| On being a second half team 07:23 - Jan 16 with 1373 views | dmm | One of the many things I've enjoyed about this season is knowing we'll play better in the second half than we did in the first. We almost always do and to great effect, particularly with those last gasp winners. But what spell is Warburton casting over the team at HT to make them improve? The main thing I've noticed is we usually play with a higher tempo, and sometimes there's a tactical tweak like Johansen playing further forward. Perhaps he's simply able to instill greater confidence in the lads, and convince them they can play better? Whatever it is, if Warburton could make a bit more of the magic happen in the first half, we'll be absolutely flying for the rest of the season. |  | | |  |
| On being a second half team on 07:35 - Jan 16 with 1329 views | sevenhoop | Agreed. Just don’t understand why we are almost always dominated in the first half by whoever we play and ate like a different team second half. How can that be? Mind you, rather it was that way round! |  | |  |
| On being a second half team on 09:12 - Jan 16 with 1206 views | nix | I think we do play with a bit more tempo and conviction in the second half, but I also think teams watch us and play to stifle us. Barnsley last season was a case in point. With the five subs they could bring on enough fresh legs to begin the process of closing us down all over again at half time. Interesting that this season they beat us in the first half but we evened it up in the second. With three subs, you can't risk bringing on more than two subs at half time, so although they could start by closing us down every time we got the ball, they couldn't sustain that for 90 minutes, so we got a lot more time on the ball and spaces opened up that we could exploit in the second half. Also the defenders lose a bit of concentration and can't mark both forwards so effectively, as well as keeping an eye on Willock, Albert and Lee getting into the box as the game proceeds. |  | |  |
| On being a second half team on 10:55 - Jan 16 with 1052 views | francisbowles |
| On being a second half team on 09:12 - Jan 16 by nix | I think we do play with a bit more tempo and conviction in the second half, but I also think teams watch us and play to stifle us. Barnsley last season was a case in point. With the five subs they could bring on enough fresh legs to begin the process of closing us down all over again at half time. Interesting that this season they beat us in the first half but we evened it up in the second. With three subs, you can't risk bringing on more than two subs at half time, so although they could start by closing us down every time we got the ball, they couldn't sustain that for 90 minutes, so we got a lot more time on the ball and spaces opened up that we could exploit in the second half. Also the defenders lose a bit of concentration and can't mark both forwards so effectively, as well as keeping an eye on Willock, Albert and Lee getting into the box as the game proceeds. |
Nail on the head, Nix. |  | |  |
| On being a second half team on 11:20 - Jan 16 with 1014 views | dmm |
| On being a second half team on 09:12 - Jan 16 by nix | I think we do play with a bit more tempo and conviction in the second half, but I also think teams watch us and play to stifle us. Barnsley last season was a case in point. With the five subs they could bring on enough fresh legs to begin the process of closing us down all over again at half time. Interesting that this season they beat us in the first half but we evened it up in the second. With three subs, you can't risk bringing on more than two subs at half time, so although they could start by closing us down every time we got the ball, they couldn't sustain that for 90 minutes, so we got a lot more time on the ball and spaces opened up that we could exploit in the second half. Also the defenders lose a bit of concentration and can't mark both forwards so effectively, as well as keeping an eye on Willock, Albert and Lee getting into the box as the game proceeds. |
That's a really good analysis, nix. You identify something I wasn't considering: our second half improvement is as much to do with how teams play against us as to how we play ourselves. |  | |  |
| On being a second half team on 14:39 - Jan 16 with 911 views | PinnerPaul | We did have no midweek game, mentioned before the game that Clive has previously pointed out that our results are considerably better after having a week's break. |  | |  |
| On being a second half team on 14:50 - Jan 16 with 887 views | TW_R | There are some interesting stats here breaking down goals scored/conceded in 15 min segments. https://www.soccerstats.com/table.asp?league=england2&tid=k Both us and Coventry have scored 11 goals each in the last 15 mins of games, so could be an entertaining end to the game next week. |  | |  |
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