Apologies if my tone was a little brash, but the frustration of circling around the same argument.. Which is your opinion being presented as if it's a fact (a personal bugbear of mine in everyday life) obviously got the better of me. The point I have been trying to make is that football is not played on paper, on wikipedia, or even football manager and that the best laid plans fall apart as soon as the first whistle is blown so the positions of circles on a team sheet don't count for much. But that's all that needs to be said so we can direct this thread back on to matters at hand [This Sunday]
Scowey, I never had a problem with it. Was just pointing out to Westy why I bit back. I don’t agree with you - one of the reasons for Manchester United’s success under Sir Alex Ferguson was that tactically they were always drilled to perfection. As an example, every time I see a deflected goal go in I wince, because as the best centre backs (Ferdinand, Terry) will testify, if you stand up and face forward you might take one in the groin or the face, but chances are the ball will not loop up or deviate into the net. When a player sticks his leg out or twists or bends to the side, he’s greatly increasing the chances of the ball spinning, looping, flying off in an uncontrolled manner. Almost every deflected goal you see will be caused by this and the commentator will incorrectly attribute it to bad luck. Hansen always used to use the phrase ‘playing percentages’ about defensive positioning because if you position yourself correctly you greatly increase the chance of seeing the danger away. Failing to do this was the cause of the Sheffield Wednesday goal. The same applies to creating chances and scoring goals. Great strikers positioning is absolutely crucial - how they start and then react to a passage of play is partly instinct and partly drilling on the training ground. That’s why on TV analysis there’ll often be a graphic of a string between a front pair. Their positioning and movement is vital to being able to find each other and unlock a defence. Skill and instinct then plays a major part in how the pass, the chip, the shot are executed. I would not expect our players to be executing goals like the sublime Pogba chip into the box / Rashford finish last week. Then you add in the human element - Gary Neville recently said he had a target of being at fault for 4 goals per season - that is four times when he did something that tactically he shouldn’t have that led to a goal. It is never going to be perfect but drilling and tactics improve your chances. Absolutely true that our players are not as good at this - in terms of quality and intelligence and discipline (if they were they would be Premier League players). But they still should be doing a lot better than they are. My major criticism of Hurst in early games was that he was not giving us any chance to score goals and it’s still the case now with how we are setting up. If players are giving their all but they have nothing to execute, or they are executing the wrong things, they will lose football matches and gradually get frustrated. I could see this happening under Paul Hurst and I was banging on and on every week about the need to change it. This was NEVER a criticism I had of McCarthy and to give him his credit he worked hard on all this stuff and his sides were drilled like an absolute machine. It would spring a leak, the defence would lose their discipline for a period, and then he’d get in and change it and fix it, never perfect but keeping working on it. Perhaps that’s the major difference in the goalkeepers as well this season.
How many have we actually lost? I can think of a couple of the regulars when I first joined that seem to have stopped contributing. Which is probably understandable given the situation the club finds itself in. In fact whoever used to post the odd thing on the ITFC Not606 twitter account (not that I use twitter) seems to have dried up..
We lost a lot of numbers when 606 shut but most of the ones who did make it over disappeared over the course of the McCarthy era. Off the top of my head Naxos Hoppers solly Steve Getting Slimmer Hanging Hog Guru White Horse King of Portman Road billypockets zoomba FBI Pioneer Blue oztown rushmere stratton welly Stephen Hawkings Football Boots tractor bhoy dundee This season we have lost weighty and JWM. There definitely used to be a lot more threads (and posters). So a contributing factor is definitely that we get into a long winding thread with the same dozen or so regular people now. We don't have many people that just post once or twice on a topic. There used to be loads of those. Royal Barclay Fan used to post a little verse every month or two.
