Have we always played one up front under Adams? | PASOTI
  • Welcome to PASOTI. Sponsored by Lang & Potter

Have we always played one up front under Adams?

Aug 11, 2013
2,281
741
Sorry I'm not one for the finer analysis of formations and all that but have we always played with one up front under Adams? I don't remember a sole front man being the focus of our tactics until Taylor arrived? What was occurring before that worked well - that we perhaps need to revert to?

My memories are of quick feeted wide men. Wylde one side and Jervis the other and we defended deep and hit teams on the break? Perhaps I dreamt that?

So we have Wylde still. Have we got no-one quick for t'other side where we could revert to this successful approach given Ladapo is a capable front man but not suited to the hold up role.

ASB and Moore have no outlet down the wings when under pressure and the ball comes back repeatedly. Noticeable at Oxford. We have no ball carrying midfielder. We have no target man who can shield the ball and hold up play.

Adams needs a new system - what should he do starting on Saturday? Please avoid the "he's too stubborn" mantra!
 
Mar 15, 2007
5,191
3,277
Plymouth
arrythewurzel":1qrm1eel said:
Sorry I'm not one for the finer analysis of formations and all that but have we always played with one up front under Adams? I don't remember a sole front man being the focus of our tactics until Taylor arrived? What was occurring before that worked well - that we perhaps need to revert to?

Before Taylor it was Spencer, before Spencer, Brunt and before Brunt, Reid. So to answer your question, yes we've always played one up front.

Although you're right we have typically played with quicker wide players, or we did in League Two. I personally feel there's an argument to bring Carey back into the midfield 3, allowing us to get Joel Grant in wide and give us more pace. But I don't see it happening. The current idea is Carey & Lameiras will naturally drift inside, allowing ASB and Moore to overlap. That just isn't really working.
 

JannerinCardiff

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
♣️ SWAG Member
Jul 16, 2018
7,837
3,617
Cardiff
arrythewurzel":1kx5w9e5 said:
Sorry I'm not one for the finer analysis of formations and all that but have we always played with one up front under Adams? I don't remember a sole front man being the focus of our tactics until Taylor arrived? What was occurring before that worked well - that we perhaps need to revert to?

My memories are of quick feeted wide men. Wylde one side and Jervis the other and we defended deep and hit teams on the break? Perhaps I dreamt that?

So we have Wylde still. Have we got no-one quick for t'other side where we could revert to this successful approach given Ladapo is a capable front man but not suited to the hold up role.

ASB and Moore have no outlet down the wings when under pressure and the ball comes back repeatedly. Noticeable at Oxford. We have no ball carrying midfielder. We have no target man who can shield the ball and hold up play.

Adams needs a new system - what should he do starting on Saturday? Please avoid the "he's too stubborn" mantra!

I think we do have a ball carrying central midfielder, his name is Antoni Sarcevic.
 
Aug 11, 2013
2,281
741
Apart from being overweight unfit and spending more time in the treatment room than on the field - I don’t see him as such a player. Who was the guy who assisted Oxford’s first goal. Ran with ball from inside his half and laid up the assist. We’ve go no one remotely like that imo. Holmes was it ?
 

Voice of Reason

🏆 Callum Wright 23/24
Auction Winner 👨‍⚖️
🌟Sparksy Mural🌟
Sep 30, 2004
1,494
945
I'm not sure if Oxford are paying all or some of his wages, but by all accounts, he was on a 5 figure weekly sum at the Blades, certainly beyond what we would normally fork out for anyone.
 
Oct 18, 2010
4,010
0
32
St Judes
arrythewurzel":330ow3mb said:
Apart from being overweight unfit and spending more time in the treatment room than on the field - I don’t see him as such a player. Who was the guy who assisted Oxford’s first goal. Ran with ball from inside his half and laid up the assist. We’ve go no one remotely like that imo. Holmes was it ?

Wylde is capable of that but he doesn't play.
 
Feb 23, 2008
1,640
78
And this is what is so frustrating about DA's reign, yes the budget is tight, yes it's hard to get players down here etc etc. But have some tactical flexibility at least?

I've been saying for ages now it'll be the downfall of him, last season we were armchair fans for calling for a change and were told thats the way we play, yet we constantly see time and time again a winger crossing to nobody or a lone front man marked by two CBs. Wylde being an example, half the time he had no one to cross to because you had a fast winger with a pedestrian front man.

How many goals have we actually seen scored by a cross into the box met by a lone striker? How many times has that tactic actually worked?

I get the whole they're not there to score goals but to bring other players into the game routine but Taylor, Matt and maybe Spencer are the only ones I've seen capable. Another example of banging square pegs into round holes until something sticks. It's been gotten away with because it's brought some success but it's also produced some unbelievably bad performances.

