I have never been a fan of 5-3-2 at the lower levels of professional football and I think I am correct in saying most of our managers over the last 10 years have tried it and failed to make it work.
It is only a valid defensive tactic if you are trying to snatch a point (or 3 if you are very lucky) when you are playing a vastly superior football team. Should not be relevant to us this season then.
It is only a valid attacking tactic if you have full backs that can go past defenders and cross the ball properly and at least one centre back with the ability to step into the base of midfield and pass the ball forwards with decent accuracy. We have none of these things so should not be relevant to us. It allows us to get more sideways and backwards passes whilst we wait for the opposition to get into their defensive shape before we knock it long anyway.
That said the formation worked OK for 30 minutes yesterday. But for a incorrect offside flag we would have been 1 up and with a bit of luck it could have been 2. Chester were no threat and a high press was causing them to go long which was playing into our hands.
Once we gifted them a goal their building frustrations lifted, our heads dropped and we pretty much didn’t lay a glove on them after that. I didn’t see anyone on the pitch or the touchline doing anything to change how badly the team played for the last hour. If anything was said at half time by way of motivation or tactical change then nothing was apparent on the pitch.
On a related note could someone ask Whitehall to occasionally win the ball and do something with it instead of constantly sitting on his arse and claiming he has been fouled. Officials and opposition coaches are well aware this is his default tactic so it rarely results in a free kick even when he is fouled.
