The Game Is About Glory - Tactics, Passion and Projects

[milo]

That will be part of the plan sometimes, but there are still times when the players are lazy or scared and send it back when they shouldn't.
Obviously conte is just here and things won't change overnight, but some of them need to grow a pair.
There was once instance on Sunday where we won a free kick just inside our half, two Leeds players wouldn't retreat the full 10 yards and rather than oush the issue the ball was knocked back to Hugo. That's not good enough.

Not that i condone booing, thats just pathetic. I was about post how quiet the stadium was when conte started to gee them up. The crowd was really poor on Sunday.

I think that Conte will always look to hold possession when there isn't a pass on. Passing back to create space is smart. What was happening on Sunday was not the same as the retreating back that we saw under Mourinho and Nuno. It was far more structured and there was a plan.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

I'm not saying that it was particularly well executed in the first half but that was definitely the tactic. As well as our starting positions, you can tell by the fact that we had no coordinated press in the Leeds half, we were happy to let them have the ball there. I am sure that the plan was always to up the intensity when Leeds tired. Conte would've been going apoplectic on the sidelines if we were doing anything other than we had been sent out to do.

Chris Summersell has done a good video on Conte teams passing back.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1463498851835330566

On Sunday, Dier was our extra man. We are trying to get one of the players marking our wide CB or CM to leave their man to press Dier and leave a free man to pass to.

"I want to play the tactic, but I want to play it better. You do understand that don't you?".

 

[glasgowspur]

I think that Conte will always look to hold possession when there isn't a pass on. Passing back to create space is smart. What was happening on Sunday was not the same as the retreating back that we saw under Mourinho and Nuno. It was far more structured and there was a plan.

I agree, but some of the squad will take a while to break bad habits, the crowd need to appreciate that and that booing is not going to help.

There is still a legacy from jose of passing backwards when we have set pieces.
Something i never understood, especially when we are trailing.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

I agree, but some of the squad will take a while to break bad habits, the crowd need to appreciate that and that booing is not going to help.

There is still a legacy from jose of passing backwards when we have set pieces.
Something i never understood, especially when we are trailing.

Yeah ..f.ck the booing

Our crowd really are reactive, and I'd say negative (reflection of the default position of many sadly).

The 12th Man is there to lead the support not wait for the manager to gee you up.

And we've somehow attracted that great manager to our club yet within the first 45 mins of his first home league game, 'nope I'm not having it....boooo'

I'm always banging on about 'the journey' and that's the magical part...the ups and downs and watching it unfold....these f.ckers are mouthing before they've even boarded the train.

 

[milo]

I agree, but some of the squad will take a while to break bad habits, the crowd need to appreciate that and that booing is not going to help.

There is still a legacy from jose of passing backwards when we have set pieces.
Something i never understood, especially when we are trailing.

I think that people will get used to the passing back when they realise that there is a plan and get used to winning again. I do really dislike the neanderthal instinct of the English football fan to react negatively to anything that isn't a forward pass, though.

 

[glasgowspur]

I think that people will get used to the passing back when they realise that there is a plan and get used to winning again. I do really dislike the neanderthal instinct of the English football fan to react negatively to anything that isn't a forward pass, though.

In fairness i don't think thats purely an English thing.
If its not a calvary charge it's not quick enough up here.
Bedknobs and broomsticks spring to mind.
Well for us oldies anyway.

 

[glasgowspur]

Something else that struck during the pod, we aren't a project team, byt we are the definition of a project club.
Levy took us over as an amateur and has built us up learning by from his mistakes.
Every success and every failure has nudged his willingness to learn, improve, do it better and take things that little bit further.
Unfortunately he has dealt better with the disappointments than he has done from the successes.

 

[milo]

Something else that struck during the pod, we aren't a project team, byt we are the definition of a project club.
Levy took us over as an amateur and has built us up learning by from his mistakes.
Every success and every failure has nudged his willingness to learn, improve, do it better and take things that little bit further.
Unfortunately he has dealt better with the disappointments than he has done from the successes.

I think that's a really good point.

 

[thfcsteff]

Something else that struck during the pod, we aren't a project team, byt we are the definition of a project club.
Levy took us over as an amateur and has built us up learning by from his mistakes.
Every success and every failure has nudged his willingness to learn, improve, do it better and take things that little bit further.
Unfortunately he has dealt better with the disappointments than he has done from the successes.

Was just about to say what Milo said. Well stated.

 

[90sSpursBook]

Really good pod guys.

As for Leeds game - i don't think the booing at half-time was appropriate but its hard to analyse in hindsight now that we can see how the second half played out and that ultimately that was Conte's plan - Leeds scoring did come out the blue (they may have had a lot of the ball but really hadn't posed any threats to Hugo). That said, applying the eye test the first 45 were too all intent and purpose a continuation of Jose and Nuno ball. I think we have to believe in Conte that he will be able to rectify and improve to get us back somewhere near where we were circa 2017 - though again people should also remember that not every pass back then was a forwards one - we had to be patient and play through Dembele, Dier to move the ball across the pitch a fair bit.

Re Project Managers - some really thought provoking conversation. I think the word 'project manager' is misconceiving - surely every new manager has a project whether that's to avoid relegation, win the title or a cup but we seem to use the phrase to describe the process of ripping everything up and starting again which is of course exactly what Poch did. In this scenario the circumstances have to align - its what Ferguson needed to do in 1986 and took him best part of 7 years to have instilled his vision and achieve sustainable results. That period from 86 through to 1992 was their 'painful rebuild' with the core of the previous team (Strachan, Olson, Whiteside, Moran, McGrath) moved on.

Likewise Klopp at Liverpool did much the same when he arrived in 2015. He had to break everything apart and rebuild in his own vision. They were inconsistent at best for 2 1/2 years. Perhaps in 3 years time Arteta will achieve similar?

Under Poch the 2014-15 season was the painful rebuild - it was the dismantling of the final relics of the Redknapp team and the unsuccessful bits of AVB. I'm sure that the vision was that the rebuild would take at least an extra 12 months but due to the bizarre power vacuum in the PL we were thrust into a title challenge in Year 2.

If the decision makers at a club dont feel that what is there is fundamentally broken then there is not the need for this style of manager. It nags at me that Levy thinks that our squad is still at its 2017 levels and is ignoring the 'painful rebuild' - Mourinho was a washed up coach well beyond his sell-by date but Conte hopefully is still in his prime - however I think he can only make artificial changes.

As for Poch - I wonder whether his time as a 'project manager' is over. Some managers become typecast - either as relegation firefighters - Hodgson, Allardyce, Pulis; championship promotion experts (Warnock, Jokanovic, Bruce) or the 'serial winners'. David Moyes (Everton and now West Ham) and Brendan Rodgers (Swansea and now Leicester) are the best example I can think of as someone who has looked to build a lower achieving mid table team into one that could compete at a higher tier - interestingly both have 'failed' to win titles at one of the big boys.

Perhaps Poch jsut needs that elusive CL success with PSG to be placed into the category of 'serial winner' along with Conte, Ancelotti, Tuchel, Zidane who will just get parachuted into the very top jobs. He may no longer fancy the opportunity to execute a painful rebuild.