It's telling that I could describe to a non HP regular on the way to Wembley how the game would pan out and what would be our likely failings after just a season of DA's tenure.

I also remember reading an interview early on where DA was asked would he be sticking with the 532 the players he had inherited had had some reasonable success with, to which he answered he wouldn't be as it was too defensive, too tempting to sit back.

But we play an attacking formation with a defensive mentality?

It's so frustrating as I think DA deserves success but I also think he's beginning to alienate the fan base with his tactical stubbornness.
 

davie nine

R.I.P
Jan 23, 2015
7,785
347
77
Plympton
arrythewurzel":2wh6vsg4 said:
Apart from being overweight unfit and spending more time in the treatment room than on the field - I don’t see him as such a player. Who was the guy who assisted Oxford’s first goal. Ran with ball from inside his half and laid up the assist. We’ve go no one remotely like that imo. Holmes was it ?
Can’t disagree that he has been injured for a considerable time that he has been with us but I believe that the suggestion that he is overweight is very unfair.
His build is such that some may think that he is overweight but when he is fully fit he is very capable of the box to box role. He was certainly very effective there from January to March.
NickSS in ‘Argyle Life’ has analysed his performance in some depth and, without watching him in to the same detail, I believe that his assessment is ‘spot on’.
He just needs a bit of luck with injuries. You can’t cater for the ‘red card’ tackle that he received when we lost to Leyton Orient in one of his early games for us.
 
Apr 20, 2008
4,166
682
Plymouth
r4h4al":36x9sqvq said:
arrythewurzel":36x9sqvq said:
Apart from being overweight unfit and spending more time in the treatment room than on the field - I don’t see him as such a player. Who was the guy who assisted Oxford’s first goal. Ran with ball from inside his half and laid up the assist. We’ve go no one remotely like that imo. Holmes was it ?

Wylde is capable of that but he doesn't play.
He is capable of that, problem is that the other 99 times out of 100 his dribbles end up in either a daisycutter cross that hits the first man, or a floated cross that ends up in the crowd.
 

Cobi Budge

Auction Winner 👨‍⚖️
Apr 8, 2011
13,427
12,031
27
Plymouth
I remember us playing Spencer & Goodwillie together on the opening day of DA's second season against Luton. It was soon changed. Although signing a player like Goodwillie must have meant DA had intended to go 2 up top as there's no way Goodwillie fits the lone striker hold up man profile that DA usually likes.
 

JannerinCardiff

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
♣️ SWAG Member
Jul 16, 2018
7,837
3,617
Cardiff
davie nine":2dx7kgm9 said:
arrythewurzel":2dx7kgm9 said:
Apart from being overweight unfit and spending more time in the treatment room than on the field - I don’t see him as such a player. Who was the guy who assisted Oxford’s first goal. Ran with ball from inside his half and laid up the assist. We’ve go no one remotely like that imo. Holmes was it ?
Can’t disagree that he has been injured for a considerable time that he has been with us but I believe that the suggestion that he is overweight is very unfair.
His build is such that some may think that he is overweight but when he is fully fit he is very capable of the box to box role. He was certainly very effective there from January to March.
NickSS in ‘Argyle Life’ has analysed his performance in some depth and, without watching him in to the same detail, I believe that his assessment is ‘spot on’.
He just needs a bit of luck with injuries. You can’t cater for the ‘red card’ tackle that he received when we lost to Leyton Orient in one of his early games for us.

I just think we need to see a fit Sarcevic - he does a lot of good work when he’s fit and firing, but I just think he’s not always been 100% fit.
 
Feb 23, 2008
1,640
78
Cobi Budge":2w8fte3m said:
I remember us playing Spencer & Goodwillie together on the opening day of DA's second season against Luton. It was soon changed. Although signing a player like Goodwillie must have meant DA had intended to go 2 up top as there's no way Goodwillie fits the lone striker hold up man profile that DA usually likes.


Not sure what games but I'm certain I saw goodwillie as a lone striker too.
 

Cobi Budge

Auction Winner 👨‍⚖️
Apr 8, 2011
13,427
12,031
27
Plymouth
Yep he was tried as the lone man in a 3 later in the season, which unsurprisingly didn't work. I felt for Goodwillie, I remember him bizarrely getting berated by many in the Lyndhurst for not winning any headers from aimless hoofs up against 6ft 4 centre backs, he was in fact a very talented and a very smart player, his movement was exceptional but that often meant he was on a different wavelength to others in the team, sadly with the system we had he could never have thrived.
 
Oct 3, 2003
3,009
17
Dundee
The exception of him being in the best place to get the white inflated thing, right?

For a manager with such inflexibility around systems, signing forwards who clearly at the outset don’t fit ‘the system’ does seem a repeat theme. Narddoll, Ciftci, DGw et al.

But it’s a tough job doing all that, admittedly.