M.o.v.e.m.e.n.t

[ChoccieStarfish]

So now the buzz starts to fade from last night - I just wanted to bring up our issue with movement.

We are literally the only team I have watched in recent months that cannot do the basics off the ball and its why we are so poor / give away the ball so much. Numerous times in the first 80 minutes and the entire Wolves game it was the same thing consistently.

There was a clear example last night that I will try to find a clip of - where Allan picks up the ball in the middle of our own half and the 6 nearest players to him ARE LIKE FRIKKIN STATUES.

All of them!, Just stood facing him in various areas whilst he literally is spinning his head around looking for a simple option and there is nothing. 5 of the 6 are stood directly behind a newcastle player. Not one side step to make an angle. Not one runner to pull open the pitch. Not one bit of body language from players to indicate a space to play to, literally nothing.

So of course in the end he has no choice, play it backwards.

Its just a tiny sample, but it is constant throughout every 90 minutes - an entire team waiting for the opposition to move out of the way. When an everton player gets the ball the other 9 outfield players adopt the same open legged, sideways stance and wait.

Watch wolves, city, the shower, whoever - and when a player gets the ball there is 3-4-5 players exploding into action making options, even in their own third. The two times I remember us doing this basic basic work resulted in a shot on goal and a goal.

This isnt unique to Lampard, its been true most of the season - and I wonder are we lazy or just not very clever?

Its such a small change to make - but has a huge impact. Suddenly the opposition is worried when they see a swarm of activity, it sows confusion, it gives a forward pass option, it drags them out of shape.

But when we dont do any of this - its backward passes, predictable and suddenly its us needing to react to them.

I dont know what I expect from this post Just wanted to get it off my chest and wonder why I with coaching experience of under 13's can see it and a procession of "premier league" managers don't?

 

[blue to the bone]

Just had my morning movement mate. Regular as clock work. Thanks for the concern

 

[anton66]

Just had my morning movement mate. Regular as clock work. Thanks for the concern

Choccie starfish?

 

[cjuk87]

It's a massive issue and has been for as long as I can remember. I remember seasons ago, I was crying out for it. We played West Ham and every player pressed, closed down, moved for each other. It was like a different team. Then the next game, we went back to normal.

It's a strange one.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Few months? Years and years, soon as you sign for Everton the players forget how to pass the ball to move up the pitch.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Yep. It's a big, big bugbear of mine.

It actually looked like we were starting to improve in this regard when Lampard first came in.. but now we've just reverted to type. We must have the biggest bunch of 'confidence' players in the league who can't perform under a bit of pressure and you can see it in the complete lack of movement around the pitch..

 

[ChoccieStarfish]

Few months? Years and years, soon as you sign for Everton the players forget how to pass the ball to move up the pitch.

I dare say since Koeman - the movement part has been true. Under later years Moyes and Bobby's tenure we had some brilliant movement. And the thing is that when you have that movement, you dont need to be brilliant passers cos you are playing into space where there is no opposition.

Right now every player looks like they cant pass (some can't of course ) because they are needing to try and force impossible passes in tight spaces

 

[Jacko93]

We have a major confidence issue, and that manifests itself in a few ways. In my opinion of course. First, is the individuals confidence in themselves. It feels at times like nobody feels able to take responsibility, the movement and showing yourself for the ball, wanting to be the one to make the difference takes confidence and it seems that only Gordon has it at the moment.
Second is the teams confidence in each other. Watching most of the teams that come to us, they play to space and allow their teammates to make the run and get there first That come from breaking the lines and being brave, moving away from your marker, being quicker to react. the attacker needs to know the ball will come and the other needs to know the run will be made. Where we seem to be at eth minute is that the attacker is loathe to make the run, cause if they do and the ball doesn't have the quality to get to them, then the move breaks down, the opposition are on eth attack and because the attacker has moved away from their player, they cant get near them to defend and hence look daft defensively. If we had confidence in our defence, or in a defensive line, this wouldn't be so much of an issue. Likewise, if the defensive team had confidence that the forward line would move and get on a ball, they would shift it quicker.

Its quite the quandary.

 

[davek]

I dont think it's any surprise. I believe that apart from Gordon the instruction is to dont leave your team mate with too much to do defensively and dont get too dispersed as a team allowing the opposition to overload us. And at home I think it's working. It's not easy on the eye, but it's bearing fruit.

