Long Ball Teams

I must admit I have had the thought that I have seen Argyle using the 'long ball' more this season than I anticipated seeing. Young Watts playing on the left of the back line is IMHO the most frequent exponent. One should ask if the midfielders are not finding space to receive a pass from the back line players, or whether the back line have insufficient confidence in their skill set to complete a successful pass. I watched the Luton v Man U match last night. Sonny Bradley was their captain and I saw him make more passes into the midfield out of defence than in any previous game I saw him play for Argyle. He is a lot older than young Watts of course so perhaps his confidence is stronger.

It doesn’t look like the most reliable of stat to represent this. A team could have all the possession, make 1000 passes and 12 of them be long balls. The other team could have practically no possession, make 10 passes all of them long balls and be seen as less of a long ball team than the other.

It would be better to see long balls as a percentage of passes made

There's also the context of the opposition pressing high on the defence and denying us the chance to pass it about. Quite evident in what I've seen so far.

Early last season I felt that at times we played too much passing football and needed the odd long ball to keep opponents guessing. That changed as the season went on.

This season I have certainly noticed a further move to the long ball. Whether that is a conscious decision from the management team or the players I’m not sure. Perhaps RL feels that the new division needs a change of tactics, which I doubt, or whether we are our varying tactics against different opposition or when we use Nouble who knows. I really can’t see RL moving too far away from his principles which was part of the reason he was employed in the first place.