A few questions...

[Guybrush]

I think we’ve seen the drop off because of the change to our style of play.

IMHO I would think it’s EH doubting himself and feeling the pressure to deliver.

He had a fantastic brand coming here… true cavalier football!

Which is great when he can’t do any wrong and there’s no pressure on him to actually achieve anything other than create a bit of optimism… and a bit of space between ourselves and the drop zone.

So, first season… easy for EH… play how he knows, no pressure… we win some, we lose some.

Season 2… no pressure, what’s the expectation here? Top half finish and build from there… job done!

To well though, CL qualification and the pressure is now on… hope is replaced by expectation and it’s a different ball game.

We’ve gone from hoping to win a match, to expecting to take the points… we finished 4th… we know we can beat anyone… we’ve prove that.

With that expectation comes fear, fear to drop points… so we change tactics - instead of hung ho, nothing to lose football… going out to win, but doesn’t matter if we lose…

We start playing ‘must not lose’ football!

Those wins becomes draws, as we look to see out games defensively rather than on the front foot.

We change our style completely…

High press, quickly winning the ball back and attacking before they know what’s hit them…

To a defensive, let them at us… building an attack from our own box… a whole pitch in front of us now instead of their last defender and keeper.

Takes a few more passes to get the ball up the other end, opposition have time to regroup in to their defensive positions…

And that’s where we’re screwed!!!

We now have to find a way through 6/7/8 players rather than 2 or 3.

Shots become harder to come by and further away from the goal. It becomes more difficult to the ball to Isaks feet, or for Gordon to round half a team rather than just their number 1!

In essence, I think I’m saying that EH and the squad is feeling the pressure of expectation rather than the pleasure of hope.

And that’s where I think the team have been let down by the lack of summer investment.

Get EH the players he needs to play the football he is good at… it’s about improving the first team, not just improving the squad.

A couple of players a season and you’ll see the progress… the last window has set us back 2 or 3… because we didn’t strengthen the first team… our rivals did, so they get ahead, we didn’t so we fall further behind.

We see it in the teams like West Brom of old… they come up and up to between the leagues.

They had their front foot brand of football. They had the players to succeed in championship, but not in the prem…


There was no expectation - so they kept at it even against the better opposition, it was ok, they expected to go down - their business model was based on their parachute payments! A little investment could see them stay up, but they didn’t have owners that wanted that.

With Us!!! We had that style… we did well, but the players we had/have had their limitations - how many of that squad played championship football for us??

Yes, we had investment to take us to the next stage… but it stopped, hence the stagnation now… if the right signings could have been made, EH could have kept his style knowing we have 2/3 better players than last season to help lift his style of play.

Instead we are a poorer team (due to others improving) but with the same level of expectation on EHs shoulders!

So, my thoughts are, if you expect more, you
Need to give more. As it stands, the weight of expectation has been adversely affecting the style of football we want to see!

We want to / expect to win something soon! And that means not losing.

[Jammy89]

In essence, I think I’m saying that EH and the squad is feeling the pressure of expectation rather than the pleasure of hope.

That's a great way of putting it.