Will this style of play ever work?

[Kinowe Soorie]

I believe possession football can be if there’s an end product, but can still mix it up with other ways to play.

Currently, it’s too pedestrian, and we can’t defend for shit.

Teams just press our defence, and we fall to pieces.

[Paninistickers]

I happen to think many of us are barking up the wrong tree. Firstly, there was no system or philosophy evident yesterday. 

 

Secondly, there isn't a system on earth that can cope with Thomas and Bdcr. We have a 1001 problems, but whilst them two play, we'll continue to struggle every single week. Even when winning. 

 

 

And it's not just an opinion. Look at the stats. Thomas is on for his fourth consecutive relegation (Sheffield utd where he lost every game + two with us and a third coming)  and Bdcr has barely won game in 2.5 years.

 

It's not a coincidence. 

 

 

[ARM1968]

To be fair it got tedious under Maresca and his version more or less worked. Not so great second half of the season, but we had far better players. 

[davieG]

1 hour ago, Tuna said:

We've basically built a team to play this style,

But we haven't, the team is full of people that are not comfortable on the ball or are too slow 

[Saints Fan In Peace]

1 hour ago, Monk said:

If Robbie Savage can figure us out in 2 minutes it’s a pretty sorry state of affairs. 

You don’t even need to be a professional football manager to know how to set up to beat his teams. Any Rangers or Saints fan off the street could tell you.
 

And the easiest thing about it is that he never, ever changes it. He never surprises the opposition with a shape change or switching anything up to reflect an opposition’s weakness and gain an advantage.
 

So the opposition manager will just sit his players down at the start of the week, say ‘right lads, this is what they’ll do and this is how you counter it’, then they practice it all week, and then that’s exactly what happens on match day.

 

Even when he’s losing again and again and again he doesn’t change it. He always thinks it will work next time. It’s absurd.

 

Melchett Martin. 
 

Edited 11 hours ago by Saints Fan In Peace

[l444ry]

The only time this so-called "possession" style of play works is when that team has two £70million valued players in every position. Funny that ain't it?    

[Grumpy Git]

Peterborough played long balls down the channels 0-3. 

[Chelmofox]

22 minutes ago, l444ry said:

The only time this so-called "possession" style of play works is when that team has two £70million valued players in every position. Funny that ain't it?    

Maybe you should give our board some tips and tricks on how to fund that. 

Edited 11 hours ago by Chelmofox

[OnlyOneCity]

And I can pass 500 times

And I can pass 500 more

To be the team that pass 1000 times

Before we lose the ball

 

da da da da, da da da da, da da da da da da da

[sm1]

It can but you need highly technical players and an intelligent manager. Only a complete fraud like Russell thinks you can play this way with guys like Thomas, Okoli, Soutter, Bobby and all the other donkeys we've got at the club. Brian Barry Murphy, who's steeped in the Pep way, did it with Cardiff last season, and Enzo and Kompany have done it in the Championship.

[Chelmofox]

15 minutes ago, OnlyOneCity said:

And I can pass 500 times

And I can pass 500 more

To be the team that pass 1000 times

Before we lose the ball

 

da da da da, da da da da, da da da da da da da

1, 2, 3, tippie, 4 tapee pass

5, 6, 7, tippie, 8 tapee pass

9, 10, 11 tippe, 12 tapee ........ oh **** we lost it and conceded.  

[BigGibbo]

Not post-2018 until the game has gone full circle again. 

 

The only way it works is if implemented perfectly with a far superior squad to the rest of the division.

 

We only come close to the latter currently.

[lcfc81]

It is ridiculous the amount of defensive mistakes we make. We need to put together a hybrid that doesn't involve passing it at the back. We also need not to be playing players like luke thomas. 

[Corky]

No. Our players are not good enough or fit enough. Having endless possession is one thing but losing it then being exposed nullifies any positives. So it will usually lead to our players taking an age to pass, then getting pressed, losing it and are out of position and cannot get back it.

 

Playing out from the back is one issue but none of the goals yesterday came from that; they originated from their half and quick forward balls.

[l444ry]

55 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Maybe you should give our board some tips and tricks on how to fund that. 

Maybe you misunderstood the post?

[woznotwos]

Not with a right back that sprints that hard as he's out of position he cant check back for the first and a left back that's chasing back, gets first touch and then just stops! allowing a player in to score there second. What was that? unbelievably crap and weak by both !!

[Foxin_Mad]

It can work, but you need to start with the basics, a goalkeeper that can catch a ball, defenders that can defend. There is absolutely zero benefit to some twat standing still with the ball for 5 minutes, it will not draw the opponent out they will just sit and laugh at you. There is also zero benefit in passing it sideways in a high risk situation say our own box, where you needlessly put yourselves under pressure and cause mistakes leading to goals. Then going forward, passing needs to be quick, players need to break the lines, and they need to run at people, finally we need to shoot at the goal. This essentially means we should never see Thomas, Okoli or Reid play again but we know whichever twat Rudkin brings in next will ‘have a new start’. 

[Dan]

Martin's demonstably doesn't. There's more nuance to style of play than is made out. The dross Martin serves up is no resemblence at all to Pep and I don't know why they get compared.

 

There is clearly a push from above about the style though. They very much want us to play sterile, slow football with soft players. They are definitely pushing a particular image. Well they've managed that alright.

[LeePhilpottsBaldSpot]

It's excellent against Fulham U21s

[Rubbersoul]

9 minutes ago, Dan said:

Martin's demonstably doesn't. There's more nuance to style of play than is made out. The dross Martin serves up is no resemblence at all to Pep and I don't know why they get compared.

 

There is clearly a push from above about the style though. They very much want us to play sterile, slow football with soft players. They are definitely pushing a particular image. Well they've managed that alright.

From the football to all the off the pitch decisions the club have played an absolute blinder in how to kill the spirits of a fanbase.

 

All by design too 

[Pratlinho]

His biggest problem is that he simply cannot organise a defence.

You can play a pleasing, passing, possession based style with most professional footballers if they're well coached. They wouldn't be professionals if they didn't possess a level of skill that puts them in the top 1% of anyone who has kicked a ball.

But when you concentrate so much on the passing aspect of the game and neglect the fundamentals like being solid defensively then you leave yourself wide open to conceding too many goals to get anywhere. When he was at Swansea we gave plenty of two goal leads away through defensive errors. We even gave away a three goal lead once. At Southampton he had what was basically a Premier League squad and still conceded 63 goals in 46 games.

It then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as players become drained of confidence and nervous wrecks (especially when you love blaming them for your failures as much as Martin does), so they make even more mistakes, concede more  goals, and on, and on.

[Jattdogg]

Not in league one with league one/two level players.

 

You also need to have a manager that can have players switch between this boring shit to Plan B or Plan C when needed. Too much of an ask for players at this level.

 

 

[Gamble92]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Git said:

Peterborough played long balls down the channels 0-3. 

You grumpy git

[weusedtobegood]

If you want a nailed relegation its a perfect system, just show no ambition and watch the opposition knock three goals in while our goalkeeper flaps about and the midfield play pass the ball,  sideways and backwards. 

Edited 8 hours ago by weusedtobegood

[SafewayFox]

Didn’t Wilshire say on the Overlap recently that his preferred style is possession based but quickly identified that it is hard to do well in League One!?