Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.
Playing against 9 - is it as easy as you think?
Comments
-
He probably couldn't believe it. Imagine going from Ipswich who scored for fun at times to a team that don't even attack with a ridiculous advantage.DamoNorthStand said:
By way of demonstration, Clarke was positively screaming for the ball in half a pitch worth of space on multiple occasions.Braziliance said:It should be ridiculously easy.
All it did was expose our limitations as a team. How it can be seen any other way is beyond my understanding.
Two players always free guaranteed, should make it a massacre.
We either chose not to give it to him tactically, or didnt have the minerals to attempt the pass.
Liked the look of him either way, had pace and seemed experienced.0 -
Continue to ignore the examples if you want.Braziliance said:
Probably because it's extremely rare a team go down to 9 men in the first half?Callumcafc said:I couldn’t find any examples of a team going down to nine men in the 23/24 Championship season. So far we have these examples across the second and third tier:
Charlton 1-0 Sheff Utd
Watford 1-2 Burnley
Portsmouth 3-3 Coventry
Charlton 2-2 Swindon
There’s also QPR 1-1 Plymouth but that feels naughty to include because Plymouth’s second red card was in 90+1.
Still unable to find a relatively recent example of an EFL team being blown away with 9 men.
There is no way of dressing this up, sorry. It was an abysmal performance. Hopefully it won't be tomorrow.
There are two examples on the list I gave where both reds happened in the first half.
In the other two, one played for 30 minutes with nine men and the other played 20 minutes with nine. Not insignificant periods of time - surely if it was so easy they’d have each scored at least once?0 -
Here's a couple of examples I could find.
Feb 2017, AC Milan beat Bologna 1-0 away, despite being down to 9 men from about 60 mins (scored the winner in the last minute). Played with 10 men from before half time.
https://www.beinsports.com/en-au/football/serie-a/articles-video/nine-man-milan-stops-the-rot-with-stunning-vi
December 2025, Lazio beat Parma 1-0, despite 2 sendings off. Second sending off wasn't until 77 mins, but played with 10 from before HT again.
https://supersport.com/football/italy/news/100b5c87-80df-47f1-a9d7-c19f98b4dd4a/lazio-find-winner-in-parma-despite-two-red-cards
In both cases, the game was 0-0 when it was 11v11 (and when it was 10v11), but the team with 9 managed to find a late winner...
The only other recent match I could find with 2 sendings off before 80 mins was this one between Liverpool and Tottenham. Tottenham winning 2-1 thanks to a 90+6 OG.
So 2 out of 3 matches, the team with 9 men went on and won, and the other one took a stoppage time OG... Makes our match look comfortable...
0 -
So fantastically Italian that 2/3rds of the examples you found were Serie A games2
-
Really good pool to choose from.Callumcafc said:
Continue to ignore the examples if you want.Braziliance said:
Probably because it's extremely rare a team go down to 9 men in the first half?Callumcafc said:I couldn’t find any examples of a team going down to nine men in the 23/24 Championship season. So far we have these examples across the second and third tier:
Charlton 1-0 Sheff Utd
Watford 1-2 Burnley
Portsmouth 3-3 Coventry
Charlton 2-2 Swindon
There’s also QPR 1-1 Plymouth but that feels naughty to include because Plymouth’s second red card was in 90+1.
Still unable to find a relatively recent example of an EFL team being blown away with 9 men.
There is no way of dressing this up, sorry. It was an abysmal performance. Hopefully it won't be tomorrow.
There are two examples on the list I gave where both reds happened in the first half.
In the other two, one played for 30 minutes with nine men and the other played 20 minutes with nine. Not insignificant periods of time - surely if it was so easy they’d have each scored at least once?
If one hundred games were played 11v9, it's almost certain it would be a huge scoreline in the vast majority of them, if it isn't, there is something massively wrong with the team who have 11 players. Especially if the game has consequences and not just a regular league game.
It's just a ridiculous question, it's like asking if a tennis game is harder to win with a cheesestring instead of a tennis racket. Of course it fkn is 😂
That result had nothing to do with tactics or playing well or game management. It was simply a result that was guaranteed unless we bottled it.
I walked away more positive after Leicester as it showed we were on the right track, and I knew this side could beat teams. Now I am more worried about the fixtures as we looked so inept with such a massive advantage.
If anyone thinks those circumstances were difficult in any way shape or form, they're on planet bizarro. We won't get an easier win/opportunity all season.2 -
I don’t think you can read too much into it (as you can’t with any individual game). You said it yourself the situation exposed a weakness we have as a team, we’re not able to move the ball well enough to break down a settled defence. We knew that anywayBraziliance said:
Really good pool to choose from.Callumcafc said:
Continue to ignore the examples if you want.Braziliance said:
Probably because it's extremely rare a team go down to 9 men in the first half?Callumcafc said:I couldn’t find any examples of a team going down to nine men in the 23/24 Championship season. So far we have these examples across the second and third tier:
Charlton 1-0 Sheff Utd
Watford 1-2 Burnley
Portsmouth 3-3 Coventry
Charlton 2-2 Swindon
There’s also QPR 1-1 Plymouth but that feels naughty to include because Plymouth’s second red card was in 90+1.
