Chatham Town Youth Chatham 4 vs 2 Unique FC U13

Good Morning Boys,

Please see my thoughts below on yesterday.

It's really disappointing to exit the Cup at another Quarter Final stage in similar fashion to the Bromley game. As I touched on at the end of the game and throughout the season thus far, we can't keep giving team leads early then having a positive second half.

I thought in the first half it looked like our first game in a while (which is has been), I thought some of us looked really unfit and others body language no where near the standard of what we demand.

Again, we come up against, in my opinion, a really average steady side but up for it.

I feel at the moment our understanding of keeping the ball and switching it versus recognising to go forwards is lacking. Constantly in games (specifically first half) we're keeping it and switching it which is great however we want to be a team that penetrates. First thought, always forwards, then (if not on) can we keep it and link it. I feel we invite the pressure on ourselves too much in games.

Adding on to this point, I felt we were so deep in that first half. Max and Sami both were dropping so deep to try and get on the ball but I also felt our backline was so slow getting out (this continued into the second half).

The point in playing with one pivot, is to get the two 8s on the back of their midfield to be able to go and hurt. This was much better second half and both Max and Sami were involved in the goals.

Second half, I thought we were much better. I thought the boys who came onto the pitch made a difference, Maksym I thought you were excellent.

We looked more threatening and was going forwards much better. I thought our intensity increased which was great to see.

My last point regarding our front three (whoever plays in them roles). We need more runs, it can't just be 1 run and done. It has to be sometimes 4/5/6 runs to try and get on the ball, you got to be constantly moving.

Boys frustrating one to take, but let's get back to work this week and keep going strong.

Have a great week

Ollie

veo - https://app.veo.co/matches/20220428-chatham-town-athletic-u13-vs-unique-fc-ae687824/