Football style

Spot on.

We played somewhat a similar style under Bassett, only difference is we scored & conceded more. Some people didn't like the football then either, but we had great skilful players, like Higgy, Barnard, etc that fitted the system & gave us width. We have Styles & Brittain now & a front 3 that is interchangeable. Chaplin has been the least effective in previous games IMO, but came on yesterday & stretched the play & was unlucky not to get a goal. Our back 3 is immense & we have Mowatt / Palmer in the middle, who are as good a midfield 2 as we have had since Hourihane & Scowen.

 

Play direct and win = Very Good

Pass teams off the pitch and lose = frustrating

Play direct and lose = Mind Numbing

Pass teams off the pitch and be succesful = THE PERFECT COMBINATION which happens very rarely. Any of the other three aforementioned ..... I know which I'd choose.

 

Warnock was blowing smoke up our arris a couple of days ago. That old trick. But resorts to the whinge when he's been and failed to beat us. Not only failed to beat us, but lost.
In his post match interview he said "today is not a day for being honest "
In his autobiography he begins with a tale of when he was a non league referee.
One side was kicking down hill and went into a 3 goal lead. Just before half time there was a nailed on pen incident which could have made it 4.0 He decided not to give it out of sympathy for the losing team. 2nd half other team playing downhill levelled the score I think !
That was another day for not being honest.

 

What about 80% of the other Championship teams that play crap football though?

Apart from Norwich, Watford of the last few weeks and BournemouthI haven’t seen any proper footballing teams.

Reading were supposed to be a ‘footballing’ side but apart from Olise they’ve got nothing. Plus their goal against us came from a massive, ugly, vertical hoof up front.

Oh, the irony.

Everyone else in this division plays average to shi-te football.

I don’t get this debate.

We play some cracking, incisive football in the final third.

Boro were proper shi-te. The match stats show that we played far more passes overall than Boro, far more short passes, more passes in our own half and more passes in theirs.

Boro played more long balls than us.

We have the youngest team in the division, put together on a shoestring. And yes, there are times when our players could show more composure, but that has more to do with the fact they are young players still developing their games together whilst mounting our first Championship promotion attempt in 21 years.

 

Great post.

 

Some of our football is bloody awful to watch that hoof ball we play when teams change their style against us to counter our amazing pressing game. Our press is so good that some opposition teams, dont attempt to play football against us. They are so fearful of playing out from the back. When Luton attempted to play out from the back they were caught in possession and gave us great opportunities.

Our football was praised especially the second half at Bournemouth, but again against a team that played football on the ground. Similar when we beat Norwich in the cup.
The problem is that teams are not good enough to play through our press. They resort to long balls over the top. This is where our hoof ball then takes over and it's not pretty, it's frustrating the number of times the ball goes straight to their keeper or simply to no one. We then compete for second balls and keep the game in the opposition's half. Its is an effective solution to teams who go long ball against us. When we dont find a red shirt with the clearances it looks awful to watch. We cant press teams that dont allow us to, and when that happens you get games like Derby (H) and especially the first half yesterday. We end up getting criticised but people should look at the number of long balls played by our so called footballing opponents.
I admit when we hoof it and it is 'Have It' football its horrible to watch. I was going to have a drink everytime we did it yesterday but I would have been well and truly hammered. The points per game back it up and it could take us to the Premier League, so in this special season why not embrace it and enjoy the ride.

 

Anyone see West Ham’s second goal today?

Long ball b4st4rds.

 

I don't care what style we play, the main thing is we play it well. Personally, I think any style of play is bad to watch when you're playing badly, whether it's poor passing, wayward crosses or constantly being tackled when trying to take a defender on etc.

The big thing with this style of play is that when we don't play well, it's still not easy to beat us. Ismael said himself that he wasn't happy with how we played in the first half yesterday, but importantly, we didn't fall behind in the first half.

The other thing about this system and style of play is it is absolutely maximising what we get out of this squad. Have seen some comments after games suggesting we'd have had better results if we'd "tried to play it on the floor more". I doubt that is true, not least because the uglier games are the ones where we've struggled to get hold of the ball in the opposition third.

