Dispiriting Team Chemistry

[John 0]

It struck me throughout the game (and not for the first time this

season) that we were struggling to retain the ball. Forfeiting

possession as easily and often (and at times amateurishly) as we do,

while competing at this level, is reckless and inexcusable. The

quality of distribution is woeful, and it has oddly enough in my opinion been a prime factor in

diminishing the amount of off the ball movement during plays in the

opposition half from us. Forward thinking players, like Wolfswinkel,

Hooper, Snodgrass, Fer, and as i saw today a couple of times with

Pilkington, are increasinly growing frustrated with this glaring

weakness in the side. They now seem drained of motivation and simply

follow the wavelength and unambitious patterns of the far less able majority of players in the

side, at the expense of trying to expose threatening spaces in the

oppositions midfield and defence (because they''re simply unlikely to be

found before being marked out of play).The amount of misread plays (triangles, give and go''s, through balls... etc.) i saw

also is equally woeful, and equally contributing to the growing

disheartenment in the side, and nullifying this aspect of our play.I

rarely, if ever, see these characteristics of play come to the fore as prominently in

our opposition, and i would not in the least bit be surprised if our

poor average possession in a game this season is mostly down to these

few observations.As far as turning a corner goes, for me at the

bottom of it is simply getting the basics of on the ball team play right, rehearsing different plays until the players eyes bleed in training. The matter shouldn''t be complex, but for designing creative plays to surprise and destabalise the opposition perhaps (as long as one can efficiently execute them - that is none too hard to do if you''ve been told to do it right 20 times in a row before being allowed a break). How Hughton has let

this rot sink in however without directly attending to it is a measure of his

naivety as a manager in my opinion. These disjuncts in our performances

would not have persisted like they have under a manager with a level of Premier League

competency, least of all in a side that occupies the lower end of the

table, of which efforts to retain the ball must surely be paramount or else

succumb to the mercilessness of this league.Nevertheless i still

find myself in limbo as far as the IN/OUT debate goes. The stubborness

and resilience of the players under him shows there is still plenty of

faith in him, even if it is misguided (and understandable - heck i''d struggle to bring myself to the belief that a boss as nice Hughton should get the sack if i was working under him); though if that faith is enough to

maintain that urge to meet the requirements of ones job (and by

extension achieve survival) then i''m compelled by principle to let him stay.As

for another season at the helm i feel we''d be doing the talent in our

side as much a disservice as ourselves if we don''t get rid. In that

regard it is certainly an unequivocal out from me.

[Bill 1,788]

"Forward thinking players, like Wolfswinkel, Hooper, Snodgrass, Fer, and as i saw today a couple of times with Pilkington, are increasinly growing frustrated with this glaring weakness in the side"

the weakness is in the tactics

watch each team when they have the ball

the opposition is constantly moving and offering options - we are not, that is why players struggle to find someone to pass to

that is why our players look up in frustration when there is no one to pass to because the opposition have closed us down

[SeattleCanary 0]

Every team we play look like world beaters and we make that happen. Hughton needs to concede either the players he has assembled to make a team aren''t up to it, or the tactics are incorrect for the majority of the time.

It has to be one, or both, but cannot be neither. Either way the sad thing is it clearly isn''t going to change!

[John 0]

[quote user="City1st"]"Forward thinking players, like Wolfswinkel, Hooper, Snodgrass, Fer, and as i saw today a couple of times with Pilkington, are increasinly growing frustrated with this glaring weakness in the side"

the weakness is in the tactics

watch each team when they have the ball

the opposition is constantly moving and offering options - we are not, that is why players struggle to find someone to pass to

that is why our players look up in frustration when there is no one to pass to because the opposition have closed us down[/quote]I agree in part City1st, in that the tactics and movement are partly culpable for the weakness. But i''ve seen more than a few attempts from the likes of those players mentioned to run into space and then not get picked up by our distributor of the ball, and can remember them holding their heads up in frustration more than i can say of anyone else in the side. As the season has worn on the amount of runs being made has dropped further than it was at the start, and i consider our less than encouraging ball playing (that could render such movement worthwhile if decent enough) the biggest factor in this decline.