Parking the Bus…

M

Misc.Boro.Fan

Member
…. Do we have a solution to this tactic, employed by teams (of late)?

I watched some of the Liverpool game the other day and saw how they struggled against a down-and-out Everton side ‘parking the bus’ - so it’s not just us! Factor in the lack of goalscorers/ creativity and you can see how this would seem the perfect way to play us.

I fear Cardiff may do this… is it just a case of carry on regardless? Count on a relentless push will eventually come up trumps?
 
Everton's tactic was the only way they could employ against Liverpool. If they hadn't they would have been tonked 6-0. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

As for combatting the tactic, an early goal is the best way to draw out a team intent on sitting in. I know it sounds obvious.
 
I don't think we are a team that others would park the bus against. That tactic is only really useful in completely one-sided games otherwise you just get no chances to ever win games yourself. We're not that good. It's fairly easy to shut us down by just keeping Jones quiet. The opposition doesn't have to nullify their own threat to just stop that one avenue of attack.

Everton were embarassingly bad yesterday in terms of the way they played with the ball. It was fairly effective, they had a few half chances but they were deservedly beaten. Allan played in central midfield for 80 mins and made 2 successful passes, both of them were the kick offs. How can a team have a central midfielder that doesn't complete a pass from open play.
 
Had a theory about this for a while, this is the solution! Doesn't involve any expensive technology, is completely free, would make for more attacking play and would, overnight, eradicate parking the bus and dinosaur managers like Allardyce and Pulis etc. It's a win win!

The solution: simple points changes -

No points awarded for a 0-0 draw -

I realise defending is an important part of the game but, fundamentally, the game is about scoring goals. It's the prime objective, always has been always will be. It's what we all want - goals, excitement and entertainment. By awarding a point to a team that fails to achieve this basic objective over 90 minutes we are rewarding failure. A typical example - let's say Pulis/Allardyce et al get drafted into a struggling Premier league side at risk of relegation who have 10 games of the season left. His first game in charge is away to Man City. Predictably he plays one up front with a plan to sit back, time waste, frustrate the opposition and battle for all their worth to gain a point by parking the bus. In doing so his side inevitably bore everyone to death with the negativity on show. We've all seen it a million times. It's a nightmare.

However, imagine if such negative managers were faced with the knowledge at kick off that they would gain absolutely nothing from a 0 - 0? Their negative approach would instantly become redundant; they'd have to become more adventurous in their play, be more expansive, take risks and basically opt to attack. Parking the bus would disappear overnight. Also imagine their work and approach on the training pitch every week, it would be geared to more expansive play generally. It would have to be! They simply couldn't survive or exist otherwise.

6 points for a win - Of course, with the above approach there would be the odd exception - let's say an underdog side happens to score a flukey goal in the first minute of a game and then decides to park the bus. To try and counter this I'd double the current points total to 6. This would dangle a carrot to the sides that happen to score early then protect what they've got/shut up shop. So, if they're a goal up and could sneak another they may well go onto win the game and gain an extra 5 points. That's quite a reward and would prove a huge temptation. Under this system 1 point isn't much better than none so dangle the carrot!!!

1 point for any score draw - I'd keep it to one point for any score draw so as to temp teams to push on for what would be an extra 5 points for the win; thereby encouraging more adventurous play.

There you go. Wouldn't cost a thing and I genuinely think it would make a world of difference and go a very long way to eradicating negative football/parking the bus culture. When I've mentioned this to others they often try and tinker with it by coming up things like 'how about two bonus points to the away team if they score 3 goals' etc etc. NO! Keep it simple as above.
 
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no team is going to bother parking the bus against us, one of the teams to have the lowest goals scored and attempts on goal in the league.

Don't confuse being organised at the back and all the players knowing their jobs and playing a "system" to be parking the bus.

Teams know they don't need to take risks against us as we will blow out of steam passing the ball sideways and backwards for 80 minutes.
 
LeftBanke said:
Had a theory about this for a while, this is the solution! Doesn't involve any expensive technology, is completely free, would make for more attacking play and would, overnight, eradicate parking the bus and dinosaur managers like Allardyce and Pulis etc. It's a win win!

