- Jan 11, 2005
- 644
- 418
Interesting starting line-up. Not quite sure what Ramos was trying to achieve there, though it seemed to me that Hudd was being given a fairly free role and was expected to be our surprise package. Perhaps because Ramos recognised that PSV were defensively sound, well-organised, and might just sit on their lead. Hudd didn't quite manage it, but there were times there where you could see him being much more influential if the system is tweaked to play to his strengths. At the moment I'd guess that they're not quite sure if he's good enough to justify moulding the tactics around his abilities - as Glenda undoubtedly was at his age. The only other explanation for this line-up was if Lennon had a slight knock - didn't appear so when he came on, but my Romanian (no C5 in these parts) wasn't really up to scratch so don't know if the commentary mentioned this? Whatever we may have gained from this tactical move, I think we lost as much by not having the pace and trickery of Lennon out there. The only disappointing aspect to the performance was a slight lack of fluency and pace in the attack, which I think Lennie gives us because he stretches the game so much. In hindsight, another way to approach the game would have been to tear into them at the beginning and go all out for an early goal, knowing that conceding one didn't matter too much, as we still needed 2 for an outright victory. But Ramos so nearly got it right that it's hard to fault him. The later tactical switches seemed spot on too, altho the final one surprised me in that it was unusually cautious. In the end I think we ended up playing too much long ball, which was completely unnecessary, but I think this is a bit of a default mode for some of the players, rather than a tactical plan.
One final point - a number of people have commented on the corners not beating the first man, but I thought perhaps they were trying specifically for a near-post corner which did lead to a great effort from Ledley at one point.
One final point - a number of people have commented on the corners not beating the first man, but I thought perhaps they were trying specifically for a near-post corner which did lead to a great effort from Ledley at one point.