KEY POINTS:

• Totally reliant on individual quality in the final 3rd
• Lack of clinicality
• Passive out of possession structure
• Players unaware of their roles out of possession
• Overly direct in deep build up

IN POSSESSION:

In possession we built in a 4-1-5 which transitions into a 3-1-6 higher up the pitch with Dan Harvie moving high and wide as seen below, the dynamism and fluidity within this shape wasn’t great though, the 8’s were static with their movements and it led to disconnection yet again between the defensive and attacking lines as we struggled to progress the ball with only Luke Leahy in a lone pivot.

There was 0 movement to either drag a marker out to create space, or to drop deep to create situational overloads from the 8’s.

No fluidity within the structure. There has got to be more adaptability when struggling to make it out the 1st phase, whether that’s dropping Leahy into the back line keeping the back 3 but this time different players occupying it, pushing both full backs on, then lowering the 8’s to complete the rotation.

Or something as simple as building in a 4-2-4 to bait the press to then find the spare man. You may think ‘come on we’re Wycombe we can’t do that’, with the tactical level modern football is at, it’s definitely an available and viable option.

The video below is what I want to start seeing us do in possession, it will allow Leahy to face forwards with the ball with more time and space which suits his profile, it gets the wingers in the half spaces and closer to goal along with it being a difficult rotation for the opposition to manage efficiently.

Another problem in possession was the mentality in deep build up, we were again so overly direct to players which profiles don’t suit this, we started Donnell McNeilly as ST and continuously hit the ball long to either him or Fred.

Here is a stat for you, McNeilly and Fred Onyedinma went up for a combined 16 aerial duels yesterday… they won a combined number of 2…

This is on the manager, overly direct mentality which isn’t getting the best out of players, and I do really wonder whether that game against Wimbledon were we really struggled to reliably progress the ball out of the the 1st phase has put an end to Duff’s idea of us playing out.

Rather than changing mentality (not a good sign to be doing it this early on) and now 75% of the time going long to players which profiles do not suit it whatsoever, how about coach the structure, principles and dynamism within it!

Fink doesn’t even play, the physicality to win 2nd balls on midfield is not good enough. Being overly direct with the squad Duff is playing goes against most of our players natural profiles. We won’t get the best out of players like this.

OUT OF POSSESSION:

Out of possession it was very poor and inconsistent, very few times we transitioned from a zonal to man to man press higher up the pitch, instead we often pressed without coordination and players often didn’t know where to be and what their roles were.

We pressed in a 4-4-2, they build with a back 3 so an immediate overload there we have to manage correctly but we didn’t. In the 1st half especially they often played through our block with ease, look at the phase of play below for example.

Fred can’t jump to press as it leaves the FB free, now what should happen is Jack Grimmer jump to their FB allowing Fred to press the ball carrier, Dan Casey comes across to the man Grimmer just left, block central passing lanes to stop them playing inside and match up ball side, leaving their spare man on the complete other side of the pitch (hard to access).

Instead of that… Fred drops off blocking the pass to the FB which then invited Henderson to jump to press, McNeilly doesn’t come across to mark the 6 and they immediately find the spare man.

In a 4-4-2 pressing shape the best way to utilise it in central areas is the ball side man of the front 2 pressing the ball side defender with a curved run blocking the return pass, the other shuffles along with intensity to man mark the 6.

We didn’t do this and this phase of play showcasing how easy it was for them to play back into central areas is very concerning and that comes from the manager. It’s very passive and players don’t know their roles out of possession. Very worrying.

Reliant on individual quality in the final 3rd:

Just a mention on how we seem so reliant on individual quality to score goals, we’ve seen glimpses of tactical quality from Duff both in and out of possession, the former against Fulham U21s to often find the spare man (Alex Lowry) between the lines through baiting the press, and the latter against Wigan with our out of possession fluidity being top with players in central areas jumping to mark the spare man if one of our own players has jumped to press someone else higher up the pitch as seen below.

In recent games though we’ve seen a lack of wide triangles, lack of box crashers from deep, usually unable to pin teams back (yesterday was an improvement in that regard in the 2nd half). I do feel like we’re overly reliant on individual quality from players like Sam Bell and Fred to create/do something to make or score a goal.

GEORGE ABBOTT LONG-TERM CONFIRMED:

Duff confirmed that George Abbott is out for a while with an injury. Irreplaceable.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I’m not going to lie to you… it’s concerning.

Yes if you look at the results it doesn’t look too bad, but that’s why it’s important to look at football through a deeper lens. Duff has shown a few tactical qualities, but so did Dodds in the first 10 games of his tenure and we all know how that ended.

Northampton was a great performance all round, Wigan too (cup game). Since then it’s not been high level.

We’ll stay up this season I’m very confident of that as we have individual quality to get us out of rough situations, but long term I’m very unsure on Duff.

One thing I will give him is the mentality he’s drilled into the squad, grinding out a result last week at Wigan, late equaliser yesterday, but the tactical approach has been lacklustre and inconsistent.

If Duff is too succeed in the long run, he needs to adapt both in and out of possession. The in possession idea is fine and CAN work, just needs fluidity and more rotations within a rigid structure and better dynamics within the system.

Out of possession so far has been way too inconsistent. Concerning.