| League One Style of Play 09:53 - Apr 14 with 3275 views | SheffordBlue |
The Analyst website has a season review page including League One. One of the tabs lets you look at style of play. There's often talk of our style not being suited to League One so I plotted the current League position against each club on their chart.
All it really shows it that there isn't one style that works well in this league - you just have to execute your chosen style well.
https://imgbox.com/1J6dY7tu |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 10:34 - Apr 14 with 2560 views | ElephantintheRoom |
I may be wrong on this but the most effective style is the one that gets the ball in the back of the net more often than the opposition come rain, hail or shine over an entire season.
It’s not rocket science - but it appears to have eluded McKenna who set about his sprint finish by tightening up the defence when sharpening the attack might have paid more dividends in his ‘every game is a cup tie’ entry into management.
Be interesting to see if the approach changes next season. But leopards rarely change their spots | |
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| League One Style of Play on 10:43 - Apr 14 with 2535 views | GeoffSentence |
| League One Style of Play on 10:34 - Apr 14 by ElephantintheRoom |
I may be wrong on this but the most effective style is the one that gets the ball in the back of the net more often than the opposition come rain, hail or shine over an entire season.
It’s not rocket science - but it appears to have eluded McKenna who set about his sprint finish by tightening up the defence when sharpening the attack might have paid more dividends in his ‘every game is a cup tie’ entry into management.
Be interesting to see if the approach changes next season. But leopards rarely change their spots |
When K McK took over, we clearly had a defensive problem that needed solving, not so much scoring one.
The trouble is that fixing one problem has created the other. |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 10:54 - Apr 14 with 2510 views | SheffordBlue |
| League One Style of Play on 10:34 - Apr 14 by ElephantintheRoom |
I may be wrong on this but the most effective style is the one that gets the ball in the back of the net more often than the opposition come rain, hail or shine over an entire season.
It’s not rocket science - but it appears to have eluded McKenna who set about his sprint finish by tightening up the defence when sharpening the attack might have paid more dividends in his ‘every game is a cup tie’ entry into management.
Be interesting to see if the approach changes next season. But leopards rarely change their spots |
Totally agree that the effective style is the one that leads to you scoring more than your opponents. There are frequent comments to the effect that a slower, more intricate style of play isn't one that will get you out of League One and MK Dons are currently showing that's not necessarily true.
McKenna is trying to get a squad that isn't primarily his players to play a sophisticated approach without a summer transfer window and without a pre-season. In many other seasons the points tally he's got since he came in would have got us into the play offs. Let's see what he can do next season - I'm optimistic. | |
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| League One Style of Play on 10:55 - Apr 14 with 2503 views | Pinewoodblue |
Be interesting to see in which direction our game has changed since KMc’s appointment. We were probably off the scale, bottom right, under PC |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 11:04 - Apr 14 with 2466 views | SheffordBlue |
There are a whole load of others stats on the site which are quite interesting when you look at where we rank for some of them:
For
Open Play xG 2nd
Open Play Shots 12th
Open Play Goals 8th
Set Play xG 17th
Set Play Shots 19th
Set Play Goals 21st
Against
Open Play xG 1st
Open Play Shots 1st
Open Play Goals 7th
Set Play xG 14th
Set Play Shots 12th
Set Play Goals 8th
https://dataviz.theanalyst.com/season-reviews/2021/?competition_id=11&season | |
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| League One Style of Play on 11:06 - Apr 14 with 2449 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
That’s actually really interesting, thanks for sharing, and agree fully with your thoughts here and in your post below
I wonder if Rotherham tailing off might be linked to their style too, Wycombe too have a history of running out of steam a bit (though this season seems to be an exception) and the same used to happen to us under McCarthy
Also seeing Rotherham up there in the top left does make me smile given a certain poster citing them as an excellent technical side on several occasions…  |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 11:14 - Apr 14 with 2419 views | tractorboy1978 |
| League One Style of Play on 10:54 - Apr 14 by SheffordBlue |
Totally agree that the effective style is the one that leads to you scoring more than your opponents. There are frequent comments to the effect that a slower, more intricate style of play isn't one that will get you out of League One and MK Dons are currently showing that's not necessarily true.
McKenna is trying to get a squad that isn't primarily his players to play a sophisticated approach without a summer transfer window and without a pre-season. In many other seasons the points tally he's got since he came in would have got us into the play offs. Let's see what he can do next season - I'm optimistic. |
MK Dons have 8 more points than us since McKenna came in, scoring 5 more than us but conceding 3 more than us - so net +2 GD. The difference between the two sides you could argue is timing of goals. But even if you don't subscribe to that view, it's pretty clear the tweaks needed over the summer are minimal.
Interestingly Manning's first 19 games at MK yielded 34 points to McKenna's 36 points. | | | |
| League One Style of Play on 11:17 - Apr 14 with 2406 views | SheffordBlue |
| League One Style of Play on 11:14 - Apr 14 by tractorboy1978 |
MK Dons have 8 more points than us since McKenna came in, scoring 5 more than us but conceding 3 more than us - so net +2 GD. The difference between the two sides you could argue is timing of goals. But even if you don't subscribe to that view, it's pretty clear the tweaks needed over the summer are minimal.
