WHY ???

Watching the match Saturday, we conceded two bad goals, those goals came at the point in the game where there was good football starting to come from city, and frankly Wednesday were not creating much at all, and actually they were not that creative throughout the match. Looking at the City performance it struck me that the lack of pre-season preparation seemed to be shining throughout the match. When you think about it city finished later than the rest of the league due to the play-offs so what was already a short season break was even shorter. This has been compounded by a couple of key players being either a away on international duty or injured. Through no fault of the club or manager preparations for the start of this campaign have been a shambles. I believe this will improve in the coming weeks, so lets get off the players backs.

Watching the match Saturday, we conceded two bad goals, those goals came at the point in the game where there was good football starting to come from city, and frankly Wednesday were not creating much at all, and actually they were not that creative throughout the match. Looking at the City performance it struck me that the lack of pre-season preparation seemed to be shining throughout the match. When you think about it city finished later than the rest of the league due to the play-offs so what was already a short season break was even shorter. This has been compounded by a couple of key players being either a away on international duty or injured. Through no fault of the club or manager preparations for the start of this campaign have been a shambles. I believe this will improve in the coming weeks, so lets get off the players backs.

I mentioned this on another thread. We played with a back 5 in preseason which probably means we spent most of the preseason training without that formation.

Watching the match Saturday, we conceded two bad goals, those goals came at the point in the game where there was good football starting to come from city, and frankly Wednesday were not creating much at all, and actually they were not that creative throughout the match. Looking at the City performance it struck me that the lack of pre-season preparation seemed to be shining throughout the match. When you think about it city finished later than the rest of the league due to the play-offs so what was already a short season break was even shorter. This has been compounded by a couple of key players being either a away on international duty or injured. Through no fault of the club or manager preparations for the start of this campaign have been a shambles. I believe this will improve in the coming weeks, so lets get off the players backs.

some decent points but we had plenty of the ball yet failed to look much of a danger to them..it wasnt like we couldnt get the ball off them. or that they were camped in our goalmouth.. and yes pre season was not ideal but i heard what Mourinho had to say yesterday about theirs... i think a lot of clubs had all sorts of issues... including the fella that scored SWs first goal against us who had only signed for than 3 days prior and spent his pre season training on his own... we need a much better performance next Saturday..

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

well they dont pick themselves or make the substitutions or dictate the game plan.. the game plan was what exactly ? bore them into submission..?
the week before fair enough there were far to many still on the beach performances...but Saturday is on the manager..

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

well they dont pick themselves or make the substitutions or dictate the game plan.. the game plan was what exactly ? bore them into submission..?
the week before fair enough there were far to many still on the beach performances...but Saturday is on the manager..

Harris might have got the tactics/team selection wrong, but both goals came from basic errors from individuals on the pitch.

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

well they dont pick themselves or make the substitutions or dictate the game plan.. the game plan was what exactly ? bore them into submission..?
the week before fair enough there were far to many still on the beach performances...but Saturday is on the manager..

Harris might have got the tactics/team selection wrong, but both goals came from basic errors from individuals on the pitch.

your always going to have errors... and the more square balls { the easiest to cut out } you play in what should be seen as potentially dangerous areas the more its likely errors will cost you.. plus we did not score, or really look as if we might.. i hope we win Saturday mate and the performance is better too as the last thing we need is a Harris out crusade and new manager.. but he cant be putting teams out to play like that, have 60 odd percent of the ball and claim being sucker punched ...how often have you seen us do that ? im sure he has seen it happen plenty before too.. we did it ourselves a few times after the restart..

Watching the match Saturday, we conceded two bad goals, those goals came at the point in the game where there was good football starting to come from city, and frankly Wednesday were not creating much at all, and actually they were not that creative throughout the match. Looking at the City performance it struck me that the lack of pre-season preparation seemed to be shining throughout the match. When you think about it city finished later than the rest of the league due to the play-offs so what was already a short season break was even shorter. This has been compounded by a couple of key players being either a away on international duty or injured. Through no fault of the club or manager preparations for the start of this campaign have been a shambles. I believe this will improve in the coming weeks, so lets get off the players backs.

Good post fella

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

well they dont pick themselves or make the substitutions or dictate the game plan.. the game plan was what exactly ? bore them into submission..?
the week before fair enough there were far to many still on the beach performances...but Saturday is on the manager..

I agree about substitutions and game plan but there was also a lot of criticism about the lack of fight and passion.

