a result of this lack of scrutiny, managers in Scotland, and in our case, the last 2 managers and our current one have all avoided any media scrutiny for employing very similar styles of play which have been driving our support to utter despair for the past 3 seasons.
What is our style under Neilson (and Casba and McKinnon)? To me it involves aiming to play on the deck at all costs. This is commendable and goes against the grain somewhat in Scottish football. However, there are major flaws with how we do it: The players are not good enough to play it on the deck at any pace or intricacy. It's dire to watch and easy to counter. Our passing and movement is too slow and ponderous. Any team who presses us is able to either hit us quickly on the break if we have committed men forward (both East Fife's goals last night being a case in point) or they force us simply hoof the ball, usually out of the park. We also seem to be sent out to endlessly pass the ball across the the back line, allowing the opposition to get back into their shape, then end up simply hoofing the ball, usually out of the park or forcing Reynolds, Connolly or Watson as it was last night to try and play an eye-of-the-needle pass which they simply cannot do. Too often last night, as with other games this season we also passed up opportunities to break quickly preferring to pass back and across the back four. Surely the manager cannot think a) this is effective especially when you are losing or holding a narrow lead b) is entertaining to watch. The collective groans in the stands last night and at Tynecastle would suggest not. In too many games under Neilson and previous managers we have started games well got a goal or occasionally two ahead then came out the second half and tried to play this way. It kills the momentum and to me gives the opposition encouragement by inviting them onto us. United defenders get a lot of stick, but to me it must be horrendous pressure playing that way, knowing that one mistake or misplaced pass will probably let the opposition in or even cost the game due to that, "Here we go again," mentality setting in on both the pitch and the stands. We couldn't even say that last night though because we were playing that laboured style even though we were actually losing the game! I cannot for the life of me understand why we have not made any attempt to sign a proper target man; not a guy like Safranko or Shankland who although both very good headers of the ball, both barely reach 6 foot tall and are easily out jumped and out muscled by the massive defenders every team has in this league. I'm taking about a massive 6 foot 5 bastard who is built like a barn door and would smash your granny out of the way to header a ball. It's not as if there isn't any choice, every other team in the Championship has one. Christ even East Fife last night and Cowdenbeath on Friday had one. Someone like that doesn't need to be a weekly starter, just an option to play in certain games or send on in games like last night where Plan A isn't working because a team is pressing our midfield so you just miss it out, go long and chase second balls, all whilst getting yourself up the park quickly. I'm not asking for us to turn into Livingston (even though it actually worked for them), just asking us to mix it up a bit. Neilson and Ashgar should be going out and buying the best one in the division. No messing about. My young lad finds us boring as anything to watch and it is getting harder and harder to motivate him to attend.
3. Attitude. I'll keep this short. All the stuff above doesn't matter one bit if your attitude is as bad as our players attitudes were last night. The manager could have got the tactics spot on last night and I think we'd still not have won this game. There was zero intensity and it was like a training game or a game played by a team who was already out of the competition and had nothing to play for. East Fife deserve real credit. For a part-time team who have played twice a week probably for the past 4 weeks and worked in jobs during the day their attitude and fitness levels were fantastic. Too many of our players looked laboured, tired/unfit, disinterested or surprisingly (since I like him) in the case of Callum Butcher: all three. Did our players think they'd just have to turn up and we'd win? Did the manager think that was (bar Connolly being out) his strongest team out so we'd just have to turn up to win? Did we really want to go through and face another game in our tough early league schedule? I don't subscribe to the last point and never will but the thought did cross my mind last night towards the end, especially given the bizarre substitutions that were made.
I'd like to see us try a few things: Cammy Smith playing off Shankland would be my first choice, especially until we choose to bring in a big target man. Cammy has NEVER been given a fair chance imho and is an actual number 10. I'd also like to see us try out a diamond formation in some games with Butcher at the base, Harkes right, Stanton (or King) left and Pawlett (or Cammy Smith, Stanton or young Mochrie) at the head of it. This would at least guarantee we play two strikers: Shankland and one from either Clark, Appere, Sow (provided he is still alive) or even McMullan and match up against teams who try to congest the midfield against us.
Moving on, we have Shrewsbury away in a friendly which, had it not required a longer, more difficult and costly journey than it would be to go and see my folks in Turkey I would have went to. I'm sure the guys and gals who go will have a ball and will be brilliant at the game. Hopefully they will not need the prism of 15 pints to enjoy the game this time. More importantly, hopefully there is a tactical epiphany by the manager between now and the ICT game in August and my next blog after our difficult start culminating in the derby is much more positive, with no managerial changes due to the fact Robbie (who we all like as a person I believe) has got it right. Thanks for reading and ARABEST!
