“I have seen more entertaining things come out of GBNews” – a view on the Swans?

[swansnews]

It is traditionally the start of the season when various fans from various clubs start looking around the division against all their upcoming opponents to give a view on the chances of each of those teams. It has been seen also many times over the years that some of those websites come to us for […]

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[Ringwood Jack]

Well Clive is spot on. The problem we have is we do possession for vanity's sake. We only do intensity when we are chasing the game and not from the outset. The process needs to deliver now and RM has no hiding places now unless our squad gets depleted further in this window.

 

[Risc]

Well Clive is spot on. The problem we have is we do possession for vanity's sake. We only do intensity when we are chasing the game and not from the outset. The process needs to deliver now and RM has no hiding places now unless our squad gets depleted further in this window.

Agreed. I'll give it ten games, if we do end up keeping Piroe and Obafemi, and bring in a RWB of Martin's choice, then surely we must be seeing significant improvement in results and performances ten games in.

Obviously that will change if we lose players.

 

[dickythorpe]

Saturday is a big game. We will see what our intent is.
If it's more of the same I think patience will go very quickly.
However the side we have should have goals in them so fingers crossed

 

[CurtessECarr]

Last season was let's be honest was mainly Yawnfest. The occasional entertaining performance. Can we really expect any different? I hope so but that decision is down to one man and I ''look forward'' to the next part of his (not the) process.

 

[3swan]

Well Clive is spot on.

Well over the years you’ve had to say that many times I agree with your post as well

 

[FelindreJack]

Who gives a f*ck what a QPR fan thinks? F*ck him and f*ck them.

 

[monmouth]

Indeed. I'd rather roast my own feet than go anywhere near Loftus. Where did they end up anyway? 11th. 5 points ahead on the basis of that dead rubber he's moaning about, when they were also total gash.

He's right about us for quite a few of the games, mind. Lucky he didn't see the rather too numerous games where we surrendered, still played like that but half hearted and were totally lamped.

Let's hope we are extra boring against them this year and grind them into 1-0 oblivion, twice.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

Who gives a f*ck what a QPR fan thinks? F*ck him and f*ck them.

I thought it was a more accurate description of us than I’ve heard from loads of our fans that watched every minute of every game.

I can’t see a single thing really to disagree with him about. That goal kick routine is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen (btw - the England women’s team did the same thing in the final on Sunday - I assumed that was because their goalie wasn’t as accurate with the ball at her feet, but Fisher should be given that’s exactly why we bought him).

Plus he’s funny. It’s reminiscent of the old mouthful of lead.

 

[jruss]

The goal kick routine was explained in great detail in the fans forum. It's a basic spare man concept. If you only have one player back to receive from the keeper they will usually only send one to press, then if you use the keeper in a 2 on 1 you can easily take that man out of the game straight away. In theory, it can lead you to having a spare man further up the pitch...and if you find that spare man, they have space to operate in. And someone will have to leave their man to close them down, leaving someone else in space and so on.

Obviously I cannot explain it as well as the manager did and he showed a number of clips where it worked perfectly and to be fair, a number of clips where it didn't.

It really relies on the ball moving quickly though and the positioning/thought process of the entire team. Our issues with it having watched those clips for me are more with the rest of the team, and less on Fisher. It's easy enough for him to beat the one man press but he's going to be left stranded and with bad options quickly if the rest of the team doesn't do what they should be doing.

We did it far less on Saturday, I'm not sure if that's by design or because the way Rotherham defended it took the option away.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

The goal kick routine was explained in great detail in the fans forum. It's a basic spare man concept. If you only have one player back to receive from the keeper they will usually only send one to press, then if you use the keeper in a 2 on 1 you can easily take that man out of the game straight away. In theory, it can lead you to having a spare man further up the pitch...and if you find that spare man, they have space to operate in. And someone will have to leave their man to close them down, leaving someone else in space and so on.

Obviously I cannot explain it as well as the manager did and he showed a number of clips where it worked perfectly and to be fair, a number of clips where it didn't.

It really relies on the ball moving quickly though and the positioning/thought process of the entire team. Our issues with it having watched those clips for me are more with the rest of the team, and less on Fisher. It's easy enough for him to beat the one man press but he's going to be left stranded and with bad options quickly if the rest of the team doesn't do what they should be doing.

We did it far less on Saturday, I'm not sure if that's by design or because the way Rotherham defended it took the option away.

It sounds to be fair, like exactly the sort of thing Martin could explain in great detail…

It has the same effect as taking Obafemi out of the game by him aimlessly dangling a leg when their keeper has a goal kick leaving him in an offside position whenever we win the ball back quickly.