Just found this (from 2011) andythetractor - On board Bigalreigned – On board Billypockets - On board BJK – On board BlueGreenKing - On board Bluemonkey - On board Blueydeepdown - On board Brian - MIA Butchers Bandage - MIA Buttons - On board CALITFC (Rushmere) – On board chatteris blue - MIA cheddyblue - On board Ciderman - On board cinnamonITFC - On board Davlaa - On board disappearing tractor boy - MIA Fieldmarshall - On board Forever Blue - On board GBT – On board Give Priskin A Hug - On board (Rolls Reuser) guru Steve - On board Hoppersblue10 - On board itfcptc - On board ITFC1983 - MIA ITFCinwales - MIA Jas0999 - On board Jim Bob ITFC - On board john - MIA JohnnyWarksMoustache - On board JonahJameson – On board King_of_Portman_Road - On board Lincolntractorboy (Dundeetractorboy) – On board MightyMathie - MIA Mike_Holmes1990 - On board Muttonles - MIA Naxos - On board Nuggets - MIA oztown - On board Paul (Westlake33) – On board Pershore - On board PJs Barmy Army - On board San Diego - On board Sanpedro - On board Solly - On board Southcoastoldgaffer - On board Spanish - On board Stretchyboy – On board stephenhawkingsfootballboots Stratton - On board Svendust – MIA TownOnTheUp - On board townsince58 - MIA tractorbhoy - MIA tractor boy steve (getting slimmer) - On board TractorBoyTuck – On board Tractor Tim - On board Wellyblue - On board YorkshireHampshire... - On board New to Not606 BedfordBlue Bejewelled Bluehysteria Blue Sauce Captain Holland Dundee Blue ExeterBlu FBI Dave Harry’s Dad Jewells Jewells Madferitblue markfatboyblues78 mwfcITFC PioneerBlueinOZ RichardP08 ShoeITFC Weighty Crimson Plum white horse yorksblue yorkiegit Zoomba
Wow, that's quite a list and a lot of familiar names on there. I was going to bring up whether anyone had heard from Weighty lately, he was a regular poster as recently as last season. I put the departures down to the gradual decline and stagnation at the club, rather than any indictment of this forum's quality or general conduct. If we were to return to the Premier League, or become a regular promotion-competing club in the Championship, then we'd probably see the return of some of the old boys or some new members. Looking around at some of the other clubs in the Championship and League One on here, and there are no regular posters at all. Maybe the forum needs to be advertised more widely to get in new members?
I think you were a bit of a late comer, I joined Feb 2011 and you joined in May of that year. Or you could be an imposter. What have you done with him?
The tail end of my uni years, so yes, very much late to the party. I don't think I was posting regularly again until 2013/14. Honest.
They keep the peace by posting stuff like this: "Cant find an answer via google- awkward to know how to describe / search for it. I routinely copy stacks of music files to assorted USB sticks for the car. I keep getting problems with odd files coming up as unknown and not connected with their relevant albums. Looking at the metadata, it appears that on about 20% of the albums I copy across, the first track (and only the first track) somehow leaves behind / loses its metadata (namely "album" and "artist") in the copying process. Leaving me the task now of going into each individial first track which shows the problem, and adding the metadata back in... Any ideas why this happens and how to deal with it?!!" and this: "What, France and Italy diplomatic row continues How can that happen in the utopia of the EU? France has recalled its ambassador to Italy for talks Worst France is quoted as saying the situation was "unprecedented" since the end of World War Two. Doesn't France know the rules; don't mention the war."
For the first time in months, we have a game that really matters and I am getting that buzz on a Friday lunchtime for the weekend game, not a Saturday lunchtime. #COYB
It does all get a bit random (and partisan) but you can filter for either "Football" or "General" threads. PS Glad to see I'm now longer on "ignore"
I like TWTD for the odd browse, but it's so cliquey it's unbelievable. So many 'in jokes' and ongoing feuds that I'm completely unaware of. It also descends very quickly into politics which is of absolutely no interest to me.. And they could do with someone managing the number of threads that get posted.. You go on there on a match day and there are 10+ threads with the title "bugger" or "sloppy goal to concede" etc. which clogs up the page as no one seems willing to contribute to a thread, but instead start a completely new one (see also, new signings)
Who operates the ITFC Not606 twitter page? I stumbled across this site (again) when I saw something on twitter during a transfer window couple of seasons ago.
I don't know who runs it. It was something that someone set up a few years ago in an attempt to bring more posters on board. It was during the time that Kopr was mod with me but I'm not sure if it was him that set up.
Just read a stat that's made me want to cry. We have scored TWO GOALS away from home in second halves this season. That includes two cup ties, 17 matches, 2 second half goals. Away from home, second half, we score one on average in 382 minutes. Once every 8.5 games. Wow. Grim.
