Tommy Wright's Gameplan.

[killiefife]

I would be interested to hear fans view of our Managers game philosophy.

We have an almost complete re-build of the squad and I appreciate the need to get games together. People more aware of the game than me seem to consider that the personal brought in are at the upper end of Championship players. The said players recruited will clearly fit the Manager's vision of how he wants us to play.

While I think it is unreasonable to expect us to bang in six every other game it does very much concern me that we cannot seem to be on the front foot and boss games.

I then think back to Wrights time at St Johnstone. They were in the main a solid workmanlike side , difficult to beat with in general terms little flair.

Is this his preferred strategy at Killie. Play tight and get the winning goal. I suppose if that strategy worked over the season we will be fine.

From memory the away trips to Perth were in my view the most consistently boring games in the league. I suppose it takes two to tango! Maybe the ground, smallish crowd etc. also played their part.

Is it just not his syle to play expansive football?

[gdevoy]

I know what you mean. I would have expected, given the claims made in various places about the budget that we have, Tommy's extensive experience and the claims made about the relative absence of strong teams in the league, that we would have put together a team that would simply overwhelm some of the Championship sides with only a few games against the top sides being tight. Clearly that hasn't happened as every game, with the possible exception of the Ayr game hase been tight so far.

That said the principle of get a goal in front and give absolutely nothing away took SC's side to third top of the SPFL above Heart, Hibs and Aberdeen. 

 

[mitch14]

Niggling concern for me - 

I get the sense that Wright is a manager that goes from the basis that decent players, well organised in their right positions is always the way forward. 

Found it really telling that he said that he thought the points total last season would have been enough to keep us up. That wasn't daft, Countys run was unexpectedly good, but a perfect example of the risk of that approach in that you can fall short. 

The way McKenzie has been used instead of Armstrong in some games has made me wonder if there's an element of getting all the theoretically better players on the pitch and they should get the job done - as opposed to doing something particularly for different games to suit different opponents. 

I'd like us to be a bit more system over individuals. But I do wonder if that will click more with Burke, Robinson and Shaw all on the pitch and different striking options from the bench. 

None of that meant to be a prediction of doom. Might well be that the safety first often win by the odd goal but plenty games where we'll get the breaks breakthrough and be comfortable approach is exactly what's needed. 

Still feel I need to see lots more games to get a real measure of this squad, this league and how Wrights approaching things. 

Still glass half full

 

[Scouser2]

Too early to do any realistic judgement either way, as we did not have an experienced striker till last day of the window plus one of his main summer signings Robinson was missing for first few games and is still finding full match fitness 

The style and performance should improve and be more attacking once Shaw and Robinson can start 

One thing we do need is up our passing tempo and movement when getting possession 

[Nigel4]

I’m a bit torn on this. When we click, like the Ayr game and 2nd half against Accies we look like a good team going forward.

But in other games I get the feeling that our only plan is either to give the ball to Burke or blooter in the general direction of our striker. Yesterday Arbroath hit 4 and Ayr and Caley both hit 3. I worry that we don’t like a team that can score a lot of goals

[Galdunc11]

1 hour ago, killiefife said:

I would be interested to hear fans view of our Managers game philosophy.

We have an almost complete re-build of the squad and I appreciate the need to get games together. People more aware of the game than me seem to consider that the personal brought in are at the upper end of Championship players. The said players recruited will clearly fit the Manager's vision of how he wants us to play.

While I think it is unreasonable to expect us to bang in six every other game it does very much concern me that we cannot seem to be on the front foot and boss games.

I then think back to Wrights time at St Johnstone. They were in the main a solid workmanlike side , difficult to beat with in general terms little flair.

Is this his preferred strategy at Killie. Play tight and get the winning goal. I suppose if that strategy worked over the season we will be fine.

From memory the away trips to Perth were in my view the most consistently boring games in the league. I suppose it takes two to tango! Maybe the ground, smallish crowd etc. also played their part.

Is it just not his syle to play expansive football?

The pressure is on TW to get us straight back up and if that means being pragmatic as SC invariably was and is with the national side then we may just have to get used to that. As Bobby Williamson infamously said “ if you want to be entertained go to the cinema”!

Had we lost yesterday fury would have ensued not made any better had we done so playing attacking attractive football .We nick a scruffy win and most will accept it as part of the end goal. The ICT game got the big press hype and was between two title challengers. Floating fans will go to those matches and less so against  a team near the bottom that were likely to sit in.

