Learning from mistakes

Are we finally learning? On the whole yesterday, the clearances were better and unlike Everton, the two late punts from the Swans were dealt with by Lloris by coming for the ball, something we have been crying out for in a keeper for a long time.

Really excellent performance yesterday , and i feel our defense on whole has improved this season, even though the facts stack up against us with the late flurry of goals conceded against us in the final ten minutes , I said in my head that this season will be a season of transit , and no doubt AVB does have something , It will take time , and getting important people who place a big role in the team back, like parker , ekotto in particular can only be good for us, im happy , but I stand by what I said the other day, but lets be fair, you have to make a mistake to learn from it .. im happy COYS

djfitzo wrote:Are we finally learning? On the whole yesterday, the clearances were better and unlike Everton, the two late punts from the Swans were dealt with by Lloris by coming for the ball, something we have been crying out for in a keeper for a long time.

certainly seems that way DJ, although I'd have to say that Swansea did make it somewhat easier for us though, in that they looked like their entire game plan was squeeze the space, frustrate the hell out of us and hope for a sniff in the latter stages when we over committed.

It didn't really happen though as we seemed to approach the whole game with patience and discipline.

My main criticism would be the decision making in the last third. We had 29 shots with 16 on target, but rarely actually worried their keeper.

Patient probing and ball retention throughout the 90, or 97 as it turned out, was the order of the day though and that was an improvement. It remains to be seen whether we can emulate this against a more attacking minded team, I'll be more convinced if and when I see that. But the good thing to see was us hunting in numbers, denying space in danger areas and going for the throat when one up. We could have had another 2 in the closing minutes.

Good day at the office, job professionally done.

ionman34 wrote:

djfitzo wrote:Are we finally learning? On the whole yesterday, the clearances were better and unlike Everton, the two late punts from the Swans were dealt with by Lloris by coming for the ball, something we have been crying out for in a keeper for a long time.

certainly seems that way DJ, although I'd have to say that Swansea did make it somewhat easier for us though, in that they looked like their entire game plan was squeeze the space, frustrate the hell out of us and hope for a sniff in the latter stages when we over committed.

It didn't really happen though as we seemed to approach the whole game with patience and discipline.

My main criticism would be the decision making in the last third. We had 29 shots with 16 on target, but rarely actually worried their keeper.

Patient probing and ball retention throughout the 90, or 97 as it turned out, was the order of the day though and that was an improvement. It remains to be seen whether we can emulate this against a more attacking minded team, I'll be more convinced if and when I see that. But the good thing to see was us hunting in numbers, denying space in danger areas and going for the throat when one up. We could have had another 2 in the closing minutes.

Good day at the office, job professionally done.

As much as I dont like Robbie Savage, he illustrated the the closing down perfectly of MOTD2 last night, the closing down of players was very important against a well drilled, good passing team like Swansea.

But and it wont be the last time, teams will stick eleven men behind the ball at WHL and wec have not been so patient before and it cost us.

All this without key players and Bale.

We won and it was 3 points and it was just what we needed but I have to admit I did find the game on the whole a bit boring.

But before everybody starts jumping all over me I will take the 3 points everytime and wait for the excitement to come later as we progress.

The problem was it was mostly midfield play with both sides cancelling each other out.

But when the final whistle came and we had the points I was real chuffed unlike the previous week when I was the most dissapointed I have been all season.

Mikey M

totalytot wrote:
We won and it was 3 points and it was just what we needed but I have to admit I did find the game on the whole a bit boring.

But before everybody starts jumping all over me I will take the 3 points everytime and wait for the excitement to come later as we progress.

The problem was it was mostly midfield play with both sides cancelling each other out.

But when the final whistle came and we had the points I was real chuffed unlike the previous week when I was the most dissapointed I have been all season.

Mikey M

Hi Mikey,

I was reading some comments on another forum, with regards to the Swansea game, and one stood out for me.

The poster in question didn't say much, just that he felt that it seems that English fans, as a whole, aren't really ready yet for the Continental way of playing.

