Yesterday’s Highlights

Quoted from GrimRob

Hard to do when there are wholesale changes every game! That and less training time due to playing two games every week.

Wholesale changes? I’d have to check but the back 5 from yesterday have played plenty of times together this season. Beyond that, it was Moreton for Taylor and Green (plenty of apps this season) for Gibson. Wright too? Hardly wholesale, in fact I’d say we’ve been reasonably settled for the last 3/4 games. The days of the same 11 starting week in week out disappeared years ago.

Quoted from ginnywings

Agreed. It's not the system that's wrong, it's the execution. Practice and more practice needed.

If you need to start teaching a 20 something year old professional footballer how to control a football in less than three touches and how to open/position his body when receiving a pass then it may be a little late in the day.

I’m all for playing out from the back, but in th 90th minute you play the percentage game. The naivety we showed was staggering, no game management at all.

Quoted from moosey_club

If you need to start teaching a 20 something year old professional footballer how to control a football in less than three touches and how to open/position his body when receiving a pass then it may be a little late in the day.

I suspect you know what I mean. Drilling the players in a certain way of playing until it becomes second nature. Any player can mis-control a football at any level. Steve Gerrard anyone? IH wants to play in a certain way and I agree with it myself, but it takes time to develop on the training ground ( which we haven't had much of as Grimrob points out) until the players are comfortable with it.

They may never get comfortable with it, then IH has to decide whether to persevere with the system, or the players he has to execute it. Maybe it is time Macca was moved aside for someone more comfortable with the ball at his feet?

I've said it before but I will say it again. It took Buckley until season 2 to perfect the pass and move game we all knew and loved. Plenty in BP were moaning like fook in the first season, calling it tippy tappy nonsense in the main. Slade mk1 went the other way from passing football to a more direct style in season 2, when the former wasn't working.

Point is, he can't just abandon it, ten games into the season. Well he can, but I don't think he will and I personally feel it needs more time to develop.

There are other problems too at the other end of the pitch, with Edwards and Tilley missing, we can't press as high and we are not getting as much possession in the final third as we should. We are not scoring enough either, all of which impacts what goes on at the back. The team is twitchy and lacking belief at the moment.

Quoted from ginnywings

I suspect you know what I mean. Drilling the players in a certain way of playing until it becomes second nature. Any player can mis-control a football at any level. Steve Gerrard anyone? IH wants to play in a certain way and I agree with it myself, but it takes time to develop on the training ground ( which we haven't had much of as Grimrob points out) until the players are comfortable with it.

They may never get comfortable with it, then IH has to decide whether to persevere with the system, or the players he has to execute it. Maybe it is time Macca was moved aside for someone more comfortable with the ball at his feet?

I've said it before but I will say it again. It took Buckley until season 2 to perfect the pass and move game we all knew and loved. Plenty in BP were moaning like fook in the first season, calling it tippy tappy nonsense in the main. Slade mk1 went the other way from passing football to a more direct style in season 2, when the former wasn't working.

Point is, he can't just abandon it, ten games into the season. Well he can, but I don't think he will and I personally feel it needs more time to develop.

There are other problems too at the other end of the pitch, with Edwards and Tilley missing, we can't press as high and we are not getting as much possession in the final third as we should. We are not scoring enough either, all of which impacts what goes on at the back. The team is twitchy and lacking belief at the moment.

Absolutely agree with the word twitchy and definitely lacking belief. Having watched most the games on iFollow you can see it just needs something (I don’t know what) to click,

When it does one team is in for an absolute tonking.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

No doubt there are players in the squad who can do what the manager wants but having the ball and doing something useful with it are two different things. The aim has to be to get your strikers free with clear grass in front of them. I don’t advocate route one but I do think the patient build up is a wast of time and quite often dangerous because of the sideways/backwards passing. So there are 2 alternatives, either move the ball to forwards faster with a longer pass or run the ball out of midfield to draw defenders and make space for forwards.

That kind of passing game may look pretty but if it does not result in making and taking chances then it is no better than a route one battering ram.

Morning Ron! You and I both know the aim of the game is to win football matches, and although I much prefer a passing game every win no matter what the style is fine by me if the manager swears by it.

I totally agree that having loads of possession and not doing anything with it is counterproductive, but Holloway doesn't want that. He wants an expansive open passing game that slices through the opposition leading to goals and plenty of em!

