Originally Posted by
WazzaofWhalley
Champs,
Two days ago you posted "this site has died. That was officially my last post. I come here to get away from these stupid posts."
And then you do exactly what you claim to come here to get away from by posting aggressive slurs. The only way we get 9 points from the next 5 games is with a change of management or divine intervention.
Our best win of the season (against 11men) was against Derby. We won 0-4 and had 37% of possession. Our next best result of the year (against 11 men) was when we dug out a 0-1 win against Boro, once again we had less of the ball. Away at Birmingham, great 0-2 win, less of the ball. My point is that it is not all about possession. You must adapt to your strengths.
If you have tall, tough strikers then you can play longballs and crosses into the box, when you have a whippet like Armstrong, the quick break catches defences off guard. Having square ball possession gives defences time to set and you become predictable. You must be able to see this. We don't have an Iniesta or a Silva. Over the years, Barsa and Man City have had great success with possession based football however Man Utd, Real Madrid and more latterly Liverpool have used the quick break very effectively to win games, leagues, championships.
It's not rocket science, we are just too predictable. When teams set up with two banks of four, we cannot break them down. Simple as. We are not cute enough, not good enough so we have needed to adapt and we haven't. This lack of flexibility has got to come from management.
With regard to your assertion that 98% of clubs will be perceived as failing this year, I'm not sure about the maths here. As previously mentioned I don't know how old you are but hopefully by the time you leave school you will understand that around 50% of clubs will do better than last year, and 50% will do worse. As stated earlier I would have been happy with a top 10 finish this year.
With regard to the attack on my credentials, I played my last professional game in 1990. In 1991 I completed my FA Prelim Coaching Badge Upper Tier alongside Peter Reid, when he was manager of Man City. I then coached abroad in La Liga and MLS. This was at the time the highest coaching qualification available and only a prerequisite for 1st Division (PL) managers. It was later rolled out to Europe before changing its name to Pro Licence and the lack of is what prevented David Platt from sitting on the bench at Sampdoria but not me. I have since then written several books on football coaching and have more latterly been the chairman of the PFS before retiring in 2008.
Regardless of the above we are all entitled to our opinions.
Rovers, a really well run club for years, became a basket case when Venky's took over. Not being aware that relegation was a thing is comparable with BJ telling us that masks offer no protection. The enormity of the problem was compounded by the high number of average players on very lucrative contracts who were simply unwilling to leave and why should they? They were happy to turn up for training, not play and bank millions.
This needed addressing and I am not sure where the credit for addressing this should go. Somehow though I doubt it had much to do with Tony Mowbray. Unless of course he is a better business man than he is manager, which come to think of it ....
At a time, in my twilight years when I should be enjoying watching my team, my greatest hope at the moment is that ALK Capital can have a similar impact on our near neighbours as the Venky's did on us.
Sad times!