It relies on individual passages of quality to get a goal, but it's what we have to do.

This isn't unplanned.

 

[Terrarian]

So now the buzz starts to fade from last night - I just wanted to bring up our issue with movement.

We are literally the only team I have watched in recent months that cannot do the basics off the ball and its why we are so poor / give away the ball so much. Numerous times in the first 80 minutes and the entire Wolves game it was the same thing consistently.

There was a clear example last night that I will try to find a clip of - where Allan picks up the ball in the middle of our own half and the 6 nearest players to him ARE LIKE FRIKKIN STATUES.

All of them!, Just stood facing him in various areas whilst he literally is spinning his head around looking for a simple option and there is nothing. 5 of the 6 are stood directly behind a newcastle player. Not one side step to make an angle. Not one runner to pull open the pitch. Not one bit of body language from players to indicate a space to play to, literally nothing.

So of course in the end he has no choice, play it backwards.

Its just a tiny sample, but it is constant throughout every 90 minutes - an entire team waiting for the opposition to move out of the way. When an everton player gets the ball the other 9 outfield players adopt the same open legged, sideways stance and wait.

Watch wolves, city, the shower, whoever - and when a player gets the ball there is 3-4-5 players exploding into action making options, even in their own third. The two times I remember us doing this basic basic work resulted in a shot on goal and a goal.

This isnt unique to Lampard, its been true most of the season - and I wonder are we lazy or just not very clever?

Its such a small change to make - but has a huge impact. Suddenly the opposition is worried when they see a swarm of activity, it sows confusion, it gives a forward pass option, it drags them out of shape.

But when we dont do any of this - its backward passes, predictable and suddenly its us needing to react to them.

I dont know what I expect from this post Just wanted to get it off my chest and wonder why I with coaching experience of under 13's can see it and a procession of "premier league" managers don't?

It's all about confidence and taking responsibility which a lot of our senior players shirk, young Gordon is embarrassing a lot of them the way he's trying to drag them through games, maybe to his own detriment at times, trying too hard.

That is all it is though, we have a few who hide and just don't want the ball because of fear of losing it, which by the way under the previous manager would get a bollocking and that leads to people playing safe. It will change under the new coaching team but we need safety first and we can move forward next season.

 

[Axlswhk]

So now the buzz starts to fade from last night - I just wanted to bring up our issue with movement.

We are literally the only team I have watched in recent months that cannot do the basics off the ball and its why we are so poor / give away the ball so much. Numerous times in the first 80 minutes and the entire Wolves game it was the same thing consistently.

There was a clear example last night that I will try to find a clip of - where Allan picks up the ball in the middle of our own half and the 6 nearest players to him ARE LIKE FRIKKIN STATUES.

All of them!, Just stood facing him in various areas whilst he literally is spinning his head around looking for a simple option and there is nothing. 5 of the 6 are stood directly behind a newcastle player. Not one side step to make an angle. Not one runner to pull open the pitch. Not one bit of body language from players to indicate a space to play to, literally nothing.

So of course in the end he has no choice, play it backwards.

Its just a tiny sample, but it is constant throughout every 90 minutes - an entire team waiting for the opposition to move out of the way. When an everton player gets the ball the other 9 outfield players adopt the same open legged, sideways stance and wait.

Watch wolves, city, the shower, whoever - and when a player gets the ball there is 3-4-5 players exploding into action making options, even in their own third. The two times I remember us doing this basic basic work resulted in a shot on goal and a goal.

This isnt unique to Lampard, its been true most of the season - and I wonder are we lazy or just not very clever?

Its such a small change to make - but has a huge impact. Suddenly the opposition is worried when they see a swarm of activity, it sows confusion, it gives a forward pass option, it drags them out of shape.

But when we dont do any of this - its backward passes, predictable and suddenly its us needing to react to them.

I dont know what I expect from this post Just wanted to get it off my chest and wonder why I with coaching experience of under 13's can see it and a procession of "premier league" managers don't?

100% spot on. If you notice the few games we played well this season, it was build on a basis of players putting in effort and moving around with or without the ball. Leeds game is a good example.

We have a squad of millionaire footballer, yet they are not even bother to do the basics. Ironically, our lowest paid first team player, Gordon, ran his socks off.

The lack of basic footballing brain/effort is so entrenched Into our squad it’s beginning to create a negative playing culture within the team. Any manager that comes in will have to fight his was out of this culture and it is not easy, numerous manager had fail to overcome it and failed to reverse this ill habit that is so entrench in the head of our players.