I spoke to an ICT fan after the game btw. Was he disappointed at how his team got the three points or just delighted to get them? Guess!

 

 

 

 

[piffer]

Wrights main focus will be winning games. Would he like to do it with a bit of style? I’m sure he would but ultimately I don’t think he’ll care as long as it says three points to Killie at the end of the game.

The more possession based game is not something I’d have associated with Wright. It may be a change in style for him or adjusting to our status as the big gun in the division. I’d have associated him with a more direct game plan and pushing for second balls. 

Tempo is far too slow for most of the game IMO. When we do move the ball quickly and with purpose we look a lot more dangerous and create chances. Other times we give the opposition a chance to get back into position and have to break down stubborn lines.

Choice of personnel is a strange one at the moment. We go what looks like a variation of 4-3-3 most games. It can look attacking on paper but it’s rare we have more than two really attacking players in the lineup. The fullbacks are restrained for most of the games. You wouldn’t associate Alston, McGinn or Polworth as attacking goalscoring midfielders although Polworth is asked to play a very advanced role. Then in attack we’ve gone with one striker, one winger and a more reserved McKenzie in the last few as opposed to trying to stretch on both sides. Hopefully with players getting fitter and injuries clearing up we will find more balance 

[jock]

I am hoping TW's gameplan is developing, which I believe it is. The last time we were in this division we lost eleven games and managed promtion by the skin o' oor teeth. God only knows what the reaction will be if we lose eleven games this year. If I have to watch games such as Saturday, every Saturday with the same winning result, I will reluctantly accept that and cheer loudly when we achieve promotion.

TW deserves some time for his rebuilding to take shape, He didn't succeed in keeping us up...and we will all have thoughts on why or who was to blame. This season is the manager's to own, the start so far is good; results wise...performance wise the best is yet to come.

[maxyboy]

I think it’s a lot of small things holding us back going forward. We look solid enough at the back and the chances we are giving up are coming from our offensive deficiencies. From what I’ve seen I’d change one of Alston or McGinn for polworth playing deeper or Lyons. Just think the fact that they’re both pretty immobile and similar players makes us so predictable, then I think you need to address the width in our build up, whenever we successfully get in behind or down the sides of teams sitting in we look dangerous. If we’re going to have our wingers cutting inside like Saturday we need the full backs to be driving into the space when the opposition full back in dragged in and we need to be looking to play balls in behind early and often. Players on the park need to demand more tempo when we look to be going flat. After that it’s our strikers to put the ball in the net and I must say I fancy Shaw to start firing sooner rather than later. Apologies for a long one, couldn’t get stopped 

[maxyboy]

9 minutes ago, piffer said:

Wrights main focus will be winning games. Would he like to do it with a bit of style? I’m sure he would but ultimately I don’t think he’ll care as long as it says three points to Killie at the end of the game.

The more possession based game is not something I’d have associated with Wright. It may be a change in style for him or adjusting to our status as the big gun in the division. I’d have associated him with a more direct game plan and pushing for second balls. 

Tempo is far too slow for most of the game IMO. When we do move the ball quickly and with purpose we look a lot more dangerous and create chances. Other times we give the opposition a chance to get back into position and have to break down stubborn lines.

Choice of personnel is a strange one at the moment. We go what looks like a variation of 4-3-3 most games. It can look attacking on paper but it’s rare we have more than two really attacking players in the lineup. The fullbacks are restrained for most of the games. You wouldn’t associate Alston, McGinn or Polworth as attacking goalscoring midfielders although Polworth is asked to play a very advanced role. Then in attack we’ve gone with one striker, one winger and a more reserved McKenzie in the last few as opposed to trying to stretch on both sides. Hopefully with players getting fitter and injuries clearing up we will find more balance 

The lack of picking up second balls has stood out to me, no one looked switched on in the last couple games weird one 

[PrestersKtid]

Game plan or style in games often goes out the window when opposition are trying to be hard to beat.

Despite that At times in every game we’ve managed to get in behind teams and we’ve been let down with finishing.
Every team against us so far this season has sat in deep, compact and played on the break, not dissimilar to how we played under Clarke. It’s very hard to break down. 
Celtic in particular who were flying at the time struggled to break us down despite their quality.

results come first for me. If it’s 1-0 every game then I think majority would take it if it gets us back to top flight. 

there will be games this season where we’ll win by more and there’ll be games like ict and qos where we’re stifled and drop points.

