Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

[surge]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

Newcastle spent 35m on a forward who can't score. So we can all sit and criticise the recruitment all we want (and i have done) but we've decreased average age and improved the floor of the squad. Sheff Utd were never going to stay up numerous years this time round.

The game is to incrementally improve. Add saleable assets to trade on. Improve floor and general quality of squad so when you do come back you don't rebuild whilst in PL but just try to add 2/3 1st 11 ready players. Ultimately we haven't been good enough in all areas....

Recruitment included in that. We likely needed to go with more 1st team ready hardened players but at risk of comitting long contracts to older players. Club is in much netter shape asset wise than it was when we arrived in PL.

https://twitter.com/Blades_analytic/...97776338960388

Thought it was interesting to add this to a thread raising lack of football ability while looking at a side who are coming down from premier league (Sheffield United) and what their fans are saying. We didn't spend as big as Newcastle but was there any way Warnock improved the floor and quality of the squad either with the premier league money or the parachute payments? Is that why we're seeing this particular tactic now? Arguably the type of player he was looking at was good but then really struggled to adjust his tactics to reflect the better quality we had.

[Enoch Mort]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

Neil Warnock also said that Sol Bamba's a better defender than Virgil van Dijk.

Neil Warnock regularly talks about players, referees, supporters, etc, being either the best or the worst he's ever seen during his career, depending on where he is at that particular point in time.

Basically, Neil Warnock talks a lot. And talks a lot of shit.

Exactly and it's all for the greater good of Neil Warnock

[The Hooded Claw]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

Saturday’s game was a reality check: for all the great results we’ve had lately, this squad has a long way to go before it can be considered worthy of promotion and standing a cat in hell’s chance of passing muster in the Premier League.
Wales Online have an interesting article today, resurrecting the rumours of signing Jordan Rhodes, who it seems McCarthy would prefer over Glatzel.

[Moodybluebird]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

Saturday’s game was a reality check: for all the great results we’ve had lately, this squad has a long way to go before it can be considered worthy of promotion and standing a cat in hell’s chance of passing muster in the Premier League.
Wales Online have an interesting article today, resurrecting the rumours of signing Jordan Rhodes, who it seems McCarthy would prefer over Glatzel.

To be fair to the team, they were running on empty after the Bournemouth game, so whilst I agree we have a way to go before we can be considered a team worthy of promotion, I don't for one minute think that the performance at Middlesbrough was a reality check.

Our game as we know is based on pressing the opposition and fighting for every ball. This is the Mick McCarthy way. It was inevitable that having worked so hard to improve our league position, there would come a time when we would hit a wall. But we still came away with a very useful point. Having plunged down the league before MM was appointed, anything we achieve this season is a bonus

[dml1954]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

You are the only person in this thread so far to have said this. You're right about it being ridiculous though.

Perhaps you should read the original post and heading. It clearly suggests this could be the case.

[City123]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

The thing is, you have been critical over quite a long period of time of the teams ability and standard of coaching. So therefore it is not a surprise to me that after an admittedly bad passing game like yesterday, you rather sarcastically raise the questions that you do in your post. This totally ignores the fact that for the previous 8 games under McCarthy the standard of our general play, including, pressing, passing and movement, has improved quite considerably and the end product has also improved greatly with 19 goals in the last 9 games and we are actually now second top scorers in the division. To pick on the team performance yesterday, in what was overall a poor game from both sides, is very unfair and to suggest that the manager would be instructing the players to deliberately pass to the opposition as a tactic, is ridiculous. McCarthy has to deal with the players at his disposal - Wilson is one of the best passers in the division, Hoilett, Vaulks, Ralls and NG are good on their day but the fact is that most of the remainder are not renowned for their passing ability overall and have other strengths such as tackling, heading and work rate. That doesn't make them bad players but to expect the manager to be suddenly able to turn them all into a passer like Bruno Fernandes or Lionel Messi is totally unrealistic.

There's a strange tendency on this messageboard to accuse anyone who wants us to pass the ball a little bit more of wanting us to play "tiki taka" or expecting world class play. None of us expect that, we'd just like a little bit more of the game on the floor and less head tennis

These are professional footballers paid thousands of pounds a week, they should be able to find a teammate

[NYCBlue]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

Perhaps you should read the original post and heading. It clearly suggests this could be the case.

No, it does not. Specifically, it says "is MM telling our players - especially the back 3 - to just kick it anywhere so long as it goes upfield".

The heading is: "Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?"

There is no mention or suggestion of the players being told to deliberately pass to the opposition. You made that up.

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

No, it does not. Specifically, it says "is MM telling our players - especially the back 3 - to just kick it anywhere so long as it goes upfield".

The heading is: "Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?"

There is no mention or suggestion of the players being told to deliberately pass to the opposition. You made that up.

If I could interject. You are correct, I never implied that. Would MM prefer those 60 yard punts up the field go to another City player ? I can't think why not, so it's just confirmation that our back 3 especially are unable to play a long ball out of defence. Will Vaulks said you 'don't have to play the ball from the back', and he's right, but lately we don't seem to be able to even get to the point where we can get crosses into the box. Let's see what happens tonight.

