Paul Hurst - Making his mark 08:27 - Jul 20 with 5449 views | itfcjoe | I've been to all 3 pre season games at all the age levels this week (1st team v Crawley, U23s v Lowestoft and U18s v Sudbury) and it's really clear that Hurst has been getting his ideas over to each team - there have been huge similarities in all 3 games. 41131 Back 4 Spence - Woolfenden - Chambers - Kenlock Cotter - Marshall - Ndaba - Webber Ronan - Henry - Vega - Clements Full backs pushing on very high when we have the ball, acting as almost wingers when on the attack, Defensively being asked to defend 1 on 1 a lot and win battles. Ball to be passed out from the back Defensive Midfield 1 Skuse McGavin Scott Takes the ball of the back 4, and looks to begin play - key out ball is a diaganol to the full backs who are advanced and play begins from there. When we have the ball split the centre backs and drop into a back 3 so more ground is covered to ward of counter attacks. Midfield 1 Dozzell Crowe El-Mizouni More of a ball player, but a lot of responsibility to press as well. If Diagonal to full back isn't on then up to them to take ball of the deep lying player and try to create something and get playing. Recycling possession. Attacking 3 Sears - Nydam - Ward Folami - Lankester - Roberts Foudil - Dobra - Hughes Wide players have to cover a lot of ground and get up and down the pitch - stay very wide without the ball and try to take ball down the line on counters. When they have the full backs up supporting them seem to drift inside to try and get extra bodies int he middle whilst still linking up with the full back who is the one who tends to get the cross in. Central man presses the CBs and DMs hard, and gets beyond the striker often looking to score goals or get on the end of crosses in the box. Striker 1 Waghorn Drinan Brown A lot of back to goal play, and a lot of tireless running. Has to be able to break quickly and carry the ball, but also bring others into play when the game requires it. A position that a lot of half chances seem to fall to and needs to be a good finisher. One of the main things I've noted though, is that the pressing is very high and very intense - all 3 games have seen us tail off in the second half as players seem to run out of puff. We are playing more football, and getting more men forward than the previous manager - the midfielders are getting ahead of the striker and making late 3rd man runs which are hard to pick up. Dobra did this especially well last night. I'm very impressed at how quickly the message seems to have been gotten across at all levels, and think the players have had a really physically tough pre season - the youths seem to be on similar fitness regimes to the first team which is very tough, but required. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 08:30 - Jul 20 with 5370 views | Kieran_Knows | Thanks for that Joe, all good to hear. One interesting point I picked up ... 'and think the players have had a really physically tough pre season', and to think, as per one of the news stories the other day, if Hurst and the fitness staff had their way, then pre-season would be even tougher (Hurst mentioning if they pushed them anymore they would have 'broke' a few of them). | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 08:32 - Jul 20 with 5344 views | hampstead_blue | Thanks. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 08:51 - Jul 20 with 5218 views | KTBlue | Thanks for that, very encouraging. I think re the players becoming tired, that should be less of an issue going forward as they get match fit, and also as they become more familiar with the system and know when to press and when not to. | | | |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:07 - Jul 20 with 5104 views | FrimleyBlue | I mentioned the other day that a fellow chairs son had advised it's been 80% off the ball training sessions. Intense sessions. I suppose as the physio said a few weeks back, if the body gets used to it, it'll minimise injuries too. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:18 - Jul 20 with 4992 views | Basuco | Cheers Joe, much of that has been missing from Town for many years and also we have seen it used against us quite a bit as well. Hopefully the hard training sessions are still being done when a pre-season game is scheduled so adding to fitness and the second half tiredness will not be so much of a problem when the season starts. I eagerly await he new season with growing anticipation, tempered with expecting it to take a month or two for the players to fully settle into the new playing style and formation. | | | |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:19 - Jul 20 with 4985 views | Stadiumofdark | That's just what I wanted to hear. It's enough for me.... I've bought a ticket for Exeter away on the back of this! COYB | | | |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:29 - Jul 20 with 4902 views | SWGF | Cheers Joe If nothing else, our attacking three in the first match shows that we still need bodies in the first team squad (Sears - Nydam - Ward). | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:29 - Jul 20 with 4894 views | chicoazul | Good post Joe. It seems we will have a lot of players competing for basically two spots in midfield once everyone is fit, be interesting to see how Hurst handles the egos. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:31 - Jul 20 with 4883 views | Basuco |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 08:30 - Jul 20 by Kieran_Knows | Thanks for that Joe, all good to hear. One interesting point I picked up ... 'and think the players have had a really physically tough pre season', and to think, as per one of the news stories the other day, if Hurst and the fitness staff had their way, then pre-season would be even tougher (Hurst mentioning if they pushed them anymore they would have 'broke' a few of them). |
