Originally Posted by
jloome
Playing in Yankee Stadium does not suit our style at all, new manager or not. Herdman likes to use width and speed to advance the ball quickly into an opponent's end.
When your opponents have so little space between midfield and their defensive zone, our counterattacking system is pretty flummoxed. And even if we do hold possession at their end, to break them down we still need fast wide players.
So without Richie, and with Spicer not up to speed yet, we weren't going to get a ton of penetration with Fede and Rutty wide.
The ball over the top early was a nice suprise, but they adapted almost instantly by keeping their backline ten yards deeper and having Sands cycle back to pick up the ball, or allow an outlet for the centre backs to advance it. With them starting from that position, there's no space behind to run into.
Without wide speed and more passing composure -- we rushed everything offensively instead of trying to hold up against the pressure and force fouls -- we were in deep shit.
I'd call it tactical failure but we're missing some key pieces, don't have much depth and it's early days.
To me the big upside yesterday was that Spicer looked like a player. A couple of tasty crosses, a jet of speed. I can see him being deployed as wide left opposite Richie wide right.