Originally Posted by
KingOfSiamIAm
You make a good point about winning the ball back as quick as possible. It just made me reflect... that is what we had been doing since the start of Bullit's tenure, and I would say to great success.
However, in recent games I see that we have been letting the opposition have the ball more, and not press them so much. Probably understandable against teams like West Brom and Southampton, what with their better players.
However, yesterday against Millwall we stood off them and let them get all the momentum in the first half. It reminded me of the type of performance that is usually needed away from home at the end of the season, where we might need to dig in and get a point against the odds, towards promotion, against a team up for the fight. That type of away result usually also proves that the character of the players in such circumstance.
Unfortunately we weren't playing Millwall away near the end of the season, we were at home and surely we should be dictating the tempo of play.
In the end, the players did well to gradually get back into the game, through sheer will power, and once the crowd had something to cheer about, I could detect the Millwall players getting less confident when defending.
In the end it was three points, and to get three points when playing so badly shows the character of the players.
Just before we scored, I said to my grandson, if we win this, we are going up. Not (only) because I am stupid, but as we all know, we look back at certain promotion seasons and see results like this as the ones where this or that point was vital. Also, last season we would have lost that game without so much as a whimper.
I don't know why we have been pressing less of late, but we were good at it against Bristol and Swansea Town, so I can't understand why we wouldn't do it against Millwall. Especially after our manager expressed his opinion that Millwall are a more direct team, thereby hinting that they would be less comfortable in possession.