What should Phelan tell Adams

[Bill 1,788]

aside from the usual jokeswhat do you think Phelan will be looking to do ?relax the players and get them to play as they know, rather than trying to play to the oppositions supposed weaknesses ?get the players to mark tighter in the back third ?

[Herman 9,700]

Getting their fitness to a level that they stay focused for 90 plus minutes.Getting the ball forward quicker. (Without resorting to hoofing hopefully).

[Bill 1,788]

"Getting their fitness to a level that they stay focused for 90 plus minute"question isis that a fitness, or maybe a motivational problem

[Number 9 0]

Ok Neal, stay in the office & take care of the presser, I''ll let you know what the team will be on Saturday

[Bill 1,788]

they have a presser ?

no wonder the shirts look nice and ironed

[Herman 9,700]

[quote user="City1st"]"Getting their fitness to a level that they stay focused for 90 plus minute"question isis that a fitness, or maybe a motivational problem

[/quote]Good question. Hopefully it''s the easier one to fix. Whichever that is.

[Cheap Cheap Cheap Canaries 0]

Go fetch Goreham a coffee and some biscuits Neil , theres a good boy make yourself useful .

[Bill 1,788]

The noticable thing about the time in L1 and the Ch''s was the never say die attitude and the last minutevgoals. Whether that was down to fitness or motivation is a moot point - I suspect it is a combination of the both,as we do seem to keep going ... the problem is all too often with little effect.My own thoughts would be that we need to mix it up a bit. It is ok to study the opposition and set out to thwart them and play on their weaknesesse, but this presumes that the opposition doesn''t mix things up a bit, as was Lambert wont to do.I would also drop the ''ping'' football. Great for training to sharpen up the players (and to over excite the various Colins and Trevors) but as Paddy Daviit recent;y commented ".....to suffocate sides in the Championship with their passing ideology. City

went to Teesside last month and had 55% of the ball but were battered

into submission. It is not and never will be about how much of the ball

they have but what they do with it "Too many times we have been pinging the ball about with our backs to the opposition goal whilst allowing them to reform, get players back and close us down. Stop trying to make the ball do the work and get the players doing the work. By that I mean far, far more work off the ball. Time and time again I have seen a City player with the ball and almost all the players around him are static. This is turning the game on it''s head.Sadly the reverse is often all to true with the opposition where you can see where the opposition are going to pass to as not only has their players moved into space but we have failed to mark them. Hughton was agross failure with this absurd ''zonal'' type play, hopefully Phelan will help to remove what lingering parts of this remain

ps I am a bit surprised that Fhelan has not started earlier, especially as we have had yet another unwanted and unneccesary break which did however provide some time for him to get acclimatised.

[Discobolus 11]

Its one thing Phelan telling Adams what should be done but will he listen and act on what he is told.

[Benjamin (Bradford) 0]

Use Fergie''s hair-dryer tactic more regularly and when appropriate. Old fashioned maybe, but human nature and reaction really has not changed enormously in the last century, particularly that most of our squads 1st language is English, nothing should be confused in translation.

[mrs miggins 0]

''Tettey is not to go past the hallway line, he is a ball winner, not a centre midfielder''

''stop playing whittaker instead of martin at rb, stick to things that worked, martin got MOTM last game, once you do some major tinkering to a winning team, it doesn''t end well, look at whats happened since you''ve been playing two upfront''

simples''

[Haggerdoo 6]

Hey Neil - stop sticking with the old same players even when they are not performing i.e. Grabban. Also be a good boy now and sort the issue with Bassong we need him back in the heart of our defence with Ryan Bennett.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

Playing the passing game is fine, but it shouldn''t just be played for the sake of it. We need more purpose and unpredictability when we play it and shouldn''t need to take unneccesary risks that leave us short at the back.

Also, while our strikers are struggling to put chances away in a 1 up top philosophy, get Hooper in alongside Jerome. If we had a Diego Costa type player banging them in then 1 up top works. The fact is, we don''t.

The midfield coupled with Jeromes work rate should be strong enough to cope as a 4. Howson has the legs, Tettey has the power. Get Olsson in at LM and Garrido in and we''re well stocked defensively. Howson and Redmond should, coupled with Hooper and Jerome be able to rip teams a new one.

[morty 0]

[URL=http://s869.photobucket.com/user/mortymccarthy/media/Untitled_zps306caf3d.jpg.html][IMG]http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab257/mortymccarthy/Untitled_zps306caf3d.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[:)]

[mrs miggins 0]

He looks adorable

[Dibs 0]

it''s going to be mine all mine

[Tumbleweed 106]

Three main things from what I have seen this year:

1. Don''t play players out of position. A second choice left midfielder is a better option than a first choice centre midfielder or No 10 playing on the left.

2. Move the ball and personnel forward more quickly. We have pace, lets use it. Too slow for the last two seasons and we have seen pace used against us this time round.

3. Change players if out of form. Use the squad properly. Lambert rotated the team very well, sometimes we didn''t know what was our A team. Most players got game time and it kept the oppo guessing.

[lake district canary 4,531]

"Now then Neil, what seems to be the trouble?  Team can''t defend?   Ask McNally to spend £100 million on defenders then we can start thinking about sorting it out" 

[Mr Jenkins 0]

"Have you got any gloves I could borrow Neil?"