Still unable to find a relatively recent example of an EFL team being blown away with 9 men.
There is no way of dressing this up, sorry. It was an abysmal performance. Hopefully it won't be tomorrow.
There are two examples on the list I gave where both reds happened in the first half.
In the other two, one played for 30 minutes with nine men and the other played 20 minutes with nine. Not insignificant periods of time - surely if it was so easy they’d have each scored at least once?
If one hundred games were played 11v9, it's almost certain it would be a huge scoreline in the vast majority of them, if it isn't, there is something massively wrong with the team who have 11 players. Especially if the game has consequences and not just a regular league game.
It's just a ridiculous question, it's like asking if a tennis game is harder to win with a cheesestring instead of a tennis racket. Of course it fkn is 😂
That result had nothing to do with tactics or playing well or game management. It was simply a result that was guaranteed unless we bottled it.
I walked away more positive after Leicester as it showed we were on the right track, and I knew this side could beat teams. Now I am more worried about the fixtures as we looked so inept with such a massive advantage.
If anyone thinks those circumstances were difficult in any way shape or form, they're on planet bizarro. We won't get an easier win/opportunity all season.That’s been the case all season and we’ve still done overall pretty well so far. It’s rare that we are up against a team that just sits in to frustrate us, and it will barely happen again for the rest of the season. So personally I’m not too worried about it, it was a poor effort but we still got the win which is all that matters.0 -
Seven examples found so far and all of them ended a draw or a one goal win. To be honest, it surprises even me that I haven’t found an example of a tonking in a top level league yet but even games 11v11 can finish four or five nil.Braziliance said:
Really good pool to choose from.Callumcafc said:
Continue to ignore the examples if you want.Braziliance said:
Probably because it's extremely rare a team go down to 9 men in the first half?Callumcafc said:I couldn’t find any examples of a team going down to nine men in the 23/24 Championship season. So far we have these examples across the second and third tier:
Charlton 1-0 Sheff Utd
Watford 1-2 Burnley
Portsmouth 3-3 Coventry
Charlton 2-2 Swindon
There’s also QPR 1-1 Plymouth but that feels naughty to include because Plymouth’s second red card was in 90+1.
Still unable to find a relatively recent example of an EFL team being blown away with 9 men.
There is no way of dressing this up, sorry. It was an abysmal performance. Hopefully it won't be tomorrow.
There are two examples on the list I gave where both reds happened in the first half.
In the other two, one played for 30 minutes with nine men and the other played 20 minutes with nine. Not insignificant periods of time - surely if it was so easy they’d have each scored at least once?
If one hundred games were played 11v9, it's almost certain it would be a huge scoreline in the vast majority of them, if it isn't, there is something massively wrong with the team who have 11 players. Especially if the game has consequences and not just a regular league game.
It's just a ridiculous question, it's like asking if a tennis game is harder to win with a cheesestring instead of a tennis racket. Of course it fkn is 😂
That result had nothing to do with tactics or playing well or game management. It was simply a result that was guaranteed unless we bottled it.
I walked away more positive after Leicester as it showed we were on the right track, and I knew this side could beat teams. Now I am more worried about the fixtures as we looked so inept with such a massive advantage.
If anyone thinks those circumstances were difficult in any way shape or form, they're on planet bizarro. We won't get an easier win/opportunity all season.
There just isn’t a huge amount of data on 11v9 to be definitive about how much the game changes. But I’m fairly confident from just half a dozen examples that it’s not as easy as playing tennis against someone with a cheese string. Which was exactly the point of the post in the first place.
0 -
A bit of over-complication taking place
In theory 2 sides of a similar level one having 11 men for most of the game the other 9. It becomes a rout.
Massive difference AC Milan having 9 v Bologna and Italians being defensive bastards and Coventry v Pompey
Same with us, fragile off a shellacking from Chelseas B team, low margin at the best of times, feisty underdogs used to low possession and attrition v a genuinely decent Sheffield United with several players at a level thats probably below them1 -
For me a major issue with our approach, is that is sent an incredibly negative message to our opponents. I imagine the United players would have been thinking at half time that they'd be in for a torrid half, having to constantly defend. Instead they would have realised that we were so frightened of being caught on the counter by 9 men, that we would be doing the bare minimum, and that as teams always seem to get a chance to score at some point, they were still very much in the game.
You're NEVER safe at 1-0. When you're clinging on to a narrow lead, any free kick conceded on the half way line will be pumped into the box, and all it takes is a slight error or unlucky ricochet, and it's 1-1.0
