Mr Conway you’re cash cow just netted for Wigan - Best transfer window ever eh ?

I think wev become so focussed on a certain style wev lost sight of the basics. No doubt it's a great tactic when you have the top players, we don't and probably never will have so having different options in the squad was a must. Very short sighted by all concerned, manager included.

 

Given the choice would the young fella like to resign for us or say sign for Barcelona? If both options were available.

my brother isn’t especially enamoured of working nights in food distribution but now he’s being made redundant given the choice between that and UC he would rather stay. If he can find other choices he will be happy to go.

 

My problem with the press is you spend that long harrying the opposition that you forget what you're supposed to do with the damn thing when you get it. That side of the game almost becomes secondary.

 

Yeah but you're now introducing "given the choice".

Which is beyond your original statement of "all players want to leave Barnsley" (or summat).

My point is that all players don't. Not all players have a choice.

All those who get offered something better would leave, but that is firstly bleedin obvious, and secondly not what you stated.

 

I often think that about so called "club men". Are they "club men" by choice or is it because nobody else wanted them. Jamie Carragher and Garry Neville spring to mind.

 

Le Tissier stands out for me - he must have had "better" offers.

 

I always he thought he'd have been great with Sherringham at Tottenham.

 

No it’s exactly the point. All players want to leave Barnsley is correct. If you asked any one of our players if they would stay with us if a better opportunity arose then they would at least in private say yes. Ergo all players want to leave.

 

those days are long gone.

 

Do you mean "say no"?

Anyway, i agree that if a better offer came along, they'd want to take it for obvious reasons. That doesn't mean that they necessarily want to leave at every given moment, and especially where nobody else wants them.

They only want to leave if there's a better offer elsewhere. In other words, all players want to leave Barnsley if......... Often there isn't, so often they would not want to leave, nor be expecting to.

I'm not using Le Tissier as an example for you - just answering another post btw.

Anyway, we've done this one to death.

 

I am not particularly an advocate for the press. Indeed, I moaned about the system used by Struber in connection with the press at length the other night, along with the need for some of our players to be asked to play outside their comfort zones. However, it seems that the club has decided for one reason or another that they will go in that direction, and I was exploring some of the reasoning and effects of that decision, hence my original question for Loko. As you know, systems interest me, and the illustration of the press on MotD last night interested me more, and was pertinent to my original question.

You say that the press can incorporate a big man, and I too would like to think that it can. That leads inevitably to the question, which Premier League teams play the press with a big target-man leading their line. I could not think of any, but my memory is not what it was and I am open to the possibility that I might be wrong. So that is my question, and I would be grateful to anyone who can answer it.

 

I agree there aren't many examples at top level albeit I guess it's a relatively recent phenomenon. Perhaps Edin Dzeko at city for a time, Giroud / Abraham at Chelsea?

 

I think "the press" has replaced "getting stuck in" as the new buzz term. It should be a prerequisite that teams work their gonads off to get the ball back.

 

Burnley use big men throughout their team, and try to dominate games with their size and physical presence (just like Stoke did), but they do not use the press.

Of course, once you have decided that the press does not work as well with a big man, because you cannot co-ordinate the press as well with a player that is out of step with the rest, the next question becomes, was the reason that Keiffer was not replaced with a carbon copy because neither the coach nor the CEO thought it was the right way to go.

 

But the press is more complex than that.

 

The press doesn't work as well with a big man because when he chases someone down he finds it more difficult to stop. It's like a fat bloke going for a quick single and his partner shouting two when he's ran down to the none strikers end like Usain Bolt. It isn't going to happen.

 

Noted, but I’m not sure things are quite that black and white.

 

I think eaves would have been a sound choice for a plan b option. Collins has a massive kick on him so we could have resorted to smashing the ball up to eaves and hoping he could muster one piece of skill up during the game (although doubtful)

 

Interesting thought, although I guess we'll never know for certain as we don't know who we tried to sign as Kieffer's replacement. If that is what happened then for me it raises concerns about their judgement and reinforces the doubts raised elsewhere about the efficacy of the spreadsheet. On second thoughts though and I think linking to some of your other posts (on other threads rather than this one), maybe not if it's primary purpose is to find players to develop and sell for a profit rather than to build a team to win football matches in the championship.

 

But it isn't a spreadsheet on its own is it, in fact it isn't a spreadsheet at all.

It is a database of players and their performances as recorded and documented by watchers in the UK and all over the world. When we are looking for a player, the program searches the database for players who fit the specified and very detailed criteria. The system produces a shortlist and that shortlist is assessed by the team tasked with finding suitable players. They reduce the shortlist through research, but before the club or the player, or his agent are contacted, the player is watched, several times. The Coach approves the final choice before any attempt is made to contact him. It is just laziness that passes for cynicism that allows BBSers to pretend that the process is not thorough. But you are right. The club is looking for young players with potential who they think that we can improve and eventually sell for a profit. I never understand the disgust that some hold for the process. It is a process that requires skill from BFC staff at every step of the way. It is a process that we must use because the club loses money every year before player trading. We are a club that has to do that in order to break even, and it is a process that should not be denigrated. If the fans were prepared to pay double, triple or more for the pleasure of watching, then the club would not need to sell as many players, but they are not. We are where we are, and in my view, it is better to accept that than moan and groan about the alternative.