Style.

[morty 0]

Would you rather see us stick to our principles of attack minded good passing or is just winning more important? Would you rather we played cynical football, much in the way West Brom did yesterday?They are the ones holding the 3 points today.Discuss.

[Loopzilla 1]

Just want us to win, don''t care how.

[Howson is now! 0]

[quote user="Loopzilla"]Just want us to win, don''t care how.[/quote]Ditto!

[morty 0]

[quote user="Loopzilla"]Just want us to win, don''t care how.[/quote]Yes, I think the first win is important for a number of reasons, but would you want to watch our team play like West Brom did, week in, week out to achieve it?Obviously the answer is to have both styles of play in your locker, and I think we have got a hard edge to us this season, but I wonder if the overall skill levels of the squad are good enough to play the kind of football we''d like to be playing?

[Loopzilla 1]

[quote user="morty"][quote user="Loopzilla"]Just want us to win, don''t care how.[/quote]Yes, I think the first win is important for a number of reasons, but would you want to watch our team play like West Brom did, week in, week out to achieve it?Obviously the answer is to have both styles of play in your locker, and I think we have got a hard edge to us this season, but I wonder if the overall skill levels of the squad are good enough to play the kind of football we''d like to be playing?[/quote]In all seriousness, I would happily emulate what Stoke have achieved. We need to survive in this league, and establish ourselves first and foremost. If we can do that for a couple of seasons or so, and then return to our traditional values, that would be ideal for me. But right now, I''ll take a win anyway we can get it! [:)]

[psychedeliasmith 0]

I hate this idea that you can''t play decent football if you are new to the Premier League. Lee Dixon alluded to it last night, saying that he enjoyed watching Blackpool. We''re not winning games because we''re not taking our chances when they arrive and we are making the odd mistake at the back. It''s got nothing to do with the style of play.

[Loopzilla 1]

Edit: I know we don''t really have the Stoke-style squad as of yet!

[morty 0]

[quote user="psychedeliasmith"]I hate this idea that you can''t play decent football if you are new to the Premier League. Lee Dixon alluded to it last night, saying that he enjoyed watching Blackpool. We''re not winning games because we''re not taking our chances when they arrive and we are making the odd mistake at the back. It''s got nothing to do with the style of play.[/quote]Maybe the players we have aren''t good enough to take the chances when they fall, or the chances created aren''t good enough quality?Would you rather we were relegated if we stick to our principals?Obviously I would rather we stick to our principals and stay up, but I think Lambert needs a wee bit more tactical nous to pull it off..

[Loopzilla 1]

[quote user="psychedeliasmith"]I hate this idea that you can''t play decent football if you are new to the Premier League. Lee Dixon alluded to it last night, saying that he enjoyed watching Blackpool. We''re not winning games because we''re not taking our chances when they arrive and we are making the odd mistake at the back. It''s got nothing to do with the style of play.[/quote]Point taken, but he may of enjoyed watching them last season, but he won''t be watching them this season.At this present time, we have to play to our strengths with the players we have, that being the diamond system that gave us back-to-back promotions. At the moment we seem to be changing the set-up week in, week out. I think we should have initially stuck to our guns for these first few games, and let the team evolve gradually.

[psychedeliasmith 0]

That''s exactly the point Dixon was making but I don''t think it was relevant. We are going to struggle this year but I don''t think it will be because of the style of play. It will be because our squad isn''t strong enough to be, say, a mid-table side. Suddenly lumping the ball won''t help us put away free headers or stop us making the odd error at the back.We have passed the ball well and created enough chances to get something out of the last two games. The worry is that our strikers aren''t good enough. I just hope that James Vaughan will be the missing link. It seems you need to spend around 7 million on a striker if you want to get a quality one - I don''t know if we have that sort of money.

[Loopzilla 1]

I read the OP''s question as being rhetorical and answered as such. Irrespective of the capabilities of the squad we have now, in an ideal world, I would take a win anyway we can get it.

[exiled blue 0]

you`re facing a similar dilemma to swansea atm. they are sticking rigidly to their `pass and move` principles, and it`s costing them dear.before their opening game at eastlands, the swansea boards were full of "they can`t score if they haven`t got the ball" type stuff. 4-0 could easily have been 9 or 10. they just don`t have the players to out pass trams in this league, yet if they go `more direct`, would that be any more effective against the defences in the prem?. that`s a question both rodgers and lambert have to consider, be interesting to see which manager, if either, "blinks first".

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

I''m not really sure what our ''principles'' are. Norwich play their fair share of long balls from the back, and in Holt and Morison we have some brusiers up front. I don''t think we have the players to dramatically change our style at the moment - if we switched to the more agricultural Stoke style of football it would all go horribly wrong as it doesn''t suit the players in our team.

 

I think it is still a little early for the levels of panic we are seeing on this board today - I know everyone had the WBA game down as a home banker, but such is the way of football. We all knew this was going to be a learning experience for all of the players, so a slow start is only to be expected (we did that in the Championship as well). Last year Wes was also dropped for a period of time whilst Lambert was trying to figure out a more compact system to stem the flow of goals against.