Minority Report - Blackburn Rovers

That is what Newcastle were doing yesterday against Wendy's.
They were at a loss how to combat Wendy's all match and this from supposedly the best team in the league

 

Of course it is. That was part of the problem with Johnno, and is how other conmen managers hide behind poor football.

 

That we have won five away from home suggests to me that our strength is counter-attacking. I haven't checked, but I would have thought that we didn't boss possession in many of our away games. No doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong. So Hecky may simply be setting us up to play in the style that suits us best.

Now consider yesterday's game. At least twice in the second half we broke clean through in numbers and should have scored.We also had at least two free kicks in dangerous positions. So if we had managed to put our chances away we'd have maybe been looking at six goals. That's good enough for me in this league. When we boss possession it often implies the opposition are behind the ball and that our attacks are more predictable. Predictability has lessened the impact Adam Hammill has been able to have this season.

I was overjoyed to get back in this league, and I'll be equally happy if we are comfortably able to stay in it. So on a results basis, I think Hecky is doing a fantastic job. And I also think it's very enjoyable to watch. But you pay your money and take your choice, I suppose.

 

Time passes, things change and we have to move on. Hankering for the past is a sometimes pleasant, but ultimately fruitless and hurtful exercise.

 

I think what the OP is intimating is that we should have more in our locker than just counter-attacking. When teams come who don't want to play ball and just sit, we find it very hard because we need them to expose their underbelly so that we can penetrate with pace. I particularly do like our counter attacking style but we do need other options so that teams just don't just take us for granted.

 

I'm only 72 percent certain of it.... maybe 73 perecent on reflection. I'm drinking 5.6 percent real ale and have zero percent chance of doing anything productive today.

 

Which is fair enough, i suppose...

"Plan B's" do seem to have disappeared from football recently. If you look at the so called "elite" managers, they all have their style and rarely seem to deviate from it. For example Guadiola has his possession football, and doesn't seem to be able to alter things, Same with Wenger and then Mourinho with his rigid, hard to break down style. Even Ranieri struggles to change his approach, even though it seems that teams have worked them out...

 

Love this post mr Nutkin.
This thread is suffering from Death by uber analysis. Loved Jay's post from earlier which I loved because it was more in tune with my opinion of what we saw yesterday.
In contrast to the guy who started this thread I say a young hungry passionate team of footballers in red shirts and hooped sox completely outplay their Lancashire rivals in a first 45 minutes during which we played some beautifully intricate fast moving pass and move football. From right back to left back through to our two hard working strikers who won pretty much everything in the air. I saw some well practiced and well worked attacking plays.mi saw a whole variety of clever flicks from Tom Bradshaw and I saw that he is improving his whole round game with us as a striker. Deft lay offs with the chest and feet. I saw little Josh run his blood to water as usual. And yes he does run around a lot red rain......but he does it to good effect.
I also saw Blackburn change tHeir tactics because they couldn't break down our rock defence which has been hewn out of a steel granite mixture the likes of which we've not seen since winstanley and Howard and McCarthy and Evans. I saw passion. I saw the rovers escort to hoof ball in that second half because we had out footballed them and it was their last resort against a team which was better set up than them due to our outstanding young manager.
We were dynamic and resolute. We were as sharp as a knife through butter on the break. Yesterday was a game which ebbed and flowed. **** possession. We won and we won on merit. We won on merit. We have been winning on merit all season.
If we can retain 43% possession and win 2 0 like that all season then BRING IT ON.
Reading Red Rain these days is like watching someone rain (torrential rain) on a beautiful rainbow period. .......and yes I do know red rain that I don't have to read your posts if I don't want to. I'm just fascinated by how contrary you want to be. And yes I know it's not about your personality. I know it's about your opinions. Anyway......nuff said. I'm well happy with who we are and what we're about. I'm happy with the BFC skin were living in.

 

Sorry......
* Rovers resorted to hoof ball
* rain on a beautiful parade not escort
!!!!!!!!!!!
U mighty reds.

 

I normally read the Guardian. I expect typos with a quality, entertaining script.

Respec

 

I'm a fan of been entertained & we do that more than any other Barnsley side I can remember which to me is more important than any stat.

Having 60% possession would be a bonus but at the same time I love watching our team counter attack. Edge of the seat stuff. We could've easily had at least 3 goals on the counter attack on Boxing Day.

I get a lot of what you have posted but you seem to suggest a lot of our results are down to luck which I couldn't disagree with more.

Hecky's shown he can adapt. He's changed formation plenty of times to 4-5-1 when needed & most of the time it's worked. If for example we had a run of bad results I've every confidence in him to change the formation & get us back on track.

Let's also not forget that we had to face plenty of sides last season who sat back & let us have the ball. We dealt with most of them.

With possession it's all about how it's used. If it's like Man City use it or Barca do or for a championship side for an example then how Swansea under Martinez & Rodgers used it then that's great because it's with purpose & it's designed to stretch teams & makes for entertaining football.

If it's like Lee Johnson had us playing then it's awful. Low tempo stuff with players not overlapping & risk averse football.

That's why a percentage doesn't really tell you the whole story.

Anyway, yesterday could've ended in anything ranging from 6-0 to us to 6-0 to them, it was incredible it only finished 2-0 with the amount of chances in the game. With the wind it was one of them games where it's all about getting the 3 points & that's what we did so happy days.

 

I'm a different type of old school. I believe the primary purpose of having possession of the football is to use it to try and score a goal. That's the main reason I couldn't bear to watch Keith Hill's teams, who regularly won it the possession statistics whilst at the same time losing a higher percentage of games than any manager in our history, before or since.