Jewell: Formation May Work Better Away
Monday, 15th Aug 2011 08:03

Blues boss Paul Jewell conceded that Town’s 4-5-1 formation may be more suited to away games after Town’s 1-0 home defeat to Hull City. However, the Liverpudlian felt Saturday’s result was more down to his players not being at their best.

Jewell said: “It may possibly be a formation which works better away from home but we’ve got to have the personnel.

“However, I think whatever formation we play, we’re entitled to create more chances at home than we did against Hull.

“We had a few players who were off the pace, no doubt about that. We can talk formations all day long, it’s about 11 players really.”

Speaking ahead of the game, the Town manager said his side sometimes find it harder at home than they do away, something which again proved to be the case against the Tigers: “Teams often come at us when we’re away from home and at home the onus is on the home team, that’s always been the way in football. That’s why the first goal is vital.

“We hit a couple of diagonal balls in great situations and we either mis-controlled the ball or didn’t get a cross in. We’ve a newish half-a-team there. We’ve got to get better and we will get better.

“I wasn’t getting too excited last week and, although I’m disappointed, it’s not as if I’ve just woken up and thought ‘bloody hell! We’re not going to win the league!’. It’s a work in progress.”

Jewell says Saturday’s match illustrated the tightness of the division: “It is a tough league. Nothing comes easy in life. The team which will get out of this league will be consistent.

“Everyone thinks Leicester will run away with it because they have more spending power than anyone else.

“I was speaking to Nigel Pearson before the match and he was saying every game is the toss of a coin - the teams are really, really evenly matched.

“Everyone thinks they should be in the top six, everyone thinks they are dark horses, that’s the way it is. This time last week I was saying ‘we’ve won 3-0 but let’s not get too excited’.”

Photo: Action Images

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jabberjackson added 08:23 - Aug 15 i wouldn't be too confident in a manager that said that every game was a 'toss of a coin'
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confoosed_dot_com added 08:29 - Aug 15 I agree, as much is it is tight and teams are evenly balanced, and perhaps because of this, the biggest differentiator is often attitude and having that winning mentality. That has to come from the top.
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HolbrookBlue added 08:29 - Aug 15 "Teams often come at us when we're away from home and at home the onus is on the home team, that's always been the way in football." Comment by Paul Jewell. So why did this not happen on Saturday?
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TractorMan added 08:32 - Aug 15 Paul Jewell also reveals that bears sh*t in the woods.... Any manager knows this, but it's taking a 4-5-1 and turning it into a 4-3-3 at home. That needs our wingers and midfield pushing on, not all coming back to collect the ball off the defender!
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bluelady added 08:37 - Aug 15 I still think this boils down to a lack of belief in the cb situation, hence the sitting deep not allowing exposure at the back, bring in a new commanding partner for del boy and the attack will start......
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Premiertown added 08:43 - Aug 15 If we dont believe in the centre halves played saturday then why didnt we play our best two holding central midfiield players in front of them and try and hit them on the break with pace eg Carson rather than banging balls up to chopra's head?
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Maccattack added 08:47 - Aug 15 I honestly think Jewell's done good to come out with an honest assessment of what went wrong, would you have seen his predecessor do that? I think not.
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Moscow_Blue added 08:53 - Aug 15 Jabberjackson - it was Pearson who said that, not Jewell.
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urbanblue added 08:58 - Aug 15

This season is clearly going to be all over the place for a lot of teams. Like us Leicester lost after a good first week. Reading won after struggling last week. Forest struggled etc etc etc

To be honest i would like to see more round pegs in round holes. Jet prefers to play behind the front man so lets try it ! Probably won;t happen cause Priskin is clearly out of favour but would love to see him up front with Chopra.

Anyway, early days ..... Onward and upward !

stiffshorts added 09:02 - Aug 15

Hmmm,
does PJ have me brimming with confidence in the team he's bought after saying,
“We had a few players who were off the pace, no doubt about that. We can talk formations all day long, it's about 11 players really.”???
That is the problem we've had at this club since losing the play offs to W Ham.
I thought PJ had bought another team to get that attitude out of Town?

Please let there be some light at the end of this tunnel.........I'm becoming seriously afraid now...........

