Jump to content

HOOF! Robbos Long Ball Army


TopCat

Recommended Posts

Seen this stat last week and thought it was quite interesting. We are the most 'direct' team in the Premiership and indeed one of the most direct teams in the country. Good. I like the agricultural side to our game and we get chances from the big hoofs up the middle Dunne and Gallagher and the rest of our defence regularly employ. We probably should vary it a bit more when it's not working - Saturday - but we have an identity and it seems we are sticking to it. Get the big physical lads Main and Ayunga up top, kick it long and rush. Crazy gang mentality, glorious. Would like to see us above (below?) the Ton in this league table soon too. 

gimage.png.bccefa3084d2bf7514ac0d19f8cfc5f6.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Got to say it's not my favourite type of football the last two games have been sore on the eyes.. and it must be frustrating for a player like Alex Grieve who looked like a promising young prospect last year... it might suit the likes of Main, But hoofing balls up to Grieve when he comes on is a total waste of time and painful to watch 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can understand to an extent lumping it up to Main & Ayunga but to switch your front two and continue to employ the same tactic with Brophy & Grieve up front is just lunacy .
The long ball is always gonna favour the defender who has time to watch the flight of the ball and only has to head it away , while the forward has to engineer a chance from it , when the defender then has a 3-4 inch or more height advantage , their job is made so much easier. 
 

We do have some decent ball players - let them play football. 
 

Edited by Callum Gilhooley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, stlucifer said:

I don't accept that we play the long ball all the time. Case in point was Brophy and Grieve for the third goal v DU and we have Strain and Tanser running in the wing back roles. I think we do mix it up.

No one’s saying we play it all the time but the figures quoted certainly show we do it far too much 🙄

As for the 3rd v The Arabs ?   Remember , that goal was scored once the game was virtually done n dusted , we were already 2 up and playing injury time so if we can’t play with a bit of freedom in that circumstance- when can we ? 

Also , can’t remember many instances of Strain or Tanser getting many runs or crosses in on Saturday, the ball wasn’t fed to them enough to do it .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Callum Gilhooley said:

No one’s saying we play it all the time but the figures quoted certainly show we do it far too much 🙄

As for the 3rd v The Arabs ?   Remember , that goal was scored once the game was virtually done n dusted , we were already 2 up and playing injury time so if we can’t play with a bit of freedom in that circumstance- when can we ? 

Also , can’t remember many instances of Strain or Tanser getting many runs or crosses in on Saturday, the ball wasn’t fed to them enough to do it .

A quarter of our play? That means we don't do it for three quarters of our game. I would suggest that's the very definition of mixing it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was a great cross that got our first against Celtic and a stramash in the box after a long throw that was as good as a cross that got the second .

Long ball has its place Main and Ayunga aren't great at taking on opponents on a 1 on 1.

Would rather see us mix it up and get the ball in from the wings more we have height in the team and don't use it well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, exiledfan said:

It was a great cross that got our first against Celtic and a stramash in the box after a long throw that was as good as a cross that got the second .

Long ball has its place Main and Ayunga aren't great at taking on opponents on a 1 on 1.

Would rather see us mix it up and get the ball in from the wings more we have height in the team and don't use it well. 

Watching the game on Saturday, I thought Killie had really done their homework and packed the wings to reduce our chances of getting crosses in.

The one time Tanser did put in an excellent cross, Main should have done better with his header.

As much as Erhahon, Baccus and O'Hara have done well so far, they need to be more able to exploit space in the midfield area and maybe run with the ball and get into the box. 

I was looking at stats regarding shots and we're third lowest on that count and second lowest for shots on target.

Stats Centre | SPFL

I thought Kiltie might be able to be more direct, but, for the most part, IMO he's failed to deliver in that respect, since he arrived at the club.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I totally don't see it that way . I think our defence doesn't overplay the ball and clears the ball often  to gett the hall out the danger area .

Alunga and Main then get onto these clearances and build up attacks from the half way line.  

We have hard working midfielders and wing backs that are happy to run with the ball at their feet . 

We have a simple system in place where everyone knows what they are supposed to do . 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/18/2022 at 11:35 AM, ianmac said:

Interesting, but is it more significant that the top four in that table are also the top four in the division?

I suppose it depends on the players you have that determines what style to adopt.

They have the most money and sign the best players

There’s no point in trying to play the way they do unless you can sign the same quality of players.

We’ve found tactics that can make us competitive.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

St Mirren are bottom of the possession table. Less than 38%  
 

Interesting that the league’s consistent overachievers, Livingston, have the second lowest possession

All that extra possession has done nothing for the likes of Dundee United, Kilmarnock, Ross County et al

Long may it continue 

6C8A38C4-824C-40C5-9E5B-96FB4524192C.jpeg

Edited by Sue Denim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Sue Denim said:

They have the most money and sign the best players

There’s no point in trying to play the way they do unless you can sign the same quality of players.

