17-11-2017, 19:08
Paul Tisdale is a good manager.
He always likes his teams to play a bit of football. He likes a bit of possession. And his teams will always keep trying to play their game ....... even when things are going wrong. If things click for them at some point in a game they can very quickly pull back from two goals down.
For twelve years there has been one way to beat Exeter - close them down, don't give them any space to play, hurry them and hustle them as if you were playing against a team from a much higher level of football. If you get in front, if you get on top, do it more and harder, tackle, work and press, make the pitch look small to them. NEVER think, we're winning, let's pass the ball about a bit, that's what they are waiting for.
Tactically it's dead simple, but week after week teams fail to do it. They look at Exeter's team, see they have very few stars and start wondering how come this lot are up the top. Fatal. Ruthlessly close 'em down. Whether we have anything like the players to do that is a moot point, but if we take the opposite tack and play their game, we'd have to be on our best day so far this season and they'd have to be on their worst.
One possible weakness is that their young keeper is good, but he does still have a mistake in him and he isn't all that big.
Their front two is a danger, they are both clever players at our level, but Wheeler would be the man to worry me, coming from wide. He has plenty of goals in him as well creating stuff for the strikers.
He always likes his teams to play a bit of football. He likes a bit of possession. And his teams will always keep trying to play their game ....... even when things are going wrong. If things click for them at some point in a game they can very quickly pull back from two goals down.
For twelve years there has been one way to beat Exeter - close them down, don't give them any space to play, hurry them and hustle them as if you were playing against a team from a much higher level of football. If you get in front, if you get on top, do it more and harder, tackle, work and press, make the pitch look small to them. NEVER think, we're winning, let's pass the ball about a bit, that's what they are waiting for.
Tactically it's dead simple, but week after week teams fail to do it. They look at Exeter's team, see they have very few stars and start wondering how come this lot are up the top. Fatal. Ruthlessly close 'em down. Whether we have anything like the players to do that is a moot point, but if we take the opposite tack and play their game, we'd have to be on our best day so far this season and they'd have to be on their worst.
One possible weakness is that their young keeper is good, but he does still have a mistake in him and he isn't all that big.
Their front two is a danger, they are both clever players at our level, but Wheeler would be the man to worry me, coming from wide. He has plenty of goals in him as well creating stuff for the strikers.