Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Fulton on Ntcham.
Solid Midfield for the last 30. Cundle, Cooper, Fulton, Allen. Love it.
Solid Midfield for the last 30. Cundle, Cooper, Fulton, Allen. Love it.
Feeding the Robins in our garden
- Thread starter The Blobster
- Start date
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Robinson is waxing poetic on Cooper
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Cabango done for speed and its 2-1 to Bristol
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Need a miracle
Good old Martin costs us again. If he'd started his strongest team we might have won. Cabango will never be top class as he's got no pace at all.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
I think we are out of them ! And out of the cup
So we played an extra game for sod all benefit. Can Martin get anything right? I just wish he'd bugger off and take his lower league thinking with him.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
It's becoming obvious who are our shining lights and future and who are just collecting a pay check.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Lady interviewing Robinson post match is asking all the right questions. Robinson not shying away from answering.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Tonight shows up the lack of depth in our squad , Sorinola, Cundle, etc not good enough !
And Martin is not good enough!!
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Anybody see the highlights ... Fisher v Benda ... choice took the best part of a season and a quarter ... but a no brainer. Piroe hunts outside the box, when he's hunting, really offers nothing inside the box.
On their winning goal, try to envision Piroe scoring that goal. Tough to imagine. Cullen I could see, Whittaker I could see, but Piroe never, doesn't have the pace.
On their winning goal, try to envision Piroe scoring that goal. Tough to imagine. Cullen I could see, Whittaker I could see, but Piroe never, doesn't have the pace.
Martin lost this game by making seven changes. Bristol went with the same team that was successful the game before....... as we should have done. But whatever side we select we always suffer from the same failings. Our strikers struggle against organised defences because the midfield is so painfully slow in getting the ball to them BEFORE the defence has time to get organised.
We telegraph our moves then play at a snail's pace to execute them. How many goals do WE concede because opposing teams hit us QUICKLY as happened last night. Can't Martin see this? Can his fellow coaches see it? Will they EVER learn? It seems that football intelligence comes at a premium with them as they are so obsessed with their own ideas they fail to take on board what we really need. Open your eyes for pity's sake!!
Some stats (if you can be bothered to read them):
POSSESSION: 61-39 SHOTS: 18-6 OT: 6-2 CORNERS: 5-3 FOULS: 15-8 GOALS: 1-2
I see from the paltry crowd (10,030) that our fans are beginning to get pissed off with Martinball. The game wasn't televised so there wasn't much by way of a counter-attraction to reduce the numbers. Okay, I wasn't there either but that's because of ill health. Had I someone to take me from my car to the ground I'd be there for most games.
What's our strike rate right now? Three wins in thirteen or something like that? Many a manager has been sacked with a better record than that and I think that surely Martin must be on borrowed time. He has to stop being so one-eyed, so stubborn, and take on board that, whilst what we are doing is basically okay, WE HAVE TO START DOING IT FAR MORE QUICKLY. In basic terms ping the passes, not roll them; sprint with/without the ball, not amble about like it's a Sunday afternoon stroll.
You can't inject pace into a player who isn't born with it but you CAN inject pace and tempo into how a team performs. Martin needs to do this and he needs to do it now!!
We telegraph our moves then play at a snail's pace to execute them. How many goals do WE concede because opposing teams hit us QUICKLY as happened last night. Can't Martin see this? Can his fellow coaches see it? Will they EVER learn? It seems that football intelligence comes at a premium with them as they are so obsessed with their own ideas they fail to take on board what we really need. Open your eyes for pity's sake!!
Some stats (if you can be bothered to read them):
POSSESSION: 61-39 SHOTS: 18-6 OT: 6-2 CORNERS: 5-3 FOULS: 15-8 GOALS: 1-2
I see from the paltry crowd (10,030) that our fans are beginning to get pissed off with Martinball. The game wasn't televised so there wasn't much by way of a counter-attraction to reduce the numbers. Okay, I wasn't there either but that's because of ill health. Had I someone to take me from my car to the ground I'd be there for most games.
What's our strike rate right now? Three wins in thirteen or something like that? Many a manager has been sacked with a better record than that and I think that surely Martin must be on borrowed time. He has to stop being so one-eyed, so stubborn, and take on board that, whilst what we are doing is basically okay, WE HAVE TO START DOING IT FAR MORE QUICKLY. In basic terms ping the passes, not roll them; sprint with/without the ball, not amble about like it's a Sunday afternoon stroll.
You can't inject pace into a player who isn't born with it but you CAN inject pace and tempo into how a team performs. Martin needs to do this and he needs to do it now!!
