Anyone else buying into Critchley’s style of play yet?

Shiggy said:
I just don’t think that’s the case.

We’ve got the best home record in the division. Every time I watch the players I see total application and commitment. We’ve won pretty comfortably at home a number of times.

The poor atmosphere is a combination of things like I said but mainly the clubs we’re playing against and the fact that we’re expected to win a lot of those games. In the championship we were underdogs a bit.

We’re winning and scoring good goals and not giving teams a sniff and if that’s not enough for people then I don’t know what is.
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Why don’t you try reading a few of the posts above then, ignorance is bliss hey 🙄
 
Wizaard said:
Miles away? That's where you are when we're playing away.

Port Vale is the only game where we've never been in the game even when we've lost. In no other game have we been outplayed.
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yes of course we are not miles away. Far from it. Even though the football at home is mainly uninspiring it's getting the results and will continue to do so.. But we have to address our away form. And soon.
 
Shiggy said:
The poor atmosphere is just the reality of league 1.

No big derby games besides Bolton.

I think if you were to describe fan feelings towards the majority of clubs that visit Bloomfield road this season it would be ambivalent. None of us really care about Exeter City or Bristol Rovers or Northampton Town. I don’t mean that in a snobbish way either. They probably don’t care about Blackpool. I just don’t think anyone is ever going to be excited for those fixtures.

When you compare it to the previous two seasons where we were playing Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and then big championship teams who would bring large followings it’s no surprise the atmosphere has flattened.

Of course, there does seem to be this constant negativity around that doesn’t seem to be going away despite 7 straight home wins. The football is always labelled as flat and boring but only 5 teams have scored more goals than us this season and, as highlighted, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

Maybe if the form continues to improve and we find ourselves in the top 6 come March we might finally see it start to pick up. It doesn’t help that we’re perpetually 8th in the table.
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Add in expectation. We're expecting to beat sides and when we do it's not as exciting as the championship, where just holding bigger clubs is a result.
 
Memphisboy said:
Norburn in slow it all down shock!! Who’d have guessed
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I think Norburn is the main cause of the lack of tempo tbh. He is not the inspirational leader I expected, always playing the safe pass and never driving forward with the ball. Whether he is playing under orders I don't know but you hardly ever see him trying to play in the opponents half.

I am beginning to wonder whether he is the main problem, as captain he is the one who should be setting the tone. Also there seems to be some sort of rift between him and some of the players, Hubby in particular.
 
20togo said:
You only pull opposition players out of position if you play at pace by moving the ball around quickly. We don't do that. Neither of our goals yesterday were scored by pulling players out of position. We never pulled their players out of position all game. Yes, we got into some good positions where our final ball was poor but that wasn't caused by us pulling the opposition all over the park. It was caused by the fact we are simply a better team than them. Their keeper never really had a save to make whereas if we'd pulled their players out of position we'd have been thru on goal which we never were.

It was a very comfortable win and I'll take any win but the slow patient football was far from exciting. And is a big factor as to why thy the atmosphere is so flat. Why? Because we never put any team under sustained pressure.
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I don’t agree. To me the tactics we deployed - particularly in the first half - were very obvious and very specific. We tried draw Exeter into pressing and we moved the ball laterally across the defence and midfield in the hope we drew that press and could then quickly switch flanks or play a quick one two to find ourselves not attacking a team with 11 men behind the ball. The long balls over the top, whether it be aimed centrally or out towards the corners kept Exeter guessing - they either get up close to Dembele, or risk CJ and Joseph running in behind them. Rhodes didn’t have a great game but his intelligence was on show in how he moves around the pitch, sometimes dropping much deeper, sometimes forcing the press, sometimes even drifting out wide and playing knock ons to the overlapping/underlapping wide players.
The final balls weren’t great yesterday but on another day CJ, Dembele and Joseph have several 1 on 1’s. The crossing from out wide was lacking too - when the ball needs fizzing across the goal we floated it in and when it needed floating to the back post we hammered it across the box.
We scored 2. It could have been more. Their manager even says we caused them a lot of problems.
 
