There's certainly a pivot, even if its just some not defending it anymore. There were 3 or 4 of us who openly said we didn't enjoy the style and got absolute pelters for it. Just seems a bit rich.
Yes, recall you being as openly disappointed in the style as I was. Ah well, look at us.... trendsetters! ;-)
Let me apologise - I wasn't criticising you for your view, it's your opinion and you're entitled to it. You were simply the first person who came to mind regarding someone who was vehemently against our style of football. I wasn't having a dig.
I am genuinely ok with any style of football that enables us to put the ball in the net more than the opposition. Winning really is all that matters. We win more, we're able to make more money, more money means better players, improvements in infrastructure and more importantly, keeps us above the clowns of S6.
I wholeheartedly agree. On the flip side if results are excellent from the off, let us not criticize unfairly if we aren't liking the tactics or the way the result is achieved. Is that a deal?
I wont wish him luck but I wont hold anything against him. If he does come in and clean all our best players out I will fire rockets
I use Minority Report to analyse the way that the team plays. I do not always get it right first time, but I get there eventually. It is the way that I exercise my analytical mind. I stopped publishing Minority Report on the BBS, (although I did keep writing it) because I felt that I had said all that I could say about the tactics that I was watching. The tactics did not change, so Minority Report did not change. It was all becoming repetitive. In a sense, I did suspend my criticism, but for a different reason. I had decided that I would restart Minority Report from next season. There will be a new coach, new things to learn, new things to understand and new things to say. I hope, as always, that it will entertain and educate, but as you point out in a different direction, readers have to come at it with an open mind, or else they will find only irritation in what I write. Like everyone else, I am learning all the time and I just hope to pass on to others some of the lessons that I learn. I am more convinced than you seem to be that my motives are at least honest.
I never said you weren't honest. In fact nothing can be further from the truth. You have openly admitted that you didn't like the tactics and the way the team played even though the results were excellent last season. You said before "let us not turn against him if results take a while to come because he is trying to change the way that the team plays" all I'm saying is let us not criticize unfairly the way the team is playing if results are excellent straight away.
Whereas I agree with you about the style and how enjoyable we may have respectively found it, I do disagree with the suggestion things didn't change. There were significant changes against teams who matched us up and turned us. The last few months, in the games I saw, there was hardly any high press at all and Dike was often used as a focal point with our other two forwards varying from split wide to narrow and deeper behind Dike. In all of those games there were significant periods of hoofing it and an approach that was more hopeful, sometimes aimless, than purposeful, but there was variation as teams attempted to reduce the pressure we put on them and turn the tables.
The games were anything but boring. Admitted there were lengthy spells of not much happening/kicking balls into empty space, but all games are like that. Also, tell me the England games have been good to watch
The England games have been awful. But I have already been over this ground in my reply to Fonzie earlier in this thread.