Well.... last night was good

[CPB]

That was a terrific performance from start to finish, MGW was basically unplayable and Berge was good too. Robinson was a warrior too.
Compared to Friday for the most part it was night and day.

In general though as a team performance and dare I say it was a really big performance and result in terms of significance. I reckon the biggest since Fulham away, it should give the team confidence and belief that on our day we can beat anyone in this division.
That Fulham away performance was a great away performance. To go there and win without much trouble was a real marker.
But it's one result and it only mattered if we followed it up with more performances and results. We then of course don't play a league game for weeks on end, and come back a little sluggish.

Last night we played another team in a bit of form (After Forest) and absolutely dominated.
There's an argument that if Sporar scores at 2-1 it's a different game, but before and after that we were much the better team.
I feel like last night was another marker, and when you stop to look at the results in the past few months it's impressive.

Still last night, it's one game and the good work will be undone if we go to Coventry and don't turn up. We are not going to win every game, but the season's end is in sight and we want to be going in, in good form because I still feel that 2nd will be too far away if Bournemouth get into any relative sort of form. Bournemouth probably need to win 8 of their remaining 13 or so to make 2nd I reckon.

As for the return of Wilder. It was weird, but good to appreciate him before the match.
I thought he summed it up a bit saying "I didn't see that coming". I don't think any of us really did.
Our players certainly looked up for it more and played v.well of course. The support was v.good too (Although not sure taunting Wilder was needed, but I guess that's footy).

Wilder was pretty honest afterwards and no complaints. (Wonder if he nearly walked into home dressing room before the game!?)
Wish him well (Not at our expense of course) and always appreciate what he did.
Glad to hear him say he'll come have a beer and come to a game or two when he retires, I think that will prove to be the case, certainly if there is any change in owners.

 

[Need4speed]

I was going to start a new thread - "the fine arts of pressing" but I also wanted to start one "we actually have tactics, a plan and alternatives" and one "how important is Stuart McCall" But I will cover it here
1. Pressing is not just about running at opposition players and putting pressure on them It is also about setup - Norwood last night was much further forward when they had the ball Right up on Howson who Middlesborough play through Billy and MGW often positioned themselves in passing lanes to stop them playing out from the back and in that sense leading the press. RDD Osbourne and JLT consistently pushed very high at speed when they thought they could put pressure on. Result - the second goal Norwood nicks it off Howson, they resorted to hoof.
2. Tactics - we definitely have more than plan A and seem to be able to adapt in game. Example last nigh, ironically one that mystified me & I don't think was that affective, Wes kicked more and always out to the right towards Berge . This was clearly planned. Another example- all the corners last night were put high into the box, where as in the last few games we have looked to work it out to get a shot from the edge of the box
3. The importance of McCall - what do people think I think it is massive, he has the personality of a coach not a manager
Points 1 & 2 only work when the players completely trust their team mates

 

[ZoneManWilf]

I was going to start a new thread - "the fine arts of pressing" but I also wanted to start one "we actually have tactics, a plan and alternatives" and one "how important is Stuart McCall" But I will cover it here
1. Pressing is not just about running at opposition players and putting pressure on them It is also about setup - Norwood last night was much further forward when they had the ball Right up on Howson who Middlesborough play through Billy and MGW often positioned themselves in passing lanes to stop them playing out from the back and in that sense leading the press. RDD Osbourne and JLT consistently pushed very high at speed when they thought they could put pressure on. Result - the second goal Norwood nicks it off Howson, they resorted to hoof.
2. Tactics - we definitely have more than plan A and seem to be able to adapt in game. Example last nigh, ironically one that mystified me & I don't think was that affective, Wes kicked more and always out to the right towards Berge . This was clearly planned. Another example- all the corners last night were put high into the box, where as in the last few games we have looked to work it out to get a shot from the edge of the box
3. The importance of McCall - what do people think I think it is massive, he has the personality of a coach not a manager
Points 1 & 2 only work when the players completely trust their team mates

Good post.

On point 2, we were clearly targeting Egan on the back post from set pieces. A few deliveries were not great, then we got one bang on and it created a goal.

The pressing was really noticeable, we got the ball multiple times in their third as a result of it. But we do pick and choose how much to do it depending on the opposition.

We know that restricting space in the defending third works well against a Wilder 352 as that's exactly what happened last season in the Prem, we couldn't work out a effective shape once Premier league teams learned to press hard on Norwood and our wing backs, pretty much what we did to Boro last night.