Is it the tactics or is it some of our players just aren't good enough?. We had the same problem's when Adkins was here even when he changed it to be more defensive. If we can't say the QPR game was just a bad day then what do we say about all the bad games we have had this season?. Poch managed to stop Man City and to a extent Utd who have far more pace then QPR, what do we call them days flukes?. I see nothing wrong with the tactics, I just feel some of our team aren't good enough. When you.mix that with a few players having a off day like on saturday we look a poor team.
Man City don't actually have a great deal of pace in their side and, besides, when you are playing teams of that quality they tend to focus on their own game rather than how to deal with yours. Plus, the tactics used by Poche were an unknown but all that changed after the Man City game. Note that I'm saying is you can't just put it down to a bad day at the office. Had we been a bit sharper in and around the box, we'd have scored a goal or two in that initial phase and the whole afternoon then have been different. But managers will look at the way we play, and know that if they can manage to get bodies behind the ball to keep us quiet and play the ball early on the counter they will have a good chance of nicking something against the run of the play.
Man City have plenty of pace, I still don't think it's down to Poch's tactics. This exact same thing happened under Adkins far to many times. As I have said we aren't clincal enough we never have been, we weren't last season or in Div 1. We could play any tactics we wanted but it still comes down to the players. If teams mark Lambert out of the game then we are a poor team infront of goal this wad the same under Adkins. With us not taking our chances it only takes one or two mistakes from our defence to end up us losing. (Before anyone mentions the Stoke game we should have won that with the chances we had)
None of what you've said really addresses my points. I'm not writing anyone off but for me the tactics we are playing are dangerous in that you can get caught out on a quick break. Whilst we were unfortunate to be down in the first half, QPR looked far more likely to score in the second because every time they broke we we turning and looked spooked. I'm no doom mongerer, I hope and expect we'll sort it out, but it's a concern and I'm pretty sure our manager would agree with me. It's a funny old game football. Fans always think that every chance they have should go in and that every goal they concede should have been defended better. I wasn't at the Stoke game but from what I saw on the TV I thought we were lucky to get a point. We took our chances in the first half but we got pumelled in the second and we would have lost had Stoke taken theirs.
Umm my whole point is we are the same now then how we were with Adkins. Adkins chose to play more defensive and the out come was the same. It's funny how fans blame tactics when according to the stats we had 21 shots and 7 on target and only scored once, see what I did there?. The sad fact is for the past few seasons it takes us far to many attempts to score. That and the fact we hardly ever shoot from distance which was the same under Adkins.
Good post.....Pochettino's lack of credentials and experience of the PL does concern me. Its going to be a huge learning curve for him which does make me wonder why NC made this appointment. NC's desire to get to the next level sooner rather than later would of been more achievable with a more experienced appointment. The other alternative was maybe to show a little bit of patience and stability, still not convinced MP's appointment will go horribly wrong, if not this season but next.
So let me get this straight - you're saying that we lost against QPR because we didn't take out chances? Seriously?
To be clear, I hope/expect MP's appointment will work out fine and that we'll be ok. I do think though we got sucker punched by QPR and to an extent by Newcastle and MP needs to work out how to deal with this, But I suspect he isn't in the least bit nonchalant about that, and I bet he's spent more time than me thinking about it over the last few days.
Ha-ha. Seriously though, do you honestly believe that not taking our chances was the only reason we lost? Shots on its own is a poor stat, the quality of chances we created weren't great because they defended narrow + deep and hit us on the break.
Not just the QPR game a hell of a lot of games, we missed out being Champions of Div1 and the Championship because we couldn't take our chances. This has followed us into the Prem, you can blame tactics all you want but tactics are only as good as the players who are playing.
We got sucker punched first half but managed to grab an equaliser. Was very disappointed with our reaction in the second half when we again failed to change and adapt to their tactics. Like you say I expect he's had a lot of food for thought, its going to be a steep learnng curve for him.
Of course, better players = better chances = more goals. We're a newly promoted team, we're bound to wish we had better players. But my point, again, is that we got caught out by playing too high a line. On another day we'd have got away it because we'd have been one or two goals up and smashed their confidence but on this occasion we got countered and that's a concern.
Me too. I honestly wouldn't have given them a hope after we got it back to 1-1 just before half time but the truth is it was worse second half, they were a constant threat on the counter.
I bloody we'll hope that come the end of the season we're both wrong, with Saints topping the chances converted charts as well as showing a remarkable ability to avoid defeat against teams playing on the counter. Funny how no-one ever argues about the reasons we won?
