...and Bradford City

[MikeSB]

Give it a rest ffs

So unless you agree with my comments? Have you ever heard that in any crowd of supporters, EACH will have a different view of the match and so it should be...You will have this board closed down if anymore drop out!

[MikeSB]

The Alex currently play with 4 forwards, so not far off! Where MSB will part company is that those 4 have more than being a forward in their remit. Gone are the days of 3 players waiting, hands on hips, on the halfway line for the ball to be booted towards them while inside forwards trundle just behind. Players cover infinitely more ground and passing is a key part of the game as is hard work.
The days of '5 forwards', ended with 3-6 and 1-7 defeats to the Mighty Magyars who were a truly footballing (and coached!) nation that used tactics and skill not really used to the same extent in England at that time.
This era was then succeeded by the 'Revie Plan, then Walter Winterbottom's 'revolutionary' 4-2-4, soon followed by Ramsey's 'Wingless Wonders'. So you see, the 'Old days' really were a long time ago.��

The old days were a long time ago and pity really as football was. fair more enjoyable game to watch imo of course. What IS the point of 20 players running about like headless chickens and trying to pass to each other instead of heading for goal? The players may be fitter than back then. Maybe but I wonder how many today could play on those surfaces where grass was a premium. There are almost no grounds now where mud can be seen! You really cannot state and restate a couple of England results to change the game completely as they have. How many players get the ball like my friend JG and George Best and run through the defences like they did or even some at Crewe when they got the ball like Rodney Jack. Problem is.....too much teaching naturally gifted players to play the way the ten managers and coaches tell them too...and then get dropped if they don't! They don't know what to do with the ball except play sidewards and backward and possibly one shot on goal in 97 mins? Apologies but these are games that I personally don't want to watch and 60 odd years watching football instead of newbies that grew up with academies has never changed my mind and never has and just to add there were never three players standing on the half way line waiting for the ball...Maybe you are confusing yourself with net ball? .

[jimmyboldon]

So unless you agree with my comments? Have you ever heard that in any crowd of supporters, EACH will have a different view of the match and so it should be...You will have this board closed down if anymore drop out!

Very true Mike. But in my experience of sitting in the main stand and at away matches, the views of individual supporters are broadly in agreement with each other, and changes from game to game depending on circumstances. Not some outdated claptrap trotted out ad nauseam week on week.

[MikeSB]

Very true Mike. But in my experience of sitting in the main stand and at away matches, the views of individual supporters are broadly in agreement with each other, and changes from game to game depending on circumstances. Not some outdated claptrap trotted out ad nauseam week on week.

You may know that if I posted stuff like that, I would be accused of 'bullying' others to get into line or else? It may be out dated, but its not outdated clap trap as you have forgotten two things. We won the world cup before academies were even thought off and footballers at all levels were chosen strictly on ability at around the age of 20 not some outdated idea that you can coach 5-10 year old kids that one day may be suitable for league football at the lowest level. Frankie Lord scored many hatricks purely on his ability to head the ball and not one Crewe player since his day has done that....So if that is outdated claptrap I feel sorry for anyone that cannot see the wood for the trees that football is about scoring goals and not defending for 89 mins and hoping you can get a one off breakaway....But hey, I doubt that 99% of todays fans would agree...

Take it easy mate, this is only a football forum hopefully where ALL views are welcome!

[MikeSB]

BTW even the manager keeps saying our youth players need to go outside somewhere to play a 'mans' game and so someone needs to ask him what the purpose of any academy is if we need to do that when they grow up? Why not wait and go and watch local football and non league like they used to in the olden days actually and save billions in not having a wait and see academy...But if the FA/PL are playing all our costs then they may as well continue...Are they saying that under 18 and under 23 players matches are not men's games? Duncan Edwards was playing for England when he was 17...

[frogpole]

Getting back 'on-track' ...

Read somewhere that this was our first clean-sheet away from home in 26 games ...

That just goes to show how bad things had got last season - and also what a cracking job AM is doing 👍

[gazan]

Getting back 'on-track' ...

Read somewhere that this was our first clean-sheet away from home in 26 games ...

That just goes to show how bad things had got last season - and also what a cracking job AM is doing 👍

Couldn't agree more and as I said earlier we weren't operating 'low block'. Maybe a mid block. This was not a game of people throwing their bodies in last ditch desperation, we rarely allowed Bradford to get that close. No, it was an interesting chess-like game where the Alex allowed the opposition to have the ball but not allow space to pass through. When BC couldn't get through, the Alex could build their own attack, usually down the left. Morris clearly knew his opponent and was able to match him easily. What's refreshing is that no 2 games this season have been the same.
Looking forward (?) to Stevenage!

[whosbrianwilson]

So unless you agree with my comments? Have you ever heard that in any crowd of supporters, EACH will have a different view of the match and so it should be...You will have this board closed down if anymore drop out!

Has it ever occurred to you that it is your claptrap that is turning posters off??

[MikeSB]

Has it ever occurred to you that it is your claptrap that is turning posters off??

No, if that were so then why are you posting here? Hundreds view all these posts including mine and so if people choose not to post then that is their choice. I think its fair to say that there are very few posters here that have supported this club longer than I have and so I think that entitles me to have whatever opinion I want on anything, included so called coaching and training that even our own manager admits the graduates need to go and play some 'men's' football in non league. We train up or give games to many graduates and some end up not signing contracts that would benefit the club and so maybe someone can choose the correct word for them doing that? To my knowledge I have never bullied anyone on any site by using such terminology as 'claptrap'. Coaching and playing defensively is a relatively 'new' thing compared with how long football has been played in this country. The best teams were always the ones with the better players in and they were around way before and still are before academies were invented and see we have signed another couple of managers for the club under 18's is it....It must be the FA/PL have given us some more money or maybe that is ermm, can't find the actual word!

If some are struggling to use the english language in a far better usable way, I would be pleased to help them out. . Have you ever seen how empty football grounds are on match days including ours when we had far more even when our team was playing poorly many decades ago too? Prices too high? Football not attractive enough? You decide. I suspect its both things and people deciding football is not their thing...Golf has gone the same way..

[jimmyboldon]

Couldn't agree more and as I said earlier we weren't operating 'low block'. Maybe a mid block. This was not a game of people throwing their bodies in last ditch desperation, we rarely allowed Bradford to get that close. No, it was an interesting chess-like game where the Alex allowed the opposition to have the ball but not allow space to pass through. When BC couldn't get through, the Alex could build their own attack, usually down the left. Morris clearly knew his opponent and was able to match him easily. What's refreshing is that no 2 games this season have been the same.
Looking forward (?) to Stevenage!

Would appear they were coached to do that