Tactical discussion is a subject that’s heavily discussed at the higher levels of both club and international football, ranging from the tactical proficiency of Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool in Europe to the possession-based football of the great Italian sides.
It’s something that dominates the daily newsprint and blogs of the world: Debates on whether to attack or defend, whether to play Lampard or Gerrard for the England team, you name it. The debates are numerous in this high end of football, but for lower levels of the game like in the Coca-Cola Football League, there is not as much tactical analysis coming from the media.
For newcomers to this football format, therefore, and given the benefit of my own experience of watching a lot of League One so far this season as I live in Milton Keynes, this article will seek to offer some insight into the tactics and styles of play that can be seen this season in the Coca-Cola Football League One. Read the rest of this entry »
Dave Jones’s Cardiff City have proved a threat in recent seasons to become the first-ever Welsh side ever to break into the Barclays Premier League, but something – namely the promotion play-offs – has always gotten in the Bluebirds’ way.
This time around, however, things very well may be different.
Through four rounds of play in the Coca-Cola Championship, last year’s three sides relegated from the Premier League (Middlesborough, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion) all look like early contenders to scratch their way back into the big-time. To do that, though, they will have to compete with the likes of Cardiff, which easily dispatched of Bristol City 3-0 at home on Sunday to move to the top of the league table on goal difference.
Jones’s charges were well up for the weekend’s Severnside derby with the visiting Robins, and the hosts went ahead on a Jamie McCombe own goal on 37 minutes, with the defender redirecting a cross from Cardiff’s Adam Matthews into the visitors’ net. Michael Chopra would double the Bluebirds’ lead on the stroke of half time, and Gavin Rae sealed the win in the 66th minute with a goal of his own.
“Michael Chopra is on fire,” Jones told BBC Sport. “He’s scored seven goals already and he’s shown he will get the goals if he gets the supply.
“At the moment, the fans are enjoying it and we are enjoying it, but there’s a lot of games to go. It’s nice to be top, though.”
Cardiff are still undefeated in the Championship with a +9 goal difference, two better than Middlesborough and three better than Newcastle. Upcoming fixtures may prove tricky for them, though, as they face another Severnside derby at home to Bristol Rovers in the Carling Cup on Wednesday before facing – in order – Doncaster Rovers away, Newcastle at home, Reading away and Queens Park Rangers at home in their next four Championship matches.
Elsewhere in Coca-Cola Football League action last weekend:
Championship: Newcastle United may still be struggling to find a new owner and full-time manager, but caretaker boss Chris Hughton has the Magpies sitting third to both Cardiff and Middlesborough on goal difference after a 2-0 win away to Crystal Palace. Newcastle midfielder Kevin Nolan went five-hole on Palace keeper Darryl Flahavan to put the Magpies in the lead just two minutes into the match, and the Magpies had the game won on 21 minutes after Ryan Taylor roofed a shot from 25 yards into the net.
Notable results elsewhere in the Championship included Middlesborough’s 2-0 home win over Doncaster, Reading dropping to 21st place after a 3-1 home loss to Sheffield United, and United’s arch-rival Sheffield Wednesday putting the wood to Scunthorpe United ina 4-0 win at Hillsborough.
League One: Someone break up Charlton Athletic! After two successive relegations into the third division of English football, the Addicks are suddenly flying high, with four wins from four after Saturday’s 2-0 win over visiting Walsall at The Valley. Goals on either side of the interval from Miguel Llera and Scott Wagstaff earned Charlton the win, keeping manager Phil Parkinson’s team above Leeds United in the League One table on goal difference.
“Obviously very pleased,” the Charlton manager told BBC London 94.9 FM. I felt we weren’t quite at the level we’d reached in the other three games today…Both teams were slightly flat, but we did more than enough to win the game.”
Elsewhere in League One, Leeds United remained perfect on the young season with a 3-0 home win over Tranmere Rovers at Elland Road, MK Dons knocked Colchester United from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 2-1 win at stadium:mk, and Norwich City earned its first league win of the season in a 5-2 home triumph over also-struggling Wycombe Wanderers.
League Two: BBC Radio Nottingham has reported that League Two-leading Notts County is on the verge of signing former Portsmouth and England center-half Sol Campbell. It would be insult to injury for the Magpies’ opponents in League Two, all of which are trailing the Meadow Lane club after County’s 3-0 win on Saturday over second-place Dagenham & Redbridge. Three different players scored to keep manager Ian McParland’s side top of the League Two table, and bringing in Campbell may help the Magpies to stay top while the current five-team logjam at the head of the league table sorts itself out over the coming weeks.