LA1 Seasider said:
I don’t agree. To me the tactics we deployed - particularly in the first half - were very obvious and very specific. We tried draw Exeter into pressing and we moved the ball laterally across the defence and midfield in the hope we drew that press and could then quickly switch flanks or play a quick one two to find ourselves not attacking a team with 11 men behind the ball. The long balls over the top, whether it be aimed centrally or out towards the corners kept Exeter guessing - they either get up close to Dembele, or risk CJ and Joseph running in behind them. Rhodes didn’t have a great game but his intelligence was on show in how he moves around the pitch, sometimes dropping much deeper, sometimes forcing the press, sometimes even drifting out wide and playing knock ons to the overlapping/underlapping wide players.
The final balls weren’t great yesterday but on another day CJ, Dembele and Joseph have several 1 on 1’s. The crossing from out wide was lacking too - when the ball needs fizzing across the goal we floated it in and when it needed floating to the back post we hammered it across the box.
We scored 2. It could have been more. Their manager even says we caused them a lot of problems.
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In the post i replied to you on you openly state the transition play was too slow. Think that says it all. And I haven't said the tactics weren't obvious and specific either. Because they are pretty much the same as every other home game. Fact is we had no one on ones and their keeper didn't have a save of note to make. You say "we tried...." but it didn't work. Why? Because it's slow safe possession football along the back line and often back again. The opposition don't need to press us when we do that because we are not hurting them at all. They just have to retain their shape which is what they did and so many occasions it just resulted in long balls being played which again caused no real threat and I reckon Exeter were more than happy for us to keep going long. Let's face it, and yes there was the penalty miss but apart from that, if it hadn't been for two great Morgan strikes we never looked like scoring,

On the whole, our style of play at home is very predictable. Our desire to play as we do fails to create any sustained pressure and is why the atmosphere is so poor.We win games simply because as a team we are better than most. Just to make it clear though as long as we keep winning then yep I'm happy. 3 points is the key point as it stands. Especially at home because we are struggling badly away from home. And whilst we are failing to pick up points away from home it just adds to the pressure to get the points at home.
 
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20togo said:
In the post i replied to you on you openly state the transition play was too slow. Think that says it all. And I haven't said the tactics weren't obvious and specific either. Because they are pretty much the same as every other home game. Fact is we had no one on ones and their keeper didn't have a save of note to make. You say "we tried...." but it didn't work. Why? Because it's slow safe possession football along the back line and often back again. The opposition don't need to press us when we do that because we are not hurting them at all. They just have to retain their shape which is what they did and so many occasions it just resulted in long balls being played which again caused no real threat and I reckon Exeter were more than happy for us to keep going long. Let's face it, and yes there was the penalty miss but apart from that, if it hadn't been for two great Morgan strikes we never looked like scoring,

On the whole, our style of play at home is very predictable. Our desire to play as we do fails to create any sustained pressure and is why the atmosphere is so poor.We win games simply because as a team we are better than most.
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Ok - so our tactics mean Exeter (and others) are happy to keep 11 behind the ball… which means they’re happy to sit deeper and prevent us getting players running in behind the defence… which means our midfield finds itself with time and space to take a shot from distance…
Any coincidence Rhodes has a couple of goals resulting from deflecting long range shots ?
Also if our tactics are so very easy to defend against - how come we’re so very successful at home ? - where if anything teams are more happy to sit 11 behind the ball ?
Also how come we have one of the best goal differences at home ? Score plenty, concede few ?
The tactics may not be pretty at times and I do think we’d be even more successful if the midfield were a little more direct (but my gripe is mainly 1/2 individuals being particularly cautious as opposed to the tactics more generally).

Never looked like scoring - yet were a team that scores plenty at home and has done all season.

I just don’t agree with your assessment at all.
 
I actually thought the formation and style of play was decent. You could see them moving the ball around waiting for the right pass. Man City do this which I know is a weird comparison. I've absolutely no problem with how we played. The problem is away from home when everything decent about it turns to pot and we look like bunch of strangers.
 
LA1 Seasider said:
Ok - so our tactics mean Exeter (and others) are happy to keep 11 behind the ball… which means they’re happy to sit deeper and prevent us getting players running in behind the defence… which means our midfield finds itself with time and space to take a shot from distance…
Any coincidence Rhodes has a couple of goals resulting from deflecting long range shots ?
Also if our tactics are so very easy to defend against - how come we’re so very successful at home ? - where if anything teams are more happy to sit 11 behind the ball ?
Also how come we have one of the best goal differences at home ? Score plenty, concede few ?
The tactics may not be pretty at times and I do think we’d be even more successful if the midfield were a little more direct (but my gripe is mainly 1/2 individuals being particularly cautious as opposed to the tactics more generally).

Never looked like scoring - yet were a team that scores plenty at home and has done all season.

I just don’t agree with your assessment at all.
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and i don't agree with your assessment but hey it's all about opinions.

