Football style

Kitching looks to be a spreadsheet signing. I suspect Morris was, and from what I've seen of Morris think he would've done well in Brown's position last year and would've done well under Stendel. Good players are good players.

With the high press, it is inevitable that teams will negate it with long balls of their own. Millwall, Stoke, Blackburn, Birmingham, Boro etc.. have played the way they did because of what we do without the ball, not because of what we do with it. In fact, most of those teams would've played long ball against us anyway. Once they do that, I'd much rather we do what the opposition don't want us to do than do what a few posters on a forum do want us to do.

When VI first took over, I wanted us to play 4-3-3 with Mowatt, James and Kane. We'd probably be about 10 places further down the league now if we'd done that. There are alternatives, many alternatives. They're just not as good.

I'm not trying to prove your points wrong, just having a discussion and putting an alternate opinion forward.

 

isn't it the 4th? Being robbed after the war, coming second under Danny, play off final 2001.

 

I don't think there would be boos at all. Seems we're getting the opposite of rose coloured glasses when thinking back to fans in the ground.

 

We were mostly architects of our own downfall against Bournemouth.

 

This!!

 

It takes two teams to play head tennis. IMO it should be banned. On a third consecutive header involving opposing teams, the person should be booked, then booked again, then sent off, then have a red hot poker shoved up their arris. Highly paid professional footballers playing head tennis within a match - what has it ever achieved apart from pi55ing fans off?

 

...love that as a punishment. a red hot poker up the arSE. disagree with you that it should be after they've been sent off. make them play on for gods sake.

 

When this coach arrived, we had four points, we were 2nd bottom, without a win from seven games. A whopping 15 points behind Reading.

Just under six months later, we are 5th. We've gone on to win 21 of the next 34 league games. We're on 71 points. Five ahead of Reading. A 20-point swing there. We are 36 points above Sheffield Wednesday, our biggest rivals. That's one point more than they've achieved this season. We have won 10 away league games. Six on the bounce. That's club history right there. Beating all manner of differently set up sides, from your Brentford to your Wycombe. We very recently won nine of 10 games. Seven straight wins (another club record). In the second tier. We've lost one of the last 16 games played.

It's a shame you quit your reports after the Millwall game. As I said at the time. It's also a shame that you choose not to watch any of the away games. They would have ranked quite high on your 'entertain-me-ometer'.

I'd love for you to resurrect your report on May 29th, describing our promotion at Wembley as 'dull as ditch water - only gone up because Dike scored a bicycle kick from nowhere."



"I still do not like 3-4-3. I still do not think that we have the players for it. In addition, I think that Ismael’s version of the system is too open defensively, and if it comes to a shoot-out, under normal circumstances there is only one loser, and they play in red. However, I will keep my mind open. I will keep trying to learn, and I will keep hoping that I am wrong." - After Val's first game; 3-0 win vs QPR.

"Clearly, Watford has better players than we do. I accept that and I know that there is little the club or coach can do about it. It is important that I try to distinguish between the things that are controllable, and the things that are not, and after all, we have won the game with a fantastic strike by Mowatt. We have also restricted Watford, a team that played in the Premier League last season to zero shots on goal. Nevertheless, the game was very poor entertainment, and professional football is first and foremost an entertainment.
Now many will say, what is wrong with you. We won didn’t we, and they are of course right. However, my remarks are not about today. They are about the future, and our chances of winning other games, because do not be fooled by our league position tonight. We are still in a fight to retain our place in the Championship." - After the 1-0 win vs Watford.

"I am not entertained by watching our opponent passing the ball about, and Ismael seems to find that statistic unimportant. His results suggest that he is right, and I am wrong, but I will still say that we give the ball away too easily, and that his style of play is not entertaining. Whilst he continues to get results, he will continue to get support, but if the results change, his support will turn against him, because of those underlying possession statistics. If it was not for the spectacular goals from distance we are scoring, then that statistic would have already been questioned." - After 2-0 win vs Forest.

"I do not particularly want to hand out any kickings tonight. But defeats say more about a team than do the victories, and when we beat our next opponent, remember how badly outclassed we were tonight, and remember why." - After 4-0 defeat vs Bournemouth.

"It is lower league football, and it makes me sad to watch it. Barnsley finished the game playing football of the poorest quality, and I wondered how I was going the get through Minority Report without mentioning 3-4-3. Well, I almost managed it." - After 2-1 win vs Wycombe.

"I do not understand why or how the VI team is winning games using the current system and method of play. I have this nagging doubt at the back of my mind. The gremlin on my shoulder keeps telling me that our run will end. That we are in a false position in the league. In the past, I stuck with Lee Johnson when no-one else did, because I followed his logic and I liked the way his team played. Barnsley has won yet another game. The team has come from behind, when I have suggested in the past that that is just not possible. The team is sitting in 9th position before the games tomorrow. What the hell have I got to moan about? Well, it was an awful game." - After a 2-1 win vs PNE.

