Just Back

Quoted from Bigdog

First half the wind naturally pushed us back, but was too strong for Swindon to play throughballs without running out of play. Having played both at centre half and centre forward, I would say it's easier to play against the wind going forward as the ball will hold up more to be able to compete for it or turn the defence and put them under pressure and easier to defend against such a strong wind as it's difficult for a marked forward to get hold of it. Passes forward need to be really accurate whereas passes against the wind don't need to be as the ball holds up in the air to give time to compete. Also crossing with your natural foot from your natural flank is more dangerous against the wind as it's easier to bend into that uncertain area between defence and keeper and with a wind like today swirl around a bit. Swindon put a few balls in like that second half which put us under a bit of pressure.

So the wind pushed us back first half, while second half I thought Swindon's play pushed us back. At times their centre midfield drove through our centre midfield and our full backs were a little exposed at times. We were quite deep both halves. The first half I'd give credit to the wind, the second half I would give the opposition credit for pushing us back. Swindon played the ball on the ground much better than we did. To compare the two halves would be like comparing chalk and cheese when it came to the very different challenges we faced in both.

I thought DC did quite well before he went off, probably a bit too deep at times which gave their midfield too much time to play and left Clifton and Hessenthaler a bit exposed. For his first game back for nearly a month, I thought AW did really well after he adjusted to the pace of the game. It's weird but playing against the wind defensively many would instinctively think the best thing to do would be play deeper when it's completely the opposite and facing the wind you should play a little deeper to cut down the danger of the ball behind which holds up in the wind. In an ideal world it would be great if we were good enough to push up in both scenarios but I guess at this level there are always compromises not always with the defenders themselves and sometimes more to do with what happens in front of them including the quality of possession the oppo have. In Woolery, I thought Swindon had the best midfielder on the pitch and he really bossed it second half and was really surprised he got substituted near the end. They didn't seem to threaten as much after that and we played out the final ten minutes relatively comfortably.

On the whole in other games I think the AW/HD partnership play naturally at least 10 yards closer to our midfield than a DC/HD partnership. It closes down the space for the opposition to play in, get shots off and keep their heads down. They're generally prevented from shooting rather than having shots blocked with last minute lunges that fly anywhere and more importantly our defenders stay on their feet more too. At the same time it closes down the space on the flanks which means that the full backs push up to our wide men more who when closer in attendance are able to support Hendrie and Fox better. I thought Pringle cheated a bit today and when Hessenthaler was moved out to the right after Pringle was substituted, he did more to support Hendrie than Pringle did all game. Pringle is a luxury player who I enjoy watching with the ball but I'm not sure if he's a long term fix due to his lack of pace and willingness to work defensively. On the other side Fox did well but their full back had the freedom of the park second half to put some dangerous balls in after Vernam went off and it left us unbalanced as neither Embleton or Clifton fully assumed that role.

So, it was hard to compare DC and AW today as DC played most of the first half and AW the rest and all of the second and both faced very different propositions..