As I see it.

[fuerstenberger]

English/UK coaches are not held in very high regard here in Germany. The problem is, they all learn the UEFA coaching mantras, without any real understanding. I was recently over in England following a coach on his final leg of his pro license. He is currently involved with a team in the conference. His advice at half time to a right back who was getting skinned repeatedly, was to keep repeating what the UEFA manual says. The right back, an intelligent man, just kept saying he was being skinned because the other player was faster and just plain better. The coach just repeated the manual. In the end they lost 3 goals down that side in the second half. The coach failed to adapt.
I suspect DW2 is very similar to the above coach.
Put very simply, the UEFA manual talks about possession and it's importance. What the Germans have done is realised that if you play at speed, pass at speed and move at speed, when in possession, even if you lose the ball or a pass goes astray, the other team are moving at speed backwards and very often make a mistake and possession is won back quickly. That is it, put very simply.
IMO, DW has read the bit about keeping possession but failed to take on/think about any other aspects. I said in another post, I am worried from what I have seen in the 2 games. Unless Weir starts to think outside of the rigid UEFA manual, I can only see failure.

 

[Damski]

/Thread

 

[Coily]

play at speed, pass at speed and move at speed

Speed, or pace if you prefer, is the one thing this team have cried out for for a while and is the one thing above all else we lack. We are so laboured in our approach that we must be a dream to play against. We give teams time to set up defensively due to our lack of speed, most importantly speed of thought, yet don't have the guile to then make our possession work in our favour.

It's all well working teams hard when they haven't got the ball, but we don't turn any teams round so even the most limited of professional outfits can defend it all day long. I'm sure I read from the Managers Q&A pre-season from Carsley that we were seen as a soft touch in this regard and that changes would take place. They clearly haven't, in fact it's got a whole lot worse.

There are players in this squad who can step up our pace of play considerably, and if the manager isn't mandating this in his tactics they need to adapt on the field and take some responsibility. I really fear that unless there is a marked improvement against PNE then the atmosphere will get very nasty indeed.