Last night United played East Fife in the Betfred League Cup. We were in a strong position, a game in hand on Hearts knowing that a win would potentially win the group but certainly guarantee 2nd place and a best runners-up place in the next round. A draw with an unlikely penalty shoot-out win would also probably be enough to progress. Performances have been mixed so far although results have been good. I was at Tynecastle. We scored a brilliant goal which will probably be up there for goal of the tournament, then proceeded to give the ball away. A lot. And when I a say a lot, I mean virtually every time we had it, we gave it away. That said, we stuck to our task, worked really hard, still made two really good chances and following the substitutions, actually finished the game strongly against 10 men. I didn't go to the Stenny game but my mate described it in two Whatsapp messages: "We've still not been practising passing" followed by my response from listening to Arabzone, "It sounds shite" and finally, my mate saying, "Aimless balls to no-one, simple passes going astray. Pure bile." Anyway, onto last Friday and what we saw was much more encouraging. 4-4-2, passing out from the back into midfielders who wanted the ball and best of all, playing with pace and directness thanks to two wide players who wanted to take players on and get balls into the box, supported by full backs overlapping. The bonus being, one of the two wide players, Scott Banks, a 17 year old kid making his first start, was actually crossing the ball for players in the box, rather than seats in the stand like Paul McMullan was doing. However, as with the Brechin friendly, my excitement was diluted by the very poor standard of opposition we were facing.
Last night against East Fife, what we saw was not the worst United performance I have ever seen, but one that was certainly in the top 10. I would add that most of these ten have came in the last 4 years. Where did it all go wrong for us last night?
1. Tactics: We started in a 4-4-1-1 (as we often do regardless of opposition) but then because East Fife played a midfield diamond with 2 up front we quickly pulled Nicky Clark back, from a number 10 role into what actually looked like an orthodox midfield role in a 4-5-1 formation. Why? It appeared that Neilson was worried that it was 3 or even 4 v 2 at times in midfield and when we gave the ball away, we were getting caught on the break, a lot. However, Clark is not a number 10, he's a centre forward who looks to me to have dropped back either by his own request or at the managers insistence because he has lost a yard of pace through whatever reason. Unfortunately, he's no Eden Hazard or Ryan Gauld in the much maligned 10 position and is not going to split defences on a regular basis. In saying that, he most certainly is NOT a central midfielder. In the second half we then took Scott Banks off who had done little of note and appeared to be worried that Stewart Murdoch was going to smash him every time he got the ball (but never once switched him and McMullan to protect him) and put Louis Appere on, went 2 up although now Lawrence Shankland was dropping off to try and make things happen. Bizarrely Nicky Clark, who was STILL on despite being rank rotten and looking like a fish out of water, was now playing as a left midfielder, coming inside to allow Jamie Robson to overlap (for some bizarre reason, this was our first sub with Sporle going off). He then put Chris Mochrie, a central midfielder and a kid, on to do play the same role, again looking uncomfortable. In my opinion, the game was crying out for Logan Chalmers to go on and play wide and this should have been the first sub made for Banks along with Appere for Clark with us going a bit more direct. I'm almost tempted to say the subs looked pre-planned and the manager was more interested in trying out certain players in certain positions and formations, than trying to win the game. The final sub virtually confirmed that. It looked like Neilson had given up and it all had shades of Laszlo last summer about it. Worrying.
2. Style: A real bugbear of mine is how Scottish football mainstream media journalists NEVER question managers about their style of play or comment on it in match reports or columns. I had a bit of a ding-dong with Jim Spence about this late last night on Twitter and Spence basically said it's not their place to do this. I think this is rubbish. Down south this happens frequently at press conferences, in quality newspapers and even on the Sky Sports programme 'Hold the Back Page'. In European countries like Holland, Italy and Spain managers are pressed about style of play and tactics even more vigorously than in England. Why does that not happen here? It appears to be an unwritten rule between managers and the media in Scotland that these issues are never raised and tactics and style of play are never questioned. I seem to remember a few years ago, Paul Hartley getting very uptight when Sportscene did a bit about his tactics using that ActivPanel board that they (badly) used. Now granted, the Sportscene analysis was basic, bordering on crap but it was clearly an attempt to mirror the stuff you see on MotD and particularly, Sky Sports. It appeared that Wee Pep Hartley took umbrage at someone, not in the Largs Mafia, questioning his genius. Now whilst Hartley is a prick, I suspect you could have substituted him for any other manager in Scottish football and they would have reacted in the same way to their tactics and style of play being put under media scrutiny and taken a major strop. God knows how these guys would cope if Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher covered a Scottish game. The Sportscene analysis seems to have stopped either because of this criticism or maybe because Thompson and Stewart's smart-casual attire is just too tight for them to get up off their seats and walk across the studio. As a result of this lack of scrutiny, managers in Scotland, and in our case, the last 2 managers and our current one have all avoided any media scrutiny for employing very similar styles of play which have been driving our support to utter despair for the past 3 seasons.
