A think today we bullied a team who in other years would’ve bullied us

......a don’t think we’re a dirty team but the players don’t shy out of 1 challenge, they battle for every ball and get involved when needed, big Val has gave each player a role and a responsibility and wether that means 2 minutes of game time or 90 they all follow there instructions!!!

Give me this any day of the week over playing from the back and making mistake after mistake putting ourselves under pressure!!!

In big Val we trust

 

We didn't bully them though. Both teams were awful. Both failed to conjure any sort of threat or play any football. We were better than them second half but that's not saying much. On the second half performance we just about deserved the win but there was no bullying, we were lucky enough that it was one of our players who hit the wonder strike.
Maybe we are in need of a break, we don't look anything like as good as we have done.

 

Not going to get one any time soon I'm afraid; 4 games before the international break in 2 weeks time.....

 

Bullied us today.

 

A must’ve watched a different game today

 

At this stage it doesn't matter how the wins come IMO. Big couple of weeks ahead for us now though and some crucial games. Does big Val change things up against Derby with an eye on the Bournemouth game at the weekend? With the rotation of the forward line I'd imagine they are generally ok but Brittain, Styles and the CMs must be knackered!!

 

I agree with you. I said to the lad. I don’t think I’ve seen us play that sort of game for a long time. Players winning balls. They would not normally.

Dike and Morris winning the vast majority of tussles.
Doing things that clubs have done to us for months. Fouls in the right area’s, disrupting flow. We are starting to use the ugly side of the game that’s necessary.

It used to be men against boys. Ours have turned into men.

 

We did bully em

 

Can you remember in the Premiership when we got loved that first half of the season, we signed Ward then the second half of the season we learnt to play the premiership way, fouling, playing the refs and doing what others were doing, we almost stopped up in the end...........this season resembles that in some respects, last year we played nice football and did things by the book and escaped by the skin of our teeth, none of that this season........were in at em’ and giving as good as what we get!!

‘Adapt and overcome’, ‘more then one way to skin a cat’, it’s called being one step in front, big Val seems to have found a system that works and it’s paying dividends, he’s made me one happy lad this season amongst the surreal times we’ve gone through too!!!

Wora guy

 

I’m expecting a totally different game against Derby who will look to play out from the back which hopefully plays into our hands.

 

Cant beat a bit of bully.

 

I read somewhere they don’t play out from the back as much under Rooney, as they did under cocu.

 

Could be that like other opposition managers Rooney completely changes tactics and tries something different

 

I think Birmingham had some success in trying to match us up today, and I put the poor quality down to that.

This is what we’re up against now. Every manager knows how we play and wants to try and counter it in different ways.

 

i agree to an extent. We've created our own perfect storm in that teams are just hitting it long to reduce being dispossessed at the back and to catch us out with players in behind. The result is the head tennis/lump it fest of yesterday's first half. Our descent into aimlessly, and it was aimless, smacking the ball forward with every first touch left us totally without threat. In the second half w e looked a bit more like what we are good at in getting the ball forward with purpose and accuracy and actually trying to play football in the final third.
Teams are being more direct against us but that doesn't mean we have to voluntarily go for the zero sum situation of much of yesterday in response. I really don't want to dislike or criticise the way we play. I'm not a big fan of our style but when we do it well it can both impress with the level of organisation and fitness plus yield some good attacking play. I started out the game against Birmingham hoping for that but nobody can tell me that's what we saw. I'm delighted we're where we are, proud of what we're achieving against all the financial odds but no one can tell me that what the commentary team described as attritional, completely lacking in quality and what we were expecting is what we should aspire to when we can do better.

 

I think our style is exciting to watch, the high press and high defensive line to be able to pull off is difficult to do, maintain and would leave us exposed against a high quality team.

There isn't though many high quality teams in the championship so we are fine playing this way but there are a lot of good sides and we need to perform at such high levels to win.

Five subs is crucial to how we play as is Mowatt, that lad deserves massive praise because playing and picking up the second ball in this high line high press and then playing is key to its success.

Birmingham today tried to match our style and they did for the first half but our fitness and quality in delivering this style of play shone through.

The first half probably seen as poor by some in fact I thought was brilliant from both teams, they had a plan to combat our play instead of playing to thier strengths, they just wasn't as good at it as us and Dike had the quality when needed.