I've been thinking about our style of play for a long time now. What is it with away performances in particular? What kind of team are we? Passing or Long Ball or mixture of the two? So defensively minded are we that our options are becoming limited when in possession. It's all very well working hard without the ball but we have to be more positive when we have it ourselves. We are not dictating play in away games. It almost feels like we are turning up to get beat because we do not know what to do when we get the ball back. The passing has been severely lacking on more than one occasion and when that happens it's just inviting wave after wave of attacks onto us. There is only so long a rearguard action will hold out. I understand the need to keep games tight and then try to nick a goal may be the best way to approach away games but has it been effective over the past year. Our away tally last year comprised 2 wins, 7 draws and 10 defeats. A total of 16 goals was scored away from home and we conceded 38. Take out the two wins - you could argue the only two games we approached with a positive intent from the off! and that leaves us scoring 9 goals in 17 away games. It is hardly a glowing vote of confidence in that methodology. With three points for a win, if we accept that we will still lose a higher proportion of away games, as almost every club does then surely 3 wins and 6 draws is 2 points better off than last years total. 4 wins and 5 draws better still, in fact 4 wins and 2 draws with 13 defeats would still bring about a represent a better points total. So if we are finding ourselves being pushed further and further back we need an outlet. Where is that going to come from? Morison, in Lambert's opinion, was the right man for the job. Holt was asked to do the same job last year - we all knew it wasn't his best feature but he would at least hassle and harry defenders and make life very uncomfortable for anyone he was playing against. Yes he gave away a lot of fouls but he also won a lot too and if nothing else last year we proved we were very effective from dead ball situations - just as well as our open field play lacked a cutting edge on many occasions. This year though I have seen no evidence of us being able to do anything with long balls pumped high up the pitch. The Wolf just isn't cut out to do it. He is too lightweight to bother experienced and hardened premiership defenders. Nor has he run many channels either - in his mind he wants to stay in the middle segment of the field and score goals - rightly so if that's what he is good at but it does nothing for our build up play. Therefore we need a link. That or we need to realise that the Wolf may not be right for our style of play at times and be dropped in favour of Hooper or Elmander or Becchio. If we have to pump it long we have to at least win 50% of those balls otherwise it is just going to come straight back at us time and again. So it comes round full circle and back to our passing - it is going to be a season which will be dictated by our passing and moving (emphasis on the moving as without it we will not be able to provide any options for the man in possession and therefore end up go backwards and having to pump it long or alternatively get closed down - end result is we give the ball away). If the passing and moving is off, or we come up against teams willing to press us high up the pitch more often than not we will not stand a chance. I said it many times last year but you have to feel for those people paying a lot of money to travel to watch City play (or in many cases not play!). The whole setup from manager down to the players have a responsibility to at least try to win a game of football, not be worried about losing first and foremost and take a draw when there is no chance of being able to push for a win. It really does feel like most of us are now resigned to inept away performance after inept away performance - surely nobody should stand for that!
Well thought out post, Chris. Even last year, I felt that the difficulty was getting the balance right between attack and defence. With 3 new strikers and Redmond and Fer as well, though, I still feel that this season will be different once the new players have fully settled in. Spurs were spot on yesterday and dominated the midfield the way City did against Southampton. There will be better performances away this year, but it will always be difficult against the top teams, especially away.
Yes, it really was a problem in yesterday's game. In fact, I hardly recall Johnson/Fer losing the ball often because they were never in possession of it! I can't blame Turner when he hits it long because he has nobody to pass to, although why Garrido always just hits a long ball and gives away the ball is beyond me. Garrido misses the pass far more often than he finds a teammate of late.
Well, obviously CH isn't resigned to inept away performances without attacking ambition. If he was, he would certainly not have sent out the same team yesterday as played against Saints two weeks ago. DHCanary was complaining on the match thread about him not being defensive-minded enough and criticising him for playing Elmander and RvW rather than putting in another midfielder! Also, I disagree entirely with your saying RvW "in his mind wants to stay in the middle segment of the field and score goals". His lateral movement and running the channels has been a feature of his play in every game he has played for us. IMO people are too fixated on what happened last season. It is a mistake to think that what we are seeing now is just a continuation of the second half of last season. What we are seeing now is the result of bringing in five new players, and simultaneously having several first team players (new and old) either recovering from injury or not fully match fit. We are FOUR matches into the season for heaven's sake, and CH hasn't yet been able to pick a side without being restricted by injury concerns. It will take a few more games before things properly settle down. As it is, we already have one more point that we did after SEVEN games last season. Re. our midfield, there is a lot of agreement on here that it would have been good if we have been able to sign an experienced midfielder, someone who could help dictate the pace and improve our possession. Fer dominated the midfield against Saints, but couldn't do it against Dembele and the Spurs pressing game. I don't think many midfields would have managed much better yesterday. Whatever, the general point we need to keep in mind is that CH is rebuilding the team, a process that is now in its second season. He has had two summer transfer windows. In the first he quite rightly (and this is accepted by virtually everybody) concentrated on the defence. If people cast their minds back to last summer, a lot of people were also saying we needed a quality striker or strikers, but if someone mentioned strengthening the midfield there were howls of derision because nearly everyone thought that was our strongest area. This summer, again with almost universal approval, our strike force has been completely revamped AND the midfield has been strengthened by the addition of Fer and Redmond (does anyone think they were poor signings?). It is testimony to the overall success of Chris Hughton's team strengthening that the area which by common consent was our strongest only a year ago, is now considered our weakest! What is clear from the way the team strengthening has gone is that CH agreed with what most felt on here: first priority the defence; second priority the strike force; finally the midfield. Right now we are into the latter stage of the revamp, after which it will become a matter of improving position by position rather than area by area. If CH had been able to recruit another midfielder who would have improved us further, I've no doubt he would have done so. But he has said repeatedly that he is happy to go this season with what he currently has. So when he is able to select from a fully fit squad, I expect we shall get a clearer idea of how he intends "the midfield problem" to be solved.
good to read sensible comments, as most posts on this site have been to be fair. if you read twitter you'd have thought we'd just been relegated to the skrill premier division
I'm afraid I've been bombarded on there for calling them "wrist-slitters!" lol, I pinch Beefy's expression and does he help me out? Does he buggery!
A bit of perspective is all that's needed for this game! We have just lost to one of the best, most organized sides in the league 2-0. Being out played to them is not at all embarrassing, the response from some of the numpties is on the other hand! They have spent 4x the amount we spent in the summer on some class players and yesterday that showed. Its not the end of the world, and we go again next weekend
I'm glad I'm not on Twitter then!!!! As has been said on other threads, Spurs played well and will get better throughout the season. I hope we see a slightly different starting 11 next week. OK, I'll make a start - Ruddy Whittaker, R Bennett, Bassong, Olsson Pilks, Tettey, Fer, Redmond Elmander, Hooper Subs Bunn Turner Hoolahan Howson Martin Johnson Van Wolfswinkel
