Why Carsley's "Attacking" Mentality is Doomed

Since Lee Carsley's appointment he has been eager to stress his desire to get Brentford playing attacking football.

The focal point of most of his interviews so far has been his aim to get the Bees playing fast paced, almost aggressive football with the goal of "dominating" matches this way.

Before the Derby game he said the following:

“I want to see us play fast football. I like to get men forward, break lines with passes, plenty of shots, crosses; I want to enjoy watching them play with energy, enthusiasm, being hard to beat, getting the ball back quickly, and dominating it."

Whilst this is great in theory, and you have to admire his enthusiasm (something which seemed to be lacking from Dijkhuizen's mentality), the comments seem to show a certain naivety.

Everyone enjoys watching dynamic, attacking football - but a manager must respect that this is not always the style that will best win you games.

It is very easy to assume that because you're playing in a more attacking manner that you will score more goals, and therefore win more games. This is clearly what Lee Carsley believes, but in reality a football manager must be more tactically aware than this.

Take the Birmingham match, for example. Brentford were clearly deploying the attacking style that Carsley had spoken about in his interviews. However, Birmingham were sitting very deep and absorbing all the pressure that Brentford were applying. They were allowing us to create few chances, encouraging us to commit men forward, and would then try and utilise their pace to hit us on the counter through players like Demerai Gray and Donaldson.

An animated Carsley was standing on the touchline and urging his players forward in search for a goal. This left us more and more exposed at the back, until the inevitable happened and we went a goal down. Birmingham were incredibly well organised and after conceding we never looked like getting back into the match.

What Carsley could have done is assess the risk/reward ratio of the situation. He had two main options:

1. Throw men forward in search of an unlikely winner, against a well-drileld and very defensive opposition, and risk being hit on the counter.

2. Slow the play down, try and control the game and apply pressure without committing too many men forward.

He went for the former and we went home with nothing.

Now I'm not blaming Carsley; it was his first game in football management and Birmingham deployed their tactics exceptionally.

But simple footballing logic dictates that the more attacking you line-up, the more you leave yourself defensively exposed. Brentford's major problem over the last season and a bit has been the number of goals we leak.

As it stands we are ranked 21st defensively (having conceded 19 goals in 10 games), and last season we ranked 10th defensively - despite finishing 5th in the table.

Our defensive troubles are heightened by the style of football we play. Last year we played an attacking brand of football, which meant that we leaked goals but we scored enough goals to make up for it.

Carsley seems to be taking for granted the fact that if we play attacking football, we will automaticaly score goals. It doesn't work that way. In fact, at the moment, we are conceding more and scoring less.

Indeed, since Carsley has taken over we haven't scored a single goal.

The football that we played in the first twenty minutes against Derby is a testament to that. Brentford were certainly playing with the intention of being attacking, but it was failing horribly.

We looked rushed when on the ball, and lacked the composure that served us so well last season. Too many balls were being pumped forward in an attempt not to be bogged down with sideways passing, but the Derby defence were mopping them up comfortably.

Last season we controlled games; dominating possession and setting up camp in the opposition half. The reverse happened at the iPro. We couldn't keep the ball to save our lives and underwent periods of severe pressure from the hosts. Derby had 60% possession in the first half.

Sometimes sideways passing is a necessity to get a foothold in the game, before starting to apply pressure and search for a goal. Against Derby we tried to get the ball forward quickly and get on the front foot, but the attacking intent was forced and meant that we lost the ball far too easily.

Carsley is clearly a very good coach, and watching him warm up with the players before the match gives one a sense of optimism. But tactically he doesn't seem to be all there yet.

After falling behind against Birmingham the game was crying out for a change. Literally any change. We could have switched to a more attacking formation, as had become customary under Dijkhuizen and Warburton (many times last season did Odubajo push up the field, leading to some remarkably unconventional formations). Some will remember the olden days when Leon Legge would move into a striker's position if we were losing in the final minutes.

However, Carsley made no change in formation or style and opted to make just one substitution (Canos for Kerschbaumer) until the 89th minute. Again, it's hard when it's your first game in charge and we shouldn't judge Carsley after just two matches. But he does need to become more tactically aware.

Crucially, we need to understand that before we try and set the world alight by playing dazzling attacking football, we need to do the basics right. This means keeping possession, passing accurately and getting a foothold in games.

It is imperative that we start getting points on the board. Against Sheffield Wednesday Dijkhuizen had the option to stick or twist. He twisted and we dropped a point, and ultimately the result was the final straw that cost him his job.

We can't afford to keep taking risks because we're in danger of embedding ourselves deep in the relegation zone. With all the injuries that we've sustained, our fit playing staff just don't have enough quality to reap the rewards from playing "fast football" and "getting men forward".

Instead we should concentrate on getting the basics right and going back to trying to dominate games through possession, something we've done so well over the last few seasons.

I'm not saying abandon all attacking mentality, I'm just saying that we should apply some perspective and realise that playing attacking football from the first whistle to the last is going to see us continuing to concede a lot more goals than scoring.

Carsley should take each game as it comes, and apply tactics according to the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. Against better teams, and away from home, there's no shame in (for instance) doing a Birmingham, sitting back and trying to hit them on the counter.

This is how we will pick up points and guarentee ourselves the best position possible come the end of the season.

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