Quote Originally Posted by kill_the_drum View Post
I’m not so sure. I think it stems from Stone being far more reluctant to play a short pass. Then as the game went on, the pressure came from the stands to gerrit forward.
It reminded me of the dark years where players would so scared to make a mistake, they wouldn’t take risks.
There was an element of that, definitely, and Stone looks to be a problem. He was brought in supposedly because he had good distribution, but I've not seen consistent evidence of it, and as a goalkeeper he looks pretty ordinary.

I think there's broad agreement that we need to take fewer risks in defence if we're to concede fewer goals, but I doubt that Stone's interpretation or application of that principle yesterday was what Williams would have wanted. It's going to be a learning process where some players will successfully adapt and others won't, but that's fine, because it tells the manager and the recruitment team where they need to strengthen.