I feel we’re getting better, Shaw looks a good addition and Robinson is a handful. We will hopefully get more convincing soon.

[Mogwai]

I'll be more concerned if we are still struggling to score 10 games from now.

The squad are still learning to work together.

We've only just signed our main striker, Burrell has been out, one of our main suppliers (Burke) is out injured and Robinson started on the bench.

Armstrong looked great against Falkirk and was ready to come on just before Rory scored.

I think teams will still see us as the main threat and will pack their defence and try to sneak a goal, more so than against ICT, but that will change if Caley keep on winning.

TL:DR I'd rather have our forward players than anyone else's in the league.

[Killie for the cup]

Its the same game plan that has worked so far for Inverness (winning 4 games 1-0 )

No coincidence that what seem to be the best 2 defences in the league are 1st and 2nd.

keep it tight and nick a goal seems to have in general worked for both,  all be it Inverness seemed to have stepped up a gear yesterday when they found themselves trailing

The Killie - Inverness game  could have gone either way to be fair  who is to say his game plan is wrong

It is def frustrating at times no doubt about that. especially when we play the safe option in midfield but possession seems to take precedence over risk for Tommy

except when out keeper lumps it up the park to his opposite number or their centre half, surely a bit more playing it out from the back would help retain even more possession

However having a strong defence has meant that it is giving the strikers time to find their feet and gel which hopefully will come soon and once they all click I'm sure we will start to score plenty and start to win games more comfortably.

[Zorro]

I think we need to recognise that the majority of our players will be more used to parking the bus than they are at playing against teams employing a low block. Being favourites comes with a whole new set of challenges and pressures and tbh I’m relatively happy with how the team is adapting to this new reality. 

The charge that we play at too slow a tempo is a bit unfair. While perhaps not the most exciting thing in football, circulating and recycling the ball drains our opponents physically and mentally. It requires patience to create an overload against a team that doesn’t want to come out to play, but becomes much easier as they tire. Then a quick injection of pace after lulling teams into a false sense of security, by shifting the ball from side to side is sometimes all it takes to force a crack in that defensive wall. Iirc Rory made the same backpost run three times on Saturday and it only took their defence to switch off once for it to result in a goal. I also think we’ve shown in patches that we can zip the ball around and play defence splitting passes. As the team bonds further the understanding will grow and this will become even more effective. 

Trying to capitalise in those first few seconds after we regain possession is not blootering the ball towards our strikers. It is recognising that one good pass maybe all it needs to create a chance. It’s a calculated risk where the potential of a shot on goal far outweighs the risk of turning possession back over. 

There’s more than one way to skin a cat- while a system like Klopp’s gegenpress can be very effective in regaining possession as high up the pitch as possible, thus giving you clearer cut opportunities in the transition. Sometimes you can also create space to play by tempting teams further up the pitch by not challenging as hard for those second balls and by dropping a little deeper yourself. Then when the time is right you press hard and counter fast. 
 

Take it as a compliment that teams want to play this way against us. Get used to waiting for second half goals. Forget about us scoring a barrowload unless we score early and draw teams out. Recognise that three points from 1-0 are just as valuable as three points from 4-0.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitch14]

23 minutes ago, Killie for the cup said:

The Killie - Inverness game  could have gone either way to be fair  who is to say his game plan is wrong

Equally, reading a Caley fan on twitter saying Partick missed a glorious chance at one nil when they were looking much the better. Small things in these big games sometimes. 

As others have said, will be interesting to see after ten games how everyone is sitting and whether we're doing enough to keep those small things going in our favour. 

[Harrogate Peter]

TW's St Johnstone never set my heart pounding with anticipation at the prospect of seeing them.

We were so poor last season and the required clearout meant that functionality was always going to take priority over flair.

The worry for me would be that we become so timid that we throw points away and end up in the playoffs. I think that would be the minimum prospect barring a serious implosion.

Elsewhere there has been discussion of yesterday's disappointing attendance and I wonder how many more might turnout if the team was really firing on all cylinders?

My feeling is a winning team will pick up more fans than an exciting one come the later stages of the season.

