Why oh why do Argyle make such hard work of things for themselves? It does my head in it really does! They play a side at or near the bottom at home and they appear not to make the effort yet they beat good sides near the top and away! Early into matches they go a goal up and what happens? They go all defensive - for most of 90mins for christ sake!!!! Do they really think they won't be punished for that in 90 mins? Why are we left holding our breath whilst the team "hang on" hasn't anyone one at Argyle heard of the phrase "the best form of defense in attack"??? Why do they do everything the hard way? Rant over
Maybe poor tactics........Fletcher might have been thrown off course taking the lead in the first 11seconds.....what do you do now......only joking Mrs LaLa. Even so we still didn't use our third sub again......the first two were used at 82 & 89 minutes I assume that ran down the clock a bit.......they certainly didn't influence the game, Feeney did manage to get a yellow card during his short spell. Maybe tactics and change of formation etc....... is on Deehan's monitoring classes next week.
Going defensive and nervous is what Argyle do and have done for quite a while now under a number of managers so this has nothing to do with Fletcher and everything to do with the teams confidence on the field. I have been at Home Park many a time and seen the Argyle Manager going balistic at the players to move up the pitch and get out of the defensive mode. The players seldom respond and we end up shipping a goal. Many sides cannot defend a lead so it isn't just us and I have seen many teams on the box do exactly the same and you can visibly see it happening. Fact is that we are inconsistent and that has been our problem all season. We get a great result one week and then revert to type the following one. We have gone periods being undefeated but have yet to string results together of the winning variety. All they need is to string a couple together and it will work wonders for the table position and confidence of the squad. Easier said than done of course but it is that simple in my opinion. These players are good enough for this league in my opinion and if we had them from the start then I don't even think we would be having these sorts of conversations now. We would also not be discussing Fletcher either because I think Reid would still be here.
Confidence pure and simple. You cant coach it, tactically overcome it or substitute it. Plus goal the other day at 90+fortnight would be playing on their minds.....
Hope you are well Mexijan....and yes Mrs. La La Argyle have always made hard work of things as far as I can remember and my father used to say exactly the same...very strange indeed and so sodding annoying!
I was thinking about this just the other day - why have we done proportionately better away from home over the years of strife? It's usually reckoned that there are two basic styles - sit deep and attack on the break and press high up the pitch and try to dominate the game. The former is usually thought to work in away games but less well at home, where most of your opponents will be doing the same thing! To play the latter needs real belief in your superiority and there's been nothing in our performances, results or league position to give that confidence, no matter what the intention is. It will take time to come i suppose - once things turn around!
Interesting notDistant probably answers a few questions. One other thing that has changed from the past.....is that away teams come down the day before and are not knackered from a long journey the same day as the match,that's how things used to be in the past.......a bonus really for the home team.
Excellent point Plym but never Argyle learn ... was one of fortunate to turn up at the Baseball Ground in the 80s replay....great but some people still think nice day out for us etc. etc.
I think the way teams travel now is a big change spent a few seasons never missing an away match in the late 80s early 90s and it was a miserable experience in terms of results but then it was Fortress Home Park. These days teams are light training Thursdays travel Fridays instead of the old arrive couple of hours before the match and a pint on the way. As for home form maybe its a case of trying too hard sometimes. Been around Sensible but cannot login from work now and have had real fun trying to get reliable internet out here. Hopefully sorted now so will do my best to clear some of the doom and gloom
Plymborn's point about away travel may be a valid one - if it's true even lower league teams now stay over in Plymouth. I can't say yes or no to that. However, if true it would have an identifiable consequence: 15 or 20 years ago [or whatever], PAFC would historically have been consistently better at home [because away teams had a long way to come] and worse away [because we had a long way to go] than say teams centrally located in the Midlands where the majority of games are in relatively easy reach. Is that true? I doubt it although I have no proof. I think it's about tactics, now much more sophisticated [although not necessarily more exciting] generally and the impact of confidence [and quality] on the ability to deliver the right tactics home & away against sophisticated opposition. The old adage is that wins at home & draws away win you things and my gut feel is that the successful or at least comfortably safe teams show that pattern because - well because they can, that's why.
Walton talking about improving home form.......is it form ?...........or is it tactics..........we do seem to start with only one up front at home.........is that not more an away tactic to be more defensive away?
It's not just about playing 2 strikers is it? Many of the top teams around Europe only field one out-and-out striker through the middle but they tend to be very dominant in the opposition half. It's about how deep the defence plays, where & how you press the ball [e.g. on the edge of your 18 yard box or theirs!] and how quickly you get midfield players up to support the striker. I suspect our players do have the avoidance of defeat as the priority due to a lack of self-belief, so we defend deep, the midfield hangs back and we concede territory to the opposition and leave the strike isolated - i.e. we play like an away team, home or away! Is that a plan or just a lack of confidence? I don't know.
