Some perspective - Our soft underbelly

[ChrisBlade]

Lots of blame thrown at Wilder tonight. My take would be more philosophical albeit unpopular on here:

Game is over at 3-0. You could bring on kids or scruffy cocker spaniels at that stage. It did not cry out for Duffy either. We had no further need for goals or even for adventure. All we needed was steady football. Make easy catches, win easy headers, make straightforward clearances. Keep it a little anywhere on the pitch. Slow down the break-neck pace we love to play at.

Even when you let in one howler for 3-1, you cannot go as wobbly as we were. This was mentality, not personnel or shape. It'd been too easy. They'd offered nothing. By and large, key moments had all gone for us. Villa were dead. We had it in the bag. This reminded me of the 2-2 with Wednesday in league 1. 2-0 after 83, slippers and cigars, then a collapse from complete domination and - crucially - a surprisingly stress free position.

With Fleck, Norwood, Basham and Didsy on the pitch, along with two competent full backs, we MUST be capable of holding on to the ball for the few minutes we needed.

It hurts, but I feel we are over-analyzing a freak result. It made sense to rest players and go home early. Works 99 times out of a 100.

Irrespective of substitutions, we ARE psychologically vulnerable and have been all season and last. Stoke, Rotherham. Villa and Bristol last year. That vulnerability is not caused by substitutions, but by having bad negative bias. As much success as we have had, most of these occasional late disasters are coming our way. You watch it unfold. We know it. The players do. How many of you at 3-1 said "shit, can't let another one in." We ALL felt that.

When we need to, we cannot play aimless possession football. We are do or die.

And that, my dears, is (or used to be) the beauty of English football. A game played with heads and heart. Games like today's are far, far better to watch or experience than your average City game in which they score 4 from about 7 attempts and only let the opposition shoot at goal twice. In my view.

Weekend is ruined. But tomorrow, I'll know I'd take this match over a Mourinho 0-0 away from home.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

This reminded me of the 2-2 with Wednesday in league 1. 2-0 after 83, slippers and cigars, then a collapse from complete domination and - crucially - a surprisingly stress free position.

I hadn’t thought about comparing it to that game till now, but that’s exactly what it felt like in terms of such a quick change from extreme dominance to panic stations. Individual errors did it in that one too.

 

[Gannon's perm]

We simply cannot defend. Every time we sit back we concede. You just knew when they pulled it back to 3v2 that the game was going to end in a draw.

When we play on the front foot and attack, no one can live with us. The old saying that 'attack is the best form of defence' was almost made for us.
Love Wilder to bits, but every time he tries to see out games by bringing on an extra defender, only ever ends in tears.

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

We are an evolving squad. We’ve reached the point where we dominated a real quality team for 90% of the game.
Wilder will now push on for 95%.
I’m not worried. We’re gaining momentum. I’m loving it.

 

[nopigfansintown]

Lots of blame thrown at Wilder tonight. My take would be more philosophical albeit unpopular on here:

Game is over at 3-0. You could bring on kids or scruffy cocker spaniels at that stage. It did not cry out for Duffy either. We had no further need for goals or even for adventure. All we needed was steady football. Make easy catches, win easy headers, make straightforward clearances. Keep it a little anywhere on the pitch. Slow down the break-neck pace we love to play at.

Even when you let in one howler for 3-1, you cannot go as wobbly as we were. This was mentality, not personnel or shape. It'd been too easy. They'd offered nothing. By and large, key moments had all gone for us. Villa were dead. We had it in the bag. This reminded me of the 2-2 with Wednesday in league 1. 2-0 after 83, slippers and cigars, then a collapse from complete domination and - crucially - a surprisingly stress free position.

With Fleck, Norwood, Basham and Didsy on the pitch, along with two competent full backs, we MUST be capable of holding on to the ball for the few minutes we needed.

It hurts, but I feel we are over-analyzing a freak result. It made sense to rest players and go home early. Works 99 times out of a 100.

Irrespective of substitutions, we ARE psychologically vulnerable and have been all season and last. Stoke, Rotherham. Villa and Bristol last year. That vulnerability is not caused by substitutions, but by having bad negative bias. As much success as we have had, most of these occasional late disasters are coming our way. You watch it unfold. We know it. The players do. How many of you at 3-1 said "shit, can't let another one in." We ALL felt that.

When we need to, we cannot play aimless possession football. We are do or die.

And that, my dears, is (or used to be) the beauty of English football. A game played with heads and heart. Games like today's are far, far better to watch or experience than your average City game in which they score 4 from about 7 attempts and only let the opposition shoot at goal twice. In my view.

Weekend is ruined. But tomorrow, I'll know I'd take this match over a Mourinho 0-0 away from home.

Disagree with your assessment of the Bristol , Villa and Stoke games. They were down to a lack of cutting edge at the top end of the pitch,and an outstanding goalkeeping display from the Bristol keeper, rather than mentality or control of the game from a tactical or technical standpoint.Villa had one shot of note from the edge of the box, and Stoke had the free kick. We almost shitehoused three underserved points against Rotherham, but had to settle for one undeserved point. Tonight we counter attacked for the majority of the game, in a controlled, efficient possession based manner. I largely agree with this line based on the previous two seasons, "When we need to, we cannot play aimless possession football. We are do or die". We've evolved this season, though, particularly over the last dozen games. The first 80 minutes tonight proved that. We won the tactical battle, but committed all the individual mistakes that undermined that. We also had the cutting edge.

 

[Topplayersleave]

Nights like tonight make me realise that God fucking hates us

As shit as we were in the last 7 minutes, Villa had to have unbelievable amounts of luck to get three goals.
But of course it was us they were playing, so they got it, thanks to that white bearded fucking wanker in the sky that hates us so much.

I'm lost for words, because I'm so angry and pissed off with them.

The most annoying thing is supporting this club never allows you to celebrate, not for one fucking minute, you can never just relax, sing some songs, make some noise and have a good time because they will always fuck you over

Can you just imagine being 3-0 up with 10 minutes left at Stoke on the last day and we need a win to go up.

It should be mass celebration, fun, singing, dancing, but how the fuck can it ever be with this twatting club

 

[Davalon]

We lack composure when it matters most in too many games.

It's such a shame because as much as people talk about squeezing the max out of the players, it's the avoidable stuff that costs us too often rather than simply not being good enough.