Middlesbrough Post Match 1-0 Defeat

[Daggers]

On 12/11/2023 at 19:44, Basildon Fox said:

Wtf does that have to do with anything?

 

He is good enough or he isn't. If he has a lack of proper experience then he shouldn't be managing us in the first place.

 

What a truly desperate take to justify boring football.

There’s a cartoon been made this week just for you https://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2023/nov/14/david-squires-on-eternal-sunshine-of-the-sportless-mind

[grobyfox1990]

On 12/11/2023 at 19:44, Basildon Fox said:

Wtf does that have to do with anything?

 

He is good enough or he isn't. If he has a lack of proper experience then he shouldn't be managing us in the first place.

 

What a truly desperate take to justify boring football.

How on earth can you think the football we played at boro was boring

[Guppys Love Child]

13 minutes ago, grobyfox1990 said:

How on earth can you think the football we played at boro was boring

Because we are boring to watch IMO. 

 

Yes the reason for our current playing style isn't lost on me . (This post isn't on its effectiveness, does it work or not etc.)  I understand the mechanics of it, I appreciate it isn't aimless BrendanBall, and there is method to why we pass so much, but for the vast majority of the games we have played so far, a high percentage of each match is like pulling teeth and not very exciting to watch, to me that is, others may love the tactical side, and appreciate that style of play, and that's fine and truly hope they are getting enjoyment from it, but it's not my cup of tea.

 

Yes there are points where we break the lines and spring into action, and offer a bit of excitement to the fans but as I said, on the whole the passing far out ways the springing.

 

And it is Boring.  

[grobyfox1990]

4 minutes ago, Guppys Love Child said:

Because we are boring to watch IMO. 

 

Yes the reason for our current playing style isn't lost on me . (This post isn't on its effectiveness, does it work or not etc.)  I understand the mechanics of it, I appreciate it isn't aimless BrendanBall, and there is method to why we pass so much, but for the vast majority of the games we have played so far, a high percentage of each match is like pulling teeth and not very exciting to watch, to me that is, others may love the tactical side, and appreciate that style of play, and that's fine and truly hope they are getting enjoyment from it, but it's not my cup of tea.

 

Yes there are points where we break the lines and spring into action, and offer a bit of excitement to the fans but as I said, on the whole the passing far out ways the springing.

 

And it is Boring.  

I get the whole ‘each to their own’ argument but I find this view unfathomable. I thought we were excellent at boro, they barely got a kick in the second half, it was relentless city pressure. Enjoyed it so much I booked a flight to come back for Watford home next weekend. It’s so neat, tidy and effective. Watching winks at this level is a joy.

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, Guppys Love Child said:

Because we are boring to watch IMO. 

 

Yes the reason for our current playing style isn't lost on me . (This post isn't on its effectiveness, does it work or not etc.)  I understand the mechanics of it, I appreciate it isn't aimless BrendanBall, and there is method to why we pass so much, but for the vast majority of the games we have played so far, a high percentage of each match is like pulling teeth and not very exciting to watch, to me that is, others may love the tactical side, and appreciate that style of play, and that's fine and truly hope they are getting enjoyment from it, but it's not my cup of tea.

 

Yes there are points where we break the lines and spring into action, and offer a bit of excitement to the fans but as I said, on the whole the passing far out ways the springing.

 

And it is Boring.  

...I would not go as far as to say it is boring!!!

It is a different approach that we have to get used to and I feel the supporters are right behind the team and right up for games. The only problem is that it does not take long for us to be standing on the ball deep in our half and the supporters have nothing to feed off. It does not matter how successful we are in this process that we use, but we struggle to bring a lot of supporters to go with what we are trying to do.

[Lambert09]

5 hours ago, Guppys Love Child said:

Because we are boring to watch IMO. 

 

Yes the reason for our current playing style isn't lost on me . (This post isn't on its effectiveness, does it work or not etc.)  I understand the mechanics of it, I appreciate it isn't aimless BrendanBall, and there is method to why we pass so much, but for the vast majority of the games we have played so far, a high percentage of each match is like pulling teeth and not very exciting to watch, to me that is, others may love the tactical side, and appreciate that style of play, and that's fine and truly hope they are getting enjoyment from it, but it's not my cup of tea.

 

Yes there are points where we break the lines and spring into action, and offer a bit of excitement to the fans but as I said, on the whole the passing far out ways the springing.

 

And it is Boring.  

 

3 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...I would not go as far as to say it is boring!!!

It is a different approach that we have to get used to and I feel the supporters are right behind the team and right up for games. The only problem is that it does not take long for us to be standing on the ball deep in our half and the supporters have nothing to feed off. It does not matter how successful we are in this process that we use, but we struggle to bring a lot of supporters to go with what we are trying to do.

tbh i find man city typically terribly boring to watch. so it’s a fair take even when we are doing well.  I don’t think anyone can truthfully say the boa constrictor, slowly kill you with possession approach is as enjoyable as a slightly more gung ho approach, even if you get better results. 

 

Personally i want a balance. But I don’t find myself bored with how we are playing because i know what we will get to when we do break the lines. 

Edited 15 November 2023 by Lambert09

[trugerkem]

I’m guessing people aren’t bored with it because we are winning a lot of games … lose 8 out of the next 10 be mid table and still play this way there will be a lot more complaining about the tactics I’m sure of it … I

[Finnegan]

On 14/11/2023 at 11:35, Daggers said:

There’s a cartoon been made this week just for you https://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2023/nov/14/david-squires-on-eternal-sunshine-of-the-sportless-mind

 

Hold on a minute.... 

