Craven Cottage Newsround

Some time ago I did a series of posts on Analyzing the Game, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. For those of you who didn’t read those posts, there were links to UEFA’s web sites section called the Training Ground. In there you can find videos of managers talking about different tactical situations and one of those managers is our own Roy Hodgson.

Out of curiosity, I watched a couple of these again this afternoon, now that we’ve seen Roy in action for a while at Fulham. I will link to them, again, because I think listening to Hodgson speak about a couple of the tactical situations is a bit telling of some of the things we’ve seen Roy implement at Fulham, and perhaps should not have been such a surprise to us. You’ll have to listen to the videos and then let me know what stood out the most to you. The first is called, Goal down after the first leg. The second is, Goal down with ten minutes left.

One of the things to look for is when Roy is commenting on being a goal down, with ten minutes left, I think it clearly points out that we will not see a manager who is prone to throw substitutes out in the final 10 minuets just to mix things up a bit like some managers. I think that’s a comment I’ve been hearing from some lately as well as myself. We’ve asked, why didn’t he make a significant substitution? Why didn’t he try something different? Well, I guess this answers the question, and whether you like his answer or not, it’s Roy’s philosophy.

In these days of Fantasy Football and everyone is a football coach, were seeking too often the miracle solution. What we’re doing really, is throwing cards up in the air. You’ve worked for a long period of time, which your convinced will score you goals. Then every time something goes against you, a bad penalty decision that puts you a goal down, a wonder 40 meter strike that hits the quarter of the net that no one could have legislated for, unlucky own goal ricocheting off one of your players. All of a sudden you decide to…well, all of the work we’ve done is of no value. Lets change everything and put a couple of players on and sling some balls into the penalty area, well, I’m not convinced.

-RH-

Yes Roy, I do believe we’ve had everyone of those unlucky things happen to us this year and then some. But there’s nothing in his interviews on how to turn that luck around. I guess what we need is for the opposition to score an own goal, or for us to score a 40 meter wonder strike, or to get a bad penalty decision to go in our favor. How about a couple of goals for the other team that are disallowed even if they were legitimate. We’ve seen it all this year, haven’t we? And substitutions galore will not be on the menu at any venue where Roy Hodgson is the manager.

But Roy, we really need a miracle solution!

A couple of interesting tidbits here. Otherwise the same old rehash we keep hearing. But in this article Roy is asked if the English long ball tactics are still true or at this point, a myth.

He also tells us why he was at the Manchester United v Lyon game on Tuesday evening, doing some work for UEFA. The man is well connected and respected.

Andy Roxburgh is the Technical Director of UEFA and his task at the end of each Champions League is to produce a report. It’s a report that is put together from a technical and tactical point of view that will hopefully give coaches an idea of any trends in the game and the way things are heading. Not least of all, it reflects the way the Champions League teams that reach the final stages try to play. Andy Roxburgh uses people like me and Gerard Houllier who have got some experience in the game. He gives us the task of going to the game and giving him a technical report on the styles of the two teams; what they are good at and basically why they have got to where they are. So it’s a watching brief; you watch the game and use your experience and power of observation to help him put the report together because he can’t see every team himself.