West Ham were bloody woeful Alf, but that's their problem not ours!
Just on the subject of our dysfunctional recruitment team, West Ham have spent £180 million in the last 17 months, far more than us, with a spectacular lack of success. So I have to hold my hand up, I was wrong, our recruitment team are actually the 2nd worst at their job in the Premier League.
I have never thought of the idea such as the 'Burnley way'. There is only the way SD is using his style of play,and that's what we see. Sometimes we play like some 4th division team ,and like last game we dominated the game against Wet Spam. I would like to see SD modernise his game more. Such as ......Goal kicks:
Here Pope uses the long ball 80% (?) of the time,for the ball to land some where in the opposing teams penalty area. It's easy for a tall defender to head it back in the direction from where it came from ,than for a forward to do anything with it. Sometimes with luck we get the ball,but who would depend on a game plan using 'luck'? If we use this game plan we are not in control of the game 60 -70%, or more of the game.
We can change it (in fact to mix it ,not always the same) if Pope pushes the ball out to a defender almost near the goal line.The defender has a choice to pass it forward OR give it back to Pope. ( At this moment an attacker must run forward to get the ball or block a pass).If the ball is given back to Pope then the goalkeeper can now open it up by passing to the opposite defender,again the attacker must run to get the ball. At this point we have created a SPACE in midfield ,and it should be easy to pass then to a midfielder.At this point ,we are in control of the game 100% and we are also on attack. ( All this from a Goal Kick!) This game plan should be practised on the training ground ,because we can not allow any mistakes we must be very professional with it. A mistake could mean Pope picking the ball out from our goal ?? There are other points but this changes our game!!!
We have a football team, and I hope we have professional trainers and a good training ground!
We knocked it long to Wood on Saturday, I guess he must have won at least 70% of the headers and Barnes, Hendrick, Westwood, Cork and McNeil picked up tons of second balls. It works when it works Balan!
You said it yourself.....''West Ham were bloody woeful Alf, but that's their problem not ours!''
and ......'' It works when it works Balan!''....and ''I love SD but his tactical awareness leaves a lot to be desired IMHO.
(PS : I think if we continue 'long ball', you are going to have a whole lot of burnt sausages !)
''So its touch and go,that's what you expect ? or If we are lucky we could win??
Did it work against Sheffield? Then Chelsea, is it heaven and earth difference here,were they really that good? Or we were poor?
Chris Wilder is no fool and Frank Lampard has got Chelsea buzzing. Two winnable games coming up next Balan - let's see what December brings?
"A mistake could mean Pope picking the ball out from our goal ??"
This is precisely why Dyche instructs his players to get the ball up the park, if we do lose it he prefers it to be lost in the opposition half, where there is much less likelihood that it will end up with Pope fishing it out of the back of our net.