On Reflection

P

Poolview

Well-known member
Our first season in the Championship, favourites for relegation and plagued with injuries.
We are mid table and for a while a chance of the play offs. Yesterday was a blip, but the signs were there. We are organised in our defensive positions and hard to break down.
However in possession we don;t seem to be able to put more than two passes together, we give the ball away in our half and because players are no longer in that effective defensive shape, we are scrambling. Until Forest we were getting away with it, but luck doesn't last forever.
I would like to see us change defense to attack a lot quicker, no more square or back passes, get the ball in their half where mistakes are not as costly. I don't mean a boot up field, just pass and move, get their defense scrambling.
. We have wingers lets get the ball to them, we have good forwards lets get the ball to them.
Still a great season and can we please win on Tuesday
 
Poolview said:
Our first season in the Championship, favourites for relegation and plagued with injuries.
We are mid table and for a while a chance of the play offs. Yesterday was a blip, but the signs were there. We are organised in our defensive positions and hard to break down.
However in possession we don;t seem to be able to put more than two passes together, we give the ball away in our half and because players are no longer in that effective defensive shape, we are scrambling. Until Forest we were getting away with it, but luck doesn't last forever.
I would like to see us change defense to attack a lot quicker, no more square or back passes, get the ball in their half where mistakes are not as costly. I don't mean a boot up field, just pass and move, get their defense scrambling.
. We have wingers lets get the ball to them, we have good forwards lets get the ball to them.
Still a great season and can we please win on Tuesday
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Quite right, mate. Every man and his dog saw us as 6pts and relegation fodder.

Add up all the injuries and I can’t work out who our best starting should be.

I dare say Critch will already knows who to release and some idea of replacements. No bargain buckets anymore. Players will want to come here. The bad news is that the vultures will want to scoop our best players. Imagine losing Marvin and Josh?
 
Tend to agree, Too much square passing & back to the keeper who 8 out of 10 times hoofs it upfield after dithering too much to make a pass . Most of Dougals touches are passing it back to the keeper rather than forward .
 
XBeds-Now-Kings_Meaburn said:
Tend to agree, Too much square passing & back to the keeper who 8 out of 10 times hoofs it upfield after dithering too much to make a pass . Most of Dougals touches are passing it back to the keeper rather than
20togo said:
saturday was a bigger blip. Agree about getting the ball forward quicker though.
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Disagree,
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Florist were in 'shit or bust had to go for it' mode, we were just not quite on it.
They had all the bounce of the ball, and the ref only ever seemed to be looking one way. He obviously thought Madine to be a fish due to his countenance of the defender (Figueiredo -3?) chucking Madine into the net.
 
SeasideTerrier said:
Florist were in 'shit or bust had to go for it' mode, we were just not quite on it.
They had all the bounce of the ball, and the ref only ever seemed to be looking one way. He obviously thought Madine to be a fish due to his countenance of the defender (Figueiredo -3?) chucking Madine into the net.
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not sure what you are disagreeing with. The o/p said the match was yesterday and that's why I said saturday was a bigger blip which is when the match actually was. It was just a little joke, that's all.
 
I agree we need to move the ball quicker and have said the same previously.
Russell Martin has proved possession based football isn't necessarily winning football.
HOWEVER on Saturday we played 129 passes in our own half out of a total of 362 passes.
Forest's figures were 189/388.
 
I think we can make the mistake of reading far too much into a single game. They were on it and everything ran for them and we were sluggish after a lengthy break, with too many players just not at the races.

Saturday was one of very few outliers in an otherwise very solid first season in the Chsmpionship.
 
20togo said:
not sure what you are disagreeing with. The o/p said the match was yesterday and that's why I said saturday was a bigger blip which is when the match actually was. It was just a little joke, that's all.
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'bigger blip' was the noun phrase I picked up on. Simple as that. I tend not to analyse the actual time of posting by each and everyone. I follow the main thrust of the subject matter. Apologies for not having the wisdom to fully appreciate your genial humour.
 
Forest were by far the better team. However, they perfected the little nudges, blocks off the ball and niggle stuff. Sometimes think we are still a little nieve.
Having said that, I'm delighted with the season and very excited about the future. Which is Tangerine.
 
Its been a brilliant season back in the Championship, we've never once been remotely close to the bottom and relegation fears disappeared before Christmas, that's more than job done for this year and we're in a great position to push on with a coach and owner who wouldn't settle for anything less.