So, I expect pragmatism but I can't help feeling that the present approach is bit too cautious. If we start losing crowds will fall as I still sense a lot of disappointment about last year. The loss of a thousand fans in a fortnight is pretty scary.

A dull, unsuccessful side would really leave the club in trouble facing another season in this horrible league and a much reduced budget and crowd.

[skygod]

I didn’t think we could get any more abject at throw-ins and corners but we seem to be.

So much momentum is lost on throw-ins because they aren’t taken quickly. The throwers don’t seem to think they have enough options.

I thought this team would be potent at corners with Stokes, E Murray, Naismith and Cameron et al available. The problem lies in the delivery, I think.  I’ve lost track of who’s taking them. Polworth or Burke on the right?

McKenzie used to have the job on the left, with some success. He doesn’t seem to be doing it now.

There’s cheap goals to be had against mediocre defences from set pieces and we should be exploiting that.
 
 

[Zorro]

2 minutes ago, skygod said:

There’s cheap goals to be had against mediocre defences from set pieces and we should be exploiting that.

Absolutely this. It’s the one thing I have been disappointed with during this rebuild. Like you I expected us to pick up a few goals from this route. An early goal from one of our many corners yesterday and it’s a different game. 

[maxyboy]

27 minutes ago, Zorro said:

Absolutely this. It’s the one thing I have been disappointed with during this rebuild. Like you I expected us to pick up a few goals from this route. An early goal from one of our many corners yesterday and it’s a different game. 

Bit more creativity needed, just looks like we’re standing in a line and lumping the ball in wherever. Get some front post runs, pull it to the edge of the box for a shot 

Edited September 12, 2021 by maxyboy

[mitch14]

28 minutes ago, skygod said:

So much momentum is lost on throw-ins because they aren’t taken quickly. The throwers don’t seem to think they have enough options.

Its a tiny thing, but remember really noticing how much better our throws were under Clarke. Was either one of a few different forward options or, very quickly, back to the defence to build again. Decisive either way. 

Always thought lack of options from a throw in is a big question mark as to the setup and attacking coaching. 

Maybe complicated by how deep teams are sitting against us in fairness, but like you I've noticed it this season. 

[Nobody]

2 hours ago, maxyboy said:

The lack of picking up second balls has stood out to me, no one looked switched on in the last couple games weird one 

Totally agree - I thought on the whole Morton were cack, but the one thing they did consistently better than us was get on to second balls.

[Nobody]

Re throw-ins, Killie have been s**te at throw-ins since time immemorial. It is a standing joke from other teams that the easiest way to ensure you keep possession against Killie is to put it out for a Killie throw. IIRC Lee Clark blew a gasket about it but it never changes.

[bgb02burns]

I am really upset with a total lack of game plan to break teams down and nothing ever changes. He stands there and does nothing during the game. Tends to make changes late and just like for like. Really feel like we have way better squad of players but other teams have the tactics to make games close.  

[maxyboy]

1 hour ago, KenVaagen1984 said:

Totally agree - I thought on the whole Morton were cack, but the one thing they did consistently better than us was get on to second balls.

Really hurts my head having to see the ball dropping out the sky and Alston and McGinn just looking on no moving toward the ball to even put pressure on anyone. I don’t even see anyone bar Euan Murray every now and again having a shout at anyone for it. All while I’m going mental in the stands glad it’s no just me 

[pmonty3]

5 hours ago, mitch14 said:

Niggling concern for me - 

I get the sense that Wright is a manager that goes from the basis that decent players, well organised in their right positions is always the way forward. 

Found it really telling that he said that he thought the points total last season would have been enough to keep us up. That wasn't daft, Countys run was unexpectedly good, but a perfect example of the risk of that approach in that you can fall short. 

The way McKenzie has been used instead of Armstrong in some games has made me wonder if there's an element of getting all the theoretically better players on the pitch and they should get the job done - as opposed to doing something particularly for different games to suit different opponents. 

I'd like us to be a bit more system over individuals. But I do wonder if that will click more with Burke, Robinson and Shaw all on the pitch and different striking options from the bench. 

None of that meant to be a prediction of doom. Might well be that the safety first often win by the odd goal but plenty games where we'll get the breaks breakthrough and be comfortable approach is exactly what's needed. 

Still feel I need to see lots more games to get a real measure of this squad, this league and how Wrights approaching things. 

Still glass half full

 

Good post