Interestingly Manning's first 19 games at MK yielded 34 points to McKenna's 36 points. |
I saw a comment elsewhere that MK Dons are 12 months ahead of us on timing and I think there's a lot of truth in that. Given the increased spending McKenna is likely to have in comparison to Manning I think that bodes well.
I'll be surprised if they're both not managing at a much higher level in the future. | |
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| League One Style of Play on 11:18 - Apr 14 with 2396 views | MattinLondon |
| League One Style of Play on 10:34 - Apr 14 by ElephantintheRoom |
I may be wrong on this but the most effective style is the one that gets the ball in the back of the net more often than the opposition come rain, hail or shine over an entire season.
It’s not rocket science - but it appears to have eluded McKenna who set about his sprint finish by tightening up the defence when sharpening the attack might have paid more dividends in his ‘every game is a cup tie’ entry into management.
Be interesting to see if the approach changes next season. But leopards rarely change their spots |
Considering the style of your posts, are aware of the irony when stating ‘leopards rarely change their spots? |  | | |
| League One Style of Play on 11:41 - Apr 14 with 2340 views | FrimleyBlue |
| League One Style of Play on 10:43 - Apr 14 by GeoffSentence |
When K McK took over, we clearly had a defensive problem that needed solving, not so much scoring one.
The trouble is that fixing one problem has created the other. |
In the league we didn't really have defensive problems when KM took over. Absolutely did at the start of season with individual errors etc but in the last 8 league games upto KM taking over we only conceded 7 or 8 ( I think )
Much is to be said about a great cleansheet run that KM has had, but I do wonder if he's been overly cautious on this front overall for something that wasn't really a major problem. |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 11:47 - Apr 14 with 2331 views | SheffordBlue |
| League One Style of Play on 11:41 - Apr 14 by FrimleyBlue |
In the league we didn't really have defensive problems when KM took over. Absolutely did at the start of season with individual errors etc but in the last 8 league games upto KM taking over we only conceded 7 or 8 ( I think )
Much is to be said about a great cleansheet run that KM has had, but I do wonder if he's been overly cautious on this front overall for something that wasn't really a major problem. |
I think we're defending in different areas than we were under Cook. Lots more high pressing rather than soaking up pressure in our third. That in itself changes where we start attacking from and most of our best goals under KMc have come from breaks rather than winning the ball in the opposition half | |
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| League One Style of Play on 11:52 - Apr 14 with 2301 views | Parsley |
| League One Style of Play on 11:04 - Apr 14 by SheffordBlue |
There are a whole load of others stats on the site which are quite interesting when you look at where we rank for some of them:
For
Open Play xG 2nd
Open Play Shots 12th
Open Play Goals 8th
Set Play xG 17th
Set Play Shots 19th
Set Play Goals 21st
Against
Open Play xG 1st
Open Play Shots 1st
Open Play Goals 7th
Set Play xG 14th
Set Play Shots 12th
Set Play Goals 8th
https://dataviz.theanalyst.com/season-reviews/2021/?competition_id=11&season |
I have no idea what 'open play sequence start' is but interesting to see Evans, Edmundson, Woolfenden, and Morsy feature highly in the player defending rankings. We might have missed Evans and Edmundson more than I realised these past few games. |  | | |
| League One Style of Play on 11:59 - Apr 14 with 2260 views | tractorboy1978 |
| League One Style of Play on 11:41 - Apr 14 by FrimleyBlue |
In the league we didn't really have defensive problems when KM took over. Absolutely did at the start of season with individual errors etc but in the last 8 league games upto KM taking over we only conceded 7 or 8 ( I think )
Much is to be said about a great cleansheet run that KM has had, but I do wonder if he's been overly cautious on this front overall for something that wasn't really a major problem. |
We still only kept 2 clean sheets in his last 11 league games, and we conceded twice in 5 of those.
I'm convinced that Crewe game was what done for him as well, as despite winning 2-1 we could have easily lost it. We were so open it was unreal. [Post edited 14 Apr 2022 11:59]
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| League One Style of Play on 12:25 - Apr 14 with 2118 views | Sarge |
I don’t think there’s a clear style of play that gets you success in league one but I think there are some that are more suited to sustaining that success in the championship. With a few exceptions, I don’t think the teams that sh1thouse their way out of league one fare particularly well in the division above (see: Wycombe and Rotherham). | | | |
| League One Style of Play on 12:45 - Apr 14 with 2033 views | Darth_Koont |
Very interesting.
Yeah, we aren’t as good as we need to be at slow and intricate. That’s why I think we always look best when we get Donacien and Burns going down the right. It’s often 1 or 2 passes (with one running with the ball or overlapping at pace) and they’re in a crossing/shooting position.