The fitness levels in football are very low in general and many think their skill on the ball is all that is required, this will not apply to a PH team, it takes three weeks for training to come through to effect so I would expect a much tougher summer fitness program will be set to enable the full PH pre-season training program to take place next year. I have seen many times on TV players at the highest level getting cramp during a game, why? Football has always been a 90 minute game, with the average time the ball is in play is 50 minutes, with the many rests when play is not in a players area, it cannot be that difficult to train for that level of running. But this is modern football where players are nowhere near as fit as players were in the past. | | | |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:33 - Jul 20 with 4856 views | Cuffy81 | Thanks for this insight - its refreshing to see the same philosophy being employed through all the sides. Seeing midfielders in the opposition box will be a strange concept! In particular in the one on ones in the full back position which cause immediate concern with the personal we currently have, both Spence and Kenlock tend to back off | | | |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:35 - Jul 20 with 4842 views | TIB | Great stuff Joe. I’m loving the way Hurst has come in, implemented his ideas and in general, conducted himself. In terms of the first team and youth fringe, is there any you think will struggle to play the Hurst way? I’ve mentioned it before but our RB position I’ve wanted to see some investment in for a while...I had high hopes for Iorfa but that wasn’t to be, leaving Spence, Emmanuel and Cotter. Do you think Spence can fit the criteria to get up and down the pitch? [Post edited 20 Jul 2018 9:44]
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:40 - Jul 20 with 4813 views | unstableblue | Great effort Joe. As I said till I was blue in the face over 2 seasons... it wasn’t just budget and injuries causing Town to play so flat and turgid - it was a system and ethos issue. It was draconian. Hurst has more progressive thinking, and what I like is that yes it is pragmatic and defensive but can switch to energy and attack quickly. 2-3 more signings and holding on to Waghorn, and importantly a couple of wins to get buy in to the new system and we’ll be going in the right direction. Do need the the momentum of early results though. No fan is not going to back Hurst even with a poor first 6 months... but a few early wins in say the first 4-6 games will give players confidence in the managers new ideas. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:54 - Jul 20 with 4675 views | monty_radio | Only the one game's evidence for this, but re 1 defensive midfielder - if that one has to shield and can then straightaway offload to a more attacking 3, then Skuse is your man. No-one better at that intercepting bit. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 10:07 - Jul 20 with 4599 views | Herbivore |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:31 - Jul 20 by Basuco | The fitness levels in football are very low in general and many think their skill on the ball is all that is required, this will not apply to a PH team, it takes three weeks for training to come through to effect so I would expect a much tougher summer fitness program will be set to enable the full PH pre-season training program to take place next year. I have seen many times on TV players at the highest level getting cramp during a game, why? Football has always been a 90 minute game, with the average time the ball is in play is 50 minutes, with the many rests when play is not in a players area, it cannot be that difficult to train for that level of running. But this is modern football where players are nowhere near as fit as players were in the past. |
Wait, what? Players now aren't as fit as in the past? | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 10:49 - Jul 20 with 4437 views | Keaneish | Quality. Thanks for this. Great read. So glad we're getting back to talking about football again across this board. Great insights. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 14:02 - Jul 20 with 4120 views | Guthrum |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 09:31 - Jul 20 by Basuco | The fitness levels in football are very low in general and many think their skill on the ball is all that is required, this will not apply to a PH team, it takes three weeks for training to come through to effect so I would expect a much tougher summer fitness program will be set to enable the full PH pre-season training program to take place next year. I have seen many times on TV players at the highest level getting cramp during a game, why? Football has always been a 90 minute game, with the average time the ball is in play is 50 minutes, with the many rests when play is not in a players area, it cannot be that difficult to train for that level of running. But this is modern football where players are nowhere near as fit as players were in the past. |
Having heard Russell Osman talking with Tyrone Mings on the very subject of your last phrase, that really wasn't the impression I got. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 14:14 - Jul 20 with 4066 views | textbackup | And to think PH says we are still way off where he wants us to be! The future is finally looking decent | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 16:10 - Jul 20 with 3858 views | jeera |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 10:07 - Jul 20 by Herbivore | Wait, what? Players now aren't as fit as in the past? |
Lack of cigarettes does that. | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 17:25 - Jul 20 with 3713 views | Deano69 | Nice work Joe. So based on this, (i know its early doors) but what would your starting XI be? | |
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Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 13:09 - Jul 23 with 3290 views | Beckets | Surely Hurst’s transfer dealings should be looked at in the context of Joe’s excellent analysis here. Harrison seems to have been bought for the Striker 1 role for instance. I assume that he has identified a number of players who don’t fit into this style of play eg Garner, Knudsen? | | | |
Paul Hurst - Making his mark on 13:32 - Jul 23 with 3203 views | HennikerBlu | Thanks for taking time to share. Good to hear he likes the wide men to stay wide (and without the ball) and the improvement down the flanks, something that will massively improve attacking intent. | | | |
I LOVE Paul Hurst on 13:36 - Jul 23 with 3190 views | unstableblue | Again great post. I just love the fact that it is now abundantly clear how hard Paul is trying to fix our system, movement and energy issues. Issues that have plagued town and the any chance of entertainment at PR for some time. I stated that it would maybe take 8 games* for him to bed in his new system and we should be patient on seeing the START of improvement, but I think it may even come sooner in terms of seeing a new system fully bedding in. I think Paul wants the transformation to be well underway come the first few games. Good on you Paul. I expect nothing from this season but some marked progress in making us a team that plays football again and has a coherent system of play. *Note: I had the misfortune of viewing TWTD whilst not logged in a saw a chief cretin replying to one of my posts, and stating I was going to slate Hurst if we weren't flying after 8 games. Fake News, fake preconceptions. | |
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