coyle’s tactics……

I was genuinely disappointed we didn’t try to play it from the back more as a lot of Carson’s kicks were picked up by red shirts.

Ah well I guess you don’t realise how much you miss some things until they are gone.

I wouldn’t read too much into a friendly game in which both teams were probably only playing at about 70% rate of effort.
On the subject of Latics aimlessly hoofing it forward, if I’m honest I can’t say that I really noticed it any more than I normally would & I didn’t listen to any of the half time bumpf from the pundits
There’s 2 ways of looking at it though – Bobby was very much a “possession is king” thinker & would rather that his layers retained possession with sideways passing that play a percentage ball forward & risk giving the opposition the ball. The thinking being that if the opposition don’t have the ball then they can’t score. The problem a lot of the time though was that attempting the build up from the back & retaining possession when under pressure lead to countless mistakes & was (IMO) responsible for a large chunk of the poor goals against stats under Bobby.
The other school of thought is if you’re under pressure at the back it is far better to clear the ball away & take the chance of winning possession back further up the field. Even if the opposition win the ball then you are less likely to concede a goal by giving the opposition the ball 20 yards inside their own half than you are giving it away 20 yards from your own goal.

In all likelihood its probably better to be able to mix it up a bit & have players who know when its the right time to hoof it & when’s the right time to retain possession – I remember the times that United seemed to threaten the most in the first half was when Latics tried to play balls out from the back & misplaced their passes

Harking back to the Martinez era, for all the talk of how he liked to play it from the back I lost count of the times the keeper would play it out short, the back line would pass it about amongst themselves for an ice age, there were no passes forward available to them, it was knocked back to the keeper who then proceeded to hoof it forward – so its not exactly as if this is an Owen Coyle thing. He’s probably just cutting out the middle bit!!

I thought the back four played well for such a new unit. They won’t face players like van Persie very often.

It’s going to take some time to build teamwork with the midfield and forwards, especially with new boys there too. With a big centre forward like Holt, there’s always the temptation to boot it towards him, although he was always going to have a difficult afternoon against Vidic.

Play must not become predictable, so long balls should be an option. But the old Wigan could play terrific long diagonal passes, usually to the wing backs. The first half against Newcastle last season was a fabulous example of mixing long and short balls.

I was surprised to see McClean picked in the starting eleven and, understandably, he found it hard to fit into the play. Passes went out to the wing, but he wasn’t there, and he lost control when he was there. His free kicks were very disappointing too.

But he only signed on Tuesday, so I’m not going to make any judgement yet. And he certainly caused problems against Wigan last season. But I can’t see how he can play with McManaman. They both need to gain experience this year, and I would say that it’s a straight choice between them.

I hope you are right and that we should not read anything into it because I was depressed after watching the hoof ball tactics.
I know there has to be a compromise and too often we conceded from our own mess created by passing it accross the back. And I have to say defensively we looked better but amongst others I thought Crainey was guilty of hoofing it far too often.
With that kind of play there is no point having gifted players like Maloney because he is just bypassed.

My thoughts after the game was that we had looked like a championship club rather than misplaced premier league team.

I am prepared to be patient and accept that it was a meaningless game for us.

Are you Owen Coyle?