Adapting to a Style of Play

All of this noise around our style of play at the moment seems very reminiscent of AB1. Were we not right near the bottom of the league by late October of his first season as the players took time to adapt? I’m sure we then went on a bit of a run leading to a decent finish with promotion the following season. (My memory may be a little muddled here)
Point I’m making is if we do allow the process to work then the potential riches are there. It’s taking a huge leap of faith to stay with it though as everyone knows quite how shite the alternative outcome is.

Does the style of play not allow for adaptation to circumstances though?  If it is as predictable as the Stockport manager was suggesting then we are making a rod for our own back.  There has to be room for players to express themselves within an otherwise, overly-rigid system.

The defenders are free to express themselves by winning a few headers, marking players and making challenges. There are no circumstances where the style of play restricts them from doing that.

The midfielders have more scope to express themselves, which they could do if they showed a bit more willingness to get on the ball and then a bit more quality in keeping hold of it.

Maybe. It’s possible that what we’ve witnessed lately is merely the ugly chrysalis that has to go before our metamorphosis into a beautiful butterfly. But there’s also a little bit of Sir Alex’s law about this supposition - that because Ferguson struggled and was almost sacked before going onto achieve wonders at Man Yoo, that all other struggling managers will do the same, if given the time. It’s hard to know when you’ve got a Ferguson or Buckley on your hands, but they are incredibly rare entities.

I prefer the theory of Occam’s Razor - that if you have two competing ideas to explain the same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler one. If it looks like it’s not working, then it’s probably because it’s not working.

What worries me, is that Artell started well. That performance at MK Dons, after just a single training session, was night and day compared to anything we had seen either this season or last, at least in terms of the playing style. That was followed by a good performance away at Oxford in the cup, and then another solid win against Crewe. But then, with the exception of a win against a very, very poor Salford and our forward play against Notts County, it’s not been great, and it’s not looked very good for the most part.

Artell’s preferred style of play can be very difficult to combat when you’re exceptional at it, but an absolute doddle to deal with when you’re not quite on it, as Stockport demonstrated with consummate ease at the weekend. My worry is that teams have worked us out, and that’s the main reason for this barren spell of 1 win in 9 games. And that’s a genuinely concerning record. We went down under Woods not because we lost a lot, but because we couldn’t win.

Artell doesn’t have the luxury of time. If he can’t find a way to counter what teams are doing to stop us playing out, or find another way to play entirely, then I don’t think this willl end well for him.

We’ll learn a little bit more in a few hours time.

I've said this before and nothing has dissuaded me from my view:

You sign players who can play to a system or you play a system based around the players you've got.

I have a suspicion that DA is caught between 2 stools at the moment. I wouldn't have a problem if he forgot all about it and turned us into an ugly football team who are difficult to beat until we are guaranteed safety and then he can work on passing all he wants.

It will all work out in the end  

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

I've said this before and nothing has dissuaded me from my view:

You sign players who can play to a system or you play a system based around the players you've got.

I have a suspicion that DA is caught between 2 stools at the moment. I wouldn't have a problem if he forgot all about it and turned us into an ugly football team who are difficult to beat until we are guaranteed safety and then he can work on passing all he wants.

If we lose tonight I will post him another stool nicely wrapped.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

I've said this before and nothing has dissuaded me from my view:

You sign players who can play to a system or you play a system based around the players you've got.

I have a suspicion that DA is caught between 2 stools at the moment. I wouldn't have a problem if he forgot all about it and turned us into an ugly football team who are difficult to beat until we are guaranteed safety and then he can work on passing all he wants.

We started the season off playing possession based passing football, then reverted to PH's more standard style of play and then back to a passing style under DA. In all scenarios we've generally been crap, which makes me think its got nothing to do with what system/style we play.

Quoted from ska face

The defenders are free to express themselves by winning a few headers, marking players and making challenges. There are no circumstances where the style of play restricts them from doing that.

The midfielders have more scope to express themselves, which they could do if they showed a bit more willingness to get on the ball and then a bit more quality in keeping hold of it.

Our first goal conceded against Stockport reminded me (and by the reaction of the crowd, a fair number of others) of those games on the park where a game of kids with the unpopular fat kid in goal who passes it to the opposition and then concedes a goal.  The groans from the Pontoon sounded just like the rest of the fat kids team-mates.

What’s the point in trying to get these players to play a specific way when they’re all shiiit and will be leaving at the end of the season. Just stay up