Why do we only play well for about an hour?

[Cerberus Blade]

I've seen all of the last few games, home and away. The question I have is, why do we only play well for about an hour?

The Villa performance was superb. But even in this game, after about an hour, we caved in and let them come on to us.

At Bristol last week we wiped the floor with them, for about an hour. Then they looked the better side.

Today against lowly Preston, we wiped the floor with them again - then 70 minutes in we seem to capitulate and let them piss up our backs.

Can we just play for 90 minutes, not 60 or 70? It would make a huge difference at the end of the season if we did?

 

[Barney]

 

[boo radley]

Having just got on the bus back home. The thoughts in the pub is why did he take Billy off.

 

[derfblade.3]

Stop changing the formation. We are tons better on the front foot.

 

[Large Mendonca]

Mentioned this last season also. We seemed to struggle in the middle of the park - Norwood possibly has the excuse of 3 games in a week following a busy international schedule. Fleck was also struggling, but he's come back from a strain. Ironically i thought Duffy looked capable of lasting the distance today and he was subbed !

 

[SwissBlade]

I've seen all of the last few games, home and away. The question I have is, why do we only play well for about an hour?

The Villa performance was superb. But even in this game, after about an hour, we caved in and let them come on to us.

At Bristol last week we wiped the floor with them, for about an hour. Then they looked the better side.

Today against lowly Preston, we wiped the floor with them again - then 70 minutes in we seem to capitulate and let them piss up our backs.

Can we just play for 90 minutes, not 60 or 70? It would make a huge difference at the end of the season if we did?

We don't need to play well for 90, 60 is enough, thats an energy saving of 33.3%

We're basically carbon neutral over the season

 

[Kevincarterversion2.0]

Because this the championship and opposition teams have good spells in games.

 

[Carlton Blade]

I think it was on Wilder today. We scored the 2nd, had the McG chance and then retreated 30 yards. As with last year, we can't cope with runners from deep. The ease with which Preston opened up when we were specifically trying to defend was alarming.

Not sure if it's the players or the manager but we cannot kill a game the way a Pulis team can. So we should probably stop trying to. My blood pressure can't take it

 

[Kona]

I was thinking the same as the OP. It’s almost like we just switch off. I don’t think it’s tactical (in terms of the formation), we just seem to change the tempo and watch the opposition. Today was frustrating to watch. We’d controlled the game for 60-65 mins and then just switched off again.

 

[Willie Carlin]

I've seen all of the last few games, home and away. The question I have is, why do we only play well for about an hour?

The Villa performance was superb. But even in this game, after about an hour, we caved in and let them come on to us.

At Bristol last week we wiped the floor with them, for about an hour. Then they looked the better side.

Today against lowly Preston, we wiped the floor with them again - then 70 minutes in we seem to capitulate and let them piss up our backs.

Can we just play for 90 minutes, not 60 or 70? It would make a huge difference at the end of the season if we did?

. We won!

 

[Rodley]

Because this the championship and opposition teams have good spells in games.

This.

 

[blade too long]

name me any team that plays for 90 full minutes in any game every week

been watching for 50 odd years never seen it once


man city destroyed cardiff today over the game
but lost to lyon midweek ,,,, why

 

[Sheffsteel]

Having just got on the bus back home. The thoughts in the pub is why did he take Billy off.

Thought it was obvious.
PNE were starting to control possession and push us back defending on the edge of the box.

Sharp was becoming ineffectual, his game is finishing off balls played direct to his feet.
He has no pace so can’t go chasing long balls and he’s not a target man to hold up the ball.

So we needed either some pace or someone to hold the ball up, so we could gain a spell of possession to take the wind out of the PNE sail. In theory a good substitution but it didn’t work because many of the players seemed to lose their composure/ confidence.

Agree though, we seem to start on the front foot, usually dominate matches, then we drop off our efforts in the last 20 minutes. Maybe it’s just tiredness because we do usulally start in a very high tempo style.

Personally thought Fleck had a quiet game, didn’t drive forward with energy like he has done previously.

 

[Working Class Hero]

Because that's when Duffy goes off. Simple.

 

[tomtheblade]

We definitely don't help ourselves, but the Championship is a tough division.

Each game the players from both sides will have a certain amount of expendable energy, based on fitness levels. It's really difficult for one team to fully dominate the 90, given that if, for example, said dominant team is up 2/3-0, then the other side will throw caution to the wind and go for it.

For me, it's not so much 'playing' for however long during a match, but game management. We need to learn how to play a different way, somewhere in-between all out attack and pressure, and defending on our 18 yard line. We have done this in the past, so we're capable of it, but we definitely need to improve.

 

[robbiez666]

After about 55-60 minutes it was extremely obvious that Duffy, McGoldrick, Norwood and others were tiring. I was shocked that it took us so long to make a substitution. We were basically sat in our own half letting them just attack us at will. It was clear we'd lost midfield and nothing was sticking upfront. I thought we got very lucky today after basically dominating for the first 55-60 minutes.

 

[Rob86]

It’s a valid OP, I’d say it’s nearer 70 mins though. Can’t explain why as I have no expert knowledge of football coaching, tactics, conditioning or nutrition to explain why we’d look sluggish towards the end of a game, but in my opinion it does seem to happen regularly. Maybe it’s the nerves !

That said, a draw Wednesday and a win today so let’s see what happens next week.

 

[metalblade]

All good up to 60mins we are in total control breaking with pace and looking like adding a third, then all of a sudden Preston are all over us two crosses across our 6yard box before they score. Everyone in the ground could see it coming then fuck me if they don't score again a few minutes later, at this stage the only winners look to be Preston. We got out of jail today only because Preston only came for a point. If they had attacked us from the off it could have been a different scoreline at 2-2 Preston thought job done and let us off the hook and paid for it. Wilder has to do something about us switching off on the hour mark and falling to pieces, why do we suddenly start playing hoofball in defence and start kicking it anywhere? Why do the midfield not win a 2nd ball when this happens? Better teams will murder us in the last 30mins much like Swansea did.

 

[PokerBlade]

We're really bad at killing games off. We get 2-0 up, Preston are offering nothing to the game, we try to do the smart thing and conserve some energy, but for some reason that means we more or less stop. I can't really figure it out because for most of the game we were holding possession and moving the ball around well, so why when we gain a lead can we not just stroke it around and play keep ball instead of dropping deeper and deeper and losing all shape?