The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Agree that Myk and Cullen look good together.
Sunderland away next week , a winnable game .
Sunderland away next week , a winnable game .
'Incredible' Tractor Boys
- Thread starter CroJack
- Start date
Victoria Swan
Key Player
Kyle Naughton was surprisingly effective today. A run of a few matches has done him a lot of good.
CroJack
Key Player
First time this season I have a feeling we are going down. QPR and Wednesday are in a better form than we are. If we lose to Sunderland away and QPR beat Rotherham at home, then there will be only one point between us and them. And if Sheff Wednesday continue to pick up points, then I see us together with Millwall going down.
Radio comms thought it was an entertaining game with a decent performance from us - and Ian Walsh always tells it as it is, good or bad. Yet again we've been let down by shoddy defending following a high line. We've got no pace at the back to defend as far up as that. Thing is, I remember Nathan Wood being touted as something of an athlete but he's yet to convince me that he is. I've seen no evidence whatsoever of it.
However, if we can continue to make small steps of improvement as we go, maybe Williams can eventually get the players on his wave-length. As long as we don't get relegated that is. Top six has long gone so we have the rest of this season, the close season with maybe some astute signings, for Williams to firmly embed his ideas into the team. But if we don't improve, markedly, then it's so long to Luke Williams.
However, if we can continue to make small steps of improvement as we go, maybe Williams can eventually get the players on his wave-length. As long as we don't get relegated that is. Top six has long gone so we have the rest of this season, the close season with maybe some astute signings, for Williams to firmly embed his ideas into the team. But if we don't improve, markedly, then it's so long to Luke Williams.
CroJack
Key Player
Ronald, Placheta, Paterson and Cooper should start contributing with some goals. We can't depend on Jerry and Liam Yates to score all our goals.Ronald needs to work on his final ball
Our midfield is fcuking useless as I've long said. They don't contribute many goals, they don't create that many chances but neither do I see them protecting our dodgy defenders well enough. The midfield is a team's engine and, just like my car at the moment, when the engine doesn't perform as it should, the car/team doesn't work.
The high line is the one aspect of Williams tactics that makes no sense to me. It's not even a risk/reward proposition. It's an obvious weakness that provides zero benefit.
WhoScored lists "play the offside trap" as a style of play for Swansea, but they don't even do that. I wish they would - at least some of the time the high line would be useful. As things stand, if the opposition is ever offside, it is only because they mistimed their own passes and runs. Swansea have no part in it. I haven't seen them so much as attempt the "trap" part - where the back line steps up as a unit at the crucial moment - at all this season.
A medium block with the back four in front of the Swans 18 would be a lot more useful, but such a system typically relies on slowing the play down, positioning, reading the game, making interceptions, etc. and I believe Williams wants to press all over at a high pace.
We saw the "hunting in packs" strategy today perfected - at least on occasion - in the attacking third, especially in the last 20 mins. It was great to watch, the big positive from this game. Swansea caused a lot of turnovers and didn't give the ball up easily. No more playing like pussies. I think Williams wants that all over the field which is why the defenders are so high (did you see how often Cabango ended up in the final third?), but it doesn't work with slow, burly players in those positions. It'd be chancy at best even with fast, athletic players at CB.
I like the heavy forward line press, but a hybrid of both styles would be best -the forwards and some of the midfielders or full backs going hunting, the rest of the team keeping the lines locked down behind. It's harder to do because you need real co-ordination among the pressing players to make sure you can still press effectively with fewer players.
There is one coach who has mastered exactly this - two lines in a medium block to be defensively responsible behind, with "pressing triangles" among the more advanced players ahead - and that's Jimmy Thelin.
WhoScored lists "play the offside trap" as a style of play for Swansea, but they don't even do that. I wish they would - at least some of the time the high line would be useful. As things stand, if the opposition is ever offside, it is only because they mistimed their own passes and runs. Swansea have no part in it. I haven't seen them so much as attempt the "trap" part - where the back line steps up as a unit at the crucial moment - at all this season.
A medium block with the back four in front of the Swans 18 would be a lot more useful, but such a system typically relies on slowing the play down, positioning, reading the game, making interceptions, etc. and I believe Williams wants to press all over at a high pace.
We saw the "hunting in packs" strategy today perfected - at least on occasion - in the attacking third, especially in the last 20 mins. It was great to watch, the big positive from this game. Swansea caused a lot of turnovers and didn't give the ball up easily. No more playing like pussies. I think Williams wants that all over the field which is why the defenders are so high (did you see how often Cabango ended up in the final third?), but it doesn't work with slow, burly players in those positions. It'd be chancy at best even with fast, athletic players at CB.
I like the heavy forward line press, but a hybrid of both styles would be best -the forwards and some of the midfielders or full backs going hunting, the rest of the team keeping the lines locked down behind. It's harder to do because you need real co-ordination among the pressing players to make sure you can still press effectively with fewer players.