What is our style under Neilson (and Casba and McKinnon)? To me it involves aiming to play on the deck at all costs. This is commendable and goes against the grain somewhat in Scottish football. However, there are major flaws with how we do it: The players are not good enough to play it on the deck at any pace or intricacy. It's dire to watch and easy to counter. Our passing and movement is too slow and ponderous. Any team who presses us is able to either hit us quickly on the break if we have committed men forward (both East Fife's goals last night being a case in point) or they force us simply hoof the ball, usually out of the park. We also seem to be sent out to endlessly pass the ball across the the back line, allowing the opposition to get back into their shape, then end up simply hoofing the ball, usually out of the park or forcing Reynolds, Connolly or Watson as it was last night to try and play an eye-of-the-needle pass which they simply cannot do. Too often last night, as with other games this season we also passed up opportunities to break quickly preferring to pass back and across the back four. Surely the manager cannot think a) this is effective especially when you are losing or holding a narrow lead b) is entertaining to watch. The collective groans in the stands last night and at Tynecastle would suggest not. In too many games under Neilson and previous managers we have started games well got a goal or occasionally two ahead then came out the second half and tried to play this way. It kills the momentum and to me gives the opposition encouragement by inviting them onto us. United defenders get a lot of stick, but to me it must be horrendous pressure playing that way, knowing that one mistake or misplaced pass will probably let the opposition in or even cost the game due to that, "Here we go again," mentality setting in on both the pitch and the stands. We couldn't even say that last night though because we were playing that laboured style even though we were actually losing the game! I cannot for the life of me understand why we have not made any attempt to sign a proper target man; not a guy like Safranko or Shankland who although both very good headers of the ball, both barely reach 6 foot tall and are easily out jumped and out muscled by the massive defenders every team has in this league. I'm taking about a massive 6 foot 5 bastard who is built like a barn door and would smash your granny out of the way to header a ball. It's not as if there isn't any choice, every other team in the Championship has one. Christ even East Fife last night and Cowdenbeath on Friday had one. Someone like that doesn't need to be a weekly starter, just an option to play in certain games or send on in games like last night where Plan A isn't working because a team is pressing our midfield so you just miss it out, go long and chase second balls, all whilst getting yourself up the park quickly. I'm not asking for us to turn into Livingston (even though it actually worked for them), just asking us to mix it up a bit. Neilson and Ashgar should be going out and buying the best one in the division. No messing about. My young lad finds us boring as anything to watch and it is getting harder and harder to motivate him to attend.
3. Attitude. I'll keep this short. All the stuff above doesn't matter one bit if your attitude is as bad as our players attitudes were last night. The manager could have got the tactics spot on last night and I think we'd still not have won this game. There was zero intensity and it was like a training game or a game played by a team who was already out of the competition and had nothing to play for. East Fife deserve real credit. For a part-time team who have played twice a week probably for the past 4 weeks and worked in jobs during the day their attitude and fitness levels were fantastic. Too many of our players looked laboured, tired/unfit, disinterested or surprisingly (since I like him) in the case of Callum Butcher: all three. Did our players think they'd just have to turn up and we'd win? Did the manager think that was (bar Connolly being out) his strongest team out so we'd just have to turn up to win? Did we really want to go through and face another game in our tough early league schedule? I don't subscribe to the last point and never will but the thought did cross my mind last night towards the end, especially given the bizarre substitutions that were made.
I'd like to see us try a few things: Cammy Smith playing off Shankland would be my first choice, especially until we choose to bring in a big target man. Cammy has NEVER been given a fair chance imho and is an actual number 10. I'd also like to see us try out a diamond formation in some games with Butcher at the base, Harkes right, Stanton (or King) left and Pawlett (or Cammy Smith, Stanton or young Mochrie) at the head of it. This would at least guarantee we play two strikers: Shankland and one from either Clark, Appere, Sow (provided he is still alive) or even McMullan and match up against teams who try to congest the midfield against us.
Moving on, we have Shrewsbury away in a friendly which, had it not required a longer, more difficult and costly journey than it would be to go and see my folks in Turkey I would have went to. I'm sure the guys and gals who go will have a ball and will be brilliant at the game. Hopefully they will not need the prism of 15 pints to enjoy the game this time. More importantly, hopefully there is a tactical epiphany by the manager between now and the ICT game in August and my next blog after our difficult start culminating in the derby is much more positive, with no managerial changes due to the fact Robbie (who we all like as a person I believe) has got it right. Thanks for reading and ARABEST!
Just read it and wept. Conclusively echoes my own thoughts. Unless there is some master plan afoot for the ICT game, I can see a rerun of last season's league opener under waffleshite where we were eventually played off the the park. In recent years ICT have played in a way you've highlighted that we don't. Additionally they have a grudge after the playoff semi they'll be wanting to revenge. Hopefully there is a "master plan" and we can get off to a great start. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMade an erse of it, sorry......
DeleteEnjoyed your blog. Thank you.....
ReplyDeletedecent, honest read. I'm no expert on tactics (and recall a game against St Mirren in Jim McLean days when we played 9 players who had all been in the defence at some stage that season). This team does not have much adaptability which does not augur well and I'm not going to shout 'Neilson out' but please press and push forward.
ReplyDelete"Hopefully they will not need the prism of 15 pints to enjoy the game this time" even with that inside me my eyes ar4 still bleeding at the clusterfuck cluelessness of Neilson`s tactical ineptitude. Spot on analysis of Tuesday night`s horror show, I hope the owners have Plan B to hand as be amazed if we not at another crisis situation resultwise come end of August.
ReplyDelete