47 crosses…

[claretspice]

Good analysis, Spice.
I'm of the opinion that if we are in a position to cross into the danger area once every two minutes we should either:
A. batter the opposition
B. Sign a massive centre forward 6^'5" or taller
C. Give up on, or at least vary from, this tactic.
Nice to see you posting BTW.

Something that occurred to me on Saturday - during Rodriguez' first season back with us, a few times when we were chasing games we went 4-3-3 with Jay playing from the flank - for example, away at Villa where it was very effective, and Rodriguez scored a fine header coming in onto a cross from the opposite flank. Even last season I can recall at least one occasion when he said in a post-match interview he'd been given a brief to pull wide to give McNeil more opportunity to go central.

Whether it's because he (and Barnes, who we also used from wide in that 4-3-3 formation) have lost a bit of pace or not, it's not something we've tried more recently. It seemed to me that as a variation on the theme it would have worked well on Saturday if the players are still up to it; giving Rodriguez the opportunity to attack the ball from beyond the width of their back 3, and from deeper, making the sort of late runs that are hard to pick up, and equally allowing Brownhill (or McNeil) to make those runs in the centre. Anything to create a bit more depth to our attack, and get players making late runs from deep that are harder to mark, or to stop - whether the purpose of the run is to score a goal, or create a chance for a goal.

I come back to it, but it's absolutely no accident that of the 3 best chances we created on Saturday, two came on about because Brownhill made a burst from deep to get onto a good pass that got him behind the back 3 (and in the latter case, the position of the resulting cross allowed Lowton to attack the ball with real pace), and the other came from a very good cross, but also the far side winger (McNeil) sneaking in beyond the three centre backs. On virtually every other occasion we attacked, there was virtually no opportunity to attack the ball or find a yard of space by pulling off a defender.

[IanMcL]

47 crosses sounds like a pilgrimage!

[boatshed bill]

Something that occurred to me on Saturday - during Rodriguez' first season back with us, a few times when we were chasing games we went 4-3-3 with Jay playing from the flank - for example, away at Villa where it was very effective, and Rodriguez scored a fine header coming in onto a cross from the opposite flank. Even last season I can recall at least one occasion when he said in a post-match interview he'd been given a brief to pull wide to give McNeil more opportunity to go central.

Whether it's because he (and Barnes, who we also used from wide in that 4-3-3 formation) have lost a bit of pace or not, it's not something we've tried more recently. It seemed to me that as a variation on the theme it would have worked well on Saturday if the players are still up to it; giving Rodriguez the opportunity to attack the ball from beyond the width of their back 3, and from deeper, making the sort of late runs that are hard to pick up, and equally allowing Brownhill (or McNeil) to make those runs in the centre. Anything to create a bit more depth to our attack, and get players making late runs from deep that are harder to mark, or to stop - whether the purpose of the run is to score a goal, or create a chance for a goal.

I come back to it, but it's absolutely no accident that of the 3 best chances we created on Saturday, two came on about because Brownhill made a burst from deep to get onto a good pass that got him behind the back 3 (and in the latter case, the position of the resulting cross allowed Lowton to attack the ball with real pace), and the other came from a very good cross, but also the far side winger (McNeil) sneaking in beyond the three centre backs. On virtually every other occasion we attacked, there was virtually no opportunity to attack the ball or find a yard of space by pulling off a defender.

That's about right, Spice.
McNeil's chance came from the best cross we made, you'd expect a striker (Barnes?) to finish that one.
Crosses in to the centre of the penalty area from deep are, at the very best, 50/50 to succeed

[IanMcL]

The problem with those that go over the CB head and suddenly land at your feet, is that your brain assumes a header, so you are surprised with only milliseconds to react.

[timshorts]

I thought this was the sequel to 27 dresses.

Next up the Blackburn part of the trilogy, 67 donkeys.