Thorup. was no fan of it. He said (I think in one of the Danish interviews following his departure), that it drove him spare. What he was a fan of was keeping possession of the ball at every stage, including in transition, passing your way quickly forward so that, when the ball arrived in the opposition defensive third, it was still in your possession and the opposition defence had been pulled apart. As you point out Zog, this requires constant intelligent movement to disrupt any press and open up passing lanes. When we saw this in action as the season developed, it became clear that what Thorup was striving for was anything but ''fannying about at the back".Fannying about at the back has been our Achilles heel since Farke! Our defence has got itself into trouble on numerous occasions with one too many passes at the back with the midfield stationary and not providing enough options to them to pass to.
Re, what you say about "our Achilles heel since Farke", when Dean Smith was appointed he said very much what Manning is reported to be saying now, i.e. that he favoured a more direct style, getting numbers forward quickly and forcing turnovers in the opposition defensive third. Didn't Wagner say much the same when he first came in? In which case, how come that, whatever the last three coaches have said about how they wanted to play, their teams ended up doing nothing of the sort?
Last edited: