I'm not really an Otago supporter but I have connections in the team and follow from a distance. The problems the squad faces are numerous. There's little player quality or depth. Of the current crop only Little, Connor, Prattley and Stevens would feature in any of the other franchises' squads. Only Stevens would get into the Auckland City or Waitakere squads, and only then as a youth player. The players have no clues tactically and this is a coaching issue. At this level every player has to be in the right place on the pitch, doing their job, all the time. But Otago neither move fast enough, and into the right spaces on the park, when they don't have the ball, nor do they support each other quickly or anticipate well enough on the ball. There's an awful lot of ball watching going on. Otago seem to depend on desperate defending and hopeful attacks. And that's about it. I watched the Waitakere game live and the Team Wellington game on Sky and there is actually no structure to Otago's game when they have the ball. It's all reactive instead of pro-active, like grown men playing an under-16 sort of game. The key areas that need to be fixed urgently are in the middle of the park and up front. Go to a 4-5-1. Get the two wide players working their bums off - from what I saw neither of them works up and down the line consistently hard enough. You need to stick 3 players in the middle of the park. Otago aren't good enough to play 2v2 in there, but if they play 3v2 in there they can at least get some ball and try to keep it. And with 3 in there at least they have a better chance of providing the back 4 with some sort of shield - there is very little midfield defending going on at the moment. Based on the games I've seen I'd have Stevens in the middle up high, because at least he can run and is technical. Burgess should go, in the Premiership you need players that can run a million miles mph for 90 minutes not 3 mph for 5 minutes.
I'm not really an Otago supporter but I have connections in the team and follow from a distance. The problems the squad faces are numerous. There's little player quality or depth. Of the current crop only Little, Connor, Prattley and Stevens would feature in any of the other franchises' squads. Only Stevens would get into the Auckland City or Waitakere squads, and only then as a youth player. The players have no clues tactically and this is a coaching issue. At this level every player has to be in the right place on the pitch, doing their job, all the time. But Otago neither move fast enough, and into the right spaces on the park, when they don't have the ball, nor do they support each other quickly or anticipate well enough on the ball. There's an awful lot of ball watching going on. Otago seem to depend on desperate defending and hopeful attacks. And that's about it. I watched the Waitakere game live and the Team Wellington game on Sky and there is actually no structure to Otago's game when they have the ball. It's all reactive instead of pro-active, like grown men playing an under-16 sort of game. The key areas that need to be fixed urgently are in the middle of the park and up front. Go to a 4-5-1. Get the two wide players working there bums off - from what I saw neither of them works up and down the line consistently hard enough. You need to stick 3 players in the middle of the park. Otago aren't good enough to play 2v2 in there, but if they play 3v2 in there they can at least get some ball and try to keep it. And with 3 in there at least they have a better chance of providing the back 4 with some sort of shield - there is very little midfield defending going on at the moment. Based on the games I've seen I'd have Stevens in the middle up high, because at least he can run and is technical. Burgess should go, in the Premiership you need players that can run a million miles mph for 90 minutes not 3 mph for 5 minutes.