Minority Report v Chelsea (FA Cup 5th round)

Having read all your replies, I've come to the conclusion you're not really a Barnsley fan at all. You're more of an armchair football fan who likes to be entertained. I think you'd have been happier seeing a 6-0 Chelsea win as per the Premier League with some scintillating football from them and a valiant effort from the reds. To expect Barnsley to go out and play like Barcelona with a bunch of under 23s is a bit of a fantasy that you're not going to see. Be content that we put up a brilliant fight where we could have won the game with a bit of luck. Don't forever look for the negatives.

 

Fair enough, and thank-you for your valued contribution. It has, as always been concise, informative and to the point.

 

Your opinion is as valid as anyone's and you write a lot of interesting stuff that many people like to read. But honestly, the stuff about you being logical and thoughtful, and different with the implication being that no one else is, if you left that out and just wrote what you thought you'd have no problems at all.

Whatever I am is not what I say I am, it's what others perceive that I am, my opinion on myself is irrelevant. It's the same for all of us.

 

Did we? I saw us try and play through the lines quite a lot, particularly using the flanks, and with plenty of joy as it allowed Mowatt to get forward infield. There were noticeably less 'long' balls last night. In fact, statistical websites showed that Chelsea played more of them, although that was probably skewed by the last five minutes and then three minutes of stoppage time when they were in panic mode and launching every ball in desperation, hanging on. £500m Chelsea.

Were we? The first chance of Brittain's came about after neat work from both Styles and Mowatt on the left, with the latter beating his man and putting over a good cross that Chaplin flicked on with his head into Brittain's path who somehow failed to convert from three yards out. The second one came about through a clever corner routine and if anything, was unlucky, as the shot was going in had it not nicked Adeboyejo on the way through.

No errors, no lucky breaks.

There were 73 tackles in the game (a lot on average, if you check statistics of games as often as I do) and there were 34 successful Barnsley ones and just 17 from Chelsea. Plenty of physical contact on show. But very little in the way of fouls. The referee was also one of the best we've had down here in years. He let the game flow. Contact was allowed. Again, I'm not sure what point you're raising here.

Alex Mowatt was my man of the match, personally. And that of most journalists in attendance, and again, all statistical websites say the same. He was everywhere first half. He was far from 'out of his depth'. I don't think Styles did much wrong, but he was made redundant for much of the second half when Chelsea brought on Reece James who is a regular England international. As for Kane, I felt he put in one of - if not the - best performances since he joined. He looks like he's getting to grips with the system and I'm very confident he will become a big player for us in the next year or so.

But it's an opinions game and I can't fault you for holding your own, even if I disagree.

I was excited plenty. We ought to have scored before they did. We had other moments too. We pressed the life out of one of the best teams on the planet. They gave everything. It was belting performance and I came away feeling both proud and disappointed. Disappointed that we'd narrowly lost to Chelsea.

 

I honestly don’t know what people are expecting from Kane. Thought he had a good game, particularly in the first half and was surprised to see threads singling him out for criticism.

Would be interesting to see his stats for pass completion compared with Styles, who imo loses the ball far too easily but makes up for it with other areas to his game. Suspect Kane’s might not stack up too badly in comparison

 

At least you watched the same game as me then YT. Disappointed not to beat Chelsea, who'd have thought it, eh? But we are aren't we

 

And there you are!
By your measure, the press will never be ‘a success’ because you measure success by your own yardstick which means that midfielders are the 2nd line of attack.

The high press we play is about the forwards being the first line of defence.

There’s no middle ground here, as I’ve posted before, your ‘analysis’ simply isn’t analysis at all, it’s simply a very detailed list of reasons the team fails against your criteria.

We could literally win the league and still have failed against all your criteria. Doesn’t that tell you that your measure of ‘success’ might be just as ill informed as those who only watch with ‘feelings’?

 

I wrote the things I did about myself in response to your point in a previous post that I had already made my mind up and was simply trying to justify that opinion. It was a response that was attempting to justify the things that I had written. I do not know how to defend myself against a personal attack, other than to tell you about how I make my judgments. All that my attempt to justify my position did was to give you another reason to attack me. Well that is fine because it is now clear that there is no way to stop these attacks. I have learned something, and I will not make that mistake again. Have a nice day.

 

Thank-you for your informed critique. I will try to take your comments into account in future reports.

