ancientblade
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2020
- Messages
- 5,614
- Reaction score
- 6,519
good post cant for the life of me understand why mcburnie is in the team maybe like you say were now playing percentage football but like you say thats another topic but our play is ponderously slow and we go sideways and backwards far too much chris wilder teams are at their best playing a high tempo game with the ball on the deck it a mirror image of 75-76 when guthrie was brought in and furphy changed our style it didnt work then and its not gonna work 45 years later at least if we do go down we wont be seing this boring system in the championshipThat’s the whole point BB.
Not sure we are inadequate aerially. Poor run of form recently aside, I’d suggest we have been pretty assured in this area.
I genuinely don’t see the problem, other than that the loss of JOC has been impactful in lots of different ways. Including aerially.
HOWEVER.
It’s called football for a reason, Our single biggest issue has been breaking teams down with rapid transitions through the thirds.
Appreciate it’s the big boys league so it’s harder, but look back on some of the genuinely quality football we have played in getting from L1 to the PL.
In our better performances last season in the PL.
The stunning 30 or so minute spell against Man U last season when I genuinely believe (and said at the time) it doesn’t get any better than that.
Absolutely none of what I have described above had diddly squat to do with having aerial presence. Being aerially or physically dominant.
More than absolutely anything else, it was to do with intricate play patterns, and excellent off the ball movement combined with a rapid movement of the football. Playing with a high tempo. Pressing with a high tempo. Everything was just that bit quicker.
We have gone more route 1 and it has been to our significant detriment. Technical players like Fleck, Enda, Dids have gone somewhat off the boil and I put this down largely to the tactics employed.
While I don’t think it’s all McB fault in that regard, he is a reason nonetheless. Symptomatic so to say ! Yes I think he’s rubbish but that’s for another thread.
I yearn for a return to our more fluid and progressive play that has served us under Wilder so well. More than a tad confused why we are so, relatively speaking, direct.
It hasn’t worked for us.
It will not work for us.
So why go down that road ?
Seriously, why ?
I don’t think that you and I will ever see completely eye to eye on all things football as our philosophies are truly polarised.
A bit of route 1 is fine. Just fine.
But too much of it, which I believe I am seeing right now, is very low percentage football and in the PL, playing low percentage football and setting up your team for low percentage football is, bluntly, suicidal !!
UTB