The solution: simple points changes -

No points awarded for a 0-0 draw -

I realise defending is an important part of the game but, fundamentally, the game is about scoring goals. It's the prime objective, always has been always will be. It's what we all want - goals, excitement and entertainment. By awarding a point to a team that fails to achieve this basic objective over 90 minutes we are rewarding failure. A typical example - let's say Pulis/Allardyce et al get drafted into a struggling Premier league side at risk of relegation who have 10 games of the season left. His first game in charge is away to Man City. Predictably he plays one up front with a plan to sit back, time waste, frustrate the opposition and battle for all their worth to gain a point by parking the bus. In doing so his side inevitably bore everyone to death with the negativity on show. We've all seen it a million times. It's a nightmare.

However, imagine if such negative managers were faced with the knowledge at kick off that they would gain absolutely nothing from a 0 - 0? Their negative approach would instantly become redundant; they'd have to become more adventurous in their play, be more expansive, take risks and basically opt to attack. Parking the bus would disappear overnight. Also imagine their work and approach on the training pitch every week, it would be geared to more expansive play generally. It would have to be! They simply couldn't survive or exist otherwise.

6 points for a win - Of course, with the above approach there would be the odd exception - let's say an underdog side happens to score a flukey goal in the first minute of a game and then decides to park the bus. To try and counter this I'd double the current points total to 6. This would dangle a carrot to the sides that happen to score early then protect what they've got/shut up shop. So, if they're a goal up and could sneak another they may well go onto win the game and gain an extra 5 points. That's quite a reward and would prove a huge temptation. Under this system 1 point isn't much better than none so dangle the carrot!!!

1 point for any score draw - I'd keep it to one point for any score draw so as to temp teams to push on for what would be an extra 5 points for the win; thereby encouraging more adventurous play.

There you go. Wouldn't cost a thing and I genuinely think it would make a world of difference and go a very long way to eradicating negative football/parking the bus culture. When I've mentioned this to others they often try and tinker with it by coming up things like 'how about two bonus points to the away team if they score 3 goals' etc etc. NO! Keep it simple as above.
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I don’t like the no points for 0-0. There’s more than one way to skin a cat and keeping a clean sheet is an art in itself
 
GazC_MFC said:
I don’t like the no points for 0-0. There’s more than one way to skin a cat and keeping a clean sheet is an art in itself
Click to expand...

I'm sure Tony Pulis would agree with you but how is that mindset going to change anything? I appreciate the importance of defending but it's a very dour art, hardly edge of the seat stuff. But, if people are thrilled or fulfilled by watching old videos of Bould, Adams, Dixon and Winterburn etc then fill yer boots!

Plus, as I mentioned, not scoring a goal is failure and to reward that is encouraging negative football.
 
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I think there is some mileage in promoting attacking football and goal scoring, a little like the bonus points in rugby for scoring more than 3 tries etc.

problem is that its not a fixed points system anymore, leaving the game open for claims of wrong doing etc at times in the season when some teams might have little to play for etc.
 
LeftBanke said:
I'm sure Tony Pulis would agree with you but how is that mindset going to change anything? I appreciate the importance of defending but it's a very dour art, hardly edge of the seat stuff. But, if people are thrilled or fulfilled by watching old videos of Bould, Adams, Dixon and Winterburn etc then fill yer boots!

Plus, as I mentioned, not scoring a goal is failure and to reward that is encouraging negative football.
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With no points for a 0 0 the rubbish team would still park the bus and hope to pinch a 1 0, a pulis type would still think he's more likely to get something that way than by opening up, and he'd probably be correct.
 
We've only got Watmore capable of doing this but I really believe that you need to run at them, particularly inside the box, in order to draw a penalty claim.

People said Bournemouth got too many when Howe got them up, but you only get those dead balls in and around the box by making probing runs.

Failing that, I have a revolutionary idea: stop killing the ball by the corner, then crossing once the defenders have regrouped deep in the box.
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
With no points for a 0 0 the rubbish team would still park the bus and hope to pinch a 1 0, a pulis type would still think he's more likely to get something that way than by opening up, and he'd probably be correct.
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Really? I doubt that. To pinch that goal they'd have to be more offensive, leaving themselves open to opposition attacks in turn. OK, they could maybe score from a set piece but that would still have come about from being more offensive. The longer the game goes on at 0-0 with a team being negative the greater the risk they would take in getting nothing. Pinning everything on pinching a 1-0 win would be a very risky strategy, way too much risk I'd suggest. Considering the huge amount of physical effort they'd have to exert during the match plus the time and planning they'll have put into a preparing for the game all week in training that's a hell of a risk strategy. Not to mention the influence a precarious league position would have on things too.

Bottom line - the longer the game goes on at 0-0 the more open it would absolutely have to become as there's nothing to protect and everything to gain.
 
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