Knocky's Nose
Mon nez est retiré.
Leaving the Amex yesterday, piss wet through and freezing cold, I was naturally down about everything. I then came home, had a hot shower, put some warm dry clothes on - and sparked up NSC on the old computer to see what the thoughts of you good people were...
I read the 'Hughton Out' threads, then the 'We played well' thread - and all the others varying between the next apocalypse coming and blind faith and loyalty, then thought I'd give myself a nights sleep on the whole thing so I could have a rational view on it all. Here are my calm and sane thoughts, for what they are worth :
* If you actually think about the way the team played, we definitely intended to attack. We came out of the traps snapping like terriers from the kick off - so, did Chris Hughton tell them to play it safe from the off, then? It would appear not.
* Dunk slipped and gifted them the first goal. He didn't try to slip, it was an accident. Mountain to climb from there on because Burnley had the measure of us.
* Some brilliant goalkeeping against some fairly standard PL quality strikes and headers. Easy to cancel out.
So, then I start to think about the players. Not individually (although Locadia is the laziest player I've seen in a while and Bong must be Hughton's illegitimate Son the way he keeps playing him, but we digress) but... as a team.
Did anyone see Duffy (in the second half in front of the West/North corner) throw his arms up in despair, with nobody moving or wanting the pass he was trying to make? How many times do I see a player with the ball wanting to pass it - then all of our players just bloody static, expecting the man on the ball to run into a space where he can pass it? You then end up with a panicked pass which is hit too hard, or an inaccurate pass which takes 1-2 extra touches to control - after which the opposing player is already on them, then it's yet another back pass to start it all over again. Sometimes it's like groundhog day watching the games. I can't help but think that if our players put more effort in, covered more ground, ran into space to receive passes, lost their markers and ran the opposition around more we'd get better results against teams around us.
In 2017/18 we ranked overall 8th out of 20 teams for distance covered. We ran, we made space, we won games - and we comfortably stayed up.... As it stands so far in the 2018/19 we currently rank a shocking 18th out of 20 teams.
So - in my view we have a handful of genuine PL quality players, a handful of lazy players who we can't tell are PL or Championship quality, a handful of Championship quality players, and a handful of Championship quality players who could be PL level. Beyond that, we have some works in progress.
Looking at the sentences above, does this really not point to coaching - and the players themselves? Is that the first area we should point the fingers at, or do we just go for the option of blaming the Manager for not getting the best out of the players and making them want to play better? A lazy reference here, I'll give you that - but the same players under Moanrinho are a totally different proposition under Solksjaer. The work rate has doubled, and the results have followed.
I'm not sure if I've got my point across too well, but in essence I have no serious issues with Hughton and his actual tactics. I do have issues with player selection, and I certainly have issues with player effort.
Over and out.
I read the 'Hughton Out' threads, then the 'We played well' thread - and all the others varying between the next apocalypse coming and blind faith and loyalty, then thought I'd give myself a nights sleep on the whole thing so I could have a rational view on it all. Here are my calm and sane thoughts, for what they are worth :
* If you actually think about the way the team played, we definitely intended to attack. We came out of the traps snapping like terriers from the kick off - so, did Chris Hughton tell them to play it safe from the off, then? It would appear not.
* Dunk slipped and gifted them the first goal. He didn't try to slip, it was an accident. Mountain to climb from there on because Burnley had the measure of us.
* Some brilliant goalkeeping against some fairly standard PL quality strikes and headers. Easy to cancel out.
So, then I start to think about the players. Not individually (although Locadia is the laziest player I've seen in a while and Bong must be Hughton's illegitimate Son the way he keeps playing him, but we digress) but... as a team.
Did anyone see Duffy (in the second half in front of the West/North corner) throw his arms up in despair, with nobody moving or wanting the pass he was trying to make? How many times do I see a player with the ball wanting to pass it - then all of our players just bloody static, expecting the man on the ball to run into a space where he can pass it? You then end up with a panicked pass which is hit too hard, or an inaccurate pass which takes 1-2 extra touches to control - after which the opposing player is already on them, then it's yet another back pass to start it all over again. Sometimes it's like groundhog day watching the games. I can't help but think that if our players put more effort in, covered more ground, ran into space to receive passes, lost their markers and ran the opposition around more we'd get better results against teams around us.
In 2017/18 we ranked overall 8th out of 20 teams for distance covered. We ran, we made space, we won games - and we comfortably stayed up.... As it stands so far in the 2018/19 we currently rank a shocking 18th out of 20 teams.
So - in my view we have a handful of genuine PL quality players, a handful of lazy players who we can't tell are PL or Championship quality, a handful of Championship quality players, and a handful of Championship quality players who could be PL level. Beyond that, we have some works in progress.
Looking at the sentences above, does this really not point to coaching - and the players themselves? Is that the first area we should point the fingers at, or do we just go for the option of blaming the Manager for not getting the best out of the players and making them want to play better? A lazy reference here, I'll give you that - but the same players under Moanrinho are a totally different proposition under Solksjaer. The work rate has doubled, and the results have followed.
I'm not sure if I've got my point across too well, but in essence I have no serious issues with Hughton and his actual tactics. I do have issues with player selection, and I certainly have issues with player effort.
Over and out.
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