The thing is with this stuff, and I realise it’s the same as the whole ‘pass the ball about at the back so they will have to push further up onto our back three leaving space behind to be exploited’, is it only works when you then show at least some urgency to move into that space. Otherwise all it does is opens the possibility for a calamity for no gain as they will have regrouped by the time we get anywhere near the space that was created.

Do you know the main thing though I’ve realised when typing this out. These ‘clever’ tactics sound a lot more valid when you have a team that doesn’t finish bloody 15th in a phenomenally weak championship.
It’s like that interview with him on the site after Saturday’s game. It’s in depth management speak about tactics and possession and process and movement and drive and ambition when we have just managed a draw at Rotherham. It’s one thing when it’s a draw away at Chelsea, or a win at the Emirates, but it’s a draw at Rotherham. And yet to listen to it, it’s majestic in its plan and execution, only scuppered by a dry pitch, them taking slow throw ins (no one btw takes longer than us at throw-ins).

I really want him to do well as it means we do well, but I’m going to have to avoid listening to him as it drives me mad. It’s like a conversation with someone that has swallowed all those management books you see at an airport yet has no significant success in business to speak of.

 

[Roger]

Our football is boring and it doesn't get results. Get rid of Russell Hobbs for the love of god.

 

[3swan]

The goal kick routine was explained in great detail in the fans forum. It's a basic spare man concept. If you only have one player back to receive from the keeper they will usually only send one to press, then if you use the keeper in a 2 on 1 you can easily take that man out of the game straight away. In theory, it can lead you to having a spare man further up the pitch...and if you find that spare man, they have space to operate in. And someone will have to leave their man to close them down, leaving someone else in space and so on.

Obviously I cannot explain it as well as the manager did and he showed a number of clips where it worked perfectly and to be fair, a number of clips where it didn't.

It really relies on the ball moving quickly though and the positioning/thought process of the entire team. Our issues with it having watched those clips for me are more with the rest of the team, and less on Fisher. It's easy enough for him to beat the one man press but he's going to be left stranded and with bad options quickly if the rest of the team doesn't do what they should be doing.

We did it far less on Saturday, I'm not sure if that's by design or because the way Rotherham defended it took the option away.

It has the same effect as taking Obafemi out of the game by him aimlessly dangling a leg when their keeper has a goal kick leaving him in an offside position whenever we win the ball back quickly.

Thank you thank you thank you. I sounded like a broken record at the game Saturday. He achieved nothing apart from putting himself out of the game

 

[CurtessECarr]

The goal kick routine was explained in great detail in the fans forum. It's a basic spare man concept. If you only have one player back to receive from the keeper they will usually only send one to press, then if you use the keeper in a 2 on 1 you can easily take that man out of the game straight away. In theory, it can lead you to having a spare man further up the pitch...and if you find that spare man, they have space to operate in. And someone will have to leave their man to close them down, leaving someone else in space and so on.

Obviously I cannot explain it as well as the manager did and he showed a number of clips where it worked perfectly and to be fair, a number of clips where it didn't.

It really relies on the ball moving quickly though and the positioning/thought process of the entire team. Our issues with it having watched those clips for me are more with the rest of the team, and less on Fisher. It's easy enough for him to beat the one man press but he's going to be left stranded and with bad options quickly if the rest of the team doesn't do what they should be doing.

We did it far less on Saturday, I'm not sure if that's by design or because the way Rotherham defended it took the option away.

It's a wonderful explanation. However how many goals do we score from it? Against of course how many do we concede with it? I cannot recall us being in a plus.

 

[jruss]

I couldn't give you the stats on it, only that Martin wasn't hiding from the fact it hadn't always worked. It made perfect sense when he was showing it, especially with the clips to back it up, but it making sense in a meeting room has to translate on the pitch.

It didn't sound like he was going away from it that night, but it was used much less Saturday, whether that's a one game thing based on what Rotherham were doing or a change in approach, it's hard to say until we see more games.

@Lisa ball movement and urgency is absolutely key to it, if we don't have it, it simply won't work. The Cardiff and Millwall away games were two games where I really thought we nailed that aspect. We had a zip about us that was lacking up until that point.

I'm more half full on Martin's approach coming good - while accepting all the points made here are very valid.

Darling is obviously a talented ball player, Wood surprised me Sat in he looked very confident with it and able to break lines....Joe Allen should be extremely comfortable with it. But not having genuine wing backs who offer a threat in behind is an issue. It's not a co-incidence to me we had that decent run when Wolf got up to speed and he was one side, with Christie on the other. It means teams have to respect their pace and ability to stretch them, which really helps us all over the pitch.