I'm disappointed with the past couple of results obviously, but I'm nowhere near as depressed as I was a couple of years ago when it looked like the club might go out of business (again!). What we're talking about here is a dip in form on the pitch after what was previously a decent start, so we need to keep it in perspective.
That said, Ian Burchnall needs to realise (if he doesn't already) that the priority right now is to do whatever it takes to get some positive results, rather than slavishly trying to implement the style of play he would ideally like to see. We played some attractive football for 70 minutes yesterday, which is the longest sustained period of good play we've managed since the opening day of the season, but once Woking got the equaliser, they battered us into submission in the space of ten minutes with direct, effective tactics. Woking's players certainly didn't look tired after long periods of chasing the ball earlier in the game, in fact they looked fresher than us when it mattered most.
My advice to IB would be to put the UEFA coaching manual away in the drawer and take a more pragmatic approach, at least for a while, which means getting the ball out of our own half as quickly and as often as possible and maybe being willing to hit a few more direct balls to the centre forward or down the channels. We have good forward players who can do damage if we turn opponents and get running at them. The defence at present is short-handed and the midfield does look a bit lightweight, so adapt to the circumstances and bypass the midfield a bit more rather than trying to play through it all the time. This in turn will bring the defence under pressure less often.
At present I get the impression that Ian Burchnall is trying to write a football thesis when a simple short essay or even a few notes are sufficient to do well in this league.
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