To answer your points though. Rhodes has scored a couple of deflections. Good, we probably don't take enough long range shots but that's not by moving the opposition about is it? Already covered your next point too. We are comfortably better than most teams in this division as we should be. So yep, we should be winning most games whether teams come to defend or not. And because of that it's reasonable to think we should have one of the best goal differences at home. And you now actually concede that the tactics are not pretty at times. So far, that's a good few times. For me it's similar to away games. We don't put the opposition from the kick off under any sustained pressure. It's slow safe possession football played in the hope that eventually we create something which at home is often the case that we do. It often looks like the team need to get an early goal to give the players belief. There's very little excitement watching home games at the moment and that reflects in the atmosphere. But hey long as we are winning then that's fine.
 
20togo said:
yes of course we are not miles away. Far from it. Even though the football at home is mainly uninspiring it's getting the results and will continue to do so.. But we have to address our away form. And soon.
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I agree.
 
Hazi said:
The penalty was a noteable save and the two Morgan goals would of been saved of note had he made them.
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the penalty save was as easy as they come. And he had no chance with the long range shots so they weren't saves. The keeper had very little to do because we never really got in behind them. Why? Because we never really pulled them out of position to create actual chances. The style we play is structured around safe possession football and slow patient build up play and being efficient but it's uninspiring with little excitement and why the atmosphere is so flat. Everybody is waiting for something to happen.
 
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20togo said:
the penalty save was as easy as they come. And he had no chance with the long range shots so they weren't saves. The keeper had very little to do because we never really got in behind them. Why? Because we never really pulled them out of position to create actual chances.
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We won. You always say you prefer points over style. What's changed?
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
Do people think that managers still spot players and go to the owner with a list?

Bless, it's not 1965, get with the times grandads.
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To underline this, it seemed pretty clear that we jettisoned this approach and went back to the old fashioned managers list with Appleton. I doubt we will ever seek or allow the jettison of the committee approach again under Sadler.
 
It is boring to watch and the atmosphere matches the dull style of play

I can't even be arsed arguing with people on this site these days

Apathy rules
 
People go on about the good home form. It means absolutly nothing whilst the likes of Cambridge, Burton and Port Vale wipe the floor with us away from home.

All the good home form is doing is preventing Critchley from being under serious pressure. It makes wins at home a must. Fans are not going to get excited by that.
 
Wizaard said:
We won. You always say you prefer points over style. What's changed?
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nothings changed at all. I'd much prefer to win playing like we did rather than lose in a highly entertaining end to end game. But you can't get away from the point that it's pretty uninspiring football which does nothing to excite the crowd. I'd say most people left the ground happy that we won but as a game it wasn't that enjoyable.
 
Wizaard said:
Who said this on January 2nd?
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You know i said it because you quoted by me. And that is what i've continued to say. But it's not a great to watch is it? Even you must admit the atmosphere is flat. Why is that? Because the stands are waiting for something to lift them. I was sat there on saturday and i said to my lad after about 20 minutes that's nothing happened.
 
Undoubtedly it wasn't an entertaining spectacle on Saturday. If the opposition aren't very good that often happens.
When we played Forest it was backs against the wall and it was an "exciting" match by the very nature of the effort we put in but in the main it was a defensive effort as opposed to an offensive one. So like has been said exciting football isn't much good if its losing football.
We have quite clearly set up the same every match this season (3-5-2) but I don't know what "nuances", if any, there are in Critch's instructions to the players before each match.
On Saturday Albie was clearly and quite rightly MOM. However I remember saying before he scored that his passing was poor. His stats show he only had 3/9 accuracy with his long balls. I'd add though that in Albie's case his "long ball" is a cut above a hoof. He does try the probing pass and these are the ones that don't always come off. He's rapidly becoming an influential player for us.
So am I buying into Critcley's style of play?
It's hard to fully accept it when our away form is so poor. I do think he can be very rigid (far more so than Critch MK1) but the same 11ish playing the same formation every week isn't necessarily a bad thing.
 
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Wizaard said:
You were moaning about Saturday, not away games per se. Something about their keeper not being tested.
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but it applies home and away surely. Anyway, it's on to the next game so let's see what happens. [sxcluding forest]
 
Martonmosser said:
And if we had scored there might have been the excitement similar to CJs goal against the nobbers at home last season……. lot of if’s there isn’t there 😉
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The manager behind the excitement of CJ's 4th goal against the Nobbers was also the manager who was in large part responsible for our relegation because of the terrible way that he set the team up.

I'd have chosen a bit less attempted excitement from Appleton last year if it meant staying in The Championship. Similarly, I want Critchley to try to get us promoted this year which means managing games properly and not ** around with a vague notion of trying to be exciting when we're 2-0 up.
 
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