Bassett or weir

[sitwell]

The current debate regarding playing 'football' against 'hoofball' holds no water whatsoever
For my money Glyn Hodges, John Gannon, Jocky Bryson et al could all pass a ball far better than any of the current crock of sh!te.
You play to your strengths - at the moment I am at a loss of where our strengths lie
Basset assembled a side that could attack down the flanks at pace, two strikers who could put the ball away either in the air or on the ground, could deliver a precise dead ball from either corner or free kick, had a strong spine of goalkeeper, centre backs and strikers and willing workers in Booker, Rostron, Wood, Ward, Whitehouse etc
That was the crux, Bassett recruited the personnel to play to their strengths whatever the style -= styles come in and out of fashion - winning football matches requires you to score more goals than the opposition whatever way you do it - take a long hard look at the current side - they lack talent, ability, pace, heart, strength,passion and effort - whatever the style they just are not up to the task !

I would just like to say I have on very good authority that one name mentioned in your post was interviewed for the Weirs job and was a gnats bollock away from getting the job.

 

[oldblade]

I well understand why you say that, but your analogy is misplaced. The alchemy of which I speak is the ex-post-facto attempt to transform Bassett's base metal kick and rush into some sort of gold plate. Fool's Gold I'm afraid.

It's a completely different thing to suggest that professional footballers ought to be able, within their limitations, to play the game properly - to pass the ball with reasonable precision to a team-mate and thereafter move into space either to take possession again or to make room for a colleague to do so. As my friend alcoblade says, most Third Division teams can make a decent stab at it.

But the reality is that many of them cannot do those things as well as we want them to and unless someone takes them off your hands you are stuck with them.

Bassett had a very limited (at times non-existent) budget. He couldn't buy world beaters. Generally he could only afford players of limited ability, so he planned a method of playing football that players of limited ability could cope with. Bingo. Four seasons in the first division and also an FA Cup semi final, which we hadn't achieved for 30 years. And all with what amounted to a very modest side, but a side that worked within it's limitations.

At the moment we have an even more limited side and it is haemorrhaging points at an alarming rate. And I think that is happening because they are playing to a system that is beyond their abilities.

 

[oldblade]

Sorry but I agree with pinchy. Any decent footballer should be able to pass the ball and move into another position to receive it back. It's very very simple and if they can't grasp it then they should find another profession.

None of which is any help at all to us in our present predicament. Keep trying to make them play beyond their abilities and it will be the fourth division revisited.

We all want to watch great football, but the players that we have are the players that we have. As The Rolling Stones said - you can't always get what you want.

 

[alcoblade]

Sorry but I agree with pinchy. Any decent footballer should be able to pass the ball and move into another position to receive it back. It's very very simple and if they can't grasp it then they should find another profession.

If you really believe that's the case then the manager surely has even less of an excuse?

UTB

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

None of which is any help at all to us in our present predicament. Keep trying to make them play beyond their abilities and it will be the fourth division revisited.

We all want to watch great football, but the players that we have are the players that we have. As The Rolling Stones said - you can't always get what you want.

If something so simple is beyond their abilities then the problem is clearly the players.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

If you really believe that's the case then the manager surely has even less of an excuse?

UTB

We don't seem to agree on Weir's situation but personally I would say having crap players is a fairly good excuse.

 

[alcoblade]

We don't seem to agree on Weir's situation but personally I would say having crap players is a fairly good excuse.

Your suggestion was that ANY professional footballer should be able to do what Weir was after. Either way you seen to be swerving the issue. If they aren't up to it then he should stop demanding it until we get the players who are.

The league table is the judge. But if we have to bin the current crop of players then exactly what is this experiment about?

UTB

 

[oldblade]

If something so simple is beyond their abilities then the problem is clearly the players.

Bassett's side would not have been able to play the way our current players are being expected to play. The problem quite clearly is not just with our players.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

If something so simple is beyond their abilities then the problem is clearly the players.

We have exactly the same back five as last season and the front six are arguably better. Yet we never fell below 8th at any point last season and now we're 21st. That suggests it's the manager not the players.

Of the NINE new players he signed he only picked three to start on Saturday. That suggests he has more faith in Wilson's signings than in his own. Also the manager's fault not the players.