Credit Where Credit's Due....
By AD
March 9 2010
This season, on the rare occasions I actually get round to writing something for this site, it’s probably been noticeable that I’ve not been over-enamoured with some of the tactics Chris Coleman has deployed. At times I’ve found them to be extremely negative and offering the opposition far more respect than they deserved.
This has led to some very dull, pedestrian football and large chunks of games being played with us having our backs to the wall. At times the Ricoh should have be renamed the Alamo.
This sort of came to a head with the 4-5-1/4-4-2 debate rearing its ugly head once again against Swansea, where a creditable draw was achieved but in a very unsatisfying manner. Coleman claimed this defensiveness was necessary to get anything from the game as they are high up the league and pass the ball about so well. Detractors (such as myself) pointed out that Swansea, despite the pretty football, don’t actually score that many so in fact outright defending actually made defeat more likely by giving them a greater number of chances.
This ‘success’ in Swansea led to the same tactics being employed at home to Blackpool in the next game, even after the visitors had a man sent off, and left the Sky Blues requiring a late own goal to get anything from the game.
This angered a lot of fans, and led to a small war of words between Coleman and the supporters, with the manager using the “4-5-1 becomes 4-3-3 in attack” justification which City supporters had argued with Peter Reid a number of years before. An ill-judged (but slightly blown out of proportion) ‘Neanderthal’ comment by the former did nothing to aid relations.
Despite this, it seems that Chris Coleman has taken on board the criticisms and tried to use them constructively.
A good, in form, Forest team at home were up next, with everyone expecting another back to the walls performance, but that wasn’t completely the case and despite spending large parts of the game under pressure the team was allowed some freedom to look for a winner, and found it!
Ever since then each game has seen the team allowed out of their collective shell that little bit more, as Coleman becomes more confident that the defence can keep things tight, especially with Wood and McPake as the backbone.
The home game against Scunthorpe has been a culmination of all this when, despite being a man down after Barnett was sent-off, the full backs were still given the opportunity to support the wingers, midfielders were making runs into the box and wingers were being given the freedom to use their skill to take on their man, leading to a fully deserved 2-1 victory.
Supporters, having enjoyed the game more than in a long time, left remembering why it is they spend such large amounts of time and money following the Sky Blues, seeing attacking intent, hard work, team spirit and self-belief. The fact that City has had to request extra tickets for Peterborough can be no coincidence.
So congratulations to Chris Coleman and the players – it’s taken a bit of time to get there but things look optimistic for the end of this season and beyond.
Credit Where Credit's Due....
Posted by: Covcitytilidie (IP Logged)
Date: 09/03/2010 19:45
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