No matter what the tactics, professional footballers should be giving everything to the shirt, you can't completely absolve players of responsibility.

Sheffield Wednesday , did a Cardiff on Cardiff .
For the last couple of seasons , we couldn't string 2 passes together .
Then to try to be Barcelona over night , is going to cause problems .

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

well they dont pick themselves or make the substitutions or dictate the game plan.. the game plan was what exactly ? bore them into submission..?
the week before fair enough there were far to many still on the beach performances...but Saturday is on the manager..

I agree about substitutions and game plan but there was also a lot of criticism about the lack of fight and passion.

No matter what the tactics, professional footballers should be giving everything to the shirt, you can't completely absolve players of responsibility.

hmm.. isnt it always the default setting with our fans when we lose though. passion and fight.. Wednesday did not cause us many problems and we had the ball a hell of a lot.. i fail to see where fight and passion come into it... as what you do in possession does not require either as youve already shown enough to get the ball in the first place . if they had the ball all the time while our players half heartedly just watched them pass it around us causing all sorts of probs fair enough...did not happen.. surely what was missing was quality and guile to open them up..

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

well they dont pick themselves or make the substitutions or dictate the game plan.. the game plan was what exactly ? bore them into submission..?
the week before fair enough there were far to many still on the beach performances...but Saturday is on the manager..

I agree about substitutions and game plan but there was also a lot of criticism about the lack of fight and passion.

No matter what the tactics, professional footballers should be giving everything to the shirt, you can't completely absolve players of responsibility.

hmm.. isnt it always the default setting with our fans when we lose though. passion and fight.. Wednesday did not cause us many problems and we had the ball a hell of a lot.. i fail to see where fight and passion come into it... as what you do in possession does not require either as youve already shown enough to get the ball in the first place . if they had the ball all the time while our players half heartedly just watched them pass it around us causing all sorts of probs fair enough...did not happen.. surely what was missing was quality and guile to open them up..

It's a bit of both though isn't it ?

Fight/passion can also mean putting that bit extra in to make a committed overlapping run or one of the strikers making a committed run into the channel to create space for others.

You can be the best passer of the ball in the world but if nobody shows for it or makes a meaningful run it's you who looks a plank when you don't make a telling pass.

I'm not overly concerned about the first two losses, these things happen at the start of the season. But we do need to react in tactics, commitment and ability in the next game, otherwise we'll be playing catch up throughout.

Another signing might give us a bit more impetus too.

Yes we finished a little later than the others, but we had three months off before the restart and only played 12 games after that. We had five weeks before the Sheff Wed game so any blame for lack of preparation lies squarely with the manager and the club.

........... and the players ?

well they dont pick themselves or make the substitutions or dictate the game plan.. the game plan was what exactly ? bore them into submission..?
the week before fair enough there were far to many still on the beach performances...but Saturday is on the manager..

I agree about substitutions and game plan but there was also a lot of criticism about the lack of fight and passion.

No matter what the tactics, professional footballers should be giving everything to the shirt, you can't completely absolve players of responsibility.

hmm.. isnt it always the default setting with our fans when we lose though. passion and fight.. Wednesday did not cause us many problems and we had the ball a hell of a lot.. i fail to see where fight and passion come into it... as what you do in possession does not require either as youve already shown enough to get the ball in the first place . if they had the ball all the time while our players half heartedly just watched them pass it around us causing all sorts of probs fair enough...did not happen.. surely what was missing was quality and guile to open them up..

It's a bit of both though isn't it ?

Fight/passion can also mean putting that bit extra in to make a committed overlapping run or one of the strikers making a committed run into the channel to create space for others.

You can be the best passer of the ball in the world but if nobody shows for it or makes a meaningful run it's you who looks a plank when you don't make a telling pass.

I'm not overly concerned about the first two losses, these things happen at the start of the season. But we do need to react in tactics, commitment and ability in the next game, otherwise we'll be playing catch up throughout.

Another signing might give us a bit more impetus too.

the better players ive watched at all levels tend to just instinctively drift into good positions.. and ive read literally hundreds of articles over the years of players praising previous/ current team mates for making the game and finding spaces look so easy.. i watched that last Saturday and dont remember thinking at any point why didnt he try harder to get there.. i did however find the lack of any ideas very frustrating... what i will say is Wednesday came to pinch a result sat in and made it difficult for us to break them down and carried out their game plan to perfection. .not everyone will but they will not be the last team to adopt this so its no good claiming sucker punch afterwards..