 

Anyone see Man Utd’s 3rd goal today?

Big fc uking horrid vertical lump up front led to United playing in and around the Spurs 3rd and scoring.

Long ball bas tards.

 

I am totally disgusted with Big Val! How dare he play a direct style and have us challenging towards the top of the league!! I would much rather he sets us up similar to Struber, fannying around at the back, rarely getting past the half way line, acting soft as **** and conceding daft goals having given the ball to the opposition on our own 18 yard line

Oh and getting praised from the opposition for doing so!!

 

I think going back to a maximum of 3 subs is more of a worry.

 

Bravo.

 

I think everyone can admit that sometimes the games are a bit turgid. The first half on Saturday was, well boring to be frank.

But I’ve said many times on here, results over performances for me every day of the week. I would always take 3 points no matter how we play compared to playing superbly but getting either 1 point or 0.

I also might be in a minority with this but I think the tiki taka style is boring. The defence spending 5 minutes passing between themselves before playing a decent forward pass? Not for me.

 

New nickname for our boss.Vertical Val

 

Passing out from the back and making advances to some drama is fab to watch, but the majority of the time it’s just passing about waiting for one of the opposition to get bored and leave a gap to be exploited. Which is just as boring as the head tennis.

 

There is no doubt that Valerien Ismael knows the game. Equally, there is no doubt that his system makes the most of the talent that he has available. However, his football is formula over flair. It is not great to watch because it is result before entertainment. But what seals it for me is that many players who I have watched and admired down the years would not get into his team. They would have been sold because they were individuals whose talents did not fit into Ismael's formula. They were too unpredictable to be accommodated into his master plan. I am sure that we could all think of names from our past who we loved because they could turn a game with a piece of magic, who would carry the ball at pace from deep in their own half to the edge of the opposition box, creating panic in their wake. They were players who were worth the admission fee on their own. I am thinking Ronnie Glavin, Steve Agnew, Neil Redfearn or Craig Hignett. How do you think they would have reacted to being told to kick it 50 yards to no-one in particular for the sake of the system and team ethic.

Others will point out that the opposition are doing the same thing. That is no excuse. They are doing it because, away from home, it is the only viable response to our tactics. We started it, and they are simply responding in kind. I think back to all those things that I said at the time about the way that Wimbledon played the game, about my reaction and my hope that we would never lower our standards to play a purely functional albeit successful game. I will never congratulate those who are responsible for that coming to fruition. I hate the style of football we are playing. I hate it with a passion because it goes against everything I have said in the past, and whatever I am, I am not two faced.

 

There are 5 league games remaining.

I'll take 4 or 5 ugly wins to cement a playoff place.

And a further 3 more ugly wins after that.

Wouldnt you?

At this stage of the season i will take wins over style.

In our previous 16 games we have acquired 37 points (matched only by Norwich and bettered by no other team in this division)

 

I agree. Alternatively we could go back to the start of last season and trying to play the ball out from the back, get caught in possession and gift wrapping goal and wins to the opposition. Not winning for 17 games is a horrible feeling. Give me these wins any day. We're not playing bad teams here, and we're winning and in the top 5.

There's only 5 teams this season we haven't beaten this season - Swansea, Cardiff, Reading, Coventry & Norwich (but we did beat them in the Cup).
90% of teams are playing more long balls than we do.
We've lost 1 game in the last 16.
We've won 21 of the last 33 league games - 3rd highest ever Championship total.
We've won 10 away games this season - highest 2nd tier total ever

 

Redfearn would have scored double figures plus any penalties, from Mowatt's position. Hignett would probably have been involved in around 15 goals, playing in the front three. Glavin and Agnew before my time, but I'd say, good players would do well in any system.

Not true. Bournemouth thrashed us at home, playing their own game. Without wanting to get too nerdy about it, teams that work their way into a position to play a quality ball through for a striker that plays off the shoulder of the last man, would have a better chance of beating us, than those that simply hoof it back.

If you were to read Warnock's comments, you'd expect them to have had a big majority of possession. We had more possession than them.

 

I thought three of Bournemouth’s goals were born out of our mistakes rather than playing through us tbh.