" Radish passes to Aubergine. He looks up and sees the run of Bean. Bean passes back to Carrot who slices it out to Onion. He's off,squat little vegetable,low centre of gravity. Beats one,beats another and you have to say that was outstanding!" We can but dream of Diego Armando Onion.
So they expect to play for a comfortable mid table prem side ? Or they want to stay in the champ for good ?
The protest and criticism is probably very tame compared to at some clubs ! Lot of bad PR by the club.
They just want to make sure they don't have to play for us. They'll both get good loan deals again next season at a club that isn't such a mess; Hamza might even play in the Champ for his parent club. As molly-coddled pro footballers, they'll manage to convince themselves the NEXT club they play for will allow them to play at their 'normal' level, thereby ensuring promotion to the EPL. None of it's their fault, don't you know?
JP at least notched two goals in consecutive games, but was ineffective last night, Kone has always been inconsistent, which I suppose you can understand at his age. I think Andrews was trying more stuff offensively last night, but it wasn't coming off, but I can't be too down on him as he's 18 and does give a ****
I really don't know what the future holds for Choudhury, he's run around a lot and put in a lot of tackles for us, but he cannot pass for toffee, which is a huge drawback for a team with any ambition to go up. He's clearly not good enough for the Prem, would his ego or bank balance be willing to countenance playing for a lower Championship team, or is he just going to continue slowing down moves for a team like us next season?
I can't say that is the reason he says it like it is, I think it would be easier to just go through the usual sound bites like most managers have. The fact he's on a short term contract may be the very reason it's having no effect on the players. My thinking on it is if you give him the backing and make it clear to the players that he has the power only then will the players put in some effort. A rebuild is required and it has to start with backing the manager above the players. Many say this slide started with the fa Cup defeat. I personally feel the players took power after the Mazzari year and because there were some from promotion and then a successful beginning in the Premier league who were still willing to give it all for the badge they held it together, then yes the fa cup defeat hurt and since then new players have been diluting the desire for the club to the point we are at today. But it was the players power grab that is the problem. The coach needs to be backed, the players need to know that their job is to work for the manager and the badge as part of a team and if that isn't possible they should be jettisoned. When Jocka arrived his first act was to put Andrew's on gardening leave, we need that now and we need it to be clear that they are backed
Perhaps the signs were there when Dyer celebrated by ranting at Beppe Sannino, I think they were certainly there when Deeney won his game of chicken with Mazzarri
100% correct. It is completely overlooked by fans what the Mazzarri season was actually like, we stayed up by finishing 17th and losing the last 6 games on the spin. When we scored no more than 3 players jogged over to celebrate, how's that for team spirit? Players used to turn up to the match before the international break with their suitcases, lose the game then go straight to the airport afterwards. The manager used to smoke cigarettes in the changing room at half time! The writing was truly on the wall then.
I thought of the scene when GC opens the shutters to face the crowd as one of my 6pm chaps removed his skin. I went full Ray Stevens with " Don't look Ethel" to Elysia. Being 23 I'm not sure the reference was understood! Ten minutes later at the change of ends the same chap , Graeme Hill,had a pit stop for a bite of banana. Elysia, straight from Cheshunt exclaimed " 'E's taken 'is cloves orf nah 'es got 'is banana art!" Cue Kenny!
He seems to have the attitude that he is doing us a favour by playing for us even tho he has brain farts in each and every game and for that reason I would like to see Kabasele start instead because at least he cares and is a good egg despite his obvious foibles.
What makes you think that particularly ? Has made a few errors but even Porteous has in recent games az they all seem to lose it once shy pressure is applied .
"Imran you are CM not a winger" "Keinan would you mind if you tried to hold the ball up lay it off get in the box and try and get on the end of one " "Wesley, we are the team in yellow and you are not John Stones" etc etc he only said what most of us had seen
Because of his tendency to show boat from a defensive position. And what is worrying is that despite WH being one of the more experienced players he crumbles under pressure and is of no use whatsoever to the younger players when the wheels are coming off . The blind header to Bachmann just before their 3 goal salvo where the Cardiff player could have scored summed up this unwanted arrogance .
` In between the rambling he made sense, I agree. But if his training sessions and pre-match instructions are delivered so inarticulately I don't think you can blame the players - many of whom speak English as a second language - for not understanding what he's on about half the time
I can't agree with this . They are professional footballers . A centre mid should not need instruction to not go walkabout . No square passes in front of our back 4 is Sunday morning basics. But the problem IMO is that we are a team full of mavericks. I hate to say this but that lot at the Kennel despite our players being man for man technically better would only take 1 or 2 of our players and we would take their team and only keep a couple of ours . As Wilder says we have 11 players doing their own thing . It is probably a blessing that we don't go up because can you imagine the carnage if this lot had to play against decent opposition ?.
