'Parking the bus'

[grafikhaus]

This tiresome phrase is increasingly used by teams who fail to break down the opposition, so pin the blame on teams who happen to be very well organised. Spurs are at it after last night. Our friend, Martin Samuel summed it up on Tuesday:

'Arsenal did not park the bus at Manchester City on Sunday. That phrase, first used by Jose Mourinho to describe a Tottenham Hotspur performance at Stamford Bridge in September 2004, is horribly misrepresented these days.

The Tottenham performance that so irked Mourinho ended in a goalless draw and the lack of ambition from Jacques Santini’s team was memorable. ‘Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal,’ Mourinho said. ‘We wanted to play. They didn’t. We wanted to score. They didn’t. Jermain Defoe. Poor boy. He was just chasing the ball.’

Mourinho’s colourful complaint passed into football’s lexicon to the extent that the FIFA 15 computer game now allows a manager to deploy ultra-defensive tactics. The player just has to hit Park The Bus mode.

Arsenal’s performance at the Etihad Stadium was nothing like that. Playing on the counter-attack is not parking the bus. Nor is closing a team down in midfield. Some of the greatest English club sides, from Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, have been at their best striking on the counter-attack.

There is not a successful team that does not work hard.'

So, just because that nasty Sheffield United refused to lie down last night, we 'parked the bus'.

 

[Sirius]

This tiresome phrase is increasingly used by teams who fail to break down the opposition, so pin the blame on teams who happen to be very well organised. Spurs are at it after last night. Our friend, Martin Samuel summed it up on Tuesday:

'Arsenal did not park the bus at Manchester City on Sunday. That phrase, first used by Jose Mourinho to describe a Tottenham Hotspur performance at Stamford Bridge in September 2004, is horribly misrepresented these days.

The Tottenham performance that so irked Mourinho ended in a goalless draw and the lack of ambition from Jacques Santini’s team was memorable. ‘Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal,’ Mourinho said. ‘We wanted to play. They didn’t. We wanted to score. They didn’t. Jermain Defoe. Poor boy. He was just chasing the ball.’

Mourinho’s colourful complaint passed into football’s lexicon to the extent that the FIFA 15 computer game now allows a manager to deploy ultra-defensive tactics. The player just has to hit Park The Bus mode.

Arsenal’s performance at the Etihad Stadium was nothing like that. Playing on the counter-attack is not parking the bus. Nor is closing a team down in midfield. Some of the greatest English club sides, from Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, have been at their best striking on the counter-attack.

There is not a successful team that does not work hard.'

So, just because that nasty Sheffield United refused to lie down last night, we 'parked the bus'.

We played our own game. They, with their million pound plus players could not out football us. Well done all.

 

[Woodwardfan]

We played a sophisticated game of football in the first leg of a major cup semi-final.

The shame is we lack strikers who can hurt teams on the break. Ryce was very good but Murphy, Scougall and McNulty were ineffective going forward despite trying hard.

Clough has to address this long standing weakness. It is his achilles heel and has been since he arrived over a year ago. All credit to him for playing Ryce and Flynn but he picked Scougs mainly for his defensive duties I suspect. Shame Baxter didn't play but it's all a trade off and it was only the first leg.

McNulty is not suited to that role of 1 up front and we had nobody to bring on, hence the late, late substitutions.

 

[yuley82]

 

[Bladesway]

This tiresome phrase is increasingly used by teams who fail to break down the opposition, so pin the blame on teams who happen to be very well organised. Spurs are at it after last night. Our friend, Martin Samuel summed it up on Tuesday:

'Arsenal did not park the bus at Manchester City on Sunday. That phrase, first used by Jose Mourinho to describe a Tottenham Hotspur performance at Stamford Bridge in September 2004, is horribly misrepresented these days.

The Tottenham performance that so irked Mourinho ended in a goalless draw and the lack of ambition from Jacques Santini’s team was memorable. ‘Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal,’ Mourinho said. ‘We wanted to play. They didn’t. We wanted to score. They didn’t. Jermain Defoe. Poor boy. He was just chasing the ball.’

Mourinho’s colourful complaint passed into football’s lexicon to the extent that the FIFA 15 computer game now allows a manager to deploy ultra-defensive tactics. The player just has to hit Park The Bus mode.

Arsenal’s performance at the Etihad Stadium was nothing like that. Playing on the counter-attack is not parking the bus. Nor is closing a team down in midfield. Some of the greatest English club sides, from Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, have been at their best striking on the counter-attack.

There is not a successful team that does not work hard.'

So, just because that nasty Sheffield United refused to lie down last night, we 'parked the bus'.

Massive so what. If that is what people think let em. Everyone I spoke to and the commentators last night were all very complimentary about our performance and our fans.

 

[SwissBlade]

We defended as a unit and allowed Spurs lots of possession in the second third, however as soon as we got the ball we were looking to go forward on the attack with pace and cutting passes. It was true counter attacking.

Spurs fans were critical of us because we had no shots on target, but in fairness three chances fell to Doyles left foot, JCR fizzed one wide, we had numerous poor corners, Basham got dragged about on one of them and Kyle walker got enough on a header to take it away from Murphy at the back post. Not to mention a glory run from Flynn similar to his villa goal last year and Murphy tried to smash one from 20 odd yards on the corner of the area which went into row z. We weren't exactly why in the attack, but lacked composure.

I'd say that Spurs didn't do enough to break down a very determined and organised side from two divs below.

But then again, Spurs had lots of players missing and although we've played the same number of games this season, Spurs have had to travel to far flung parts of Europe... That's what the Sky commentators said though...

 

[sportinguista]

By the sounds of it the United bus was parked in North London for about two hours just prior to kick off...mebbe "The Experts" were just highlighting the congested state of the capital's road network...

 

[BusheyBlade]

We defended as a unit and allowed Spurs lots of possession in the second third, however as soon as we got the ball we were looking to go forward on the attack with pace and cutting passes. It was true counter attacking.

Spurs fans were critical of us because we had no shots on target, but in fairness three chances fell to Doyles left foot, JCR fizzed one wide, we had numerous poor corners, Basham got dragged about on one of them and Kyle walker got enough on a header to take it away from Murphy at the back post. Not to mention a glory run from Flynn similar to his villa goal last year and Murphy tried to smash one from 20 odd yards on the corner of the area which went into row z. We weren't exactly why in the attack, but lacked composure.

I'd say that Spurs didn't do enough to break down a very determined and organised side from two divs below.

But then again, Spurs had lots of players missing and although we've played the same number of games this season, Spurs have had to travel to far flung parts of Europe... That's what the Sky commentators said though...

There was also Scougal's shot in the first half which was only narrowly wide. He should have done better with that one in fact and at least made the keeper do something.