[Archived] Steve Kean tactics..

[Veevs]

This was mentioned a little in the podcasts and I had been thinking this for a while.

I personally feel Steve Kean due to a fairly short playing career has got his approach all wrong in how he goes about tactics and football players... I personally feel that he is trying to hard to be hands on with the coaching and general tactics.

One thing that for me has been noticable is that overall we look utterly disorganised and players frequently look lost and out of position however can come up with some very neat moments (few and far between in the general play of a match) which look very pre-rehersed.

Does anyone else think we are trying to see the game as a set of fixed plays (pre-rehersed moves) like you would see in a game like American football?.. ie. player x has the ball y run this way, z runs that and player x crosses here.. etc etc

To me this does not suit a continually flowing game like football and utterly fails when defending but it really does seem to be how Kean sees the match.. it also does not really fit with footballers training and mentality who while trained in such set plays do not base the whole game around them. It would be like playing chess and focusing on a set of moves without bothering to react to the opposition or events.

Then again I could be wrong as we are far worse at set peices than I can ever remember.

[Savory]

on a side note, i also think certain players, notably the likes of Nzonzi, Dunn, Pedersen, Dann & Hanley and their incompentance to defend are to blame as much for our demise in such situations, plus where does Clement and the other coaches, fit into all this?

we havent got a decent set piece taker either and havent for a while...

[arbitro]

A little cameo on Saturday sums up the imposter for me. Just before we got the penalty we were under the cosh with Swansea attacking in numbers. When we got the penalty Chris Samba spent some time talking to the imposter and during this Samba was quite animated. Just after this we went to a five man midfield. I'm convinced Samba was telling him we were wide open and need to tighten up. Of course the little rotund man took the credit in his post match interview but from what I saw the tactical change was brought about by the captain bringing it to his attention.

He tends to be a reactive rather than proactive manager where tactics are concerned.

[JAL]

Steve Keans tactics for me go along the lines of try and make the football believeable, as they completely empty the bank vaults of Blackburn Rovers football club before clearing off laying the blame on someone else.

[jim mk2]

A little cameo on Saturday sums up the imposter for me. Just before we got the penalty we were under the cosh with Swansea attacking in numbers. When we got the penalty Chris Samba spent some time talking to the imposter and during this Samba was quite animated. Just after this we went to a five man midfield. I'm convinced Samba was telling him we were wide open and need to tighten up. Of course the little rotund man took the credit in his post match interview but from what I saw the tactical change was brought about by the captain bringing it to his attention.

He tends to be a reactive rather than proactive manager where tactics are concerned.

That doesn't sound implausible and probably confirms events during the Blackpool match last season when the players are believed to have rebelled at half time which led to a change of tactics and a second-half revival. Kean took credit for the good run at the end of last season when the team had good balance and shape and kept quite a few clean sheets but it makes you wonder if it was all down to the players rather than manager.

[Kendalrover]

The trouble is we are too open as a team. Defending starts from the front and at present midfield offers little or no protection to our back four.

What we need is someone to play in front of the back four in a holding position (like Hughes used Mokoena), this will provide more cover for the defence.

Also the full backs get little or no protection which in turn means the centre backs are drawn out to the wings to cover the full backs creating even more space in the middle. The wide players need to track back more. The holding player should be able to provide cover when the wide players are pushing forward. At present when Hoilet and Rochina move forward no one covers the gap. I would also like to see the wide players play on the wing most suited to them, e.g. right footer on the right wing.

It seems to me that we also play a zonal game (particularly at corners) which means we do not press and close down opponents. How many times last Saturday did Swandsea players just walk past 'tackles' by Dunn and Pederson.

Playing good football is a myth created by Kean and exposed by Swansea. I bet Kean will not be referring to Rodgers comments about his style of play in his interviews.

[jim mk2]

Playing good football is a myth created by Kean and exposed by Swansea. I bet Kean will not be referring to Rodgers comments about his style of play in his interviews.

You have to remember that the less cerebral members of the Blackburn End hated Sam Allardyce's style of play (hoofball they called it) which is one reason why they wanted a change of manager. Is it too much to hope that Kean has now come to realise that tough, pragmatic football is the only way to get results against teams with better players and he changes permanently his way of thinking starting at Sunderland this weekend ?

[forumquizmaster]

on a side note, i also think certain players, notably the likes of Nzonzi, Dunn, Pedersen, Dann & Hanley and their incompentance to defend are to blame as much for our demise in such situations, plus where does Clement and the other coaches, fit into all this?

we havent got a decent set piece taker either and havent for a while...

We have got one actually, but he has hardly been selected (Simon). Ironically, many pundits think Pederson is a more than decent set piece taker too.........

[Kelbo]

I was always taught, build from the back, keep things tight and have the ability to counter quickly and nick a goal (ala Basle v Man U the other night) Arsenal won the double years ago with many 1 - 0 victories, our 1995 success can be attributed to our tight defence (Newcastle at Ewood being a good example) the balance of the side was good too, Batty holding midfield, Atko was able to get the ball forward very quickly, good deliveries from both flanks and we had Shearer and Sutton to get the goals, then we had a very good defence which kept things tight.

What we have now is a midfield of 'pretty' footballers but no journeymen, all good sides have these underated journeymen, Atko was one, Mike Phelan, Mick Duxbury, Darren Fletcher and the like were all great Pros without being 'pretty' they did a job for the team, we dont seem to have this kind of player anymore, so we give the ball away too much.

