Great stuff Marcos, hold on to it and I'll see you on the day, I should be in Leeds by mid-morning - assuming the flight goes this time.
Hey'up Ell, Good to see you've recovered well, did you take the Whiskey and hot water as suggested..... People are going to have different answers based on the angles they look at each player from. I based my views on what they bring to team, value to team, future value to team, and impact they can create. Grot is young, inexperienced, slow and lumbersome with no pace, same for Lasogga. Back in the day it used to be big tall number 9's, these days, with single strikers, they need to be agile and nimble with pace in order to be able to run onto through passes and defence splitting passes. Many back 4 players have a lot of pace these days, and will out run the likes of Grot and Lasogga. Phillips for me doesn't have the technical mentality required, he seems lazy at times and gets caught out of position, he plays safe short passes most of time, many not reaching their target, is very prone to committing fouls and goes walkabouts. CM's these days are required to be all rounders so to speak, just like the half backs of yesteryear. They need to be agile, pacey and technically savvy to not only help with defensive work, but also able to push forward, run at defenses and provide good passing service to our strikers and AM's. O'Kane, while off the boil, does push forward and run at defenses on his good days, Riviera has great potential for future, at moment he runs hot and cold, but that should change in time with experience. One of the major problems we have with our CM's is, TC basically rotates the same 3 players, so the midfield problems are going to be continual; they don't have experienced CM's along side them, someone they can play off, look up too and learn from. As I've always said, while they can change the rules, formations and tactics, football always stays same.... .
Funny you should mention that. We were talking about that at half time and I came up with a theory off the top of my head. Haven't thought it through properly yet, so thought I'd let it fly here for comments. At the beginning of the season, everyone (obviously) starts on zero points, so there is no fear of relegation. Also, it's not exactly clear which teams are going to be great this year, and which teams are going to be awful. So every team has the opportunity to go out & try to win games, with players being encouraged to express themselves. And most do. Result? Open matches, with both teams trying to win. As the season progresses, it becomes clearer who is going to have problems, so the hatches start getting battened down, and there's a proliferation of teams playing more cautiously, and effectively playing not to lose. Result? A lot of awful games, often with 2 teams not wanting to lose. I think this more or less fits with our season to date. We're set up to attack, so it was easier to win games doing this at the beginning of the season when most teams were playing more openly. As the season progressed, it became more difficult to play the way we do, as caution progressively tightened its grip on more & more teams in the Championship. I think our new team were thrilled with the way things were going at first, but as the season progressed, hit a massive & probably unexpected culture shock when opposition teams started shutting up shop. By this time, opponents had learned about our players, our style of play, and perhaps most effectively, how to disrupt our play & target the most influential and hot-headed players with violence. No other way to put it. And it worked! We had a massive crisis within ER, and as usual, our supporters (including us) made it even worse, leading to our 'Lonners spell'. And since then, we've gone into another phase where we still try to attack, but can only do so attractively if the other team wants to win too, resulting in this mostly scrappy 'entertainment' that we're working through atm. So basically, I'm saying that we can expect the rest of the season to be full of scrappy games, unless we face another team that wants to win. Of course there will be exceptions, and of course TC might sign exceptional talent to help us in January etc. etc. So, that's the raw thoughts, and prolly with more holes than a colander, but I think the general premise fits our season to date. I also accept that there are other significant factors too, but the one does not necessarily exclude the other, if you see what I mean. I'm curious to hear people's thoughts.
Laughed when you mentioned the ESU. Went up there for the Bates protest. I couldn't see the match for a bit as I was still hunched over, fighting for breath, eyes unfocussed, & wondering when my jelly would return to being legs again. There are bloody millions of stairs to get up there. Not for fat oldies like me. If ever there was a stand built for kids, this is it!
I can go along with that to a certain extent and throw in the added pressure on the players of not wanting to have another dip in form. Pressure makes inexperienced players misstime tackles, pass too soon, too much weight, rush a shot. I do think the squad was hurting because they are all together. But I am starting to blame Tommy for doing a Monk, in the words of Ayling our season fell apart after Xmas because Monk used a regular 8 players for every match. We seem to be doing the same thing. That means Orta has been wrong with a good half dozen he brought i
Interesting theory wj, I think you’re right that games are often more open early in the season but personally I think the main reason is new players, coaches etc meaning sides aren’t as well schooled/organised defensively... they also haven’t had chance to study the opposition.
Only ever been up there once, back in O’Learys time in a European game. Felt like watching a game from a hot air balloon!
