It WAS about tactics today !

[JimmyG2]

Surely it's better to atleast make a change, especially as you have just gone 2 nil down, than to sit and carry on in the same vain.

How do you know how anyone from the bench can turn a game, until you throw them on??

imo at 2 nil and 60 minutes gone, it's time to have a rethink.

Exactly.
I'm not talking about hindsight,or that we played well in areas where they allowed us to.
At 2-0 down on the hour mark you do something, anything almost.
It's not working, try something else.
Krancjar or Defoe or Dos santos for Saha.
Joe Jordan for Adebayor
It's Harry's bench why were they there?

 

[hybridsoldier]

I'll be honest, I haven't read most of this thread, and I am sure someone has already mentioned this but:

Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the most respected and successful coaches ever in English football said he tactically got it wrong and Spurs got it right.

On top of this is you WATCHED THE GAME, we dominated up until the 2nd goal at which point the heads dropped and the third was a quality strike with time and space.

I hate when people bring out the tactics pole to bash Harry with, for God's sake the man has been managing for 25 years + at all levels and will be the next manager of the England national team, with "average tactical knowledge". This is complete and utter garbage.

People read to many of these up their own arse, know better than everyone else, journalist articles or listen to people who read them. These hacks have made every bloody joe bloggs a tactical genius in their own lunch break.

Harry made mistakes - Defoe not coming on sooner, Kranjcar coming on when we needed pace on. But he got the shape as best he could with the personnel available and we did everything but score.

What cost us was errors: Walker letting Rooney run (why wasn't Kaboul marking him anyway?), falling asleep at a throw in, and giving Young time and space to have a go.

Quite literally 3 individual errors cost us this game, not Harry's tactics. Where did Andre Villas-Boas' tactical nous get him? Tactics is bollocks to keep journalists in a job, just like accounting and law jargon (I should know I deal with this every day).

 

[Krafty]

Essentially Utd scored from their only three shots on target (scuffed efforts that dribble to the keeper dont count). One was from a corner, one from a throw in, one a good 25 yard top corner shot. In that respect, I don't think there is much to worry about.

However, I think we could have been a little better on the ball. As a simple example, compare the Newcastle and Utd games - one winger on one side, one midfielder coming in on the other. In the Newcastle game Adebayor ran the right channel (which was vacated by Krancjar coming inside) and we created goals. Against Utd, with modric on the left, neither Saha nor Adebayor ran the left channel, even after Jones picked up a yellow.

Its not rocket science, and its not like its something the players dont do or are not aware of. But despite Benny getting the ball probably a dozen times in that first half, not one of the strikers looked to give him an option down the line, it was always inside.

We just arent quite smart enough, not quite cute enough to exploit the opposition when we aren't dominating with free-flowing football.