There is one coach who has mastered exactly this - two lines in a medium block to be defensively responsible behind, with "pressing triangles" among the more advanced players ahead - and that's Jimmy Thelin.
The problem is that the lower we sink the more difficult it will be to attract a coach of genuine quality. And, in any case, will our owners be prepared to pay what a quality coach would cost? I doubt it very much, which brings me to another point.
I'm sure that the tight purse-strings of our lousy owners is impacting what happens on the pitch. The players know full well that the club is not prepared to lay out the fees it would take to bring in better quality talent. Most of them know that we won't, not can't, afford to replace them with better, so the incentive to perform for their place is missing. They know that doing only what they have to is enough to keep their place in the squad given that no one will be recruited in place of them.
They'd probably deny it but there's no question that most of them are in a comfort zone where there's no serious challenge for their place. It's not a good position to be in but, right now, it's a fact of life for the club.
Not far off it today and it was a spirited performance but, unfortunately, one that still resulted in a loss. Some stats:
POSSESSION: 59-41 SHOTS: 15-15 OT: 3-6 CORNERS: 9-6 FOULS: 5-13 GOALS: 1-2
We probably deserved a draw and look at the foul count - Ipswich were obviously under a lot of pressure to concede that many. Pity we didn't do the same to prevent their goals! Ipswich manager McKenna said that: "it was a tough game, a proper game. It took a really, really good performance to come out on the right side of it..... the organisation to limit them in free play was good (Yeah, they kicked lumps out of us). Probably the biggest thing was the EFFORT and the COMMITMENT in difficult conditions."
So we pushed them hard and probably deserved a draw but, according to their manager, what won them the game was something that we have been lacking to date if not in this particular game.
Our midfield is powder-puff and is a major factor in us being where we are in the table.
POSSESSION: 59-41 SHOTS: 15-15 OT: 3-6 CORNERS: 9-6 FOULS: 5-13 GOALS: 1-2
We probably deserved a draw and look at the foul count - Ipswich were obviously under a lot of pressure to concede that many. Pity we didn't do the same to prevent their goals! Ipswich manager McKenna said that: "it was a tough game, a proper game. It took a really, really good performance to come out on the right side of it..... the organisation to limit them in free play was good (Yeah, they kicked lumps out of us). Probably the biggest thing was the EFFORT and the COMMITMENT in difficult conditions."
So we pushed them hard and probably deserved a draw but, according to their manager, what won them the game was something that we have been lacking to date if not in this particular game.
I've quoted my own post because on MOTD this evening Danny Murphy made the point that YOU WON'T WIN MANY GAMES UNLESS YOUR MIDFIELD PUTS IN THE HARD YARDS AND DOES THE DIRTY JOBS. Amen to that and thank you, Danny, for underlining what I said.
Our midfield is powder-puff and is a major factor in us being where we are in the table.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Since we're all data driven here, here's the stark reality:
Sheehan was scoring more, conceding less (Soton sullied the record), earning points above 50% (bettered only by Martinez, Cooper and Rogers - as best as I can tell). Sheehan stepped down with us 10 points above relegation, we are now just 4 points above relegation (1 point less than when Duffer was fired).
Williams is fixated on implementing his fantasy football style, player capabilities be damned, at the expense of results. He is not results focused otherwise he would have been far more pragmatic in his approach, respectful of what Sheehan had done, and most importantly HOW he had done it. Williams' self-appointed mission is to coach (
i.e. force) "Square-peg players into being Round-hole players" come hell or high water today. So far, it's been hell and high water ... and I don't want to hear about how fucking worldly wonderful the opposition has been ... it's his fucking job to be competitive against all opposition and we have been objectively non-competitive and too often capitulated ... and lacking "bravery" (what a prick, that term so irritates me).
As you can see, each coach played an equal number of matches against clubs in the top half of the table and Williams has had the benefit of the home match bias. And, Williams has had the added benefit of new players, with Ronald being a surprisingly good addition.
To put Williams in perspective: over 11 matches, BoBo did better and earned 24% of the points played for. And Bobo was a clown without the make-up and the red nose.
I dislike Williams' arrogant, stupid and ignorant approach. This is not his club to play his version of fantasy football to emulate Pep, or Klopp or pick your coaching deity. He doesn't have their kind of squad otherwise we wouldn't be in the Championship and he wouldn't be the coach. This is what happens when you pluck a fruit from a low branch before it is ripe.