We’ve found tactics that can make us competitive.

 

 

I just realised after Saturday that in the league if we score first we win, if we lose the first goal, we lose and unsurprisingly, if no team scores , we draw! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/18/2022 at 4:43 PM, stlucifer said:

I don't accept that we play the long ball all the time. Case in point was Brophy and Grieve for the third goal v DU and we have Strain and Tanser running in the wing back roles. I think we do mix it up.

Generally we play the long (high) ball too much, and the consequences are that often the big defences mop the ball up fairly easily. Take the Livingston or Killie defences. They are tall and fairly physical much taller that Main, Brophy or Grieve so overall there isn't much chance of winning high balls against them. I would like to see it mixed up a bit more often, but I'm also not sure we have the dribbling kind of player that can easily beat their opposite number.  I get the impression that yes on occasions we can beat a player with speed, but not on close contact dribbling.

I agree that Grieve is a much better player when the ball is kept on the ground or he is expected to use close control, and that shows with his darting runs and goals which he generally takes well. The long high ball to him (and also BRopy to an extent) is a waste of possession.

So if you asked my opinion of what we might need for Christmas - a player who can hold the ball, beat his man and put in a good pass to sharp forwards - Too much to ask from Santa's pressie bag?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, The Original 59er said:

Generally we play the long (high) ball too much, and the consequences are that often the big defences mop the ball up fairly easily. Take the Livingston or Killie defences. They are tall and fairly physical much taller that Main, Brophy or Grieve so overall there isn't much chance of winning high balls against them. I would like to see it mixed up a bit more often, but I'm also not sure we have the dribbling kind of player that can easily beat their opposite number.  I get the impression that yes on occasions we can beat a player with speed, but not on close contact dribbling.

I agree that Grieve is a much better player when the ball is kept on the ground or he is expected to use close control, and that shows with his darting runs and goals which he generally takes well. The long high ball to him (and also BRopy to an extent) is a waste of possession.

So if you asked my opinion of what we might need for Christmas - a player who can hold the ball, beat his man and put in a good pass to sharp forwards - Too much to ask from Santa's pressie bag?

I suppose that might depend on how many players we can sell to balance the books. 🤐😥

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, The Original 59er said:

Generally we play the long (high) ball too much, and the consequences are that often the big defences mop the ball up fairly easily. Take the Livingston or Killie defences. They are tall and fairly physical much taller that Main, Brophy or Grieve so overall there isn't much chance of winning high balls against them. I would like to see it mixed up a bit more often, but I'm also not sure we have the dribbling kind of player that can easily beat their opposite number.  I get the impression that yes on occasions we can beat a player with speed, but not on close contact dribbling.

I agree that Grieve is a much better player when the ball is kept on the ground or he is expected to use close control, and that shows with his darting runs and goals which he generally takes well. The long high ball to him (and also BRopy to an extent) is a waste of possession.

So if you asked my opinion of what we might need for Christmas - a player who can hold the ball, beat his man and put in a good pass to sharp forwards - Too much to ask from Santa's pressie bag?

We beat Livi so they’re defence didn’t cope that well!

Its not about winning the long ball in the air, it’s about winning the second ball…… and we’re very good at that.

Grieve scored with a header on Saturday.

Why mix it up when our current tactics are working?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Sue Denim said:

We beat Livi so they’re defence didn’t cope that well!

Its not about winning the long ball in the air, it’s about winning the second ball…… and we’re very good at that.

Grieve scored with a header on Saturday.

Why mix it up when our current tactics are working?

 

If I look back at really successful St Mirren teams and their set up we usually had at least one if not two players in our main team that could control the ball well and pick out a pass.

e.g. 

Richardson, Stark or Weir of the early 80's

Fitzpatrick or Scanlon Mid 80's

Billy Davies or Paul Lambert around 1990

Carey, McLean McGowan and Teale of the mid naughties............... I can go on!

I'm not seeing that in our team at present.

Keanu Baccus is good at what he does but so far I haven't seen the penetrating pass regularly nor the gliding past opponents that most if not all of the above could do. Yes Grieve scored with a header on Saturday but did you note his movement before he met the head high ball into the box? His runs are dependent on good passes into the box and to be exact, it wasn't a long ball, it was a fairly short good cross.

I appreciate that cost comes into it, I also appreciate that we are a secondary, peripheral team in the context of the Premier League, but history has shown we can really become a good team with that added dimension.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Horses for courses. Robinson's tactics are all about counter attack. We don't have a great deal of possession but he wants the team to be efficient with it. Sometimes, and I stress not always, this means going from back to front. I do think people are overstating this though. A case in point is that the same folk are waxing lyrical about our midfielders. This shows we do use them. IMO, far more than is suggested.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...