Macca on sky just said...

The way Flint played last night, my grandson (18 months) and my mother-in-law (83) would have put him on the floor. I can't believe that a qualified referee was suckered so easily and so often. Flint used every trick in the book and was successful with all of them. The matchday video should be preserved and used in referee training sessions, under the heading "How To Spot A Cheating *******".

 

This is exactly how I took it.

 

Initially I was responding to the posters commenting about Mick (reading back it was only one), loss of respect etc.

Personally, I think we are an aggressive team. That’s not to confuse with being a dirty team, which we are not.
For me it comes down to definition of being aggressive, for me it’s about being positive, pressing the opposition into making a mistake etc, to others it’s about being dirty and OTT physically.
Cardiff don’t have the mobility to match our form of aggression so chose another option.

 

Explained better than mine

 

A. If only we were aggressive
B. I still standby what I said that if Neil Harris had still been their manager and said exactly the same as Macca about our aggression he would’ve been slaughtered on here and they’re would’ve been little or no defence or interpretation of what he said.

 

I still stand by original point that Macca said what he said was to try and excuse their pathetic and horrible (but effective) tactics last night. I don’t need to go trawling around to get back up for that. We were a soft touch last night, and when you throw in the poor refereeing performance, it’s what got them back in the game. Oh, and my other point still stands as well, If that had been Neil Harris saying exactly the same, there would’ve been little if any defending of it, let alone trawling the internet for quotes to back him up. Like you this is my final say on this

 

I think we are an aggressive team. We're on the front foot. We attack the opponent. We play high intensity. We tackle hard. Our centre backs always try and win the ball before the striker.

We aren't passive, we aren't dictated to. We don't allow the opposition time or space. There are seldom lulls to get our breath or kill time.

Definition of aggressive.
behaving or done in a determined and forceful way.
synonyms:
assertive · forceful · competitive · insistent · vigorous · energetic · dynamic · driving · bold · audacious · enterprising · go-ahead · zealous · pushing · pushy · in-your-face · feisty

 

I said I wouldn’t but I will, point missed here. It’s why I believe Macca used the word aggressive not what other people want to think what Macca said. I’ll go and get my Dictionary out now for the next time I want to make a comment

 

You're entitled to interpret "aggressive" how you wish. I read the definition and identified most of the synonyms as being extremely accurate descriptors of us.

If he'd said violent however.....

 

Just to clear Micks comments up, a mate of mine was in the ground last Night, the Cry of "Nobble em", has no place in the Modern game.

Thats what Mick was shouting at his players, Dirty Mick McCarthy, a decent Ref negates these tactics.

 

Im not really bothered what he said. Im bothered about our performance and reaction.
Mick himself has inherited a squad of players from harris and warnock and it kind of suits his no nonsense attitude to the wsy they play and have done for a few seasons (lets be fair...we expected this).
On the whole imho i think our young side have improved considerable against the "dark arts" teams. It was clear to me that at half time macca told his lads to "let the opposition know we are here" and be ahem "more experiencd". They didnt disappoint!
Our application was very good last night, we caused them major problems (in the first half anyway) and lets not forget their players are far more experienced.
I dont enjoy watching cardiff and i think we all know what kind of game it was going to be.
The list of long ball (ahem) professional teams imho now include...
Millwall
Stoke
Wycombe (worst of the lot)
Cardiff
Luton (to a lesser extent)
I dont expect to watch tippy tappy, "honourable" footy when i see these sides. Its up to us how we deal with them.
Oh and the ref...had a shocker.

 

There does seem to be more teams adopting the long ball clear your lines and lets try to play football at the reight end of the pitch this season. Talking on what I have seen in the Championship not Prem League rarely watch that.

 

Just been reading their forum and the consensus seems to be that the pitch was awful, it was a poor game of football but they showed great character in the second half - basically saying they’ll forgive the crap football because they stopped the losing run.

I think that when you accept poor football because it gets you the results, you’ve very little wriggle room. When the wins stop, what have you got?

Big Mick isn’t going to bring them flowing football, but how can they expect it when they’ve had Colin and Gerbil chops?

 

Haven't we done the same though? Excused long ball hoofball and some terrible spectacles just because we won?

 

Fair comment, and it did occur whilst I was writing the post.

Difference for me is some of the managers known for the direct style are old hands and have never really done anything different. Val is relatively new to managing in the English league, so it’s not necessarily a given that what you see now is what you’ll always get from him.

 

I really hope this is just a short term phase for any host of possible reasons. I don't know if anyone has first hand knowledge of the style his other teams adopted and if vertical football is just a rehash of hoof or it becomes more skill based.

It pains me to think this could be the Barnsley DNA adapted for future appointments. Winning in the championship is a novel thing of late, so it slightly takes the edge off the style of football.

The running around, the energy, the battling... they are very much Barnsley player traits. But we've always largely played the ball on the floor, even if we weren't that good at it.