Interestingly the other night, Jones in midfield for Man U was brilliant, didnt give the ball away, great decision making and rollocking older players for their mistakes!!

[Guest Rovers4Good]

on a side note, i also think certain players, notably the likes of Nzonzi, Dunn, Pedersen, Dann & Hanley and their incompentance to defend are to blame as much for our demise in such situations, plus where does Clement and the other coaches, fit into all this?

we havent got a decent set piece taker either and havent for a while...

From what i can see Clement is working very hard to ensure the positioning side of things is taken care of and all the other staff either collect balls or sort the drinks.

We have got one actually, but he has hardly been selected (Simon). Ironically, many pundits think Pederson is a more than decent set piece taker too.........

I agree Pederson is quite good at taking corners but as for his ability to take a free kick then he's very much gone downhill on that score.

[SharrockDownSouth]

This was posted on the Sunderland thread, but it's just as relevant here:

http://www.eplindex.com/blackburns-shot-survival/

[Rover_Shaun]

I was under the impression Samba has been picking the team and tactics since half time in the Blackpool home game

[tomphil]

A little cameo on Saturday sums up the imposter for me. Just before we got the penalty we were under the cosh with Swansea attacking in numbers. When we got the penalty Chris Samba spent some time talking to the imposter and during this Samba was quite animated. Just after this we went to a five man midfield. I'm convinced Samba was telling him we were wide open and need to tighten up. Of course the little rotund man took the credit in his post match interview but from what I saw the tactical change was brought about by the captain bringing it to his attention.

He tends to be a reactive rather than proactive manager where tactics are concerned.

Also when Samba approached the bench Kean took a step back and Clement came out and put his arm around big Chris and appeared to explain things to him. The imposter stood there hands in pockets as usual looking the other way

[Aberdeen Blue]

He only has one tactic; lie.

[47er]

We have got one actually, but he has hardly been selected (Simon). Ironically, many pundits think Pederson is a more than decent set piece taker too.........

We scored from 2 of Ped's corners.....Direct freekicks not so good these days. Agree with Rovers4good.

[K-Hod]

If there's tactics he's worse than I thought!

[AllRoverAsia]

This was posted on the Sunderland thread, but it's just as relevant here:

http://www.eplindex.com/blackburns-shot-survival/

And we have a goal scoring problem when the Yak inevitably hits a dry spell.

''It is remarkable that Yakubu has managed to score 9 times as he’s taken just 22 total shots (16 of which were on target). His 78 minutes per goal is in fact the second best of any player with at least 9 goals. Edin Dzeko has scored every 67 minutes. The other two players with 9 goals, Rooney and Ba, have scored every 122′ and 101′ this term.

Though scoring prolifically at he moment, Yakubu’s shooting accuracy of 73% is far too high to be considered anything besides an outlier. As a comparison, earlier this season Wayne Rooney was converting shots into goals at a career best pace, and he is sitting at 52% accuracy and 20% chance conversion. This season’s breakout star, Demba Ba, is shooting 64% on 28 total shots, and has converted 32% of chances.

Unfortunately for Kean, Yakubu’s goal scoring prowess may also be artificially inflated not only by an unsustainable shooting accuracy and chance conversion, but may not be self-sustaining as illustrated by Yakubu’s inability to create his own chances.''

OUTLIER - In statistics, an outlier is an observation that is numerically distant from the rest of the data. An outlying observation, or outlier, is one that appears to deviate markedly from other members of the sample in which it occurs.

Yak is basically taking an abnormally high % of the goal scoring chances that come his way and with Kean's statistical insight he knows that it is extremely unlikely to continue.

But we hope it does - tactics based on hope.

[Mattyblue]

The thread title, talk about oxymorons!

[booth]

The thread title, talk about oxymorons!

An oxymoron about a moron

[broadsword]

His favourite ones are orange and lime.

[walk down bolton road]

His best tactic is how many whiskies he can put in his gob before last orders.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Kean uses tactics?

[Commondore]

That doesn't sound implausible and probably confirms events during the Blackpool match last season when the players are believed to have rebelled at half time which led to a change of tactics and a second-half revival. Kean took credit for the good run at the end of last season when the team had good balance and shape and kept quite a few clean sheets but it makes you wonder if it was all down to the players rather than manager.

The players weren't or aren't "believed to" having rebelled, someone on here fantasized mockingly about it in a post and suddenly it became a truth and another stick to beat Kean with. There are so many real issues to confront him with, no need for made up ones.

I think Keans biggest tactical flaw is his naivety. He usually employs only one defensive player in a five man midfield, and none at all whenever Nzonzi is banned or injured. Together with two defensively rather weak fullbacks and wingers who don't like to track back we become extremely open, which is underlined by the number of times we have shipped in three goals or more this season. Defensive midfielders are supposed to be first and foremost defensive-minded and secondly able to spot a pass or keep possession (Jermaine Jones comes to mind as a good example) not the other way around.

[BiggusLaddus]

His favourite ones are orange and lime.

And he's not afraid to shake them.

[roverandout]

kean's tactics is talk ###### before the games, talk ###### to the players during the games and talk ###### to the media after the game, anything else with him is irrelevant!!!