To be honest I thought we played pretty well last night compared to our most recent games. We didn't play excellent football but we were passing the ball alot more, decision making was alot better, so atleast we're moving in the right direction. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel =)
The most positive aspect of our game was that everyone was willing to pass, even though some passes should've been made quicker, but that's something we can improve on individually. The big picture was looking good. A couple one-twos were even produced on the pitch which is very encouraging.
Now after making you guys feel one step closer to heaven, I'm going to take you right back down to earth.
Let's talk about our offence first, I was impresses by the increased patience shown in the build up of our attacks, although ideally the ball would be moved around even more, last night was a good first step. However, once we've worked the ball into a shooting position our forwards did not grab the chance to shoot, instead we waited too long. Our shots need to be made more decisively; when we're warming up and just shooting on goal I see that all of us can shoot with accuracy and power when the ball is not moving, now let me ask you a question, in a football match (except for free-kicks) when is the ball ever set up nicely and served on a plate perfectly still for you to shoot? Football is a fast paced sport, when a decent opportunity to shoot arises, you must grab the opportunity instantly, you cannot wait 4 seconds because by that time their defenders will have closed you down. So offensively that's something we need to work on in our next game.
Defensively I thought that under the circumstances we were in (only 1 real defender) we didn't do too bad, I think John should get the praise he deserved for sticking with the job he had (although that guy really flew horizontally when Jon pushed him with both arms in mid-air haha). However, when we attacked, we all proceeded forward and there wasn't enough players defending counter-attacks. We cannot all go forward when attacking, and we can't all go chase down the ball either, we need to spread the play out a bit more, use the width of the pitch, that way we don't have to all go and run for the ball at the same time and waste energy. This is something I really want us to improve on as soon as possible (majority of our team are smokers, we cannot all run up and down all the time), plus the sooner we sort this aspect of our game out, the more comfortable it will be for us.
Some other pointers: when any one of us has the ball, make sure you're in a position to recieve a pass (DO NOT stand in a position where he can't see you)
When the pitch is wet like yesterday, short passes need about 60% more power, because the water on the pitch will cause a substantial amount of resistence. remember this because when you think you can intercept a pass and the pitch is wet, you're most likely going to make the interception.
Long passes however work the other way round, when the ball makes contact with the ground, the ball will skid, so when recieving a long pass, either don't let the ball touch the ground or get your body in a position where even if the ball skids faster than you expected, atleast your body is in the way and can stop the ball.
Also, I want all of us to go for the loose balls, I noticed yesterday that when a loose ball came within your area, you didn't go for them, instead you let the ball keep rolling, if the ball is in your radius of 3 steps, I want you to make an effort to go get it.
To sum it up, there was noticable improvement from last time and that's a good sign. All credit to those that stuck to the game last night even in the pouring rain. The game finished 4 - 4, myself scoring one goal and newboy Jeff Woo scoring a hat-trick. Also an update on out injury list: Chris (foot), Claude (ankle), Ken Lai (knee) and Edmund (ankle)
I want a win next week!!!
Your Captain