At the moment we are in a transition phase; just like Buckley took time to mould a team of separate parts into what he wanted, it will be the same with Ollie I think. Of course, he is not working with the players he would have chosen in a  normal year, but some will still be here next season and it is important to get them playing his way now.

There will be mistakes, there will be member-ups but any pro player should be able to receive the ball under pressure and do something positive with it. I think there will be longer passes as well, as we can already see with the centre-halves passing it out crossfield.

In my opinion the way to go is not to compromise on the style because when it clicks it will be devastating. I watched Harrogate the other week  slice open the mighty Bradfords defence time and time again with slick passing out from the back and it was a delight to watch and very effective. This is what is happening now - even practically unknown clubs are playing it out from the back and they are doing with intent to get up the field quickly - not like so many teams have done in the past namely pass it around the back for a few minutes only to launch it and give away possession.

I have painful memories of watching the early Buckley games with fans calling for his head because we lost a few; things take time but eventually I hope history repeats itself. I hope it does, otherwise when will we ever get out of this slump??

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I have painful memories of watching the early Buckley games with fans calling for his head because we lost a few; things take time but eventually I hope history repeats itself. I hope it does, otherwise when will we ever get out of this slump??

Exactly, I have vivid memories of being at Cambridge, early in the new year of Buckley 2nd season. I think we were langusihing in mid-table and had only won 1 of the last 7 or 8 games.

We went 2-0 down and one idiot was walking up and down the front of the away terrace berating Buckley and calling for his head. He did get shouted down by the majority of the Town fans there that day but some were agreeing with him. Thankfully, not long after that we went on that great run clinching promotion by hammering Wrexham in our final home game and went on to a 2nd successive promotion the following season.

Who know what would have happened if the idiot at Cambridge that day had got his wish.

Quoted from ginnywings

I suspect you know what I mean. Drilling the players in a certain way of playing until it becomes second nature. Any player can mis-control a football at any level. Steve Gerrard anyone? IH wants to play in a certain way and I agree with it myself, but it takes time to develop on the training ground ( which we haven't had much of as Grimrob points out) until the players are comfortable with it.

They may never get comfortable with it, then IH has to decide whether to persevere with the system, or the players he has to execute it. Maybe it is time Macca was moved aside for someone more comfortable with the ball at his feet?

I've said it before but I will say it again. It took Buckley until season 2 to perfect the pass and move game we all knew and loved. Plenty in BP were moaning like fook in the first season, calling it tippy tappy nonsense in the main. Slade mk1 went the other way from passing football to a more direct style in season 2, when the former wasn't working.

Point is, he can't just abandon it, ten games into the season. Well he can, but I don't think he will and I personally feel it needs more time to develop.

There are other problems too at the other end of the pitch, with Edwards and Tilley missing, we can't press as high and we are not getting as much possession in the final third as we should. We are not scoring enough either, all of which impacts what goes on at the back. The team is twitchy and lacking belief at the moment.

I think they clearly are being drilled/trained in the way of the manager....so much so in fact they seem to have lost the power of independent thought.
Macca shouldn't have made the pass in that area, at that time of the game with the set that Daggers had in place but he is clearly under orders / following procedure that he did anyway........over coaching is just as pointless as no coaching
It was similar against Harrogate, they set the traps and we continually walked into them as the players didnt know what else to do.

Quoted from moosey_club

I think they clearly are being drilled/trained in the way of the manager....so much so in fact they seem to have lost the power of independent thought.
Macca shouldn't have made the pass in that area, at that time of the game with the set that Daggers had in place but he is clearly under orders / following procedure that he did anyway........over coaching is just as pointless as no coaching
It was similar against Harrogate, they set the traps and we continually walked into them as the players didnt know what else to do.

I thought it was maccas fault too, but watching the highlights again and Morton was a long way from any of their players. They were quick to press, but if his first touch didn't go up 3 feet in the air, he'd have had enough time to turn

Quoted from pen penfras

I thought it was maccas fault too, but watching the highlights again and Morton was a long way from any of their players. They were quick to press, but if his first touch didn't go up 3 feet in the air, he'd have had enough time to turn

He hasnt turned on the ball since has been here so why did we think he would this time ?

Doesnt matter now, it will be somebody else's turn to fck up next week as it looks like Ollie is going to persist with it