It won’t. It doesn’t matter whether we stay up or not, haven’t you been seeing what’s actually going on? The owners have treated the fans with sheer distain over the past 3 weeks.
Many posters talk about the high press in isolation from the system. It is not a component that can be tacked on. It is part of the system and it has knock on effects from front to back. The high press has to be carried out by enough players to not only tackle the opposition player with the ball, but also to mark all his close passing options. The idea is to catch the player on the ball, to force him to make a passing error or simply to make him pass the ball long or kick the ball out of play. Liverpool are the best exponent of the tactic at the moment, but even Liverpool could not make the system work until they got more pace in their defense. The problem with the high press was evident even last season. When we played teams with more pace, if they were able to beat our press, and they had the extra numbers beyond the press, they could hurt us with their pace before any of our pressing players could get back to rejoin the game. The press has to be supported by a high defensive line, otherwise there is too much space for the midfield to cover effectively. Too much room for the opposition to play in. But a high defense is a mistake when they are slow, and the opposition have pace and room. It was always going to be a mistake this season against quicker and more skillful teams. In fairness Stendel recognised that, and our system was adapted from last season's version. This season was still a press, but it had fewer players. It was a more cautious press. Even now, when we are playing 5-3-2, we still try to put pressure on the opponent with the ball, but now we just use the 2 up front plus McGeehan. Everyone else drops off and marks deeper. We cannot be caught so easily on the counter-attack. We are in a better defensive shape. Of course we are still conceding goals, but they are coming late in games when we are tired, and they are coming from individual errors, from losses of concentration. The team is still learning. It is still a young team that has a long way to go. But the team now has more structure and better organisation. If you judge only from the final result, the team is still not winning. If you judge from patterns of play and logical structure, there is more hope.
Could sit and argue about systems and tactics all day. Individual errors at the back and missed chances stick out more to me than anything.
But what if you judge from the state of the players after the last two matches and the mounting disciplinary problems?
When alls said and done, we're up against players on big money, many with experience of championship and premier league most weeks. No amount of running ourselves into the ground is going to bridge that gap on a regular basis. It might work in the odd game, or part thereof. Having said that, we've got to try something.
This is why it’s important we stay up this season. The board said (and I agree) that it’s only with consolidation at this level that the plan starts to really work. Retain players easier, and keep attracting more overseas quality. When players do leave, ultimately we’re getting more money for them as they have Champ experience. For me, this season is one of the most pivotable of seasons. We just need to do a Millwall etc and scrap for every point (on the pitch, not in the stands lol). This squad has enormous potential, but lacks the experience. Sometimes the only way to get experience is to suffer the pain. Diaby, Mads, Halme and Toby - all made costly errors this season. But they’ll learn from it and the experience they get from it will make them stronger players in the future.
I think the plan works better with relegation. Survive by the skin of your teeth with your players shown to be struggling and they aren't worth much. Get relegated, they shine in the league below and the bids come in.
But the club loses £6million upon relegation. The plan works better by staying up. I hope to find out anyway!
We had just 1 booking against Swansea. Do you realise that last season that we outnumbered our opponents 2 booking to 1 over the season, even though we had more possession. Generally, those booking came from players who were caught out of position and the wrong side of their opponent. Eight bookings in a game is worrying, but equally, it may just be a one off.
I do not agree, and the reason is in my last Talking Finance. The owners have said many times that it is a long term plan. Start thinking long term.
The club loses £6m minus what it saves on player wage reductions. Conversely on promotion it gains £6m minus player wage increases. See last Talking Finance.
Best ref I've seen for letting play continue at Oakwell against Swansea. Not holding my breath this will become a regular occurrence!
I have read your threads, and I’m already aware of the likelihood that with relegation/promotion the players’ salaries will change. That does not argue with the point I made to SuperTyke, that by losing £6million when relegated his utterance that the ‘plan’ works better in L1 is nonsense. Such a small pool of evidence for people to work with I guess. But I’m feeling safe when suggesting the ownership would rather the club be in as high a tier as possible.
I think from day 1 last season promotion was ours to throw away. We had the second best budget in L1... so we finished where we ort to.. second. Where Sunderland under achieved, Too many draws at the start of the season did for em really, The cup run and too many games in hand didn't help at the end. But don't forget Sunderland took 4 points off us last season. so it was a close run thing.. Luton of course over achieved to finish top, but they carried on there form and momentum for the previous season.
