Where do YOUR KO2 goals come from ?

[gdh82]

Who is your key goal scorer ? How does your style of play and choice of tactic dictate? These are the questions we asked ourselves recently, but feel free to post your own findings to this thread.....

After being inspired by the Koenigswinter boys, I thought I'd start this topic! Using the spreadsheet below, at Helland III we too would take the 10 or so seconds after each match to keep a record. Beforehand we instinctively thought it would be Barber but it wasn't quite what we expected....



As it turned out, Costas was the only player who scored most with Barber! Interestingly his second highest scorer wasn't Nicholls but E. Curtis. Of the four of us, Costas has the broadest source of goals coming from six different players. Maybe an indicator of Costas using the full width of the 'balanced' tactic?

Like the rest of us, Nicholls was my top scorer but only by a fraction. My front two accounted for 97% of my goals too, which could be a lack of variety and flair in my play! Or is this typical for a 532 player I wonder? Si's results show his habit of half-time substitutions, and like me his front two positions of a 532 tactic were his major supply route.

Ste showed the most significant use of Nicholls, even more so if Hunt's goals are added to this tally (who usually offers a fresh pair of legs for a tiring Nicholls). He also got more goals out of Scott than anyone else which is pretty impressive when you consider he can't even shoot straight.

I'm sure there are more observations but these thing stand out on first impression.

[alkis21]

Thanks for that. Statistics are always good to have!

[Kostas O]

I really believe that my awful defending messed up the statistics in this tournament. Gaz you should keep the scorers next time as well. I bet that Nicholls won't have that much of a luck.
It really felt that you were both scoring more with Nicholls against me than any other match.
Like i said this was very enlighting for me and my defending problems.
As far as scoring is concerned i would expect more from Barrett and a Scott scoring pattern like Steve's would be much appreciated by me. Nicholls hardly ever scores as he is the one making all the dirty job in my game and crossing more for Barber.

[gdh82]

Interesting comments, Costas and you may have a point about Nicholls being particularly successful against you? Got together with Si and Ste last night for a JFF and we noticed that Barber was the highest scorer for all of us. It was more of a JEFF - just experimenting for fun - actually as we each played a round using 'your' balanced tactic! Although I was very much a novice at it, I could appreciate the wide and advanced positions of the front (three?) players, which made it feel more 433 than 424 to me (despite our chat on the subject)?

Whatever the reason, keeping this kind of record definitely causes you to question your game, and your approach-play. It encourages your to explore new patterns too. How do you bring such and such into a goal scoring position and then what kind of finish? Even if I found some answers to that, there'd still be the not-so-simple task of putting the theory into practice. Like you, I'd be grateful of adding more goals from more positions. One day! hehe

[Kostas O]

Well it really feels like 3-4-3 because Nicholls plays behind Barber like a playmaker and Simpson in front of Cox. But this is what they also do in the 4-2-4 tactic with less distance on the width.
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It needs much work to master a new tactic and with the defending drawbacks of this one i wouldn't recommend it for more than an exercise. And of course to know how to play against it the next time we play

[gdh82]

Thanks for that Kostas. 3-4-3 is interesting and makes a lot of sense. It's fascinating that there's much still to discover with these ETs.

It needs much work to master a new tactic and with the defending drawbacks of this one i wouldn't recommend it for more than an exercise. And of course to know how to play against it the next time we play

I only played with it for a few games but it didn't appear to be much different defensively to 424? I was expecting the centre-back to be more advanced than he was. Then again I'm probably not sufficiently tactically aware to exploit any such weakness!

[Kostas O]

It is like 4-2-4 in the defense, with Curtis and Lindsey farther away from Cox. I was comparing it to 5-3-2 that you usually use.

[gdh82]

It is like 4-2-4 in the defense, with Curtis and Lindsey farther away from Cox.

Knowing this might encourage more 424 players to explore it more? I've mistakenly thought that all ETs are much weaker defensively (except Lockout of course). Balanced appears to offer a more advanced attack than 424 with no big defensive disadvantages?

[Kostas O]

Balanced appears to offer a more advanced attack than 424 with no big defensive disadvantages?

I wouldn't say that. Of course i use it and i love it but you always lose something to get something. It is nice and wide in the offense but this is exactly the problem in the defense. Too much space between the players.
You all took advantage of that in Birmingham
You should also ask Alkis and the rest who destroy it all the time here in Athens! No one ever felt that he should be using it instead of 4-2-4.

[alkis21]

To put it simply: Balanced gives Kostas the opportunity to dominate possession for short and medium periods of time. Sometimes he appears to have the ball on his feet for 3-4 minutes straight. But the problem is that the moment he loses possession, scoring against the Balanced defense is not a big problem for his opponents.

[Kostas O]

Of course you will have to take into account that this is not only due to the tactic. The fact that I am rubbish is a big part in this! If not the biggest