Its ok to be different……

 With the World Cup starting on Sunday, focus will move to Qatar and the best players in the world, if they are not injured or exhausted, will be showcasing their talents. One thing I can be sure of is that most teams will play three at the back, overload midfield and look at a high or low press. 

It seems that every team wants to play a similar type of formation, style of play and some type of press. This now takes place all through the pyramid and is something I am starting to take issue with. With the top two leagues suspended now until Boxing Day, they have been getting in as many games as possible and this weekend just gone, meaning loads of football on the box. 

The East Lancashire derby was the first game on Sky with Blackburn visiting Burnley and the winner being top of the league at Xmas. Blackburn now under Jon Dahl Tomasson (JDT) play a 3-5-2 formation and like/want to build up from the back and play through the lines. Burnley played a high press to test how good they were at this and the 3-0 win for Burnley tells you a story of how the game went. Blackburn’s goalkeeper tried his best to start attacks from the back but technically he wasn’t able to pass the ball quickly or accurately enough and this allowed Burnley to win balls high up the pitch and attack at will, especially in the second half. On one occasion the goalkeeper simply passed the ball into space that a left back would normally occupy as he had three Burnley players pressing him. 

The commentator said that JDT wants to play this way as it will help his players attract more attention and clubs want to pay more for them if they can play this way. Well they can’t and this is the annoyance for me as it feels you can now only play a certain way now as this is the ‘in’ thing!!

The delight for me was that Brentford didn’t play this way at Manchester City the previous day as it is near impossible to beat or even survive against City. They did something that not many teams do or it seems many fans want to do in the current climate… they went long!!! Pep Guradiola seemed perplexed by this in the post match interview and he said they just couldn’t compete and get the ball off Ivan Toney. One wonders how Pep would have slept at night if he faced Fash and the Wimbledon team of the early 90’s. 

The analysis on Match of the Day (MOTD) was very complimentary of how Brentford adapted and showed how the Brentford team bypassed City’s midfield and got around Toney to win knock downs and attack in the final third. Now I am confident that if I was able to find a MOTD from the early 90’s, Alan Hanson and Mark Lawrenson would have been derogatory and insulting describing a Wimbledon goal that was played long. The winning goal by Brentford on Saturday was magnificent and showed the speed and technical ability of the EPL, but it also showed their is more than one way to win a game. 

It got me thinking how Johnnie Jackson (JJ) started this season wanting to play like JDT and I am not sure if this was down to his preferred style, or that he felt the new signings would be able to play this way in League 2. Players like Maghoma, Chislett and Gunter are comfortable with the ball on the floor and they will pass all day to each other, however we played so deep that Tzanev spent more time kicking the ball than touching it with his gloves. Very much like the Blackburn goalkeeper playing at the top of the Championship, Tzanev is a old-school goalkeeper who is more than able to shot stop and command his area arialy, but ask him to play like Allison at Liverpool and Ederson at City, you will see his limitations and in turn errors that then start affecting the basics of a goalkeeper, keeping the ball out of the net. 

Now JJ has gone to a flat back four and we spend less time passing to each other in our area and get the ball forward and win the seconds and all the scraps like we did against Orient in our 2-0 win against the league leaders. As the Sky commentators were saying about Blackburn, JDT wants to play a certain way to add value to his players and attract similar types of players in the loan market, however we also have a similar situation with Maghoma and Nathan Young-Coombes, however judging by the long ball played by their parent club Brentford, I am sure that the rough and tumble of League 2 will be great for their football experience and benefit Brentford when they return.