Not sure about the way we play

[optimisticowl]

Leeds are a season ahead of us, but despite that we could have won had the ref not bottled Fessi’s deffo penalty. They were all over us like a rash, and still only took a point, we saw the Leeds first team last night, however we didn’t see the SWFC finished product, for us it’s work in progress. The goal of the season panel are going to have an interesting job come the end of the season, two crackers last night.

[East Yorks Owl]

9 hours ago, full fathom five said:

Their manager out coached our manager. They had a game plan and their players made it work, they pressed high, closed down in packs and made things happen, they earnt the right to play and caused us many problems.

 

Our game plan didn't work, you are of course always going to get ups and downs with the younger players we have got, but i feel Jos didn't help their cause by having them play in the exact same way in the second half as we had in the first, thus we kept making the same mistakes and creating ourselves mxny problems. Yes L##ds are a good side but i felt Bielsa easily had Jos measure tonight.

 

I agree that Bielsa had the better game plan and was very surprised that Jos persisted with two up front when we were clearly struggling in midfield.  With respect to our youngsters I thought Penney and Thorniley stood up to the challenge very well.  Penney has a fantastic maturity about him; you’d never guess that the lad has only a handful of matches in experience. I personally thought Penney looked our most composed player.

 

Jos is no fool; I think he’ll have learned plenty from last night.

[TrueOwl]

Everybody keeps saying this is a transitional season but if we end up having to gut half the squad at the end of the season... what are we transitioning to... lower mid table fodder?

 

 

Edited September 29, 2018 by TrueOwl

[gurujuan]

Bielsa has done a great job establishing a pattern of play, and getting to those fitness levels, in such a short space of time. Imagine what he could do with gifted players like Bannan, Penney, Forestieri, Matias and Joao. 

[PortlandOwl]

Thought we were really positive and on the front foot at Villa but last night we just seemed happy to sit back, hitting Leeds on the occasional break. Very fortunate to get a point.

[Beholder]

There is one player in the treatment room who would instantly transform us in terms of our ability to press and work together.

 

Keiran Lee. 

 

Really hope he can recover. 

 

 

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

7 minutes ago, Beholder said:

There is one player in the treatment room who would instantly transform us in terms of our ability to press and work together.

 

Keiran Lee. 

 

Really hope he can recover. 

 

It's soul destroying, isn't it?

 

Lee was pivotal to so much of our good play in recent years - for me, he was more vital to the team than Bannan.

 

I just hope he can return to playing on a regular basis and finally put these injury woes behind him.

[pgmetcalf]

10 hours ago, Beholder said:

We seem too happy to concede possession. 

 

We have good players but it's all a bit back to front. 

 

Maybe we get exposed by the better teams and we are just a bit mid table. 

 

But Id have thought with the players we have we should do better. 

 

Thoughts? 

 

Oh god

[Bouncing Owl]

Clear game plan last night not to engage with Leeds to have a game of football. More intent to let them have the ball, sit off them and sit deep to close the space between defence and keeper. They grew in confidence and since the 25th minute they absolutely played us off the park and it was men against boys. 

 

Agree with the OP - what football team are we? We must have played 5 formations this season. He doesn’t know his best system or team. We started off with a 3-4-2-1 last night and then Hector went into midfield and Bannan was a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1 for around 25 minutes of that first half.

 

Im totally behind Jos but he needs to find a default system and team to settle on. We are a total mish mash at the moment.

 

 

[FreshOwl]

8 hours ago, manicowl said:

They're not going to win the league. They'll be knackered by Christmas if they carry on playing at such a high tempo.

You’re only saying that due to Leeds bias, unlike the pigs last year they have experience in this division. They’ll go up 

[Guest LittleG]

10 hours ago, Johnny Concrete said:

 

I said to my mate the writing was on the wall second half soon as it started. We sat so incredibly deep it was as though we intended to invite early pressure onto our selves. Throwing Nuhiu on just summed it up that we were playing for a point.

 

Yeah Leeds looked good but my god we made it so easy for them, we can't hack it under pressure, no calm figure to take control of the game and slow the pace down. Tell you what might be a good point but performance wise that second half was something out of Alan Irvines school of negative excellence.

Agreed, the sitting back and allowing Leeds to control the game was the main issue. I would have liked to see how Leeds defence would have coped if we had put more pressure on them cos at the back I don't think they are that good.

[Jim]

1 hour ago, TrueOwl said:

Everybody keeps saying this is a transitional season but if we end up having to gut half the squad at the end of the season... what are we transitioning to... lower mid table fodder?

 

 

 

I think it’s a transitional season in the sense that we’re looking to blood several youngsters who should be better players next year for the experiences of this.

 

A lot of players we’ll move on next summer aren’t getting a look in at the moment so in terms of gutting the squad we’ll probably be not as short in experience/quality as some may think?

[manicowl]

8 hours ago, FreshOwl said:

You’re only saying that due to Leeds bias, unlike the pigs last year they have experience in this division. They’ll go up 

They don't have experience of working under this manager.

[Sova]

Looking at the stats at https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/7/Seasons/7379/Stages/16389/TeamStatistics/England-Championship-2018-2019,

one thing that's interesting is that not only do we have the 3rd-worst record in terms of shots per game for us, we also have more shots against us than anyone else.

We put in fewer crosses per game than any other team bar Swansea, but despite this have scored more set-piece goals than anyone else.

[full fathom five]

Just now, Sova said:

Looking at the stats at https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/7/Seasons/7379/Stages/16389/TeamStatistics/England-Championship-2018-2019,

one thing that's interesting is that not only do we have the 3rd-worst record in terms of shots per game for us, we also have more shots against us than anyone else.

We put in fewer crosses per game than any other team bar Swansea, but despite this have scored more set-piece goals than anyone else.

Those stats suggest we create very few clear cut chances in open play.

[wakefieldowl]

On 28/09/2018 at 22:26, FreshOwl said:

We came up against a team probably three times a good as us 

 

they were more athletic, agile, were a yard faster, just all round better 

 

If Leeds continue to play like that they’ll walk the league like wolves last year 

I sort of agree....but how and why? 

Why on earth is our team less athletic, agile Tec.

I love the way Leeds play. It's how we should be playing. If we lose the ball we chase and Harry to get it back, then when we have it, we pass it with some accuracy, and pace , attacking trying to score. Surely that should be the basics of all teams

[PortlandOwl]

14 hours ago, Beholder said:

There is one player in the treatment room who would instantly transform us in terms of our ability to press and work together.

 

Keiran Lee. 

 

Really hope he can recover. 

 

 

Good point. We need a player who can drive the team forwards in matches like last night's, when we were being pushed back all the time.