Quote from: Risso on February 10, 2019, 08:25:21 PMUtter, utter bollocks. We needed a right back, a left back and decent midfielder immediately. We got none of those.That's a bit unfair. It's not easy to get real quality players for those key positions. There was no point in buying with haste and ending up with more waste.
Utter, utter bollocks. We needed a right back, a left back and decent midfielder immediately. We got none of those.
I reckon the main reason we didn't sign more players is that we're no longer so stupid as to keep bringing in players and fecking ourselves up financially. Or at least I hope it is considering the absolute mess we got ourselves into in the summer from doing it as a second division club, if we haven't learnt from that we never will.
There's a myriad of reasons.Looking at pre-season, Wagnar took over at Huddersfield in 19th, they finished in 19th. Spent the summer doing double training, took them on some bizarre special forces type selection training week in the Swedish wilderness and they came back running everybody off the park. Promoted.Warnock took over another limited side, probably did better to get then 12th and then drilled a work ethic into them. Promoted too.Farke has had 4 windows now and they're going up.There's certainly something in it when you're going from one style to another. The whole "they're professionals" and should be able to get on with it smacks of naivety and somebody whose never managed. Managing is like trying to herd cats.Look at Snoddy last season and look at him now. He's probably a stone lighter at least. Bruce clearly had a laissez faire attitude to preparation; fitness, tactics and squad building.We saw significant improvement; men hitting the box, quick movement of the ball and some dominating displays.What's changed is how the wide play has dropped. We're slow to transition wide and we've slowed down how quick we move the game on.We've also dropped deeper to accomodate Whelan. This happened during the good run. Think chalk and cheese of the first 30 odd minutes against the Noses.Grealish and Tuanzebe contributed to moving it wide or out of defence and in the former, taking players away to create space. Our movement looks poor because our midfield doesn't switch it or move it on.We've seen flashes during this run. Second half against Swansea we got Hourihane further forward and really deserved to win. We spent 15 minutes battering Sheffield. 25 good minutes against QPR.It's not enough at the moment though.
Quote from: olaftab on February 10, 2019, 10:01:32 PMQuote from: Risso on February 10, 2019, 08:25:21 PMUtter, utter bollocks. We needed a right back, a left back and decent midfielder immediately. We got none of those.That's a bit unfair. It's not easy to get real quality players for those key positions. There was no point in buying with haste and ending up with more waste.Neil Taylor is the one of the worst left backs I’ve ever seen. There wasn’t a single gettable replacement anywhere in the world of football who would have improved us? Look how many goals we ship, and look at how many originate from the flanks. Hutton was at least partially responsible for two of Sheffield’s goals on Friday. Add in no decent defensive midfielder, and the failure to replace any of these three is why we’re dropping further and further away from the play offs, and will be lucky at this rate to finish mid table.
So Smith hasn’t had 4 months to work on their fitness, if it’s as suspect as people claim.And the fitness prior to him arriving was that bad he played the oldest member of the squad in every game over the hectic Christmas period.
Quote from: Ads on February 10, 2019, 09:09:21 PMThere's a myriad of reasons.Looking at pre-season, Wagnar took over at Huddersfield in 19th, they finished in 19th. Spent the summer doing double training, took them on some bizarre special forces type selection training week in the Swedish wilderness and they came back running everybody off the park. Promoted.Warnock took over another limited side, probably did better to get then 12th and then drilled a work ethic into them. Promoted too.Farke has had 4 windows now and they're going up.There's certainly something in it when you're going from one style to another. The whole "they're professionals" and should be able to get on with it smacks of naivety and somebody whose never managed. Managing is like trying to herd cats.Look at Snoddy last season and look at him now. He's probably a stone lighter at least. Bruce clearly had a laissez faire attitude to preparation; fitness, tactics and squad building.We saw significant improvement; men hitting the box, quick movement of the ball and some dominating displays.What's changed is how the wide play has dropped. We're slow to transition wide and we've slowed down how quick we move the game on.We've also dropped deeper to accomodate Whelan. This happened during the good run. Think chalk and cheese of the first 30 odd minutes against the Noses.Grealish and Tuanzebe contributed to moving it wide or out of defence and in the former, taking players away to create space. Our movement looks poor because our midfield doesn't switch it or move it on.We've seen flashes during this run. Second half against Swansea we got Hourihane further forward and really deserved to win. We spent 15 minutes battering Sheffield. 25 good minutes against QPR.It's not enough at the moment though.Very good points here.As regards the criticisms of others as regards fitness,Bruce initially improved the fitness of RDM's squad which would get battered in the last 15 minutes.Whether those fitness levels have been maintained is hard to quantify because Villa unusually have scored lots of late goals this season.What is not in doubt is the midfield is not equipped to deal with the pace of the Championship.To be fair probably no Championship midfield is,witness Sheffield's capitulation.However,our is one of the slowest along with Albion's who are prospering because of their attacking prowess.The identikit good Championship side seems to play one two touch rapid passing and develop attacks as quick as possible,Derby,Norwich,Sheff U,Leeds and Forest spring to mind.What they lack at times is accuracy and good defenders.What we had with Grealish was the possession,accuracy and the ability to bring wide players into play in the final third and provide skill as an antidote to fast running as Clough and Shankly used to preach about the ball moving faster tha n players .The essence of Whelan's game changing cameo on Friday in a similar but slower vein to Clough's go to midfielder ,McGovern who was fundemental to Derby and Forest winning the league and like Ken McNaught was the only Scot to have won the European Cup without winning a cap because he seemed so ordinary,decent defensively and could offer quick short accurate passing which led to counter attacks but was ignored because he didn't offer the more eye catching flamboyancy of others.A Carrick compared to the Lampards and Gerrards.In essence,I hope that we will become a superior Brentford,a skilful side that moves the ball quickly and whose players offer good movement that is difficult to defend against.
I actually think that should have been addressed - by Bruce when he had the opportunity on the summer. i think the latest accounts will make interesting reading.