Last Game Permutations & Season Review.

Good stuff, session next Thursday so lads?

Feck it, I'm sticking a fiver on Bar Real doing Glenwood 6-1 and us pummeling Ravenhill 8-0 to take the title!

Thanks for the stats and analysis of the season Ed, some very interesting reading.

Agree with all the positive stuff highlighted above - with the injuries I had to watch more from the sideline than I'd have liked but the lovely football we play defo made it easier to watch than previous seasons. We're a proper football team now that don't give an inch at the back and have the players to really use the ball when we get it.

Another thing to point out is that we clearly benefit from being one of the only teams in the league with a manager on the sideline. Despite what we might think out there, person on the sideline getting the full view is best placed to see what's working and what's not and Des has used that well to our advantage.

So with those positives noted we do need to focus on areas for development as that's the only way to keep making improvements.

Fully agree that we need to add 2 specialist (and fit) centre midfielders as that is our problem position, though fair play to all those who stood in to do the job their this season: it's not that things were blatantly bad in there it's just that with specialist fit midfielders we'll get more control and have more of a platform to build on.

The backchat to the refs got better but has regressed recently. We (all of us) need to just accept that the refs are muck and get over it. Even once a season is too often to switch off while either waiting for a whistle or complaining about a decision and we have definitely switched off at least once.

We play lovely football and let the ball do the work most of the time but at times that gets overcomplicated and defences figure out that we rarely play direct so they can push up on us. We need to exploit that space in behind a bit more by either playing direct through balls every now and then or trying to take on or turn a man. That'll keep em guessing and might make them less likely to push up, giving us more space in front of them to play our passing game. At times we're almost reluctant to gamble and take on a man or try something - obviously judgement is needed to only do this in the final third and not when we have spare men screaming for it, but lads should feel encouraged to try things in the final third every so often. That doesn't mean we won't still be focused on passing football, it just offers a bit of variety.

Midfielders need to get into the habit of asking themselves 'where does the striker want this ball played to?' instead of 'where do I want to play it to?' or 'where would I feel comfortable receiving it if I were the striker?'. When a player calls a certain ball it's his responsibility to worry about getting on the end of it - when a striker calls a risky ball it's because he sees an opportunity.

Our defence is generally excellent but for me is still in the habit of sitting too deep when we have a lead, moreso as the game goes on. You just have to look at the amount of times teams have gotten back into games that we were leading (and whether they took advantage of it or not is irrelevant) and the pattern is clear. Yes, we've gotten better at turning it back on once they get back in it, but why not just stay positive in the first place? I'm convinced that the number of goals we've conceded by sitting back far outweighs the number we would have conceded to hatchers or through balls if we had stayed positive. It'd be net neutral at worst and I'm sure we'd all prefer to play our attacking passing game than the keep what you have approach.

The 27 of 42 goals coming from Ciaran, Art and Dave is a great return from them but we do need to have more goal threats across the board. We don't score many from centre mid and I don't believe anyone scored from fullback this season so there is an opportunity there.

This isn't being negative lads - it's a sign of how far this team has come that we can discuss this level of fine tuning and know that we have it in our power to make them happen. You could grade this season as an A minus and look at this thread as our chance to build a plan that gets us to an A+ (and some silverware!) next season.

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Oak Tree clearly didn't have a full team. Bar Real were the worst team we played imo. No way Oak Tree would be hammered by them if they had their full strength side out. Glenwood will definitely have every single player down next Tuesday. Plus you say "only 10-0" like that's realistic?

Think you need to start turning on your realism/sarcasm/humour/harmless slagging detectors when reading Ed's posts in future cos in fairness you take the worst possible interpretation of them almost every time.

Des wrote: »

It's nothing other than fitness.

That's the simple raw fact of it.

I agree that fitness may be the primary reason behind it but don't believe that it's the only reason.

I think that if you take the mindset to press the middle of the park (by pushing up fullbacks a good bit and centre-halves a bit) and accepting the risk of being prone to an excellent through ball, you will win more breaking ball and so be in possession more (less tiring than chasing) and will also mean the game is played in a tighter space most of the time. That means centre mids have less of a sphere to cover, meaning they will tire less. For the few times a well-placed through ball goes by them, yes the defence will have a sprint to make but it really doesn't happen that often (particularly with the zip of the pitch causing through balls to run long) and I do believe they'd actually have less running to do this way.

Yes our centre mids haven't been of the highest fitness levels but the structure of how we play is currently giving them an unrealistic amount of ground to cover - the gap between defence and strikers is 60 yards at times and they would need to be superhuman to cover it all. Increased fitness and specialist midfielders can do only so much - if we don't spread the responsibility of pressuring space a bit more evenly (by pushing up a bit), the midfield will keep be overworked and overrun regardless of who they are.

Like Keith I just wanted to offer my congratulations to all involved in what has been a fantastic season.

I read the match threads every week and would consider myself something of a 'supporter', albeit from afar. The committment from the lads and Des appears to be top notch and the results reflect that, and every one of you should be proud in where you have taken the team in such a short space of time.

Looks like I'll be home for Summer 2010 so I'll be itching to jump aboard the bandwagon!

Congratulations again, and enjoy the celebrations.

Is the back pitch in Wesley not flat, hadn't noticed? Is it side to side or end to end or just off in places? Not mad about the surface on it - seems like it's trying to be both a soccer pitch and a hockey pitch but at least it's better than rocks like Columbas I guess.

Thanks for emailing them Ed. That seems a reasonable response and at least they listened and took the time to draft it.

Think we'd all prefer to limit the discretion of the refs given the inconsistent standard, but at least now we know that's how it's judged. Can't for the life of me see how the ref on Monday didn't see that 2 of our players stopped based on the opposition shout, but at least it we know it was just bad judgement as opposed to Astro.ie being unclear about the rules.

So, now we should all be aware of the rule and never stop until we hear a whistle.

On the goal difference I can understand their point that they need a consistent rule across all of their leagues and that at the upper end of the scale walkovers are unlikely and any cricket scores generally well earned. Maybe they could have it 2-tier with play-offs in the lower leagues, but then things get complicated. And at least there'll be the chance to give feedback when they add forums to the site.