Observations from Dublin v Mayo Game #2 (2015)
“Lump the ball into O’Shea” is not a sophisticated enough attacking plan to win an All-Ireland
Mayo management decided to develop a game plan that wilfully ignored Mayo’s one actual world class forward (Cillian O’Connor) and a player clearly in superb form in Andy Moran. Instead they went with a ‘hit it and hope’ approach, kicking into a converted midfielder who had 2 or 3 Dublin defenders on his back every time the ball dropped into the box.
…Especially if your kick passing is going to be of such poor quality
Of course, if you are going to play this way you need to get one thing absolutely spot on — your long ball in has to be a good one — in other words winnable. The quality of kick passes sent in by the Mayo team to O’Shea was of the poorest quality imaginable all day.
Did Mayo management even watch the video of the first game? AKA Cluxtons kick outs!
Like the first day, Mayo played neither a high pressing game nor a blanket defence. The tactic seemed to be “okay let Dublin win all their kickouts but lets also leave our entire forward-line up in their half so our defence is left isolated 1 on 1 with their top class forward line!”.
Barry Moran is not a natural sweeper — he should only be used as a sweeper if the opposition are going to launch high balls into an isolated 1 man forward line, e.g. Michael Murphy and Donegal. But against a team like Dublin he was of little use in that position.
Andy Moran was the one forward Dublin were having major problems with in the first game but yet started again on the bench. Again today he won nearly every ball kicked into him when he came on.
So what do I think Mayo should have done?
- Go man to man (full press) on the Dublin kick outs. Force Cluxton to kick long — this means Dublin’s chances of winning their kick-outs goes from 100% to 50/50, possibly even 60/40 in Mayo’s favour.
- Start with Barry Moran instead of Seamie O’Shea in Midfield. Slightly better than O’Shea in both mobility and fielding. Start with Andy Moran in at corner forward as part of 3 man full forward line.
- If Dublin win a kick-out then and only then bring your defensive players back and flood the defensive zone. Dublin’s forwards were rampant today with Mayo supposedly playing with a deeper lying defence, so how much worse could this really be!
- If you have to play a sweeper stick someone like McLaughlin back, a seasoned defender, and give Aiden O’Shea licence to move between full forward and centre half forward.
- Mix up their attacks — more cross field kicks into Andy Moran and O’Connor. More Balls placed in front of O’Shea as opposed to in on top of him every time.
Seamie O’Shea’s Nightmare season has fitting end and Lack of Mobility in Mayo Midfield a Key to Defeat!
We mentioned in the previous article about how poor Seamie has been this season. Ironically, apart from some early mistakes, Seamie was having one of his best games of the season before his silly black card.
O’Shea’s black card caused CHAOS in Mayo’s set-up.
Aiden O’Shea essentially went to midfield in his place. This resulted in two things happening. Mayo completely lost their offensive shape — their plan ‘A’ of attack was no longer there. Secondly, just like they did when they faced Mayo in the All-Ireland final a couple of years back, Dublin now had a massive advantage speed-wise in the middle third and were able to over run the Mayo midfield.
Case in point — Dublin’s first goal — with Aiden O’Shea back in midfield at this stage — unable to keep up with Fenton who made a run from the half way line, Aiden O’Shea lumbering behind him unable to keep up.
Lack of Depth in Squad costs Mayo
Drake & Ronaldson vs MacCauley & McManaman— enough said.
Want more to read!? Observations From Game #1