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Pinging - an adjective that can never honestly be applied to our passing. I was wondering when somebody else was going to comment on the way we pass. The delay typically takes two forms. First, too often, we mentally take forever to make the obvious pass - indicates a stunning lack of awareness. Second we push the ball instead of pinging it - is this just lazy or a lack of technique.
And then, compounding the problem, and I'm not talking about passes over distance, quite often what should be a crisp firm pass on the carpet ends up coming into the player on a bounce or off the ground. This makes the life of the player receiving the ball unnecessarily difficult and limits their options somewhat - a clever player can receive a good pass and be off with the ball in one motion - just thinking back Ronnie Rees could do this, one touch and he'd be gone. How, I wonder, would these players have functioned on the pitches we played on decades ago, where grass disappeared from the middle of the park by Christmas and carpet was a word reserved for a bowling green.
I don't see these problems in the U-23 and U-21 matches that I have watched; at least they don't manifest so clearly.
Whatever is going on in training ... there are clearly deficiencies. It would be interesting to look at video from matches under Martinez, Sousa, Rogers and Laudrup to compare. We would see L1 to Prem examples for comparison.
And then, compounding the problem, and I'm not talking about passes over distance, quite often what should be a crisp firm pass on the carpet ends up coming into the player on a bounce or off the ground. This makes the life of the player receiving the ball unnecessarily difficult and limits their options somewhat - a clever player can receive a good pass and be off with the ball in one motion - just thinking back Ronnie Rees could do this, one touch and he'd be gone. How, I wonder, would these players have functioned on the pitches we played on decades ago, where grass disappeared from the middle of the park by Christmas and carpet was a word reserved for a bowling green.
I don't see these problems in the U-23 and U-21 matches that I have watched; at least they don't manifest so clearly.
Whatever is going on in training ... there are clearly deficiencies. It would be interesting to look at video from matches under Martinez, Sousa, Rogers and Laudrup to compare. We would see L1 to Prem examples for comparison.
Going back a few years a Martinez team played Premier League Fulham in a Cup game at the Liberty. The details are hazy now but Fulham were very fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw. What I clearly remember was the absolutely superb football we played in that game. Passes were crisp and purposeful and played with pace. Movement was constant and fluid allowing the man on the ball several options for his pass. In turn the receiver also found that the same movement allowed him similar options and so on.
Etched in my memory was the comment from Tommy Docherty who'd managed both Manchester United and Chelsea. He said that the football that Swans played in that game was how football should be played and he hadn't seen it done so well in many years. The key to it was pace and movement coupled with accuracy of pass. The latter was made possible by every Swan's player constantly supporting the man on the ball making it easy for him to find a team mate. But always the man on the ball looked to move it forwards TOWARDS THE OPPOSING GOAL instead of meaningless backwards and sideways passing. Sure, they did that on occasion but only as a means to retain possession so they could go again and attack the goal.
Martin gets this. You can see it from the way we play. BUT he doesn't seem to be able to coach his players to do it faster to keep opponents on the back foot. It seems as though we're playing chess-like football where everything is done slowly by which time we're facing a wall of defenders. I suggest that we speed up our game but I also think we need to up fitness levels to be able to do it.
Etched in my memory was the comment from Tommy Docherty who'd managed both Manchester United and Chelsea. He said that the football that Swans played in that game was how football should be played and he hadn't seen it done so well in many years. The key to it was pace and movement coupled with accuracy of pass. The latter was made possible by every Swan's player constantly supporting the man on the ball making it easy for him to find a team mate. But always the man on the ball looked to move it forwards TOWARDS THE OPPOSING GOAL instead of meaningless backwards and sideways passing. Sure, they did that on occasion but only as a means to retain possession so they could go again and attack the goal.
Martin gets this. You can see it from the way we play. BUT he doesn't seem to be able to coach his players to do it faster to keep opponents on the back foot. It seems as though we're playing chess-like football where everything is done slowly by which time we're facing a wall of defenders. I suggest that we speed up our game but I also think we need to up fitness levels to be able to do it.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Roy Hodgson was the Fulham manager. Here are the highlights (
)
We lost the replay 2-1 (Fulham FC - Fulham FC). There are comments in this report about the original cup tie. Here's video of the replay (
).
Note: Jason Scotland in both matches ... v Piroe, no brainer. Gower had a great game too.
We lost the replay 2-1 (Fulham FC - Fulham FC). There are comments in this report about the original cup tie. Here's video of the replay (
Note: Jason Scotland in both matches ... v Piroe, no brainer. Gower had a great game too.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
And here's a funny one.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
And here's a classic ... quality on a nightmare of a pitch ...
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
And here's an earlier round ...