Like I say countless times. You don’t need to be as skill full to run. It’s just a choice.

 

[Spart]

So now the buzz starts to fade from last night - I just wanted to bring up our issue with movement.

We are literally the only team I have watched in recent months that cannot do the basics off the ball and its why we are so poor / give away the ball so much. Numerous times in the first 80 minutes and the entire Wolves game it was the same thing consistently.

There was a clear example last night that I will try to find a clip of - where Allan picks up the ball in the middle of our own half and the 6 nearest players to him ARE LIKE FRIKKIN STATUES.

All of them!, Just stood facing him in various areas whilst he literally is spinning his head around looking for a simple option and there is nothing. 5 of the 6 are stood directly behind a newcastle player. Not one side step to make an angle. Not one runner to pull open the pitch. Not one bit of body language from players to indicate a space to play to, literally nothing.

So of course in the end he has no choice, play it backwards.

Its just a tiny sample, but it is constant throughout every 90 minutes - an entire team waiting for the opposition to move out of the way. When an everton player gets the ball the other 9 outfield players adopt the same open legged, sideways stance and wait.

Watch wolves, city, the shower, whoever - and when a player gets the ball there is 3-4-5 players exploding into action making options, even in their own third. The two times I remember us doing this basic basic work resulted in a shot on goal and a goal.

This isnt unique to Lampard, its been true most of the season - and I wonder are we lazy or just not very clever?

Its such a small change to make - but has a huge impact. Suddenly the opposition is worried when they see a swarm of activity, it sows confusion, it gives a forward pass option, it drags them out of shape.

But when we dont do any of this - its backward passes, predictable and suddenly its us needing to react to them.

I dont know what I expect from this post Just wanted to get it off my chest and wonder why I with coaching experience of under 13's can see it and a procession of "premier league" managers don't?

I think 6 changes of manager in less than a decade will explain a lot of this. They will come with different ideas of how the players should play off the ball, so after so many different tactical regimes it no wonder their heads haven't got a clue what they are supposed to be doing without the ball. With the ball to a certain extent its easier because you are a professional footballer, you' ve spent your whole life knowing what to do with a football at your feet, so instinct kind of takes over regardless of what the manager or coaches have taught you, but without the ball and when taking or defending set pieces, the bits where you are supposed to work together as a unit and rely on a plan, they haven't a chance, because there hasn't been a consistent, coherent one for such a long time.

 

[Spart]

100% spot on. If you notice the few games we played well this season, it was build on a basis of players putting in effort and moving around with or without the ball. Leeds game is a good example.

We have a squad of millionaire footballer, yet they are not even bother to do the basics. Ironically, our lowest paid first team player, Gordon, ran his socks off.

The lack of basic footballing brain/effort is so entrenched Into our squad it’s beginning to create a negative playing culture within the team. Any manager that comes in will have to fight his was out of this culture and it is not easy, numerous manager had fail to overcome it and failed to reverse this ill habit that is so entrench in the head of our players.

Like I say countless times. You don’t need to be as skill full to run. It’s just a choice.

Like so many you make the mistake of blaming the players, for things like a lack of effort or not doing the basics, but then completely disregard the fact that these things aren't as easy as you might think, especially when everything above them seems to contain no consistent, cohesive plan (see my other post above).

To blame for this is no the players, its the directors who have chopped and changed manager so many times, its the coaching staff that have failed to nurture a set formation and way of playing for the team over a long period of time and even to a certain extent us the fans for constantly demanding managers be sacked or certain players be dropped because we've long since lost the patience required to build something steadily progressive.

 

[RomanReigns]

The Weeping Angels from Dr Who move quicker than our team do

 

[ChoccieStarfish]

Agree with the effort comments - there was no lack of effort in several matches, but we are wasting the effort in chasing shadows because we just gave it away after 2 passes again. Put the effort in when we have the ball instead of having a nice rest - then suddenly you find you aint chasing any more! You arent trying to react to them, they are needing to react to you.

About the 6 managers - I get it, I do.... Allardici, Koeman and the Agent were all about bodies behind the ball hoof it to a pin-ball machine when you get the chance. At best the wingers were allowed to run.

But its so frustrating - and for all the attention given to "enjoy the ball" I freaking hope there is some work on the other 10 highly paid maestros getting their finger out