Have been thinking about the differences between our '433' and PSV/Feyenoord's who I thought were very similar. The Dutch seem much better than us at stretching the play when attacking, is that fair assessment? If so, why do we think that is? I've put 433 in quotes for us as we don't stick to that but I think we will see more of it this season with Tillman/Lawrence in the middle and Kent/Matondo as wingers.
I'd say technical ability of the players is a big factor, being more comfortable on the ball means they can move it more quickly without taking an extra touch/pass that I think we do too often.
Also, how they position their players, when they were building the play from the back, it seemed that they had 5/6 genuine short passing options until they got to the final third whereas we probably have 2/3 before we have to think about a longer, riskier pass or a sideways ineffectual pass that doesn't get us forward. I'd say we are good (better than we were) at building triangles in between keeper, CHs and DCM but once we get into midfield it breaks down a bit. There was one point when they were attacking down our right hand side in the first half where it seemed to go form keeper -> LCH -> LB -> LCM then out to the their left winger who got past Tav and was right on the edge of our box within maybe 10s of the keeper having the ball. Each pass was, maybe 15 yards, on the deck and they zig-zagged the ball right through our team.
Also in the second half when they were having the better of it, we dropped back to a back 4 with FBs pretty much in line with CHs, and De Jong was no where near any of our back 4. He was in midfield with the wingers allowing them to overrun us in midfield - this might be where we miss Bassey as he was comfortable following strikers into midfield but I think we'd be wary of leaving a gap for one of their wingers/midfield to attack.
The bit of play that impressed me the most was this one however....
They knock it about on our left side with 3 of their players in high and wide positions forcing us to have a bunch of players out left, it gets played into their number 11 who is central, he plays it back to midfielder who is 50 yards from goal he shapes as if to play it wide. As we've been dragged out to our left, Tav and Wright automatically start moving out wide because of the space we've left and the PSV players body shape but the guy slides it inside both and they're one on one with McLaughlin. If the guy cuts it back to the #11 on the edge of the box it'd have been a gorgeous goal but thankfully he picked the wrong option. This is something that I have been banging on about us doing, overloading one side trying to drag the team over to that side then releasing it quickly to someone on the opposite side but like this rather than a switch of play.
I don't watch Dutch football so not sure if PSV/Ajax would come up against the park the bus attitude we get. Went to a Ajax game while in Amsterdam years ago and it was a team I'd never heard of before but they had a go at them.
We should be looking to learn from the Dutch and how they create space, and work well as an attacking system. I was more impressed by Feyenoord than PSV actually but Feyenoord seemed a bit more naive and Morelos was on fire away from home, expect PSV will be a tougher ask.
I'd say technical ability of the players is a big factor, being more comfortable on the ball means they can move it more quickly without taking an extra touch/pass that I think we do too often.
Also, how they position their players, when they were building the play from the back, it seemed that they had 5/6 genuine short passing options until they got to the final third whereas we probably have 2/3 before we have to think about a longer, riskier pass or a sideways ineffectual pass that doesn't get us forward. I'd say we are good (better than we were) at building triangles in between keeper, CHs and DCM but once we get into midfield it breaks down a bit. There was one point when they were attacking down our right hand side in the first half where it seemed to go form keeper -> LCH -> LB -> LCM then out to the their left winger who got past Tav and was right on the edge of our box within maybe 10s of the keeper having the ball. Each pass was, maybe 15 yards, on the deck and they zig-zagged the ball right through our team.
Also in the second half when they were having the better of it, we dropped back to a back 4 with FBs pretty much in line with CHs, and De Jong was no where near any of our back 4. He was in midfield with the wingers allowing them to overrun us in midfield - this might be where we miss Bassey as he was comfortable following strikers into midfield but I think we'd be wary of leaving a gap for one of their wingers/midfield to attack.
The bit of play that impressed me the most was this one however....
They knock it about on our left side with 3 of their players in high and wide positions forcing us to have a bunch of players out left, it gets played into their number 11 who is central, he plays it back to midfielder who is 50 yards from goal he shapes as if to play it wide. As we've been dragged out to our left, Tav and Wright automatically start moving out wide because of the space we've left and the PSV players body shape but the guy slides it inside both and they're one on one with McLaughlin. If the guy cuts it back to the #11 on the edge of the box it'd have been a gorgeous goal but thankfully he picked the wrong option. This is something that I have been banging on about us doing, overloading one side trying to drag the team over to that side then releasing it quickly to someone on the opposite side but like this rather than a switch of play.
I don't watch Dutch football so not sure if PSV/Ajax would come up against the park the bus attitude we get. Went to a Ajax game while in Amsterdam years ago and it was a team I'd never heard of before but they had a go at them.
We should be looking to learn from the Dutch and how they create space, and work well as an attacking system. I was more impressed by Feyenoord than PSV actually but Feyenoord seemed a bit more naive and Morelos was on fire away from home, expect PSV will be a tougher ask.