 

Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's on here. No more so, no less so. It is always interesting to read someone's analysis of a game or system particularly when it differs from one's own and I therefore read your comments most respectfully even when I disagree with them. However, again in this thread as in many of your posts you do have a tendency to belittle or patronise other posters with some of your comments. I don't believe you mean to do it but your style of writing at times oozes a sense of self-importance and arrogance. I'm not being rude to you but I do wish you would use a few phrases such as 'I think', 'I might be wrong but...', 'the way I see it is..' rather than the self-styled 'I am logical' type stuff which for a lot of people implies that they aren't. Your threads RR for all their value do get ruined by your tone. Regards.

 

Did you think that Chelsea played well, according to the standards their coach has set for them. To me, it looked like they wanted to play their way through our press. That attempt ended in too many sideways passes, not enough forward passes and too few players taking the responsibility to carry the ball and commit our players to a challenge. There were TV pictures of their manager looking angry and frustrated because his players had not been able to play to his game plan. In the first half particularly, Chelsea were very poor. Now you might say that that is not something I should be worrying about as a Barnsley fan. But I do worry because it is a pointer towards our own standards and ambitions. Basically, we were happy to frustrate, we were happy to be negative, we were happy to just hope for a break and hope that we would be able to take it when it arrived. Our plan going forward was to shovel the ball forward in the general direction of a player in red, and hope. Attacking throw-ins were just the same. They were mostly long throws into the box, playing the percentages and hoping for the best. Are you really happy that our best attacking ploy is to throw/kick the ball long and in a general direction and hope for the best, because in my opinion, even when you play a top team, you just have to have a better plan.

 

I tried on many occasions to politely say much the same. To be ignored.

In the end I, like Jay, got more direct and RR now doesn’t respond to anything I write on his threads.

Fair enough, up to him. But many have tried and failed to make him see how condescending he comes across. I wish you luck in trying to succeed where I couldn’t.

 

If Chelsea play as well as their coach would like, they win easily. Not sure that’s something to worry about as a Barnsley fan.

 

You say that you are not being rude, and yet you have gone out of your way to be rude. You have concentrated not on what I say, but on the way that I have said it. If you want to engage with me, then disagree with what I have said and the conclusions I have drawn. Prove me wrong. Argue that VI, his system, his style of press and his long ball is right. Raise a positive argument where I see only the negative. The problem is that it is far easier to attack me, than it is to attack the ideas that I propagate. Many fall into the same way of posting when I write Minority Report. They ignore what is written and look for ways of undermining me personally by attacking my style. I tend to reply to those who disagree with my football arguments and I tend to ignore those who offer only advice about my style. Here is a bit of advice back. If you do not like my style, DO NOT READ MINORITY REPORT. That way we will all be much happier.

 

I will continue to ignore your posts whilst they are directed only at my style of writing. I will answer your posts when they deal with the ideas and assertions that I make. Honestly, I do not need to be lectured at regular intervals about my writing style. I would much rather reply to you when you disagree with my ideas and assertions. If you do not like Minority Report, there is an easy solution. DO NOT READ IT.

 

I also thought we played and pressed well

 

3-4-3 isn’t all about long ball and press

 

If you get chance, watch Mowatt in the build up to Britain’s first chance. See how intelligently he runs away from the ball and into space. Left Chelsea defender very exposed before wrong footing him and crossing.

Football made to look simple

 

Whoa.....just hold on. I am NOT being rude by pointing out that your reports do come over as condescending. Please do not throw that back in my face. It is quite correct of me to point out to you in a genuine way that your posts DO wind some people up. They do, as you have been told, rudely, by others on frequent occasions. I could have been rude but I wasn't. If you don't like to accept criticism of your style that is up to you. As I say, my comments were not and were not even intended to be rude. I was merely giving you some POLITE advice ( silly me for trying) so that in future you would not have to deal with genuinely rude comments because you would have re-looked at how you write and thought about it. Your reports, in my opinion, would be better received if they did not have an air of self-superiority about them. Just my opinion of course with which you can and possibly will disagree with. And, as I wished you last time I posted.....regards.

 

Our happy family bubble were laughing when we were playing Chelsea, as it was remarked that we were a great team when we didn't have the ball.

We should be happy to frustrate. It's enjoyable watching us frustrate.

Our troubles start of course when we have the ball. Whichever system we have, if we aren't clinical with our finishing then the end result will be the same.

You liked Struber's way of setting up and the football that we played in accordance with his instructions. So did I - we were great to watch quite often.

However we don't have the quality to play like that and be relatively successful. We make mistakes and get punished.

So if Val has us camped as best we can be in their half then the percentages will be better stacked in our favour.

Hoofball it often is to get it up to where Val wants us to be playing.

After that, we need more quality cos last night it seemed to be shoot from wherever no matter what. And that's just poor. And our present forwards make it look poorer still.