Of the five clubs each with nine points at the top of the table, only Crewe Aledandra and Rotherham United won at the weekend. Crewe stayed third in the league on goal difference after 37th minute goal from captain Billy Jones proved the winner in a 1-0 victory over visiting Hereford United, and Rotherham dispatched of Rochdale 2-1 at the Don Valley Stadium on Sunday.
Rochdale are set, however, to make an official complaint after finding glass and nails at the stadium, which had just hosted a U2 concert days before. “We should have had preference with respect of playing our game,” Rochdale manager Keith Hill told BBC Radio Manchester.
Photo courtesy Paul McIlroy (via Wikimedia Commons)
A quick round-up of the weekend that was in the Coca-Cola Football League:
Championship: Dave from Newcastle of Special 1 TV fame will have been dancing in the streets along the River Tyne this last weekend following the Magpies’ 3-0 win over Reading at St. James’ Park on Saturday. The Royals’ trip to Newcastle was the highest-profile fixture the Championship division had to offer over the weekend, but the match certainly didn’t live up to expectations, with puppet Dave’s mancrush Shola Ameobi fired in a hat trick to put Newcastle into what you have to say is an up to now well-earned third spot in the table.
Elsewhere, Leicester City continued their impressive start to the season, earning a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town at Portman Road, but many will view Neil Warnock as having provided us with the division’s biggest story of the weekend. Freddie Sears appeared to score a perfectly good goal for Crystal Palace away to Bristol City on Saturday, with the ball entering the back of the net crossed before bouncing out, but referee Rob Shoebridge failed to acknowledge the goal, leaving Warnock absolutely furious, as seen in the highlights (uploaded by YouTube member Owlsince1988):
As Palace eventually lost 1-0 in a match that, it has since been announced, will not be replayed, Warnock was borderline apoplectic with reporters following the match, and rightfully so. Certainly the Yorkshireman has had a history of being overly critical of officials, but he had good cause on this occassion, even though he also criticised Bristol City for being unsporting, as the Robins did nothing to help Palace’s case. Warnock even called for the Robins to have put the ball into their own net to make up for the injustice, but for me, I don’t think Neil would have done that if he were wearing a City shirt and had the ball at his feet.
Notable results elsewhere in the Championship included Middlesborough finally hitting form in a 3-0 win away to Swansea City, Scunthorpe United defeating Derby County 3-2 at Glanford Park, and Coventry City topping the table after earning a 2-0 win away to Barsnley.
League One: Despite the early sacking of Bryan Gunn after just two matches this season, Norwich City earned a 1-1 draw away to Exeter City. With the aftermath from the Canaries 7-1 home loss to Colchester United to start the season out of the way, the Carrow Road outfit now begins a search for a new manager, with high profile targets such as Gordon Strachan linked. Until a new manager is named, Ian Butterworth has taken on a caretaker role, and the assistant under Gunn may have already brought a bit of stability back to the club after nicking a point from the Grecians on the road.
Elsewhere, Huddersfield Town made its case at the weekend to become a solid promotion candidate, with the Terriers continuing their undefeated start to the season with 3-1 home victory over Southampton at Galpharm Stadium. Man of the match Jordan Rhodes looked in fine form for the home side, grabbing two of the goals and making himself look a good bit of business after the West Yorkshire club signed him from Ipswich over the summer for an undisclosed fee.
In Wiltshire, play was stopped for 15 minutes during Swindon Town’s home clash with MK Dons after the Don’s Mathias Kouo-Doumbé collided with captain Dean Lewington, while in Birkenhead, first-year manager and Liverpool legend John Barnes gained his first victory as Tranmere Rovers manager in a 4-2 win over Gillingham at Prenton Park. His Tranmere side gained an impressive 4-2 victory vs Gillingham one of the teams of week one. The match was closer than the scoreline suggests, though, as it was a match of true end-to-end quality, and Ian Thomas Moore being in fine form having opened and finished the scoring to send the fans on the Wirral home happy.
Other League One action of note last weekend came in the form of Charlton Athletic’s 2-0 dispatch of hosts Hartlepool United, and Colchester’s 2-1 win home over Yeovil Town, thereby keeping the Essex outfit at the top of the table.