 

[Lillehamring]

On 13/11/2023 at 21:47, oxtonfox said:

A lot of managers are stubborn, it’s a characteristic of them. But there’s a time to ditch Plan A, when you’re a goal down with 5 minutes to play. 

But the point is, he's 16 games into his tenure and hasn't even had time to fully implement his Plan A, the idea that they've had time to work on a plan B is wildly optimistic and wholly unrealistic.

[cityfanlee23]

On 14/11/2023 at 22:47, Guppys Love Child said:

Because we are boring to watch IMO. 

 

Yes the reason for our current playing style isn't lost on me . (This post isn't on its effectiveness, does it work or not etc.)  I understand the mechanics of it, I appreciate it isn't aimless BrendanBall, and there is method to why we pass so much, but for the vast majority of the games we have played so far, a high percentage of each match is like pulling teeth and not very exciting to watch, to me that is, others may love the tactical side, and appreciate that style of play, and that's fine and truly hope they are getting enjoyment from it, but it's not my cup of tea.

 

Yes there are points where we break the lines and spring into action, and offer a bit of excitement to the fans but as I said, on the whole the passing far out ways the springing.

 

And it is Boring.  

Agreed, I really enjoy watching Man City because they have the quality to make the way they play quite entertaining, the way we have currently implemented our take on the style is often boring to watch and often quite lethargic, this season if you'd have skipped the first half of every game you'd have barely missed anything. 
I don't expect endless excitement, but I feel the balance of dominating the ball and actually creating decent chances has been leaning slightly too heavily towards dominating the ball for the sake of dominating it. I fully appreciate what we are attempting to achieve and I'm not against it, in principle I think it's a good aim and I saw what Puel was trying to do also, but in the end everyone got tired of Puel ball for similar reasons, the difference is at this level we are winning. 

 

[cityfanlee23]

On 15/11/2023 at 00:04, sacreblueits442 said:

...I would not go as far as to say it is boring!!!

It is a different approach that we have to get used to and I feel the supporters are right behind the team and right up for games. The only problem is that it does not take long for us to be standing on the ball deep in our half and the supporters have nothing to feed off. It does not matter how successful we are in this process that we use, but we struggle to bring a lot of supporters to go with what we are trying to do.

I think it's a different mindset approach. The only analogy I can give is when I talk to my friends about F1, I love F1 because it's a massively complex sport of strategy, but to my friends, it's just cars going around a track. When my friend talks to me about tennis I zone out as to me it's just hitting a ball back and forth, it's about being able to appreciate things deeper than the score where football fans often lose interest.

Personally enjoy watching Man City play their football because even when they are moving the ball around and it's going sideways, they have a very clear switch where a chance opens up and they strike, whereas at present it does not feel like we press the button as often as we could and we tend to give the opposition time to position themselves which then results in us having to pass it around longer. (maybe in time we learn to progress it more effectively)
As I pointed out on the tactics thread as an example, Winks has been incredible for us, this tactical approach works well for him, but of his 1400 passes this season, just over 300 of them have been forwards. 
He's got too much talent to be passing 5 yard balls sideways and backward all game, but that does not take away from how good I think he's doing and I'm not trying to simplify his game solely to 5 yard passes, it's just that I think at times our own tentative tempo is actually holding players like winks back from being an absolute monster. He's had 6 shots this season. 

It's an endless cycle, the slower we play, the more opportunity teams have to park the bus, the more they park the bus, the slower we are forced to play. 

[grobyfox1990]

14 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Agreed, I really enjoy watching Man City because they have the quality to make the way they play quite entertaining, the way we have currently implemented our take on the style is often boring to watch and often quite lethargic, this season if you'd have skipped the first half of every game you'd have barely missed anything. 
I don't expect endless excitement, but I feel the balance of dominating the ball and actually creating decent chances has been leaning slightly too heavily towards dominating the ball for the sake of dominating it. I fully appreciate what we are attempting to achieve and I'm not against it, in principle I think it's a good aim and I saw what Puel was trying to do also, but in the end everyone got tired of Puel ball for similar reasons, the difference is at this level we are winning. 

 

The quality in the league is terrible so that’s a massive asterisk against what I’m about to say, but could our first half ‘boring’ football contribute to second half dominance. I’ve yet to see a team, other than Sunderland and Leeds, be able to run past 70 minutes against us. 

[cityfanlee23]

1 minute ago, grobyfox1990 said:

The quality in the league is terrible so that’s a massive asterisk against what I’m about to say, but could our first half ‘boring’ football contribute to second half dominance. I’ve yet to see a team, other than Sunderland and Leeds, be able to run past 70 minutes against us. 

Yeah, I think this is partly what makes the step up to the premier league should we get promoted largely "unknown" from a tactical perspective because right now we are enjoying so much possession of the ball,  if we go up, we will likely drop from 70-80% possession to 45-60% based on opponent. I think the level of opposition is one of the reasons we have so much of the ball and struggle to break down the deep block as they tend to just sit back and setup not to concede. So right now we are learning the foundations, but next season's tactical approach might have to change quite a bit given the opposition is much stronger. There is no way we will be "wearing out" premier league teams in the manner we are now should we get promoted. But with that said, premier league teams won't be sat in a deep block parked outside of their box so you could also argue that our offensive tactics might actually work better as the strikers and wingers won't have a sea of opponents in front of them all the time.