marbelladave Posted 30 March 2013 Share Posted 30 March 2013 I agree with most of this but fundamentally it doesn't seem to be the personnel that's stopped us playing the intricate and quick passing game we were, the attitudes seem to have changed. swaggers been replaced by head down frustrated foot stamping. The team was under orders to 'tighten up', see my post above. They spent more time worrying about their defensive duties and keeping our shape than they did trying to get after the opposition and win football games. Constrained in that way, they played less well, results started to go against us and all that happened was that they were told that they were not working hard enough. No wonder their confidence and swagger disappeared...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shade Posted 30 March 2013 Share Posted 30 March 2013 The team was under orders to 'tighten up', see my post above. They spent more time worrying about their defensive duties and keeping our shape than they did trying to get after the opposition and win football games. Constrained in that way, they played less well, results started to go against us and all that happened was that they were told that they were not working hard enough. No wonder their confidence and swagger disappeared...... with all respect is that assumption or do you know someone in the camp? did Pearson turn around one day and say "right lets tighten things up" or have players like knockaert, drinkwater, Marshall et al just bottled it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbelladave Posted 30 March 2013 Share Posted 30 March 2013 I know, we were hardly leaking goals when at the top, it's frustrating because we were sweeping teams aside up until Bristol City but have gone too negative and it's hard to fathom why. And it wasn't just the big wins like Ipswich and Huddersfield, the wins against Hull, Huddersfield away, Bristol City home, Sheffield Wednesday were all comfortable and could've been greater, very few issues defensively balanced with good attacking play. Not really. We were top of the table and going well but instead of continuing as we were and looking to drive for automatic promotion, we decided to 'tighten things up' and make sure of at least a playoff spot. This tactic started against the better teams, Watford, Millwall and Leeds away and was even used at home against Palace and that, pretty much was the end of our season. Not because we fell out of the playoffs, that did not happen to this weekend, but because it robbed our team of energy and momentum and we have no hope of getting it back...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corky Posted 30 March 2013 Share Posted 30 March 2013 I meant it's hard to fathom why we changed suddenly, I know we have but I don't know the specific reason because we'd got to 1st playing a certain way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Fox Posted 30 March 2013 Share Posted 30 March 2013 I meant it's hard to fathom why we changed suddenly, I know we have but I don't know the specific reason because we'd got to 1st playing a certain way. Perhaps NP didn't have conviction in that way of playing? who knows but ever since we have reverted back to a hoofball style results haven't been great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbelladave Posted 30 March 2013 Share Posted 30 March 2013 with all respect is that assumption or do you know someone in the camp? did Pearson turn around one day and say "right lets tighten things up" or have players like knockaert, drinkwater, Marshall et al just bottled it? Not ITK but the assumption is simply made on what can be seen on the pitch, week after week. For weeks through september and october we were playing sharp passing aggressive football, then it all stopped, dead. Our wingers stopped roaming across the line and stayed wide, tucking in defensively, our fullbacks, with our wingers just a few yards ahead of them, could no longer get forward effectively so although they still had plenty of possession our central midfielders had absolutely no-where to go, no options whatsoever. It was these quite deliberate defensive changes that left our midfield passing square or back and inviting the opposition on to us, under pressure we resorted to the long ball and given our forwards at that time, this was simply giving the ball away. Wood was brought in to be the target man in a long ball that we were then playing, he was not the cause of us going back to the hoof, he was supposed to be the solution....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morris1234 Posted 31 March 2013 Share Posted 31 March 2013 Wait. So we put up with ridiculous amounts of threads about when wood and James were out and how they were key. And now James is 'shocking' despite being injured but playing well in a depleted team the other night and wood isn't on form and suddenly he 'can't lace vardys boots' ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thracian Posted 31 March 2013 Share Posted 31 March 2013 I have spoken about most of these points before, the onerous defensive duties piled on to our attacking players, the negative setup employed from november onwards, the game on game destruction of our creative players abilities and energies, all these things have been painfully obvious over the last few months. For me the pivotal moment of the season game in late october when, with us top of the league we somehow made the decision to stop playing our assertive, passing football and switch to a cautious, rigid system that was supposed to tighten things up defensively. I'll say that again, 'tighten things up defensively', we were top of the league, why FFS...... Exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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