League Two: Football League new comer Burton Albion gained its first-ever league win with a 5-2 home triumph over Morecambe at the Pirelli Stadium. The Brewers’ Canadian manager Paul Peschislodo will certainly have been delighted with his side’s performance, with Greg Pearson opened the scoring for the hosts to give them their first goal at home in the Football League.
Topping the table early on, though, are new-money Notts County, with the Magpies recording a second consecutive blowout victory, this time a 4-0 thrashing of hosts Macclesfield Town at Moss Rose. County were in fine passing form, and their victory owes much to way they switched positions on the park with great efficiency.
Back down south, Bournemouth continued their dream start to the season with another 1-0 win, this time over struggling Rotherham United. The south-coast side finds itself second in the league, providing a staark difference to the Cherries’ battle against points deductions last season.
In the capital, Dagenham and Redbridge bounced back from their Carling Cup defeat to Cardiff City with an emphatic 5-3 defeat of newcomers Torquay United in a battle of the previously unbeaten. The visitors were always in the hunt at Victoria Road, though, as the Gulls ran the Daggers close throughout the game.
I don’t live in Norwich – which, I think you’ll find, is meant to be less of a complaint and more of just a casual observation – but in watching the ‘highlights’ from Norwich City’s 7-1 opening day loss at home to Colchester United, two now-known truths came to mind:
First, when it comes to DJ’ing celebrity fans, Alan Partridge < Steve Lamacq.
Second, Carrow Road absolutely cannot be a particularly fun place to be these days.
The board at Norwich seems to have caught onto that second bit as well, and even though the Canaries bounced back from the Colchester debacle to win 4-0 away at Yeovil Town on Tuesday in the first round of the Carling Cup, the club’s top brass decided to sack manager Bryan Gunn on Friday. Assistant manager Ian Butterworth has taken over in a caretaker role – the same position that Gunn had taken on in January after the departure of Glenn Roeder from the East Anglia club.
The decision to sack Gunn one game into the league season is understandable, but it leaves Norwich taking a very big risk very early on in the season. Butterworth and the Canaries travel to St James Park on Saturday to face – I can’t not say it – fellow League One strugglers Exeter City, and while the Grecians have had an even worse start to the season (losing 2-1 away to Leeds in the league and getting stomped 5-0 at home by Queens Park Rangers in the Carling Cup), what even a few seasons ago would have been a laughable matchup may now be Norwich’s biggest game in years.
It’s as simple as this: A win in Devon, and the Canaries are (at least resembling being) back on track. A loss – even one that doesn’t conjure up flashbacks of being 5-0 down at home at home at half time with fans running onto the pitch and throwing their season tickets at the manager even before the first game of the season has ended – and Norwich are again staring relegation square in the face.
In mid-August.
Elsewhere in the Coca-Cola Football League this weekend:
Championship: Saturday’s matchup at St. James’ Park between Newcastle United and Reading (17:20 GMT) is far and away the highest-profile fixture the division has to offer up this weekend. Neither of the ex-Premier League clubs have really gotten off to a flying start this season – both clubs drew in their opening matches - and if we have a winner in this game on Saturday, the loser will likely be situated near the bottom of the league table. Elsewhere on Saturday, Roy Keane will hope that his charges at Ipswich Town bounce back from opening-day defeat as they host Leicester City (15:o0), early league leaders Cardiff City travel to Blackpool (15:00), and Middlesborough faces a long trip to the south coast of Wales to face Swansea City (15:00).
League One: Surely still buoyed by their big opening-day win at Norwich, Colchester United return to Essex on Saturday for a battle of the league-unbeaten with Yeovil (15:00), the team Norwich knocked out of the Carling Cup prior to Gunn’s departure. Kicking off at the same time, Leeds United makes the trip to Adams Park for its first-ever meeting with Wycombe Wanderers, and in County Durham, Charlton Athletic will be looking to record two wins from the first two games of the season for the first time in four years as they face Hartlepool United.
League Two: Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was reunited with ex-manager Sven-Göran Eriksson this week after moving to Notts County from Manchester City, and he will be looking to impress his old boss once again, starting with the Magpies’ trip to Macclesfield Town on Saturday (15:00). Eight other League Two teams will be vying on Saturday to remain unbeaten and undrawn in the division, and two of them will face each other on Saturday, with Torquay United traveling to East London to face Dagenham & Redbridge.
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