teams seem to have more time and space on the ball against us these days. Our successful teams were always 'in yer face' type battlers. I just think we're missing that energetic intensity to stop teams playing with current personnel. Perhaps it's telling that I think our biggest miss is Scowen.
Scowen , Marley Watkins, Winnall, all used to close down their opponents fairly quickly, we were good to watch even without the ball.
We miss Conor, Scowen and Winnall. Everyone else we've lost is not that big a deal, though I'd take Watkins back.
Obvs been poor since he left but I agree - Watkins could do a job in this team either from the wing or supporting Bradshaw up top. Easy to forget but was influential player when with us & goals in him.
Could be a distinct lack of fitness applying to too many players, Potts,Moncur and Thiam being amongst them.
It's why I hope, though doubt, there's some foundation to these Ryan Kent rumours. Many are quick to point out his weaknesses, but he could turn a defensive situation into attack in seconds with his pace.
In my opinion, we abandoned the pressing game as soon as we were promoted, and for good reason. Certainly Hourihane played much deeper in the Championship. My theory is this; whilst the pressing game works when good players are pitted against inferior ones, it does not work the other way round. If we tried to press at the moment, and we committed the number of players forward that the press demands in order for it to be effective, our opponents would simply pass and move their way through the press into the space between the press and the back four. Frankly, it would be carnage.
Totally agree with this It’s funny I was just thinking the exact same thing as I was watching Bristol city doing it I find it odd that we have signed players who can’t press when we were supposed to be buying players to suit a particular system - one that was established and doing well. Bradshaw is good at it, as is Hammill and isgrove but we really miss it centrally
I agree with the principle to what you say but I don’t think from what I have seen the opposition are too strong technically to play a pressing game against them, save for maybe a few teams ie Wolves and Fulham when in form
You simply cannot play the press if your team is in the 4-5-1 formation and is organised to be defensively sound. Admittedly, some call that formation 4-3-3, but that is not how we are playing it. I will illustrate the point that I am making by referring to an occassion when the press was used against us. In the home match against Leeds, Leeds played the press because their coach recognised that we were too deep to be a threat on the break. It worked as well, because we had neither the game to play our way through it, nor the pace to provide any threat when we had to go the length of the field. Nor did we have the height up front to go over the press, and build again from further up the field. Their coach played the press because he recognised that we were weak, and because he knew we did not have any weapons to seriously threaten them on the counter. I wrote at the time that we had been rumbled. What worked for Leeds, because they had better players provided a lesson to me personally in the deployment of the press. You need to be sure that our opponents do not have the ability to go through or over the press. That was true when we were in the division lower, and it is what Lee Johnson saw, and in spite of that, what took so long to perfect. It is not true now.
I'll never forget that second half in the 4-1 win at Wigan. Spent half time wondering if we could hang on to 2-1 and we came out and smothered them all over the pitch. They never had a pass available and we steamrollered them. Brilliant to watch.
We played pressing game when we stayed up under flitcroft and were a match for anyone. Was looking forward to season after and we abandoned it. The two teams that went up that season Leicester and Burnley were fantastic at it. It’s the way to play in this league
I agree with you, but you've got to have the players to do it. Potts, McGeehan, Moncur, Gardner, Mallan and Thiam don't look naturally fit enough to do it. Not saying they're unfit necessarily, but they're not the natural athletes that can run all day like Bradshaw for instance. I think they'd be done after half an hour.
Not accurate to say we abandoned the pressing game when we got promoted. Wolves away last year, for example, we absolutely pressed the life out of 'em. Winnall and Armstrong (his laziness came later in the season!) ran their blood to water and harried the Wolves defenders senseless for 70 minutes, supported by the usual suspects in midfield. You could visibly see the relief on their back four when Sam and Adam's numbers came up to be subbed only to turn to desolation, despair and near surrender when they realised that Watkins and Bradshaw had come on fresh and, rather than giving them respite were actually stepping up the pressing. Gaps started to appear all over as Wolves just wilted and Janko came on and made hay in the space afforded him. The essence of that team was not that it abandoned any one style of play but that it could adapt and play in multiple different ways to suit what we wanted to do and/or to counter the opposition, whether that be pressing at Wolves and Birmingham or sitting in and making rapier-like fast breaks as at Cardiff. I do agree that we don't have the personnel now, particularly in central midfield, which is another pointer to me that numbers based recruitment has got out of sync with the coach's needs. Hopefully, some of the squad imbalances will be addressed in this window and we'll come out of it with a group that can give Hecky a range of credible options once again.