It struck me that he was right on the money as the whole way we played was about patient probing, ball retention and looking to maneuvre the opposition around so that we could manufacture a chance.

It wasn't the 'gung ho' approach that makes the EPL so exciting, but was more a considered, patient approach more often seen on the Continent.

For me this is a step in the right direction. Getting the basics right, as AVB wants them, then building from there. I'll quite happily sit through 90 minutes of tedium, or 'purist Football' in the knowledge that, eventually, we will end up with a team that can put just about anyone to the sword whilst strangling their own attacking options.

End to end goalfests are great for the neutral but, for once, I'd like them to be the exception rather than the rule where we are concerned. Give me a run of comfortable 2 or 3 nil games, with the 'meeja' complaining that the game is negative because we owned the ball for better than two thirds of the game, and I'll be in Heaven. That kind of dominance will see us challenging regularly, which is what we all want.

Utd dominated in this manner when they has the EPL by the throat, so did Cheats ki.
Cite jihght not have done it last season but that is the way they want to play.

Swashbuckling Football will feature, but I'd rather they were the highlights of a successful campaign rather than the highlights of a 'could have been' season.

ionman34 wrote:

totalytot wrote:
We won and it was 3 points and it was just what we needed but I have to admit I did find the game on the whole a bit boring.

But before everybody starts jumping all over me I will take the 3 points everytime and wait for the excitement to come later as we progress.

The problem was it was mostly midfield play with both sides cancelling each other out.

But when the final whistle came and we had the points I was real chuffed unlike the previous week when I was the most dissapointed I have been all season.

Mikey M

Hi Mikey,

I was reading some comments on another forum, with regards to the Swansea game, and one stood out for me.

The poster in question didn't say much, just that he felt that it seems that English fans, as a whole, aren't really ready yet for the Continental way of playing.

It struck me that he was right on the money as the whole way we played was about patient probing, ball retention and looking to maneuvre the opposition around so that we could manufacture a chance.

It wasn't the 'gung ho' approach that makes the EPL so exciting, but was more a considered, patient approach more often seen on the Continent.

For me this is a step in the right direction. Getting the basics right, as AVB wants them, then building from there. I'll quite happily sit through 90 minutes of tedium, or 'purist Football' in the knowledge that, eventually, we will end up with a team that can put just about anyone to the sword whilst strangling their own attacking options.

End to end goalfests are great for the neutral but, for once, I'd like them to be the exception rather than the rule where we are concerned. Give me a run of comfortable 2 or 3 nil games, with the 'meeja' complaining that the game is negative because we owned the ball for better than two thirds of the game, and I'll be in Heaven. That kind of dominance will see us challenging regularly, which is what we all want.

Utd dominated in this manner when they has the EPL by the throat, so did Cheats ki.
Cite jihght not have done it last season but that is the way they want to play.

Swashbuckling Football will feature, but I'd rather they were the highlights of a successful campaign rather than the highlights of a 'could have been' season.

The point is Ion I, like many on here and I'm sure you also watch a lot of Spanish football and not a lot of the games are paticularly good and they play that sort of slow passing back and forth game.
Barcelona are a prime example of why do 2 or 3 passes when twenty will do.
They have some brilliant players who control a game but to me the only thing that makes it watchable is Messi who can turn a game in seconds.The rest is so predictable.

Now I'm not advocating the big boot up the middle and hope for the best but some of the football we played last season was some of the best seen in the premier ever. That's not just me saying it but quite a lot of respected journalists and managers said so.
That football is what I want to see. Keeping the ball yes but passing moves lasting 5 or 6 passes but then a goal opportunity as they move into the goal area not coming all the way back and starting again.

If we had a really class striker then playing like we did....at times...we would have won the league in my opinion.

What I'm saying is passing side ways backwards about 20 times with no movement in the opposition goal area is not a lot of fun to watch and that's why I found the Swansea game a bit boring because both sides did it.

But I'll still take the 3 points.

Mikey M