I'm not a master tactician by any means but I've always felt to attack and score goals you need to move the ball forward towards the opposition goal. Every throw in goes backwards. A good proportion of the time when the midfield or full backs receive the ball their first look up is backwards. It's a completely negative mindset. I've not seen one club play it around at the back as much as us. Nobody wants to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and be positive apart from Pedro who now wants to do it all. Davis receives a lot of criticism and quite rightly so because he's been poor but he has no support, nobody looks to play off him or give him options. So much is wrong but I suspect confidence is a major factor hence player like Porteous who started well are now struggling
Yes, I get the "possession is everything" mantra of the very top sides but for sides like us playing the ball around the back 4 or 5 is just suicide. I wish we would revert to the speedy/pacey attacking side we used to be. I'm sure this is the reason that Sarr/Davis/Pedro/Sema etc have been so ineffective this season. We take so long to get the ball to them, if we actually manage to get the ball that far forward. Any element of surprise is lost and they are faced with a set defence, and immobile team mates. They are then too afraid to risk losing the ball to create anything. We should have been able to score hatfuls of goals on the break, like the Sarr-inspired goal at Norwich, if we would only attack at pace like we used to do under GT and that first Aidy season. It worries me to hear that the guy we are being linked with as new manager (starts with "F"?) is apparently very very much a fan of possession based football.........
We're definitely rubbish at moving the ball around and forward with purpose. And it's got worse as the season has gone on. But I would also say looking back over the season as a whole it does feel like a lot of sides have set up to sit far deeper against us that I can ever remember. Presumably because they're scared about Sarr's pace or generally being caught on the counter. It's partly the 'big fish, small pond' thing where opponents see us as a good scalp, a team who've been in the PL 6 years out of the last 7. Plus we scored a goal on the break against Sheff Utd in the first game and it's like that was a warning sign to opponents which most have heeded. That possibly explains why we've done better against the sides that consider themselves on a par with us rather than those dribbling in the media about us being the best team in the division like Cardiff's manager on Monday.
And the Championship example to follow has been staring us in the face all season; Burnley. They have adopted a strong possession-based model built on fitness - with clever recruitment post-relegation - but operating on the basis of pace and risk. Their passing when they win the ball is initially sideways/back to secure the ball (sounds familiar to us lot so far) and assess the attacking options - with all their forwards/midfield immediately on the move to create gaps for the opposition to fill - and then to thread balls through any press and take risks as they do so with quick one/twos. And it's that last bit where we just don't get it. Burnley's approach doesn't always come off so each Burnley player presses immediately to win the ball back straight away and the one whose pass goes astray is at the heart of that press. Lo and behold, watch how they often lose possession and win it back immediately. They wear teams out and what do you see from them, late flurries of goals including lots of 90+ mins ones. We were hugely impressive at Turf Moor in countering them especially first half and only succumbed to the fitness bit unluckily. I would have preferred Bilic to stay as he was capable of moulding the team tactically and got us through the injury crisis reasonably calmly. He still had big flaws, some blindspots and he didn't have the squad he wanted (fitness/motivation/egos!) but he had more footballing nous/experience about him - and I sense a dressing room that listened to him - than 'call me Rob' Edwards and certainly more than Wilder has. My opinion (and I know and can understand others will disagree with this bit) but Bilic handled the toughest part of our season pretty well and better than those two who oversaw what were/are theoretically far easier spells. Anyhoo, my distinct impression, admittedly from seeing Burnley quite a few times this season on the box, is that their training drills and in-game instructions must be all about pace, press and productive possession. There you go, the 4Ps to follow! Hmm...perhaps I ought to whack my CV into WD18 for the attention of Ben Manga. I could be the second coming of Pep in the SW Herts area. I'll get me coat!
Possession is fine as you need the ball to score a goal but there needs to be progression as well and it needs to be far quicker. We are so easy to play against at the moment
Possession with purpose One of our warm up drills is the team are in formation ,the CBs play a combination with the MF, maybe a striker drops deep to link play, then another combination on the edge of the area for a player to shoot or a full back bombing on and cross and finish . All done at a fast pace . Never seen it replicated during a match
This is a humongous reach, we’ve had 6 managers in the past two seasons of varying nationalities and we have a squad of players from all over the place, that’s just modern football. Bielsa got Leeds out of the Championship using an interpreter.
Seven of Edwards ten games were against teams currently above us, including three of the current top four which he beat. He also had the transfer window open for a lot of his games with its usual uncertainties. Did it not seem a bit strange to be making your point about almost beating Burnley under Bilic, to then slag Edwards off immediately after who did actually beat them? I get the point about injuries, which would hold water as an argument if we hadn’t in fact got worse under Bilic once we had a fully fit squad, why else do you think he was he sacked?
The performance at Norwich when we were decimated by injuries was the "team" performance Wilder is alluding to . Unfortunately all of our players came back from injury .
