Minority Report - Fulham

I think so as well... We will need to spend a bit of that 11 million in the next transfer window to stay up..

 

It's no great insight from the student of the technical game. It was always so upon promotion.

 

Baffled as to why you picked on our centre halves to be replaced of all the other positions that badly let us down today the centre halves were well down list.

Emphasis on badly let us down TODAY.

 

Its funny.. the two players we did spend a bit of money on in the summer, are not in the side.

There goes one of the problems of... the man that picks the team, is not the man in charge of signings..

 

Well one ran away to his comfort zone when had he had faith in his own ability to be any good at this level he'd now be in the side and at the very least giving Hecko a headache.

But no. Ran away to L1.

 

You're easily frustrated then.

How many games have we not competed in this season? Not many.

As for not pressing Scott Parker? We couldn't get near him. Scowen pressed his way into a red card.

Parkers movement and passing range was top drawer. I can't remember him wasting a pass all game, but you would expect that for a guy that was reportedly on 75k a week last season.



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We are 11th in the Championship on 16 points. What the chuff are you expecting?

 

Well said. Of course it works it just doesn't work too well when your main midfielder is out injured and a player lacking both experience and match fitness is asked to do his job and while your first choice full backs are both out injured so your wingers are less effective than usual.

In other words when you've had to mess about with your squad and you aren't playing your first 11 you funnily enough, don't tend to perform as well. That's no reason to write off entire formations

 

I don't do 'picking'. For what it's worth, for the first goal McDonald didn't get his block in fully. For the second, Roberts is in the vicinity when the Fulham guy drives through (although Morsy didn't pick up his runner). The third is a fluke. For the fourth, Martin gets in between Roberts and McDonald - don't know which of the two was supposed to be marking him. Never liked him in Coldplay anyway.

But my point was more about leading and marshalling the defence. We have a squad and it makes sense to use it - particularly when we have just shipped four goals at home.

 

It's just that those were the only positions you CHOSE for replacements.
There were loads of incidents where they snuffed out attack after attack so to blame the failings in which the whole team were to blame
Midfield is where I'd make the changes tbh.but with Scowens card that's inevitable anyway .
Imo for what it's worth I would have kept same team if possible and put Saturdays game to a bad day at office.

 

But other than Hourihane coming back, what options do we have in midfield? It speaks volumes that although Lee was on the bench, we preferred to move Yiadom in to midfield. Moncur has thrown the dummy out. Do we have another CM?

 

We've lost 6, won 5 and drawn 1.

Had we had this run of form/results: LWLWLDWLWLWL - I don't think folk would be posting a lot of their theories and answers etc. It's because we've had a great little run followed by a **** little run. Conversely, had we started with a **** little run followed by a great little run, the opinions would be different. I get it, I proper get it. I'm still a supporter and I love debates and discussions. But if last season wasn't enough to dissuade folk from trying to be intlligentsia on here, twitter, facebook etc, I don't know what will.

It's fair to say I think that our squad this season is probably no better than last season's based on ability or money spent etc. A tad more experience of course, most of them experienced that 'journey', the 8 game losing run and the two trips to Wembley leading to promotion. But we've moved into what is clearly a second Premier League. And we're still a squad of similar ability and money spent as the one that was last season losing to Chesterfield or Doncaster. Of course it's going to be harder. By rights, you'd expect us to be bottom three by now, surely? But we aren't. We're holding our own. I think only at Brighton and yesterday against Fulham were we well-beaten. We've been more than competitive in most games.

I just don't see why folk would start questioning Hecky, the tactics and certain players based on what is a **** little run. Of five games. Unless you're weak-minded or fickle.

If we win the next three will the formation, Hecky and the players be amazing again?

Perspective.

I'm buzzing for Tuesday. We have nothing to lose. Close to 20,000 inside Oakwell. Under the lights. I suppose we could just pack defence, roll over and lose 2-0 and approach the rest of the season as a survival mission, like we did for years last time. Then sign a load of oldies in January. And look forward to 8,000 against the likes of Bury in League One.

Jeez, that was a long one... (said no woman to me, ever)


**As with all posts of this nature by me, these are my opinions and not necessarily shared by BFC**

 

I'm gonna shave my ball bag & put on my flat cap. 1 nil Barnsley

 

Putting a flat cap on your ball bag ?

WEIRD.

IMO

 

Can't see too much that's critical of Hecky here. Just that RR would like stodgier tactics. To me, bossing possession often implies that the opposition are behind the ball and you either have to have physical presence or pass like Barcelona to get past them. 4-4-2 for me, because we aren't really equipped to do 'owt else.If it fails from time to time, so be it. We'll still get nowt on Tuesday, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.

 

**** yes.

 

Well if not lengthily said.

 

Bits of toilet paper on the abrasion areas does me fine and doesn't interfere with the ritual of pulling your under crackers back up.

 

Give me a break Whitey. You know that I am not one to over-react. I was almost the last voice calling for Lee Johnson not to be sacked, and just because I have had a moan about tactics, it does not mean that I doubt Hecky. However, Mr Cryne has said in the past that he wants the club to play 4-4-2, that he likes the systems and that he believes the fans like the system, and I think that he is right. But it does throw a few questions into the mix when I see us being badly beaten.

I always comment upon what I see. I was not carried away by our early season form either. The last three home games that I have seen have been against Reading, Villa and Fulham and without exception we lost the midfield battle in all of those games. I am sure that you will tell me that all those teams have very strong squads, and you would be right to say that, but the whole league has very strong squads and if we want to compete, we are going to have to scrap. In the Reading and Fulham games we were beaten very badly. Against Villa we played 4-4-1-1, but would have lost if we had not gone to 4-4-2 and got a break. Would we have won, lost or drawn had we played 4-4-2 all the game? Who knows. I know that you read my stuff, and I that you know that I have argued consistently for five in midfield since we won the play-off final at Wembley, so I am not reacting to our change in fortune. On the contrary, I am being consistent and this thread is about my reaction to what I have seen in the last three games.

Having said all of the above, we do not currently have a forward capable of playing any variant of 4-5-1, so I do not think that option is really open to us. Armstrong might be able to do it in away games, but at home, teams will not give him room to use his pace. So we do not have any options. But that is because we put all our eggs in the 4-4-2 basket, and I will say it again, 4-4-2 is not working.

Now I can understand those who say that on our last visit to this league we played 4-5-1 or 5-3-2 and scrapped, and that it was dreadful to watch for most of the time. And you are all absolutely correct. But having watched us in the last three games, I can see us going down without so much as a whimper, and I do not want my team to do that either.

 

We are 11th pal. We've won five games playing 4-4-2, fully deserved victories against Wolves, Rotherham and Derby plus a couple of battling wins over QPR and PNE. I think we were unlucky to lose against Ipswich, Huddersfield and Leeds in my opinion. I agree that we deserved to lose yesterday, I think we were well beaten at Brighton too. Reading were better than us but we probably should have got a point. All in all, I think we are competing well. I don't know why others are fretting so much but that's football for you. An opinions game.