[splott parker]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

Be interesting to read the posts after the 9 game unbeaten run ends:hehe:

[Moodybluebird]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

Be interesting to read the posts after the 9 game unbeaten run ends:hehe:

The same thing occured to me too, only let's take it a step further.

"Fans clamour for McCarthy's head as Cardiff's unbeaten 20 match run comes to an end".

If I jinx us for tonight I apologise in advance !

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

A thank you to the poster known on here as Steve the Tea who posted this on my blog recently about the Middlesbrough game;-

"One staggering fact I unearthed was that in the first period we had just a 33% passing accuracy. In the second half it rose to 51% making a figure of 42% for the whole match. Middlesbrough’s passing accuracy during the game was approximately 50% better than our figure at 66%."

To put those figures in some sort of context, here's the Championship's passing stats for each team throughout the season;-

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/7/Seasons/8304/Stages/18825/TeamStatistics/England-Championship-2020-2021

What this shows is that Saturday was not typical of us - we may have some of the poorest figures in the division, but our 42 per cent against Middlesbrough would leave us a long way adrift at the bottom of the table if was our normal figure. So, I think it's fair to say our figures on Saturday were shockingly bad and I suppose the big question is could this be put down solely to tiredness? My view is that it can't,

Our position in the passing accuracy and completion tables tells us that it would be daft to expect there to be any real improvement in those figures for the rest of the season and I would say it excuses Mick McCarthy from too much criticism for them because there's little he can do about improving them for now - given the rapid turnover of games, there's not much he can do about it in training either. However, we really do need to make Middlesbrough a one off because I don't see how a top six challenge can be maintained if we see too much of such low figures in the future.

[BLUEAWAY]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

My biggest criticism of our team and mainly of our defenders is how easily they give the ball away.

Hopeful balls are played down the line. Whilst I understand that I don't necessarily like it except when it works.
When defending our penalty area under pressure the ball is too often played out to the opposing side.
But for me the worst situation is when the defenders with space and time try to pick a pass and it goes to the the opposition and the worst culprits are the Centre backs who will often play a ball from midway in our half forward to mid way in the opposing half, often to Moore who is running towards it to receive it. On many occasions the pass is mis directed and when it does go to feet there is little that can be done with it. The guys have got to be brave and savvy enough to move forward with the ball and to better execute the pass .

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

A thank you to the poster known on here as Steve the Tea who posted this on my blog recently about the Middlesbrough game;-

"One staggering fact I unearthed was that in the first period we had just a 33% passing accuracy. In the second half it rose to 51% making a figure of 42% for the whole match. Middlesbrough’s passing accuracy during the game was approximately 50% better than our figure at 66%."

To put those figures in some sort of context, here's the Championship's passing stats for each team throughout the season;-

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/7/Seasons/8304/Stages/18825/TeamStatistics/England-Championship-2020-2021

What this shows is that Saturday was not typical of us - we may have some of the poorest figures in the division, but our 42 per cent against Middlesbrough would leave us a long way adrift at the bottom of the table if was our normal figure. So, I think it's fair to say our figures on Saturday were shockingly bad and I suppose the big question is could this be put down solely to tiredness? My view is that it can't,

Our position in the passing accuracy and completion tables tells us that it would be daft to expect there to be any real improvement in those figures for the rest of the season and I would say it excuses Mick McCarthy from too much criticism for them because there's little he can do about improving them for now - given the rapid turnover of games, there's not much he can do about it in training either. However, we really do need to make Middlesbrough a one off because I don't see how a top six challenge can be maintained if we see too much of such low figures in the future.

I agree. Tiredness, fatigue, seems to have taken it's toll perhaps, but sitting watching the games on my laptop when Flint & Co thump a long ball out of defence, I wait in anticipation for the camera to catch up and see who's the recipient. Usually it's a patch of grass.

[Moodybluebird]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

It does beg the question, would you prefer a Dave Jones nearly-men team that plays thrilling football on occasions or a big, strong Stoke-esque side that lack the niceties but achieve relative success.

Of course the answer is somewhere in between but is that possible with this group of players ? Have they got the ability individually and/or collectively to adopt a fluent passing game ?

In the short term the answer to my last question is I suspect a resounding no. As for long term, well it's over to you Mick (probably !).

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Is 'not passing to another team member' a tactic, or evidence of a lack of football ability ?

It does beg the question, would you prefer a Dave Jones nearly-men team that plays thrilling football on occasions or a big, strong Stoke-esque side that lack the niceties but achieve relative success.

Of course the answer is somewhere in between but is that possible with this group of players ? Have they got the ability individually and/or collectively to adopt a fluent passing game ?

In the short term the answer to my last question is I suspect a resounding no. As for long term, well it's over to you Mick (probably !).

The Dave Jones' sides would probably have been the best equipped to improve upon in the PL, but as you say we flattered to deceive at times. Warnock's promotion side was probably the closest to getting the right balance, and but for a point or two would have stayed up..