Having read in recent weeks how people think that Barcelona & Spain are boring to watch, despite dominating games with their precise passing, which people say they'd like to see City play. Also most people want a plan B, which apparently Barmby didn't have, what would plan B actually be? Long Ball? Which people have said they don't want to see. So now i'm confused as to what people want. Flowing football with 30 passes & maybe a shot on target? Apparently not. Direct football, which mainly to me says ball over the top for someone to run onto? Apparently not as that's long ball. So what is plan A & plan B for you all?
Winning football will do as its a results business you know. The sexy style can wait for the PL, imo.
The point with Spain was (up until last night admittedly) that they didnt play to win. Everyone talks about possession but I would suggest that 95% of their possession was spent passing it sideways between themselves in the middle and their defensive third. All it ever achieved was tiring the opposition and boring everyone else.
I think the Spanish have done the tippy tappy stuff to death and the more direct style may not be so bad after all. I certainly think Steve Bruce will go 442 (Matty Fryatt should be relieved to hear that he won't have to plough a lone fruitless furrow)
It would be a crying shame if SB completely abandoned the passing style that NB introduced because IMO good passing teams are the most successful long term. The players got a good taste of it last season and apart from the lack of penetration they seemed very comfortable playing that way. We also got the best reviews from opposition managers and supporters that I can ever remember as a City fan. If we maintained the same amount of possession as we had under Nick, but SB added the killer finish I would be happy and with Heskey in the team we could easily switch to a more direct Plan B if needed.
Agree with Craig. Also I can't believe people still question Spain after last night. They are unbelievable. No way on Earth are they boring they can pass their way from their own area to the other one and the attacking runs they make are amazing.
Entertaining in a way that sees us going forwards rather than backwards, and not the sideways movement which Spain and Barcelona adopt. Attacking but sure at the back. I think we had it pretty much sorted last Season, apart from the fact that we didn't have anyone other than Fryatt or Koren that looked as though they could score. I definitely wouldn't want to see the negative Nigel Pearson style again.
Haha, because I thought his post was funny? Wow, please accept my sincere apology and I shall never, ever praise someone's humorous post again.
Given the football that we played last season was 75% of the way there, just need a little more of the killer instinct in the last third and that`ll do for me, you can keep your hoof ball, had enough of cricked necks over the years watching that shyte.
... a round one? ........ do I win? Damn you AndaluzTiger ... see you got there before me !! - hence the edit
I don't mind if we become very defensive and win. It's results that get you promoted at the end of the day, not performances. And as we all know, people we;re whinging about Barmby not winning enough games last season. In most cases you can't have it both ways ie winning and playing brilliant football, it takes a great team like Spain to achieve that.
I want somebody with a physical presence in all 3 rows of a team that's able to pass it around and some pace on the wings and up front. We saw when Hobbs was out injured the importance of having someone with height/strength in the defence, because with Cooper and Chester together we were ****ing woeful when it came to defending set pieces/crosses and lost a goal in most games due to it. Watford even managed to dominate us with 10 men once they brought Iwelumo on to cause problems. We all know we need someone in midfield to do the tackling, whether that's McKenna, Coutts, or someone else. Up front we need it so that the opposition can't just camp out in their penalty area when ever we get the ball. With the existing forwards they knew their was no chance of them winning it in the box so they dropped deep to nullify the pace we had out wide. Stick a big man in the team (not on the bench as a Plan B or we've got the same problem for the first 60-70 minutes) and suddenly the idea of us getting an attempt on goal from a cross becomes a risk and they have to defend higher up the pitch, which allows the wingers and potentially the 2nd striker to try to get in behind the defence.