"Regular readers of Minority Report will know that I am not fond of 3-4-3, the press and the long ball. Once again, the system allowed the game to pass we watchers by with very little to excite us. We made a game of it, we had some half chances, we had more of the ball, but Chelsea were in control. It had not been easy, but they had got the job done." - After 1-0 defeat to Chelsea.

"Football is a game of risk and reward. What I do not understand is why it is necessary to go through an hour of sterility before the game opens up and an entertaining game of football can begin." - After 2-1 win vs Blackburn.

"I shall keep my message and my opinions to myself for a while. I hope VI and the team continue to win, but I truly hope that the style of our play improves." - After 2-1 win vs Millwall.

 

We don't know that. There's generally no need to implement an alternative plan when you're winning week in week out.

 

Are you sat by your keyboard on matchdays waiting for us to lose in order to reel off a overly long worded post saying how you told us so and that its a results based business?

Do you actully get some kind of sick and twisted pleasure from being let down by Barnsley fc?

 

I’m not sure where his credibility has come from on this board.

Because he writes in a certain style, oodles of posters have been duped in to believing his opinions count for something.

 

There are some interesting exchanges in this thread about the way we play, and whether results are the only measure of entertainment.
It's all about opinions. No need for anyone to make it personal. Argue the points, don't bash fellow posters.

 

I cannot tell you how flattered I am that you would go back through all of those Minority Reports. Minority Reports are quite long and it must have taken you ages to go through all of them all looking for stuff to bash me with. I say bravo to you for your sterling efforts.

Minority Reports are quite long and because of that, I tried to make them both interesting and informative. I am sure that if you went through any poster's contributions over a full season, you would find error and contradiction, but I am pleased to say that I find very little in what you have produced here. In my first contribution to this thread, I said that there is no doubt that Ismael knows the game, that he is making the most of the talent he has available. His ability and his knowledge are not my issues. My issue is with his style. I stopped writing Minority Report because it was getting boring. The games were very much the same every week - same tactic, same press, same long and high ball to allow the back line to push up to catch their opponents off-side. The story that Minority Report was telling was always the same, and frankly, I was getting bored writing the same things every week. Football should be about new stories every week. It should be about how the coach solved the new problems that were set by his opposite number. The only change that I see is that our opponent has matched our tactics in an attempt to nullify them.

Perhaps I should watch the away games, but frankly I do not wish to watch us play the same way, and be successful mainly because our opponent feels he must try to entertain at home, and because of that, uses tactics that fall straight into the trap that our coach has set, and before you say it, I know that I have no proof of that because I do not watch.

I am a genuine Barnsley fan of some 55 years, rarely missing a home match, until COVID stopped me from attending. My first season was our first in the old 4th division. I have seen plenty of downs, and fewer ups. During that time I have seen my team play football that I have enjoyed, and football that I have not enjoyed. I have seen many coaches, some more successful than others, but VI is the first coach in all those years who has improve the results beyond all comprehension, but whose football I have hated with a passion. If results ever do start to go against him, the fans will desert him en masse, but I will not say I told you so, because it will sadden me that my club is no longer successful or a pleasure to watch. I care about my club, and if you want to go back further through my contributions to the BBS, you will see that is true.

 

I was a big fan of your reports. I said so on many occasion. I defended you when others were giving you grief.

I didn’t post anything to bash you with. They’re your own posts. Your own words. I think the point I was making was clear - you decided you didn’t like it from the get-go and stuck completely to your guns. Regardless of the success. You suggested it’d still be a battle to stay up. You predicted it wouldn’t work. That the odd defeat said more than the myriad victories.

In essence, you just don’t like it.

And that is absolutely your prerogative, that’s completely fine. But for every occasion you use the platform to air your disgust, as a big enemy of ‘this’ football, I, as a huge advocate for it will fire back. Because that’s what a fan forum is for.

No abuse. No reference to you as a person, your age, your location, your employment status. Just debating the club we support.

 

What about bashing the bishop?

 

Only the Derby , Brum and Wendy games at Oakwell falls into your description of how we play . The QPR , Bournemouth away games were far from your description as were many others .
To lump all these games as we played the same is wrong and I’d say you weren’t watching if you think that .
PS the opposition plays a part in how we play if they come out playing football we match if it’s hoof ball we adapt

 

bit unnecessary. I don’t always agree with RR but he writes well and his input is always interesting

 

I will just say, as a fellow fan who dislikes much of the current style with the ball, there is a lot of variation as to how Ismael sets up his side to play.

I didn't see Brentford or Bournemouth which seem to the main outliers people reach for in terms of a better style, but I did see Luton.

And in that game, we did try and pass it more and play on the floor. Largely because they tried to pass it out a few times and played a relatively high line. We did still hit it forward long and aimlessly and even over the tiny stand once or twice, but we did try and play a little bit of football. We did also adapt how the front three was set up. Dike was more advanced and it was almost more like 2-1 as they tried to negate the diamond.

So I do think there are variations in tactic and "system" if not obviously formation.

Sadly, for everything that was more positive about Luton, it was the flipside of negative for Boro, and in every other game I've seen (maybe Chelsea and slightly Tranmere aside), thats been much more the status quo.

 

It's like a Piledriver.