Okay, everyone to his own. Tough away fixture, 80% possession most of the game, new manager trying to gel a team, sold a promising right back for £40m, best midfielder can't play as head not right, we get three points with relative ease and we still want to.provide constructive criticism. Jesus **** this is so much better than last season. Don't start whipping the boys for winning the first game of the season with the turmoil they had to deal with.
I think my point is we had a dire lady season. We comfortably outplay a team in the new season and should have one by more. We are a club in flux, we do not know which players will still be here. I think you are short changing the impact the manager is having. We won a game. When did that last happen. He looks the real deal, despite winning nothing....
See I don't agree we should have won by more as we didn't create the chances to do so. Even the commentary team picked up on how many of our shots were ones from distance. I'm not short changing the manager at all. I'm just saying we need to be more creative with our possession as otherwise it's pointless. All fart and no **** as Ralph would say The Swansea STH I asked on here mentioned lots of pointless passing (possession for the sake of possession I think he termed it) and being caught on the break a lot so naturally it's something I wish to keep an eye on. Style is everything for me and therefore I will comment as I see fit.
Honestly, I'm usually one of the more positive posters on here. As far back as December I was saying how relegation could be a positive step for us. Look at the Season Predictions thread, and see what I've predicted (I'll save you time; I put 1st). But at the same time, I'm realistic. I'm not going to ignore any potential problems that I see. We win 1-0, I want to see how we would win 2-0. We win 2-1, I look at why we conceded a goal, etc. It might come across as negative, but it really isn't if you think about it. It's just long-term thinking. Positives for tonight: Manning good debut. Back four looked comfortable playing it around. KWP absolute quality. Great possession. Impactful subs (Che and Stu). Negatives: Didn't attempt to go through the middle enough, final ball from the wingers was not particularly good; too many lofted crosses (even though our front man is only 5"7). Low crosses were put too close to the goalie, into a jungle of legs. So many times we had players, free, on the edge of the box or running in, shouting for the ball, but more often than not they were ignored.
It's good news/bad news. We made many more runs into the box than we did last year. We spotted very few of them, though Tella threaded a great pass through a bunch of defenders to AA (came to nothing), and we found JWP on a diagonal run to set up the winner. If we consistently make those runs, players will start looking for them more often. That's the hope at least.
Charly is our Championship version of De Bruyne, and he was a bit off it tonight. Man, how we need a striker though. Still, great three points away from home, and we're top of the league.
Good comment. Bit we have to understand it has been a traumatic last few months. I expect many of us were nervous about tonight. Whilst the scoreline was tight. The class in teams was not. We will get better as confidence grows. We had zero, confidence is huge. Tonight's result is huge. It sets the scene. From what I saw tonight. I am very happy, knowing it is wip. But will gey better. Just had 13/2 on us to win the league.# value
I enjoyed it, and one of the most enjoyable things of all was no VAR. What a mess that has been. Adarma was pretty awful, KWP was back to the KWP we love. JWP was great too. If we only lose Lavia and JWP (and sign a proper striker), I think we're in for a really fun season. If we can somehow keep JWP, it'll be really, really fun. A lot still to work on, but a great baseline to work with.
For me it's no coincidence that the winner came via KWP to JWP to Che. Those three (and Stu) are our most experienced Premier League-level players. Alcaraz matches them for his vision and intelligence, but the others (Edozie, Tella, Adarma, Aribo, Djenepo) don't. So while the likes of Edozie might bamboozle a full back here and there, they are just as likely to frustrate their own teammates by being unable to pick them out at the right place and time. We need to build the team around intelligence rather than just pace and tricks.
Watched the game with a Middlesbrough fan, before the game he was saying how they will run away with it this year. After the game he's worried they're getting relegated.
Think the negativity is massively overblown. We were fantastic tonight. Manager has made a real difference already. Sure; passing doesn’t win you games. But confidence & momentum will. Keeping the ball like that will breed confidence.
He's been great under other managers but not for a couple of years. Pleased to see him playing so well now. If he does stay, I agree he absolutely will deserve legend status. Sadly, I don't think he'll make it a fortnight.
Bit pissed so will start with that Watched the game with an Ipswich fan (who thought we’d win by about 5 before kick off) and a handful of Bristol City fans. I thought we looked utter **** for the entire first half. Keep ball nothingness, didn’t create anything. Exactly what we did for large portions of last season. Tella hit one from about 20(?) yards then proceeded to try and do the same thing for the rest of the game. I haven’t read the reviewes on here, I’ve just listened to friends of mine in the pub talking the exact same bollocks I heard last year, we are a decent footballing side, but….. Even put a ridiculous bet on Luton finishing above Everton this year
Alright. I said after both NJ and RS took over first team coaching duties that I couldn't see anything different and it was the same players doing the same things. So I was absolutely pumped to watch the first half of this game and barely recognise what we were doing. Russ Martin has come in with a dramatically different approach and I would have to say that it looks bloody good. The team look energetic and well drilled, there is an intent to play forwards without losing the ball. They are comfortable in possession and they seem to understand the patterns of play really well after just a few short weeks. If this was out squad for the season I would be super confident. Remains to be seen how things will shake out player wise. Was particularly impressed with where JWP and the full backs were playing. Great to see Adams getting on the score sheet and OMG I hope the dubious goals panel is looking at that Armstrong decision, he was trying to get out of the way and barely touched it. Tellas goal without question. I really liked RMs comments after the game especially what he had to say about the group and how they are making noise again, it sounds and looks like they are doing a top, top job so far. I agree possession for possessions sake is nothing to get excited about but what I will say is that there is a HUGE difference between 50% and 80% possession. We had the ball for almost 80 minutes and watching us with it for that long will start to seem tedious and the style will demand patience from fans because we simply can't be scoring all the time or creating big chances for the full 80 minutes. The fact is we created 20+ chances in that game to their handful and played them off the park. That is a good win for me. I'm going to try and enjoy us moving the ball around and using the possession to control the opponent and the game. Very positive after that and excited for the rest of the season. A win lads! We finally got a WIN!
Keeping the ball is never pointless. Letting the ball do the work forces the other side to chase it, resulting in them getting tired and frustrated. Look how many times in the last few seasons we ran ourselves into the ground against better sides, because we had to work hard for 90 minutes without the ball. Now hopefully, the boot will be on the other foot.
