Pretty Football - Can our squad adapt?

[melonhead]

That's weak.

so's your reply


brilliant, now where has that got us?





its simply that i dont think that football has in some way significantly changed so that the only way to play win and entertain is to pass it around the midfield until the opposition fall asleep.

You've not noticed that in the last 5-10 years there's been a massive shift towards having an extra man in midfield? That means attacks generally need to be a bit more patient in order to pull the opposition out from their mass defensive ranks, or hit them quickly and effectively on the break.

We didn't really do either, and to top it off exposed ourselves defensively through lack of man power and organisation.

I think it does Stoke and Pulis a disservice to say they just play a limited style of football. Their game is built on an excellent defence where they are very organised and disciplined. That's a major difference to how we've operated for 95% of this season.

i didnt say anything about them being limited, i said "outdated" as in not at all fitting with the current fad for the swansea way.

[Hoop Blah]

Limited was my phrase, but don't let that distract you from the main point of the discussion, that football has moved on in recent years

Playing a less direct style and having an extra man in midfield isn't a recent Swansea inspired fad.

Even Reading were doing it 10 years ago but it's so common place in the Premier League that sticking with such a reliance on 4-4-2 when you've not got the organisation and discipline to play it well enough just can't be consistently effective.

Our players are capable of playing it better, but they do need the time spent learning how to play it. You can't just expect them to compete against the best the country has to offer by throwing a new shape at them without enough practise. From outside it looked like that's what we did over pre-season and August.

[melonhead]

Limited was my phrase, but don't let that distract you from the main point of the discussion, that football has moved on in recent years

Playing a less direct style and having an extra man in midfield isn't a recent Swansea inspired fad.

Even Reading were doing it 10 years ago but it's so common place in the Premier League that sticking with such a reliance on 4-4-2 when you've not got the organisation and discipline to play it well enough just can't be consistently effective.

Our players are capable of playing it better, but they do need the time spent learning how to play it. You can't just expect them to compete against the best the country has to offer by throwing a new shape at them without enough practise. From outside it looked like that's what we did over pre-season and August.

lol at proffessional footballers who need weeks of practice to play in a different formation



and you said i was doing pulis a disservice for calling their style limited.
and i didnt. so to me its quite an important distinction.

football works in different ways.there is no one right way, or even one way that will win you more games than any other.
yes football may have changed. now midfielders are either attacking or defensive. imo its still preferable to have midfielders who can do all of the midfield jobs

[Hoop Blah]

So basicly our team isn't very good, some people seem to not be able to comprehend this very simple fact.

That team finished 8th. Who was expecting the current mob to get close to that?

[Ian Royal]

then i put it to you that youll moan about bloody anything.



its not the tactics. stoke have established themselves in the prem on very "outdated" footballing principles.

Bullshit. I'm predominantly an RTG.

Stoke play better football than us and have established Premier League players. Even the old school football they play is more effective than the drudge we've been serving up. If you want to play the sort of shit we've been doing, you have to be very good at it to succeed. And we aren't even close to that.

Stoke's stats, as an apparently confirmed long ball team are better than ours.

No where have I said I want us to pass the ball around until the opposition fall asleep. That's you using a pathetic strawman. I would like us to be able to retain possession and attack through the middle without resorting to aimless punts at a striker. So we have more attacking threat about us than sticking it long into the channels for the wingers or off the scrapset pieces we can maybe rustle up.

I would like us to play more like Germany than Spain. We're playing a crap version of Coppell's style right now. If we could even just go back to that it would be an improvement over the current dirge.

[Hoop Blah]

So basicly our team isn't very good, some people seem to not be able to comprehend this very simple fact.

That team finished 8th. Who was expecting the current mob to get close to that?

Those people who wanted the manager sacked?
I happen to think our league position fairly reflects the lack of quality in our squad. Nothing more to it. If anything we've overperformed.

Probably because you don't actually go to games though right?

[Ian Royal]

That team finished 8th. Who was expecting the current mob to get close to that?

Those people who wanted the manager sacked?
I happen to think our league position fairly reflects the lack of quality in our squad. Nothing more to it. If anything we've overperformed.

Probably because you don't actually go to games though right?

No, it's because he's a rabid loon.