Not taking risks

[Marat18]

I dont watch much footy when other teams are playing, so may be its just how it is generally played nowadays. But every time we are in possession, it looks like the players chose safest and closest option to pass the ball. Most of the times it is sideways or backwards. Then, when they are fed up with passing it around, someone from the flank just hoof it to overcrowded penalty area.
We concede so much on the breaks against mid or lower table teams, I wonder if there is any sense to keep so many players in final third if it just sideways passing.

I dont how it works in modern football, may be this new performance analyst figured out that 5% of our crosses end up in opposition net and now we just try to deliver 30-40 crosses each game no matter what?

[Ragatino]

I dont watch much footy when other teams are playing, so may be its just how it is generally played nowadays. But every time we are in possession, it looks like the players chose safest and closest option to pass the ball. Most of the times it is sideways or backwards. Then, when they are fed up with passing it around, someone from the flank just hoof it to overcrowded penalty area.
We concede so much on the breaks against mid or lower table teams, I wonder if there is any sense to keep so many players in final third if it just sideways passing.

I dont how it works in modern football, may be this new performance analyst figured out that 5% of our crosses end up in opposition net and now we just try to deliver 30-40 crosses each game no matter what?

You make a very good point.

I think we've got the team set up completely wrong.

BDB, Sven & Thiaw should be up front and Elanga, Gordon and Tino, rapid players should be in defence. Hall, Bruno and Tonali to drive balls into the box with 4 massive units in the opposition box to bang home the headers.

The purest, most exact version of Pulis/Allardyce Anti-football.

[OwdBillCook]

I But every time we are in possession, it looks like the players chose safest and closest option to pass the ball. Most of the times it is sideways or backwards. Then, when they are fed up with passing it around, someone from the flank just hoof it to overcrowded penalty area.

I haven't watched all of our recent games. And some I've watched have been quite decent performances - esp the CL ones.

But, yes, too often I have seen us apparently devoid of ideas. Passing sideways, then eventually back to Pope/Ramsdale.
The very opposite of our "inrensity is our identity" phase.
I still don't really get it. Yep, we maybe needed to back off to avoid too many injuries. But......

The real bugger for me is that, in to many games, we seem clueless, esp in the final third. We don't make best use of Nick - he plays too deep most of the time. But we don't seem to have a real plan to break down defences. Yep, we need BDB as a centre back. We need Hall and Tino to act as wing backs. Tripps is a bit too slow these days.
But, to me, there still seems to be no real strategy. There are reasons, obviously, with key players missing and last summers disaster still screwing us.
But "intensity is our identity" seems to havre been replaced with "not sure what to do next" on far too many occasions.
.

[Zippity]

In fairness to Eddie, I think, generally, this is a wider problem in that teams want to recycle the ball and keep possession rather than take a chance and risk losing it.

It's boring as fuck to watch and I'd rather the more creative players-or the speedsters- were allowed to take players on and accept that, sometimes, you lose possessions.

In relation to us, I think we've taken it to a new level. Collectively, we seem to lose our nerve when we get high up the pitch but, more narrowly, it seems that Eddie has possibly lost his nerve when setting us up tactically and managing us in-game. Our high press and intensity are also high risk-possession-wise and injury/tiredness-wise and it looks like Eddie has run out of ideas on how to replace those key aspects of our game.

I might be wrong, but it seems to echo what happened at Bournemouth who played very much on the front foot early on in his tenure. In that case, I think injuries began to take their toll and he couldn't continue to play the same way and we know how that ended.

I think our only hope is to get back to his preferred style and deal with any impact on the players (we're already top of the injury table in terms of games missed so what has our change of style achieved anyway)

As for Eddie, I still want him at the club-he just need to get back to what he does best (and not just play his favourites) And some of the players need to take a look at themselves.

[OwdBillCook]

Great post, Zip
Pretty much sums it up for me.

[toptoon]

Indeed. If I was Eddie, Id start experimenting a different style now. The season is gone.

[Jammy89]

Great post Zip.

I don't want Eddie gone but I do want to see some sort of a different plan.

[Ragatino]

In fairness to Eddie, I think, generally, this is a wider problem in that teams want to recycle the ball and keep possession rather than take a chance and risk losing it.

It's boring as fuck to watch and I'd rather the more creative players-or the speedsters- were allowed to take players on and accept that, sometimes, you lose possessions.

In relation to us, I think we've taken it to a new level. Collectively, we seem to lose our nerve when we get high up the pitch but, more narrowly, it seems that Eddie has possibly lost his nerve when setting us up tactically and managing us in-game. Our high press and intensity are also high risk-possession-wise and injury/tiredness-wise and it looks like Eddie has run out of ideas on how to replace those key aspects of our game.

I might be wrong, but it seems to echo what happened at Bournemouth who played very much on the front foot early on in his tenure. In that case, I think injuries began to take their toll and he couldn't continue to play the same way and we know how that ended.

I think our only hope is to get back to his preferred style and deal with any impact on the players (we're already top of the injury table in terms of games missed so what has our change of style achieved anyway)

As for Eddie, I still want him at the club-he just need to get back to what he does best (and not just play his favourites) And some of the players need to take a look at themselves.

Totally agree with what you're saying here Zip. Against Wolves Gordon turned and passed the ball back to Hall over and over. That's on him, he seems to not want to burn himself out to give a performance in the prestigious matches.

A world class player turns up on a wet Wednesday night in Stoke, makes the difference for his team to win the game.

Had Gordon driven in to the box, gone to the bi-line perhaps he draws a penalty or can clip a cross from deep. That is on the players.

Not just the wingers but the lack of movement across the field in the build up is painful. I find myself shouting at the screen 'MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE' so many times. Mix it up.

the two things that win games. Pace and movement. When it's rigid it's predictable. When it's all in front of the opponent it's miserable to watch and as effective as a chocolate fire guard.

Those issues on the pitch are solely on the shoulders of the players. Eddie Can't make Ramsey and Tonali inter-link and swap positions to draw defenders out.

I totally understand where he's coming from saying 'I'm not doing my job very well.'

He's taken full responsibility for the situation on his shoulders. The players should respect that and step up and give performances like their lives depend on it.

[HughieG]

Even if the players are at fault, and I believe they are to a large extent, it is still the manager's job to change it up, shake it all about, when things aren't running smooth.

It's silly to solely blame Eddie, it's even more silly to want him gone based on our current and latest form - it is less silly to ask questions of whether he's making the right tactical decisions at the moment to turn this around. I'm sure he and the staff are working hard to change things, and the players need to step up NOW, but I do believe the changes Eddie needs to make are more drastic than what he's been willing to do so far.

Let's enjoy some good runs in the two remaining cups and make sure we finish in the Top 7, then it'll all look brighter for next season.

[Guybrush]

If we haven?t got the players to unlock a defence, then the lower risk slow build up game doesn?t work for us.

Also allowing the opposition to draw us forward in numbers before launching their own rapid counter attack.

At the same time - us sitting back and dropping off after going ahead brings its own problems - we are passing the ball in front of our own box instead of getting it away - pointless having the speedsters in the team.

We also have a bunch of keepers who can?t stay focused for 90minutes meaning we need to be playing the ball as far away from them as possible.

We need to get back to pressing high, our attackers the first line of defence.