Did anyone think we'd be where we are now in league position/ownership/manager four years ago?

Added to that is the double we're just about to do over them lot at the dark end of the M55.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
Its been a brilliant season back in the Championship, we've never once been remotely close to the bottom and relegation fears disappeared before Christmas, that's more than job done for this year and we're in a great position to push on with a coach and owner who wouldn't settle for anything less.

Did anyone think we'd be where we are now in league position/ownership/manager four years ago?

Added to that is the double we're just about to do over them lot at the dark end of the M55.
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It's been a fantastic season to think where we are. Any idea of reaching the top six was always pretty unrealistic. We've proven to the rest of the league we are no mugs. We're in for an interesting summer that's for sure with seeing who goes and who comes in. Still a lot of hard work for Critchley to do if he keeps wanting to take us forward.
 
Fantastic season safety and beating the Nobbers was all that I wished for hopefully the double.🤞

Ironically Grimshaw,Thornley and Hamilton where all poor on Saturday and if you looked at the bench the three players they replaced sat there first time for a while!
 
Insider said:
I agree we need to move the ball quicker and have said the same previously.
Russell Martin has proved possession based football isn't necessarily winning football.
HOWEVER on Saturday we played 129 passes in our own half out of a total of 362 passes.
Forest's figures were 189/388.
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One time first half we won the ball edge of their box, 2 passes later it was with Epo/Thorniley, whoever, last man in our half, who probably gave it away. To me that sums up where we are at.

Fantastic season though, beyond realistic expectations and as 20s say summer is going to be hellish interesting. P/Os were never in my mind- we're a bit off those yet.
 
We were shite and to be fair to Forest they deserved the win, probably the worst we’ve played all season which isn’t that bad going considering we’re 38 games in. It’s been a very good season overall, it’s such a hard division and to be safe as early on as we were shoes how far we’ve come and who knows what next season will bring
 
fcblackpool said:
One time first half we won the ball edge of their box, 2 passes later it was with Epo/Thorniley, whoever, last man in our half, who probably gave it away. To me that sums up where we are at.

Fantastic season, beyond realistic expectations and as 20s say summer is going to be hellish interesting.
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Let's not be to harsh on Saturdays performance we looked sluggish and the big gap between games did us no good.
The same tactics have worked many times this season against teams on paper who have better sides with the salaries and fees paid for them etc.

Bowler aside who is our million pound player or someone on 15k+ a week most have in the league.
 
I think the midfield has, and still is, our main problem. We've had injuries to Stewart, Virtue, Ward and Carey, and we've had to use Wintle, Connolly and James there which isn't ideal (although Wintle and Connolly have done a good job). The Stewart and Dougall partnership has done well for us but it's too defensive really and they struggle to support the front players, or provide quality service to them consistently. We have played our best football this season when we've had Carey and Anderson in the team (Reading away and Huddersfield away) - note I said not our best results necessarily, but we looked a top six side for large periods of those two games. The good thing is clearly Critchley feels the same, which is why for the past two transfer windows we've made Brannagan our top transfer target.

The foundations of a very good championship team is there imo. If we can get a full, injury free season from Anderson and Carey, along with a player like Brannagan in, then I could definitely see us improving on this season next time round.

Also, don't underestimate the importance of getting a foothold in this league. We can probably raise the level of player we can realistically attract now that we're not seen as relegation fodder any more.
 
20togo said:
It's been a fantastic season to think where we are. Any idea of reaching the top six was always pretty unrealistic. We've proven to the rest of the league we are no mugs. We're in for an interesting summer that's for sure with seeing who goes and who comes in. Still a lot of hard work for Critchley to do if he keeps wanting to take us forward.
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We're not really good enough yet for the play offs (well the table doesn't lie) but we're not far off by any stretch, a decent summer* (which we'll more than likely have) and we'll be a force next season, which is probably the way to do it growth wise. We have been bloody unlucky with injuries.


*just that player every other team wants, a playmaker, a bit of a calm presence in the middle who can see a pass, not even a playmaker so much as a B Ferguson type (and keep Josh, oh and a fit Mad Uncle Richard for the majority of the season).
 
Just beat the scum tomorrow night and frankly we wouldn’t have cared if it had been 7-1 to Forest.

Go to Deepdale. Beat them and I don’t care how either. Just beat them and all is milk and honey
 
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