Football style

More and more I am hearing opposing sides or pundits saying we don't play football with our style. But goals win games, at the moment we are scoring more goals than our opponents so what's the problem

 

TBH I don't care, it got a bit wearing after a while being called a good footballing side and losing most of the time.
We conceded loads of goals p1ssing about at the back, now we get it clear and then play football, something some don't give us credit for! We are also fitter than most teams.
And last but but no means least we win a lot of games.

 

We are winning so that's all that matters

 

Surely the result is the main thing, I would rather be putting 3 points on the board than playing "pretty" and loosing

 

Warnock spoke about taking 2 chances and they would have won. All i saw was two poorly executed headers and neither looked overly worrying. If thats what they mean by good football then they didnt show much. We had our own missed soft header too. I got off my seat twice as we scored. Once when we executed a great corner which succeeded by design and great application, one with relentless pressure where we could have scored at 2-3 various points of the phase of play. If these were the only elements of entertainment in the game then I know which ones achieved entertainment for me

 

I like the way we play. We play a lot football. Not today, obviously, for a few reasons. Middlesbrough had a game plan to counteract our style and we didn't play that well when on the ball. But even our very best footballing teams had plenty of stinkers. Difference with this team is that even when it's not clicking for them, the work rate and desire is still there and we often get a result.

I fully accept that the football on offer today wasn't entertaining, for the first 60 minutes at any rate. But, for example, the second half at Bournemouth was scintillating stuff.

 

But sport is a competition, you win or loose or in football draw, we are winning at the moment, it might not be pretty but a win is a win, 3 points in the board and Surely you would rather the team you support progresses

 

Style does matter to me and a lot of Reds fans. I like winning too, but there's a price I'm not happy paying if it means we are going to play long ball, attritional football as the default tactic. As I've said before, we have good players, but we do resemble John Beck's Cambridge at times. Everybody has a different view on the results/performances debate - I respect the opinion of others. But I know where I stand.

 

3 points is all that matters but you can do both. This season is fair enough because last season was garbage and we don't have fans in the ground. Next season whichever league we are in I hope we are a bit more pretty on the eye. I think we will have to be because clubs would be better prepared against our current style and some fans would get on their backs not liking what they are sat in the ground watching.

 

It used to be great playing pretty football, losing, then being patted on the head like a good little boy by the opposition manager/fans

We are getting the best out of the players we have and winning games, surely that's what every team aspires to whether you are Barnsley or Barcelona.

 

Agree we have got more in the locker. But we have to take responsibility for the number of games that are dross. Warnock was right when he said this is probably a one season style - this kind of football is all about results and without those it's the pits. I thought much the same about Bassett's side too - got more points than Danny's but many of the game were awful.

 

We won 2-0 today.

We've won 21 games and have 71 points in what is one of our top three seasons at the level, ever.

With five games remaining.

Every side we've played at Oakwell since Chelsea in the cup has played more long balls than we have, created fewer chances etc.

They all choose to come here and go long, to try and stop us, then say (when they fail , playing long) that we are long ball.

Teams that don't go as direct, and try to play through us, on the deck, they don't stop us either. See Bournemouth, Luton and Brentford for example.

We're currently on a club record breaking run of six successive away wins where we've scored 3, 3, 3 and 2 in the last four of them, another record.

One defeat in 16 (that's more than a third of a season).

Dross isn't how I'd describe any of the above.

 

I would much rather see our centre half’s playing to their strengths. Getting the ball in our box from a goal kick passing 2 yards getting it back only to loose possession to the opposition for them to score. This idea of clearing our lines hitting the big man up front and playing off him in their half is so last century. Why would we want to see us playing in a style that suits our players surely it is better to try and play like Barcelona making 20 passes near our 18 yard line. This allows our opponents time to get back in to their defensive positions and gives them a jolly good chance of not conceding a goal.
I think watching us win regularly is rubbish and I hate feeling good on a Saturday night. The sooner VI is sacked and a manager from the merry go round is brought in the better. At least I can then return to wondering why I travel all over the country( pre Covid) knowing that I will be returning home asking myself why do I bother.

 

Apart from Norwich / Brentford and Watford , all the other teams in championship play pretty similar football to each other . And a lot of teams we’ve played have used long ball more than us . Our style is more energetic , out run , out work , out press the opposition and eliminating mistakes etc . First half was poor yesterday but second half was better

 

Yet again. There are other ways to play football.
Teams played football for decades and decades before the biring tikki takka came into being.

 

I have no issue with how we play at all. One of the reason i think it's becoming harder to watch is more opposition teams are altering style to counter us. If we are making other change how they play that a very good sign.
I did mention yesterday however that I do worry how our style would be greeted if we had fans in. That first half yesterday was truly horrific to watch.
When it does go like that I try to focus on watching and admiring the work rate we put in as a defensive unit.

 

It's a myth that we don't play football anyway. There are spells in games, and sometimes whole games, where we're very direct, and sometimes it resembles 'hoof ball'. These are the periods of play now, that I'd constitute as us 'not playing well'. We also have spells, and often full games, where we knock the ball around quickly, and look for the killer pass in behind. There were certainly long periods against Luton, Bournemouth, Brentford, QPR and Wycombe in recent memory, where the opposition couldn't lay a glove on us. The Norwich game in the cup is another example, where we took the game by the scruff of the neck, and outplayed the opposition.

I heard big Val say that we play a style, and we don't adjust to the opposition. I disagree with that. We might not intend to, but we certainly play more direct against more physical teams. The game was dull yesterday for 60 minutes. I'd just said to my mates in our group chat, that it had 0-0 written all over it, and if there was to be a goal, it would be the winner. Boro didn't seem too concerned with playing much football, and we adjusted to that. The goal changed the game. They couldn't be as cautious. We were then able to get the ball down a bit more and try and run at them. The 2nd goal followed, and to be honest, with how we played in the final half hour, we could easily have had 4 or 5.

I think my point is, goals change games. It's about finding a way to score that first one, and then we can play our game more, when we have the lead.