A pitiful performance on Saturday night. Very very disappointing. Credit to Derry who I was seriously impressed with. They might have done us a favour though longer term. Our fitness levels arnt good enough yet, our structure and style of play is.. frankly none existent. And we lack pace & mobility in some crucial areas.
Management have time to address most of those issues yet thankfully
The most frustrating thing is, again, we looked like we have never come across the Derry mass-defence system. Derry got 15 men behind the ball in the opening 10 mins, afforded Tyrone plenty of possession. We never mounted a meaningful attack, it was all sideways lateral powder puff stuff. I feel this even had a psychological impact too. Once we were turned over they had acres of space in front of them
Tyrone had no structure or ideas in attack to break that down – ie men hugging the sidelines to create width & space, forwards making darting runs in the search of a mark, or the longer range kickers (P Harte) coming off a D to kick a boomer from 45 yards. Because Derry allow you to shoot from there, and as long as the ball goes dead – its no great shakes if you miss. Once they have 15 inside the 45, its more probable you get turned over eventually, rather than score
You need to have a target man in there as well and loft the odd one into McShane or whoever. It might pay off for mark or a goal, but more importantly it keeps their defence occupied and prevents them cranking up the collective pressure as much in the 30 yard zone from the 45 to the 15 yards infront of the keeper
Surely in training this environment is recreated – we have a massive panel of players. Get 15 (or 16) behind the ball, and challenge the first 15 to break it down. It really looked like we hadn’t seen this before or didn’t expect it
The middle third was very poor. Kennedy & Richie are both good assets to have in your squad. But as a midfield pairing they wouldnt have the pace or mobility for this level. One or the other in the midfield. Our break ball winning powers across the half backs and half forwards was second to Derry as well
Also very concerning the form of Hampsey, McGeary, Sludden, Mattie & Pete Harte. No discernable change from 2022. So far anyway.
A tough trip away to Roscommon on Sunday, I still expect us to finish in the top 3 or 4 in the league this year. Most division one games wont be as tough as Derry was on Saturday past. But we need to start planning for Derry in the summer now.
