Overcautious Tactics

[Splendid Rush 0]

Was it just me, but at the end of the game on Sunday when City attempted to keep the ball in the corner to run down the clock I was infuriated.  I hate this tactic at the best of times, I find it unsportsmanlike and dull, but to do it when the team aren''t even winning, it is pitiful.

Yeah, fair enough, we wanted to take something from the game, but the corner came from an excellent Huckerby run, an unselfish pass to McKenzie who was unlucky not to score.  Then, rather than keeping up the momentum, the lads seemingly receive orders from the bench to keep the ball in the corner.  They them immediately lose it as it goes out for a Spurs a throw in.

Why not attempt to keep up the momentum?  We had our tails up, Tottenham were on the back foot.  Surely it wouldn''t have taken any less time to get a cross in and at least make an attempt to win the game.  Why did Huckerby bother making the run in the first place?  Why did I bother paying for my ticket and transport and travelling all that way?  To watch the team play well throughout only for them to show a lack of ambition to win the game?

We had just as much right to win that game as Tottenham did.  I am extremely disappointed with this attitude, that 1 point away from home will do.

I''m all for being cautious at the end of a tight game, but when you are offered a chance in the 92nd minute to put the ball in the box in an attempt to win the match, it needs to be done.  Yes, you can argue that Spurs could then breakaway, but they will have all their players in the box (they don''t want to lose it just as much as us), and we can keep more players back than usual, but at least give it a go.

You may think, "Ah, but he wouldn''t be saying this if they broke away and scored!"  True, but that is the nature of football, you have to take risks to get somewhere.  If the club hadn''t taken a risk on Huckerby, McKenzie and Svensson, we wouldn''t even be here. 

After the performance we gave on Sunday, I found the attitude extremely frustrating.  Rant over.

[blacko 0]

My initial reaction in the stands was exactly as yours, but if you had thought about it before the game 1 point would have been a good result for us. Personally I would have told them to attack fro the reasons you said, but a manager would think of his target ie. 1 point and also of the reaction if they had broken away and scored. He would have been castigated. As it is he has done well.

[Al Yellow 0]

I can understand why we held it in the corner but I still found myself wishing we still had Malky and we could have mugged them! 

[rich 0]

agree one hundred per cent, there''s a world of difference between being defensive and playing to your strengths and totally being negative and wasting a good chance for an attack.

the only downer on a great day