Football style. Things to do on a quiet week.

[Worthy4England]

I had a couple of occasional grumbles during Evatt's last two years with the notion and concept of possession football. As we posted pictures of the latest crochet patterns to demonstrate how exciting it was, we were treated to vids of Sean Dyche, coz that was clearly the only alternative. In the spirit of bygone's and acknowledging that plan B being Plan A+ was largely bollocks (I mean we do, don't we? ), I came across an article looking at poor old Pep's dilemma and the fact that the "alleged" long ball alternative has been on the rise since maybe 2017 in the Prem. Of course it's not Sean's long ball and never was, but I couldn't help reading through and nodding at quite a few things I recognised instantly...

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... 0l7lw3ypzo

From now on, we should be posting clips of Pep the dino, whilst acknowledging the visionary nature of those not fully convinced by the Emperor nor his Temu clothes.

[BWFC_Insane]

Yeah good idea. My problem in general is actually in the article. The root cause the article claims is ‘tactics’ yet it also acknowledges City’s squad ageing having injury issues and losses of form. Would we or anyone be even analysing Pep’s tactics if their squad hadn’t aged didn’t have key injuries and players were in form or would everyone be marvelling at a glorious City winning it once again? Nobody knows but I rather suspect that their issues come down to form and fitness of their players more than they come down to Pep or his tactics.

Except to say that the way city played worked because they had brilliant players and the right players to play that way. One might argue that now they don’t he should have found another way. But I rather feel like tactics and systems are reactive to what you have rather than the direct cause.

Which brings me onto the issue with teams who wanted to copy city. You could extend that to copying Barcelona under Pep. I mean I reckon most managers in the world could copy Barca if they had Iniesta, Xavi and Messi and to be honest one has to say is that some tactical master stroke or just having an amazing group of technical players and playing to their strengths? I think league one teams trying to be Man City or Barca are generally doomed to fail as it’s not in most cases the fit for the players they’ve got. Few league one teams are built around those sorts of players and for good reason.

We were told that we couldn’t play transitional football. Couldn’t put balls into the box. Couldn’t go toe to toe with teams in midfield as it didn’t suit us. By Evatt and those who preached that sort of what I consider modern football mumbo jumbo. It was all wrong. And demonstrably wrong as Schumacher is showing us. Yes I don’t think we are ideally setup to play transitional football all the time. But that’s the issue rather than the other way round. We have no real number 9 which limits us but again that’s the barrier not the tactics. Or should be.

I don’t see anything wrong with trying to emulate the best teams when you are in league one but you’ve got to find a way to play that suits your players. Picking a system and tactics inspite of their abilities to me is nothing should of a dereliction. There are very very few teams who have pulled off being a ‘Pep blueprint’ beyond his own teams and those teams even haven’t always managed it ideally.

Being obsessed with style and the like is also a bad sign in a manager. Pep himself is desperate to win not cultivate a style - he has done so but that isn’t what he has been concerned with. The most grating comment and I think biggest telltale that a manager is struggling, not very good and not confident in themselves is ‘well yes look they won but I’d not want to have to watch them every week’. It’s grating and revealing. If you lose and feel the need to pass comment on the other teams style it is you that is the problem not them.

[Worthy4England]

Yeah, but I wasn't really trying to compare us with a notional L1 City or whether Pep was broken or really why. The key points for me are woven through the detail.

From Pep's quote that modern football isn't positional (or solely about possession) and that the counter is to be more direct which is largely counter to the notion that possession and territory are all conquering. How many times did we not get a result after controlling both but not being able to defend a quick oppo transition.

Since 2017, a lot of the numbers from fast breaks and direct attacks have improved. Some pretty significantly. Not a recipie to "punt it" but certsinly something teams need in the locker.

Pep points that teams are not allowing them to rest with the ball maybe as they used to. That's a problem and their defensive error rate is up.

These are all things in microcosm that we see in our team.

It's a system that has single points of real failure. People might think I have it in for Sheehan, fox example, I don't but the defensive side of that role is just as intrinsic to success as the ability to spread a great pass forwards. Whether such a L1 level player exists I dunno, but it's a fundamental flaw if you have two eyes and they're not always looking at the attacking side.

[Worthy4England]

Just saw a clip of Gary Neville, where he compares which players had the ball most in his last 5 years with now in the Prem.

Can't recall the exact names from 5 years back, Lampard was in there and they were all midfielders.

Now Virgil, Lewis Dunk etc. All centre halves.

His question was - do we really want to pay our hard earned to watch Brighton's centre half?

A point very well made, in my book.

[Worthy4England]

https://youtube.com/shorts/BQS8f600ZCo? ... 8Fcc4P1Wzo_

[Worthy4England]

Found it.

[BWFC_Insane]

He’s spot on. Football is garbage these days with all these modern innovations turning the game into a slow paced trudge fest. Watching great big lumps striding out from the back before passing sideways and then waiting fifteen hours for a video to measure the gap between someone’s pubes and a big toe…..it’s shite.

[TANGODANCER]

Clean the game up and re-write the ref's hand book taking the hands out of FOOT ball, and we might actually have a solution...

[Prufrock]

Meh - it's why football is the best sport. It's a dialectic. Every now and then there's a cycle where one type of play is on top and everyone starts to look the same, and then people find ways to combat it. Teams like Forest and Bournemouth have been v successful this year playing in the break with pace and directness. It'll tip back.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Thing that pisses me off is the complete inconsistency and shiteness of the officiating. Yesterday one of our lot had his shirt stretched back by about a foot, near shoulder height around 2 feet from the lino. The lino couldn't have seen anything but the shirt being pulled by the defender. Nothing. Yet, not much later a whistle goes for someone breathing on someone. At one point Forino was getting a bear hug from behind in the box in clear view. I've seen less contact on PornHub. Nothing given. Its so blatant and players know they largely get away with it. You don't need to foul these days, just pull their shirt. It makes for shit football.

[jmjhb]

Go and see the women's team on Easter Sunday. A win against Accrington and they'll win the league. £3 entry.

[Mar]

Go and see the women's team on Easter Sunday. A win against Accrington and they'll win the league. £3 entry.

Hopefully it'll help inspire the mens team to go an win a league.

Last time we won a league was... jesus wept... 1996/97.