Possibly also why Jackson emerged as the optimal striker as he could also go fast and direct, and with an earlier ball down the sides or behind the defence too.
Be interesting to see how McKenna sees the style/personnel this summer. Personally, I hope we look to mix it up and pose more questions and a variety of threats. But we don’t just need skilful players for that, we also need intelligent ones and maybe that’s a bigger ask in League One rather than imprinting a very deliberate and simpler game plan. |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 12:49 - Apr 14 with 2013 views | IpswichKnight |
It’s interesting, I still think we are creating good chances in almost every game we just don’t have a striker in form to take them. We will see a lot of movement in and out for strikers this summer. | | | |
| League One Style of Play on 12:52 - Apr 14 with 1999 views | PhilTWTD |
| League One Style of Play on 11:17 - Apr 14 by SheffordBlue |
I saw a comment elsewhere that MK Dons are 12 months ahead of us on timing and I think there's a lot of truth in that. Given the increased spending McKenna is likely to have in comparison to Manning I think that bodes well.
I'll be surprised if they're both not managing at a much higher level in the future. |
Also notable that we controlled the game against them and that that was one of several games we 'should' have won. |  | | |
| League One Style of Play on 13:02 - Apr 14 with 1943 views | Illinoisblue |
| League One Style of Play on 11:59 - Apr 14 by tractorboy1978 |
We still only kept 2 clean sheets in his last 11 league games, and we conceded twice in 5 of those.
I'm convinced that Crewe game was what done for him as well, as despite winning 2-1 we could have easily lost it. We were so open it was unreal. [Post edited 14 Apr 2022 11:59]
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That’s a good point. Celina’s wonder goal masked a little bit just how awful we were that day. |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 13:57 - Apr 14 with 1797 views | Guthrum |
| League One Style of Play on 12:49 - Apr 14 by IpswichKnight |
It’s interesting, I still think we are creating good chances in almost every game we just don’t have a striker in form to take them. We will see a lot of movement in and out for strikers this summer. |
I think there's a bit more to it than that. We get the ball into the right places, but then continue to pass, or move it out wide again, rather than just taking a shot. It's not that our strikers can't hit the target, in a sense they're not trying to often enough. |  |
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| League One Style of Play on 14:05 - Apr 14 with 1786 views | SheffordBlue |
| League One Style of Play on 13:57 - Apr 14 by Guthrum |
I think there's a bit more to it than that. We get the ball into the right places, but then continue to pass, or move it out wide again, rather than just taking a shot. It's not that our strikers can't hit the target, in a sense they're not trying to often enough. |
4th in the League for xG whilst 12th in the league for shots supports this. I'm pretty confident a full preseason "on the grass" coupled with a couple of better striking options will get a better balance here | |
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| League One Style of Play on 14:13 - Apr 14 with 1748 views | OsborneOneNil |
| League One Style of Play on 11:41 - Apr 14 by FrimleyBlue |
In the league we didn't really have defensive problems when KM took over. Absolutely did at the start of season with individual errors etc but in the last 8 league games upto KM taking over we only conceded 7 or 8 ( I think )
Much is to be said about a great cleansheet run that KM has had, but I do wonder if he's been overly cautious on this front overall for something that wasn't really a major problem. |
You think conceding a goal per game is decent? |  | | |
| League One Style of Play on 14:17 - Apr 14 with 1733 views | DJR |
| League One Style of Play on 11:52 - Apr 14 by Parsley |
I have no idea what 'open play sequence start' is but interesting to see Evans, Edmundson, Woolfenden, and Morsy feature highly in the player defending rankings. We might have missed Evans and Edmundson more than I realised these past few games. |
I thought everyone knew what "open play sequence start" is!!!! |  | | |
| League One Style of Play on 14:20 - Apr 14 with 1720 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| League One Style of Play on 14:13 - Apr 14 by OsborneOneNil |
You think conceding a goal per game is decent? |
Number of teams that have conceded less than a goal per game in League One over the last 10 seasons:
3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2 and 2 | |
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| League One Style of Play on 14:28 - Apr 14 with 1700 views | FrimleyBlue |
| League One Style of Play on 14:13 - Apr 14 by OsborneOneNil |
You think conceding a goal per game is decent? |
I wouldn't say it showed we had a major defensive problem Our issue has all season been scoring and that hasn't changed. Its been the same problem for 3 seasons but hopefully its something KM can address for next season.
Be interesting to see what he does differently next season. Will we see both flanks with flying wingbacks etc.
Will we see more than 5 players in the box for corners.
Will we sacrifice a deeper CM when teams are sitting deep themselves. Etc
[Post edited 14 Apr 2022 14:34]
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| League One Style of Play on 14:30 - Apr 14 with 1691 views | pointofblue |
| League One Style of Play on 14:13 - Apr 14 by OsborneOneNil |
You think conceding a goal per game is decent? |
Theoretically, more than decent; conceding 46 goals across a league season would be a great return. | |
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