Distibution

[The Leith Dutch]

Looking back on Saturday's farce there are a number of things that have been bugging me.

I'll stick to just one which is Distribution.
Doesn't matter who you play possession is obviously a vital part of the game but it's especially important when you're playing sides from lower divisions.
Keep the ball off them and they'll feel they should lose; Give them the ball and they'll start to believe they can win.

On Saturday we threw possession away time after time.

First off - the tactic where various members of the defence punt the ball upfield to James Collins.

Start off with the low percentage of those balls he wins and it looks a bad strategy.
Add to that the fact that on the rare occasions he does win the ball there's nobody running on from him and the midfield are regularly 15 to 20 yards deeper (I sit pretty much bang on the halfway line in the east and it tends to bring the distance between midfield and striker home).

It's a complete waste of possession.

Michael Nelson plays a lot of those balls and I'd really like to know what's been said to him.
Is he doing what he's been told to do? Is it because the rest of his team mates are giving him no other options? Has he been told not to do it but persists?

I'm not assuming it's Nelson's fault (and he's not the only one doing it) although if the reason he's doing it is the third option above then he's definitely got questions to answer.

To me Nelson is a decent defender but he should be making short passes to someone who can handle distribution and then marshalling the defence.

I dislike Wilo Flood (in an irrational way I'll give you that) but someone doing what he did for Aberdeen against us recently would allow us to cut out the kind of ball that seems to be Nelson's stock in trade.

Liam Craig was presumably trying to play that role for us on Saturday but he had a rank awful game and his distribution was slow and lacking any kind of accuracy or penetration - at least to me.

I'd really like to know what people think on why we're poor (and why we have been poor at this for ages):
Is it poor managerial tactics, the players not doing what they're told or the players not working hard enough to make the passing game work?

[Lang Toun hibby]

Spot on. Also add Ben Williams kicking the ball till there is snow on it. Drop kicking it lower and aimed at the corners (most teams do that against our full backs) would be better. High balls allow defenders to back into our only forward and then its a midfield fight for the ball which we are not winning the 50/50's. This applies to Foster and Hanlon as well. The Rovers played the ball on the ground better than we did. TB and MM should surely be trying to stop this and this was my main complaint about Sat. That and the poor timing and wrong subs.

[NadeAteMyLunch!]

Nelson has been a decent signing IMO but his distribution must be the worst I've ever seen from a professional footballer. It's on a par with something you'd see on a Sunday morning in the pub leagues. Genuinely woeful in every sense of the word. I reckon he must find a green shirt with less than 10% of his attempted passes/hoofs.
The frustrating thing is, we've been too soft at the back for years and crying out for someone like MN. He does the dirty work, seems a good influence on the younger players and seems a real threat at set pieces. Passing is not a strength though. He should be looking for the likes of Stanton every time and playing the ball into their feet, not humping it in the air. I'm also questioning whether he's being instructed to do this or not.

[Ronniekirk]

Nelson has been a decent signing IMO but his distribution must be the worst I've ever seen from a professional footballer. It's on a par with something you'd see on a Sunday morning in the pub leagues. Genuinely woeful in every sense of the word. I reckon he must find a green shirt with less than 10% of his attempted passes/hoofs.
The frustrating thing is, we've been too soft at the back for years and crying out for someone like MN. He does the dirty work, seems a good influence on the younger players and seems a real threat at set pieces. Passing is not a strength though. He should be looking for the likes of Stanton every time and playing the ball into their feet, not humping it in the air. I'm also questioning whether he's being instructed to do this or not.
That's what he did at Killie don't think he has a passing game and T B probably aware of this .so not ideal but not a lot of options as Hanlon and Nelson had looked best pairing Foster didn't work in there and McGivern can be good at centre back but not with Hanlon .