Hockley added 09:31 - Aug 15 I think we would have gone in a couple of goals up at half time if Chopra had had somebody up front with him. Can't see any point in playing JET in a wide position. He is far too lazy to run back and tackle and too slow to get to the corner flag and deliver a cross. Hopefully we will see him in a more central role tomorrow
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Legend added 09:51 - Aug 15

Well you are the boss Mr Jewell..................It is you're job to work out what is the best formation with the players you have!!
One up front at home? Crazy! We have all these strikers yet you decide to play one up front at home against Hull? Hardly playing Barca were we!
Hopefully 4-4-2 Against the Saints on Tuesday. Jet & Chopra.
Please not another dull, boring, mid table season!!!!

Lightningboy added 10:39 - Aug 15 Agree PJ..451 away but either 442 or 433 at home please.
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dubblue added 10:49 - Aug 15 4-5-1 at home far too defensive...certainly encourages the visitors.
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happybeingblue added 10:53 - Aug 15

the centre backs are not good enough for a top six finish-poor old smithy is out of his depth at this level-and delaney hoofs are getting tiresome-oh for the days of venus&mowbray defenders who could bring the ball over the halfway line without wasting possesion!agree with bluelady that this defensive midfield will hopefully only be till new centre backs come in although should have been sorted over the summer as ingimarson like reading fans said on their site is always injured so cant rely on him!i do believe that pj is desperate to bring in at least 2 cbs and hopefully another gk too!UP THE TOWN!

GTRKing added 10:56 - Aug 15 442 or 443 tues. Chops or tamas/Ellington up front & Jet just behind them Midfield carson bowyer & ledbitter defence Keith cresswell delaney edwards. Keeper stockdale. Subs Tamas or ellington Healy & Dury Ainsley & cooper
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ncharles added 10:59 - Aug 15

I agree with the last few comments. I was at the match and if we'd been positive from the start we could have been two up at half time, as it was we had some chances. Hull only came into it during the second half as they changed their tactics and became more confident. We were probably lucky not to conceed more.

We've got to go for teams when playing at home and I would play JET or Priskin behind or alongside Chopra. With Martin/Carson on the wings.

Agree with Premiertown if we have CB problems at the moment play two defensive midfielders and don't let the CBs try and carry the ball out of defense!

I didn't see any midfield passing it was either run out of defense or long balls. Some of the long diagonal passes were very good and will pay off as the players get used to each other but they need to be an alternative part of a passing game. We wasted and gave away too many balls - result we didn't create enough and got punished.

John added 11:07 - Aug 15 no s**t, sherlock!
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NSL added 12:33 - Aug 15

I heard this on Radio suffolk after the game. Although I have real confidence in PJ there was one comment that did worry me somewhat along the lines of:

"I tell the players to go out to win, but if you think you are not going to win then make sure you don't lose it either".

To me this explains above anything else the result on Saturday and the meager second half. It wasn't the formation it was the fact the players were so worried about losing they sat back and let Hull come at them. With a make-shift defence this was only ever going to lead to one result.

From a fans perspective I much prefer the Joe Royle way which was more along the lines of 'Go and win th game well, put on some entertainment for the fans, you may as well risk losing 3-0 as a point isnt enough anyway'.

Please don't resort to negative tactics PJ as it won't be tolerated at Portman Road and it is not the way to win those 5,000 fans back.

simonsays added 13:05 - Aug 15 No kidding Sherlock! Why any manager wants to play 1 up fron at home I will never understand, unless you are playing Barca or Real Madrid maybe!
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Tiggs added 13:28 - Aug 15 His predecessor is long gone Maccattack. Forget Keano and move on. Truth is there is still no improvement and some of the signings made by Jewell are atrocious.
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Marcus added 13:32 - Aug 15 @GTRKing 443 sounds great, let's hope the ref doesn't notice. Also I think Cooper retired a few decades ago
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ITFC1985 added 13:50 - Aug 15

this formation only works if you have the players to help out the lone striker if you dont then its pointless playing it. It works away from home better because teams attack us and we can catch them on the counter, no point playing 4-5-1 at home if teams are just going to sit back and defend, id rather we went 4-3-3 at home rather than playing 4-5-1 with the hope our midfield will support Chopra to create the 3 up top