Ian Evatt

Think we were doing ok before Dike but granted he was the icing on the cake , imo Morris was a big turning point .
Loads of games where we played some blinding football with not a long ball in sight and top prem Chelsea was one as well as others .

 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my team sticking it to the man for a season but we got what we wanted by Wimbledon defending and playing from there. Unfortunately after choosing to play this way, once val lost his bottle, the rest of the season fizzled out.

 

Obviously you must have missed the Norwich games and the QPR games and the Luton Gsmes etc etc . Yes there were games of long balls sometime advocated by the opposition than us Derby at home for instance .
Can’t understand why done if our fans think we only played long ball when even with my memory I can remember some fantastic footballing contests that season even though we lost some playing that way .

 

People are displeased by us retaining the ball and not booting it to their defenders is my experience most of the time at Oakwell.
But football under Val was mostly rubbish with little bits of good. But winning is what we’re there for so he will and should be well regarded.
As a neutral I’d rather watch a Struber team.

 

Yeah i remember the football under Gerhard with fans baying at our defence and wanting to crucify Mads and losing most weeks , that was really good ,
The football between our third snd the oppositions was very good one touch football , cynic in me thinks that’s because opposition weren’t too bothered about us having the ball there having already taken the lead .
I liked the football under Val whether he played long as against such as Wendy or giving the cultured teams a run for their money such as Norwich, Bournemouth , QPR etc very often outplaying them .
Give me Vals football any day of the week than the mind numbing mid table tactics of Robins etc .

 

Think the music rattled his cage.

 

Results are the most important thing. So can’t knock Val for that but in my opinion the football was broadly terrible.
Would I rather watch a Val team or a struber team as a neutral? Struber every day.
Losing most weeks is unfair on Struber btw. He had mid table form making up on the position we were in when he took the job.

 

As is saying Val was one directional , he was getting rave reviews from tv pundits for the way the team were playing at times out footballing Chelsea , Norwich , QPR, etc .
The notion we were pumping long balls up from the back every game is just not true whatsoever , there were games which were awful which the opposition were also guilty to try and counter and Rooneys DC were one such team but that wasn’t the taleof that season whatsoever , far from it .

 

I was stood outside our changing room, about 20 yards from Evatt when he was giving this interview. There was no music being played.

What a weird remark.

Pressure is a wonderful thing.

 

I guess we disagree fundamentally then. I feel the football under Val was broadly awful but the fact we were winning meant that no one (including myself cared). I would rather our players try to retain the ball rather than play for territory.

 

I really enjoyed the football under Val. I thought it was exciting. It was also very effective, which I liked. I also really liked the fact (and it was a fact) that in pretty much every game I wanted (which was them all), our players were better drilled, more motivated and worked harder than the opposition.

it wasn’t actually about Dike winning the first ball, it was about the second ball being won. Mowatt was brilliant at this, as were the others. It seemed to me that was the tactic.

 

All of this

 

I'm fully expecting to see Kitching on the next series of Dragon's Den promoting his patented long-raking diagonal punt into any area not occupied nor ever likely to be occupied by a player in (what unquestionably should have been yesterday) a Red shirt.

 

The bells....... The bells

 

Don't get this re-write of the Val era at all. The football under him was largely exhilarating, exciting, all-action and skilful, as well as winning. People seem to have swallowed some negative, largely jealousy motivated lines from a couple of embittered opposition managers that were as wide as the mark as their own teams were bad.

If we were so punt and hoof down the middle, how come two of the absolute stars of that season were Brittain and Styles (LWB version) who were rampant wide players all season, the central midfielder player was voted into the Championship team of the season and a high percentage of our goals came from players cutting in from out wide (Morris etc)?

There were far more games that we played beautiful stuff in than those we slogged it out in (to assume there wouldn't have to be at least some of the latter is naive imho) - Marlon has listed a number of lovely performances but what about megabucks Bournemouth where we played absolutely magical football to go there and beat them 3-2 also. Away at Brentford, away at Sheffield Wednesday, home to Forest, the list goes on and on.

I don't like the comparisons with Struber as it's not a case of one good and the other bad - Val was great AND Struber overall did a good job imho. Struber was particularly good in the period after the Covid resumption but the period between his early games and the Covid suspension saw some of the absolute direst performances I've witnessed pre-Schopp/Asbaghi - have people forgotten the Ritzmare?! Those last two games before the Covid suspension, 2-0 defeats at Reading and home to Cardiff were absolutely mind-numbingly dull and hope-sappingly poor.

 

I dunno why he's bringing up the past when the players involved then have nearly all left. He couldn't beat a team stacked with free transfers and loanees. We were the only team to put the ball in the net. Collins kit won't need a wash so he can't feel it was two points dropped.

 

Shows his total lack of knowledge about our club. Noticed most teams say it when they come up against us. There’s actually only 2 players who played in that campaign that played yesterday. Anderson & Collins.

 

I like this with the look on the face of Duff not getting involved.

 

I was sat right behind the dugouts yesterday as I managed to get hospitality through a mate. Their bench and supporters were absolutely livid with our players and manager in the last 20 minutes when we decided to waste time. Was quite funny from our perspective, Duff was giving their fans plenty back at the end too.