Five defenders? At home to Bristol City

[Donnyjim]

Can anyone tell me why we started with five defenders at home to Bristol City? The first half was abysmal because of this.

As soon as Lalkovic came on for Hird it was a different game. We became more of an attacking threat and Oster saw more of the ball.

Bristol City were there for the taking. We were at home for gods sake! We should have been taking the game to them?

For me, Sean is too obsessed with not losing as opposed to concentrating on winning. This has killed our away ambition and has now sadly crept into our home form.

If we are going to get out of this mire, we must be more positive at home, because lets face it we’re going to get many points on our travels.

[RobTheRover]

OK, I'll start.... Lets do this in a \"Painting with Nancy\" numbered stylee....

1) We have lost every league match so far
2) We needed to get something from this game
3) SOD's way is \"you cant hurt us when we have the ball\", hence the possession we enjoy.
4) We kept possession well for virtually all the first 60 minutes, and only found ourselves one down due to a great bit of skill and a weak-wristed keeper.
5) We DID take the game to them for the last 30 mins, and on another day would have won it when Bennett's curling shot in the closing stages would have found the bottom right hand corner.  James made a save I didnt think his 40 odd year old body could still make.

Maybe we could have been more positive from the off, but I think the stakes were too high to go gung-ho too early and get caught on the break (West Ham, anyone?) and find ourselves chasing the game from the 10th minute again.  I suspect SODs tactics were always to try to contain and wear down for an hour then make it a 30 minute battle.

[jonnydog]

At least we didn't shut up shop in the 80th minute. We kept going until the final second. Lets hope they do that more often!!

[DonnyNoel]

5 defenders yes, but it wasn't a back 5 was it? We tried something different (and positive) against Leeds and it worked ok, we tried to replicate it on Saturday but it didn't click. Whichever way we choose to line up at the back its becoming obvious to mantain an attacking tempo we can't isolate Hayter (or Brown) as much as we were doing in the first few games.

[SkellowRover]

Can anyone tell me why we started with five defenders at home to Bristol City? The first half was abysmal because of this.

As soon as Lalkovic came on for Hird it was a different game. We became more of an attacking threat and Oster saw more of the ball.

Bristol City were there for the taking. We were at home for gods sake! We should have been taking the game to them?

For me, Sean is too obsessed with not losing as opposed to concentrating on winning. This has killed our away ambition and has now sadly crept into our home form.

If we are going to get out of this mire, we must be more positive at home, because lets face it we’re going to get many points on our travels.

We played the same formation and starting lineup that we did against Leeds, which to be honest was the right thing to do as we had played well on Tuesday which was a 3-4-3 when we had possession and 5-4-1 when they had possession. When Lalkovic came on we switched to a 4-4-2 when they had possession that changed to a 4-2-4 when we had the ball which gave us more width and congested the middle less, which worked a treat :p

[steve@dcfd]

Ok Sunny Jim we played the same team that started against Leeds if you bothered to go and watch that game. we created 11 shots on goal and seven off goal. That was not negative defensive. The only other player we had available was Lalkovic who was not allowed to play against Leeds. Like others on here you will take any chance to have a go Sean but really never have a go at the club. Who have not replaced the main striker at the club with a quality loan for 24 games. But that would mean having ago at John Ryan sacrilege!!!!!

[Standanista]

There may have been 5 defenders on the pitch but we played pretty much a flat back four, with Mussy pushed up the pitch in front of Hird, basically a mirror of what we had on the oppsite flank with Bennett.  Towards the end we went with three at the back when we had possession.

[Donnyjim]

I take your salient and eloquent points guy, However, even with your B) rose tinted 'Odrisscio' spectacles on, you yourselves must realise that unless we up the anti significantly at home we will definitely go down?

Positivity from the kick off! Its key. The early bird gets the worm.
Statistics show that if we score two goals we very rarely lose the game (Leeds exception)

A match begins at 15:00 not 16:20.

ZIGA SAGA

[OxonViking]

The match does start at 3pm,well done. But the season finishes in May!
 We needed something from this game and in the end got our first point. Maybe it could/should of been 3 points,missed pen etc but at least we have something to build on and havent gone into the break on zero .
 If we play the supposed negative '5 at the back' against Cov at the end of October and draw or worse then we probably should be worried. But not in august after our recent run!

[ditch_drfc]

Is this the same Donnyjim that said the narrow loss to Leeds was the final nail in the coffin for SOD?

You should really try to kick the habit of starting f**king stupid and pointless threads. For all our sakes.

[Donnyjim]

Fair point ditch, old bean. Such an eloquent and profound response.

[Mr1Croft]

In all fairness formations and Sean O'Driscoll don't go together in my eyes. I've got used to seeing the line ups and imagining who is in the defence, who is going to be up top, then normally the other 5 will operate somewhere in the middle. He promotes an interchanging fomration in his game, that normally the two high wingers, which are usually Woods Oster and Coppinger, and now Bennet and Barnes, have a habit of swapping wings, occassionally behind the striker, sometimes playing deep, it never changes, and really depletes the oppositions trying to do a man to man marking all game...

[drfcsteve]

Is this the same Donnyjim that said the narrow loss to Leeds was the final nail in the coffin for SOD?

You should really try to kick the habit of starting f**king stupid and pointless threads. For all our sakes.

Amen to that.

[DonnyNoel]

In all fairness formations and Sean O'Driscoll don't go together in my eyes. I've got used to seeing the line ups and imagining who is in the defence, who is going to be up top, then normally the other 5 will operate somewhere in the middle. He promotes an interchanging fomration in his game, that normally the two high wingers, which are usually Woods Oster and Coppinger, and now Bennet and Barnes, have a habit of swapping wings, occassionally behind the striker, sometimes playing deep, it never changes, and really depletes the oppositions trying to do a man to man marking all game...

Agreed, also keep in mind we started life in the championship playing some of the most dull negative football ever seen, and that was with 3 strikers on the pitch. Then when we went on our all-guns-blazing run later that season we only had one striker on the pitch. Theres a lot more to how we play than a formation.

[RoversAlias]

I like the fluidity of the 5-3-2 that has been tried in the last two games. Spurr and Dumbuya have plenty of scope to get forward, Oster and Barnes among others are always getting up both ends of the pitch. People moan that SOD has only one way of thinking and playing yet he is proving he doesn't by trying different set-ups. Nothing wrong with it.