We challenged the boys to a new formation, some new instruction and as coaches specific placements and directions from ourselves. Everything to be as positive as possible, keep our heads up, play simple football to build confidence and the rest will follow!
Coming back from 2-0 down today, the boys showed huge resilience across the team!
Pheonix was requested to warm Luke up today, and the warm up they went through showed on the pitch as Luke kept us in it with some fantastic 1 vs 1 saves, frustrating the opposition who against other teams have had it all their own way! Helping us into half time at 0-0. Excellent comma and coming for the ball to clear when needed today more so than normal. You were calm with the pass backs and made sure to clear your lines! It’s a different pressure in goal to anywhere else on that pitch, but you made several really good saves and were quick to react to any spilled ball!
An injury to Aiden’s ankle saw a resilient Reece step up into the CB role and partner Harry Fennell to see us through and beyond half time! Reece was also challenged at corners to use the set piece training, mix it up between short and long corners and keep our opponents on their toes - job done Reece!
Moving to 3 up front meant when Ollie H was making his same runs he had people with him in the box, instead of being ahead of them and having to go alone. He also made sure we remained competitive in the midfield challenging for the ball time and time again! With his work rate in midfield I took him off for a bit to give him the last 7-8 mins up front as a different option to try and press for a winner ourselves!
With Ollie H coming off to be replaced by Toby, we had a different style of play, Toby was challenged if he didn’t get to the first ball, get to the second as was the entire team, but with the 3 across midfield this was key, and Toby stepped up, using the space in the middle to pick out his pass and showing strength and composure on the ball too. He was also given the role today of Mr positivity!
Harry Fennell picked up the parents award for his constant defensive interceptions, runs, communication and strength he showed time and time again! With a shot from half way just going over their bar today too - it’s got to be coming soon!
Managers man of the match and team spirit award went to our captain for a fantastic performance! Which saw him with space to run into in midfield time and time again, driving through the play and picking out his passes, making the right decisions at the back and great comms with Ollie L and Henry H to cover him when he was ever caught out up top which they did brilliantly!
Henry H and Ollie L were both challenged to run at players and use the extra space in the middle to work the ball forward, create overlaps going forward and drive into the box where they could. Both achieving this in spades today!
Harry M was moved to a more natural supporting striker roll and so was Louis, also with a change in formation meaning we had two to support the striker, so Louis wasn’t alone. The boys both also had to help midfield to bridge the gap going forward and ensure they were ahead of Ollie H! Both boys really played their part today, Louis with his footwork and tenacity to keep moving the ball, and Harry with some fantastic one touch football and passing! Both boys were positionally excellent and it showed in their goal they created too! Both boys listened at half time and made small changes to their play styles before switching sides, and giving them both extra playtime with a different Centre forward in the middle meant we had a constant up front, and this didn’t interrupt our style of play!
Phoenix started as our top man, Centre of our strike force! Nervous less so but definitely apprehensive, but what I saw today as you grew into that role was you controlling the play higher up the pitch, helping Ollie H to make those runs, linking up with Louis and Harry and doing your Pheen footwork higher up the pitch gave us some flare and options!
Aiden - having you back in defense today and we have missed you, definitely grown an inch in 2 weeks, you were strong in defense, you were quick to the ball and the partnership with Harry is strong, the partnership with Luke is strong too, you are so good with your pass back and being an option and communicating with Luke, we didn’t look under pressure from our own pass backs at all today!
Ashton taking over from Pheen was a new role for you, you continued to make runs as your play style was different to Pheens, and challenged for that ball when needed. I’d like to try you from a left or right of striker support role and I want to see you drive with that ball closer to your feet to get your shot away - you need to believe in yourself a little more and trust your footwork on the pitch!
Leo - you started from the bench today purposefully and took the role I gave you and ran with it. We discussed how I needed you to push Louis forward to give you guys space to do your midfield work, and changing to you on that wing in the first half saw an instant change as we found our true shape! Constantly there to follow up and pressure the opposition and release your pass, you showed vision to spread the ball across the pitch and forwards today too!
We made a big change to our formation, and whilst it was new to the boys today, I saw some massive improvements across the team and some fantastic displays too!
Going from a 4-4-1-1 to a 4-3-3 and switching a couple of players positions seem to give them freedom to play football the way we know they can! We also changed how we do our subs, making sure if we can see an issue we try to change and fix it, and make subs in 1’s or 2’s where we could to help keep the flow of the game going our way!
We will continue to embed this new formation, but we will also work on a couple of others to ensure it suits the boys we have each week, so we can play our football and be on the front foot where needed too!
We are encouraging the boys to make decisions on the pitch between themselves where needed and Louis and Harry M did this perfectly second half which lead to our first goal today, a superb shot from Louis which wasn’t assured to go in, Harry M made sure it was!!! This came straight from them switching sides - well done boys!
We pushed on and Harry M gets shoved in the back to draw a penalty. Up stepped Ollie L to hit it bottom left (after he calmed himself down) showing us why he is our named penalty taker, the pressure he was feeling was apparent, their goalie tried to put you off, but you took it like a pro!
Back to 2-2 and then an unfortunate miscommunication and they got a little lucky with how it fell for them. 2 mins to go and the boys pushed hard to get another equalizer!
They were challenged today with no matter the score we play like it’s 0-0 ?
Start each half playing simple passes, simple football, build our confidence to take the game to them ?
Communicate communicate communicate and keep it positive! ?
Well done bees - a difficult way to lose a game and right towards the end too, but you didn’t give up! A wise person was told today that if you work hard first, you have always got a chance!! (Fabian Hurzeler to O’riley who scored the winning goal for the mighty Brighton against Man city) sorry I had to put that part in writing too!
Massive thanks for the parents who helped with putting up the nets today, Steve for running the line perfectly, Liz for all you admin behind the scenes help and on the day photos too! Also Matthew and Bradley for your support of the team today, excellent speech Bradley and to all the parents for your continued support!!
Let’s go again next week Bees!!
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