Given the highly apologetic email that was issued by the Club over Williams' signature last week, somebody at the Club is clearly suffering from buyer's remorse and trying to suppress supporters' agitation before the rumbling of discontent in the stadium and more readily heard in the hospitability suites comes to a boil. Coleman does not want to have to go through another firing and contract encumbrance if he can possibly help it ... but Williams' hasn't done Coleman and the Club any favors. Williams' honeymoon has to be over and there is the shadow of Sheehan lurking in the wings. Oh, how tempting it must be to revert to the only positive coaching performance since Andy Pandy (who I must respectfully add earned 54% of the points he competed for).
If Williams' doesn't get his shit together starting with the next match, the Club are going to have to start balancing the threat of relegation with their tolerance of Williams and their reluctance to fire. Let's hope they don't leave it too late to give Sheehan a fighting chance of leading us to survival. I am expecting Williams to double down on implementing his football fantasy ... come hell or high water. Other managers are not naïve, they all now have plenty of video to watch what Williams is demanding his players do and how other teams have shredded that approach ... and it has been a shredding. I don't see miracles happening and I don't see the high water receding; it's only going to get worse.
- Duff:
- Last 7 games, 3 home, 4 away, 43% home, 5 vs teams in the top half of the table
- W1, D3, L3, GF 7 GA 10 GD -4
- points earned 6 = 29%, final league position 18th, 5 points above relegation
- Goal: do better than Madness - Failed miserably
- Sheehan:
- 7 games, 3 home, 4 away, 43% home, 5 vs teams in the top half of the table
- W3, D2, L2, GF 9 GA 12 GD -3
- points earned 11 = 52%, final league position 16th, 10 points above relegation
- Goal: stabilize and turn around bad run of form under Duff - Achieved
- Williams:
- 7 games, 4 home, 3 away, 57% home, 5 vs teams in the top half of the table
- W1, D1, L5, GF 6 GA 15 GD -9
- points earned 4 = 19%, current league position 18th inherited 16th, 4 points above relegation
- Goal: continue positive run of form, see where it takes us, change incrementally as necessary (what else could a near term goal have been) - Failing miserably
Sheehan was scoring more, conceding less (Soton sullied the record), earning points above 50% (bettered only by Martinez, Cooper and Rogers - as best as I can tell). Sheehan stepped down with us 10 points above relegation, we are now just 4 points above relegation (1 point less than when Duffer was fired).
Williams is fixated on implementing his fantasy football style, player capabilities be damned, at the expense of results. He is not results focused otherwise he would have been far more pragmatic in his approach, respectful of what Sheehan had done, and most importantly HOW he had done it. Williams' self-appointed mission is to coach (
i.e. force) "Square-peg players into being Round-hole players" come hell or high water today. So far, it's been hell and high water ... and I don't want to hear about how fucking worldly wonderful the opposition has been ... it's his fucking job to be competitive against all opposition and we have been objectively non-competitive and too often capitulated ... and lacking "bravery" (what a prick, that term so irritates me).As you can see, each coach played an equal number of matches against clubs in the top half of the table and Williams has had the benefit of the home match bias. And, Williams has had the added benefit of new players, with Ronald being a surprisingly good addition.
To put Williams in perspective: over 11 matches, BoBo did better and earned 24% of the points played for. And Bobo was a clown without the make-up and the red nose.
I dislike Williams' arrogant, stupid and ignorant approach. This is not his club to play his version of fantasy football to emulate Pep, or Klopp or pick your coaching deity. He doesn't have their kind of squad otherwise we wouldn't be in the Championship and he wouldn't be the coach. This is what happens when you pluck a fruit from a low branch before it is ripe.
Given the highly apologetic email that was issued by the Club over Williams' signature last week, somebody at the Club is clearly suffering from buyer's remorse and trying to suppress supporters' agitation before the rumbling of discontent in the stadium and more readily heard in the hospitability suites comes to a boil. Coleman does not want to have to go through another firing and contract encumbrance if he can possibly help it ... but Williams' hasn't done Coleman and the Club any favors. Williams' honeymoon has to be over and there is the shadow of Sheehan lurking in the wings. Oh, how tempting it must be to revert to the only positive coaching performance since Andy Pandy (who I must respectfully add earned 54% of the points he competed for).
If Williams' doesn't get his shit together starting with the next match, the Club are going to have to start balancing the threat of relegation with their tolerance of Williams and their reluctance to fire. Let's hope they don't leave it too late to give Sheehan a fighting chance of leading us to survival. I am expecting Williams to double down on implementing his football fantasy ... come hell or high water. Other managers are not naïve, they all now have plenty of video to watch what Williams is demanding his players do and how other teams have shredded that approach ... and it has been a shredding. I don't see miracles happening and I don't see the high water receding; it's only going to get worse.
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Yankee_Jack
Key Player
To sum it all up: Sheehan demonstrated what this squad, properly organized and motivated, can achieve. Duff and Williams have demonstrated the exact opposite. Where does the fault lie? Same players, totally different outcomes! It's not the players.