Long ball team?

Completely agree with you here

 

I guess the most important thing is the progress we’ve made not just looking at this season but for as many years as I can remember we’ve all berated our ability to get anything from the sh**house teams like Cardiff, Brum etc.

losing a 2 goal lead seems like a negative but we took control of the game towards the end and looked more likely winners.

Plus the ref was a two hat !!

 

I agree but I don't think these players will get any better as a team. I think they have a skill set and this is the best we can hope for in the current circumstances unless we add quality.

 

Agree mate. We were getting in an awful state messing about at the back last season. Also, if we look at the different games in detail we'll see that we have different tactics for different teams. Our main concern now though is defending at set pieces. For some reason we are conceding a lot of goals from them recently. I'm sure Valerien will be working on that

 

I disagree. For me (as examples), Styles & Brittain especially have come on in leaps and bounds. Andersen too, but to a lesser extent. Mowatt has always been a Championship quality player, for me, and has proved to be an excellent captain. Romal Palmer is getting better with every game and both goalkeepers look the real deal at this level to me.
I simply can't agree that the players I've mentioned have reached their maximum limits as footballers now and won't improve.

 

Could you please stop this, Lil.

There’s no place on this forum for calm, reasoned, logical and well thought out comments.

You, of all people, ought to know better

 

I'll revert to norm

 

We need to get Styles in mid-field; then we might be able to play it forward instead of by-passing mid-field with a hoof-ball.

 

I know at that age you're just happy to play but that miss last night could be down to being up and down like a blue arsed fly all game. It was a tired miss. I think we'll get more quality out of him the middle.

 

The fans will tolerate the long ball game if results are good but if we hit a bad patch that tolerance will disappear very quickly. For me we've gone from too much tippy tappy football in the wrong areas to too much hoof ball. I'd much prefer the football to be of a type that we've witnessed at Oakwell over the years but as someone whose watched to Reds since the mid 70s and witnessed the Clarke, Hunter, Wilson, sides and to a lesser extent Hecky's promotion side I've been spoilt. Barnsley playing hoof ball doesn't sit well with me but it may just be that we have to put up with it until we get established in the Championship but I really hope that it's a short term solution and normal service will be resumed asap.

 

I don't get the feeling Ismael wants to play consistently through midfield. We had Matty James. One of the best passers of a ball I've seen in a Barnsley shirt consistently knocking the ball on first time, hooking it over his head, lumping it forward without thought.

In Mowatt, Styles and James we had 3 very good technical players. Even Palmer too. So if we can't play a game of possession with those players, I don't see us naturally evolving to that style of team in future. And if thats the case, I wonder if Styles might actually see less of the ball if he's in midfield watching the ball ping pong back and forth?

 

Put it this way, I have stopped paying a tenner to watch the way we play at the moment, I don't like it. Is it effective? Can be. Will it give us a better chance of survival? In comparison to start of season, yes. Is it the way the Board wants us to play football? Don't know. Is it the way all our teams through the ranks are playing? Don't know, hope not. Is it the right way to play in the circumstances? Probably.

 

I don't think it will. I think Valerie is similar to Robins and it gets results. The normal service resuming would be losing matches in my opinion but playing more expansive football. I do think we'll eventually have a happy medium but we need better players up front.

 

That's better

 

because he was always half a yard behind the ball, but he ran around lots and pointed so some thought he was ok.

and to answer the OP we hoof it. Vals vertical football is a long ball game.

 

Yup, it's hoofball. Not even long ball, because it is literally, aimless. Dreadful to endure.

 

Unless you can afford the best players, you have to be pragmatic about the style of play these days. When other club's fans have complained about the style of play, I've never really had much sympathy for them. Charlton fans complained about Curbishley once they were established in the Premier League. They went down. West Brom fans complained about Pulis, only to end up with Allardyce. Ipswich complained about McCarthy, and ended up in League 1.

I'd rather watch us playing how we are playing now and stay up than get relegated looking nice to watch. I still think we have spells of good football, and we've scored some very good goals through our passing. Both Adeboyejo goals, the winner at Hillsborough, the goals at Rotherham. But it's not so pretty when we're not playing well.

Ismael has said they will be able to play with more freedom if we get to 50 points quickly. Hopefully that happens and we can get a sighter of what he has in store for us longer term.

 

Great question by the OP.

Also great to see (as mentioned by someone previously) us debating this without falling out with each other!!

Val said when he joined that he wanted to play "vertical" football and he's been true to his word. Some might call it vertical, some call it long ball, some call it hoof ball. Whatever anyone calls it, it's not attractive to watch, BUT he's getting results with it. Would we rather play beautiful football and not get results or would we rather play vertical and get results? RR raised this question a few weeks ago when he put out his thread on on "entertainment". I'd rather see us getting results. Then we can start thinking about a different approach.

Val has retained the press but he's completely changed the way we play. His tactics totally by-pass midfield and they rely strongly on fighting to win the second ball. It's a bit like watching Rugby Union where teams kick the ball up field to gain ground rather than running it through their three quarters. A great example of that was seeing Cauley kicking off a few games ago, directly for the opposition corner flag!
We're predictable, but the opposition do seem to have problems with our tactics. Surprising really.

Whist we're getting good results, it's not surprising that Val will get the fans backing. I hope this doesn't change when we're on a bad losing streak.

I would prefer us to be successful by mixing it up a little more. Play vertical but mix it up by routing some attacks through our very capable midfielders. I've noticed that he's done this on a couple of occasions (not last night) to good effect - Norwich on Saturday was one. A mate of mine thinks it's all part of his grand master plan - ie build a solid defensive base which then enables you to create a more expansive game.

Whatever - the Big Man is certainly not to messed with so I'm not the one who would ever suggest to him that he's doing anything wrong!

 

I 'd agree with that Lil, but they are simply the current crop in a long long list of players who we would all like to see stay together and develop individually and collectively. Should that ever be the case we could indeed make progress.

Previous evidence suggests they won't be allowed that opportunity

 

no wonder he was open all hours