It would help to have a system that suits the players. As said elsewhere, Warnock's style was to move it forward and play in the opponent's half. This "playing it out from the back" means over 60% of our possession is in our half. Why we are taking goalkicks to a defender in the penalty area is beyond me.
It's very frustrating and sometimes alarming to watch. If the thinking is that this constitutes 'entertaining passing football', then it simply does not. I want to see us play that football in the other half of the field where my enjoyment levels go up and my stress levels go down. The p*issing about at the back also slows the game down, sometimes to walking pace and makes it very difficult to build up the energy and noise from the crowd. It's a real atmosphere killer.
I agree, Burchball looks too strikingly similar to Ardleyball for my liking - and it would be fine if we actually had the players to pull this off but sir deep against us and we have no creativity to break teams down. If teams press against us, we panic and lose the ball in dangerous situations.
As Elite said, this isn't a knee-jerk reaction to one loss but even Stevie Wonder can see that we are so much more dangerous when we get the ball forward - with purpose - than tapping it around the back and waiting for that opening.
It's non-league, not Champions League. Look at Rowe at Chesterfield, he's got them well drilled, organised and not afraid to get it forward. They will win the league comfortably. (I said this at after the playoff win against them last season before anyone thinks I've jumped on the Rowe bandwagon).
That's it, we've lost touch with the automatic promotion position now, no chance of ever getting another goal, never mind a win or a clean sheet. Might as well quit trying to get promoted. Squad is awful, no passion or energy, pissing about playing pretty football when they should gerrit forward. Burchnall out. Baby out. Bath water out too.
ETA: And another thing. That Tshimanga scored another two today, neither of them penalties. Grrr.
Last edited by SwalePie; 25-09-2021 at 06:27 PM.
I don’t think this is about the first loss of the season, it is rather more about the manner of the loss. I am sure we all expected a win today, but according to the reports, we were never in the game. If we are to progress from the National League, then we really should be beating teams such as Altrincham.
As I said on another thread, I don't think Burchnall wants us to play Ardleyball. I think he wants players to be more positive and play forward through the lines as often as possible, but too often they're hesitating and not doing it, and they simply don't mix up the play enough to keep opponents guessing.
There comes a point when the coach surely has to move to at least a partial 'Plan B', with tactics that players at this level can grasp. If the option to pass through midfield isn't on, don't keep tippy tapping it around at the back, but instead start hitting a few balls direct down the channels, or straight to your target man. If you do this, then your opponents actually have more to think about and it might leave more space for the style you ideally want to play. At present, we're too slow and predictable and it's wasting the attacking skill and pace our forward players do possess.