Anti football and the 'also rans'

It's amazing how many teams in this league believe they are playing an amazing brand of football and just can't believe it when they get beaten by us and our 'anti-football'.

Take Forest and Brentford as examples. According to them they both have a team of world-beaters, playing a great brand of football but were frustrated by our anti-football tactics.

Well let's examine that - they are currently lying 11th and 13th both with 27 points - 17 points off the top of the table after 20 games. Forest have lost 11 of their games, which isn't exactly promotion form. However, their fans did say that they would prefer to watch the ineffective, tippy tappy football that they play. Good luck to them with that.

Brentford fans firmly believe and stated after they played us that they would be challenging for automatic promotion by the end of the season (they didn't state which). Looking at their record they have only won 6 games all season - again good luck to them with that.

As to our 'anti-football. The reality is that Warnock sets up to let them play tippy tappy all day in their own half, but when we attack we attack with purpose and have skilfull dangerous players that can and do hurt other teams. Some of our attacking is breath-taking, and effective. We've got match winners in abundance and have continued to find enough class to win with a horrendous injury list.

Bogle, Ward and Zohore are proving to be plenty good enough in this division. Hoillett, Mendez Laing and Patterson are very dangerous. Tomlin is a potential secret weapon, if he can get enough game time to sharpen up he will add something extra to our game. We've also got Morrison as a weapon, and Ralls occasionally chipping in.

I've seen more 'off your seat' moments in a single match than we got from Slade / Trollope in a season and a half. I go to matches knowing that we can compete with anyone, and knowing that any one of half a dozen players can do the business for us. That is what I want to watch. Remember Malky's team, they would pass the ball sidewards and backwards 20 or 30 times, then eventually even back to the keeper when we had been attacking, wasting half a dozen opportunities to cross or shoot in the meantime. I want shots on goal and goalmouth action even if it is done out of 40% possession. Apart from the odd game lately where we have struggled due to missing players or just had an off day, we have more shots and chances than most of the teams we play, long may that continue.

I believe Warnock has got it right, and mainly it is good to watch, if we could improve our passing out of defence we will start hammering teams rather than just beating them. Someone is due a hammering soon, let's hope it is Reading or Hull.

Any thoughts on which way you'd prefer us to play, what's good, what one improvement would you like to see.

You won't get many replies as theres not alot to dispute with your post.

For some reason a lot of these fans of other teams seem obsessed with stats. Not really interested in how many passes a team makes, how much time they spent in our half, or how much possession they had compared to us. There is only one stat that counts, and that is the one we are quite good at right now.

Which Brentford fans think they’ll be challenging for automatic?

I like watching Brentford play, but they suffer with a lot of the same sort of issues that other teams who play a similar brand of football do, namely that they are defensively weak, the game against QPR was a prime example of that.


I’d love to have a player here like Canos though

we defend aggressively and attack aggressively. we are very good at both - other teams have underestimated us and expected to win, hence the moaning.....

A well written post and that’s pretty much the way I see it at the present time under Warnock.

Football like technology evolves very quickly. Mourihno and to a lesser extent Malky can set up a pattern of team defending that can stifle most opposition if the players are within 10% man for man. Pass and move, pass and move only reaps rewards if you are pulled out of position but these ridiculously over coached team like us don’t fall into the chasing shadows, we rarely do, our greatest vulnerability (still) is when we have our own corner, but that has improved this year. The video analysts are so important, but you need to have the players with the skills to execute the plan. A midfield of McPhail, Whitts, noone and Burke couldn’t play how our midfield 3 play.

Warnock the old journeyman winger realises you have to beat you man, then all the defensive formations go out the window one second later. Feeney could never be described as a good footballer nor Kadeem Harris when compared to Pilkington but they can burn you and that’s what we have. Our front three can all beat you, our midfield 3 are quicker to the ball and our back 4 are faster, stronger and technically superior to you as defenders.

Wolves have better players, so they can play how they like, but the rest of the championship is so evenly matched the pretty footballing teams hit a brick wall when up against well drilled teams.

JayCee:
"Remember Malky's team, they would pass the ball sidewards and backwards 20 or 30 times, then eventually even back to the keeper when we had been attacking, wasting half a dozen opportunities to cross or shoot in the meantime."

I agree with your general comments in your post. However I felt you were a little hard on Mally who inherited only 6 outfield players and got us promoted within two seasons. Warnock took over an under performing mid-Championship team. Within those confines that Malky produced a Championship winning team by 8 pts and a goal difference of +27 was not too shabby.

StT.
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The first 5 games this season we played amazing football, against Villa and QPR we could easily have had 6, and credit to Steve Bruce he did not moan about our style of football, he simply said his team were trounced, as did Ian Holloway. The moaners will still be playing their tippy tappy football in the Championship next year, so if it gets them anywhere.

JayCee:
"Remember Malky's team, they would pass the ball sidewards and backwards 20 or 30 times, then eventually even back to the keeper when we had been attacking, wasting half a dozen opportunities to cross or shoot in the meantime."

I agree with your general comments in your post. However I felt you were a little hard on Mally who inherited only 6 outfield players and got us promoted within two seasons. Warnock took over an under performing mid-Championship team. Within those confines that Malky produced a Championship winning team by 8 pts and a goal difference of +27 was not too shabby.

StT.
<><

Don’t get me wrong, I admire what Malky achieved and firmly believe that if we had bought some pace up front in January he would have kept us in the Premier. I was trying to say that the brand of football he played wasn’t that good to watch even though the win rate in the championship made up for it.

JayCee:
"Remember Malky's team, they would pass the ball sidewards and backwards 20 or 30 times, then eventually even back to the keeper when we had been attacking, wasting half a dozen opportunities to cross or shoot in the meantime."

I agree with your general comments in your post. However I felt you were a little hard on Mally who inherited only 6 outfield players and got us promoted within two seasons. Warnock took over an under performing mid-Championship team. Within those confines that Malky produced a Championship winning team by 8 pts and a goal difference of +27 was not too shabby.

StT.
<><

Malky did a good job in getting us up.
but please do not go down the only had 6 players route...its an advantage not a disadvatage to not have other peoples mistakes clogging up your wage bill .
Malky actually said this himself btw...

We are back in Blue, we are winning, the odd poor performance doesn't de-rail us, we are scoring goals and we are not conceding. Other teams dislike us. I'll live with all that if the price to pay is being bottom of some meaningless possession table.

However, I have to moan about something so please can we sort out the catering. The beverages are over priced and piss water.

Thanks in advance