The {Relegation} Battle is On

I'd say advance the ball forward quicker for one. We keep holding it up in the midfield and passing it around which allows the defense to set and they're prepared when the pass finally comes in. Also in that vain, it seems teams are pinching back and not pressuring our midfield as much. If they do that, the mids need to force them to engage, thus freeing up the box a little more. And lastly, we have got to improve on crosses. Service into the box has been pretty bad of late. Of course, I'm a soccer novice, so take all of that with a grain of salt.

I'll leave the left-footed player rant to it's original owner. :wink:

 

The thing is that our percentage of shots on target is way below average. Historically, there's not a whole lot of variance between the best and the worst teams here, so outliers like us almost have to be attributed to luck - I don't think we're unbelievably bad at shooting. Andrew Johnson will help, as he's put about 70% of his shots on target over the past 2 seasons.

I think our current run of bad luck is a lot different than Sanchez' bad luck. Both managers started out with a solid game plan, had us playing good passing football and such. The difference is that when Sanchez saw a few bad results, he panicked and reverted to tactics that didn't suit our players at all. At that point, it no longer had as much to do with luck as the fact that longball just doesn't work with a team of 5'7" guys.

 

I agree. Hodgson just needs to tweak his tactics, starting while our central midfield. Bullard and Murphy are playing the same nebulous role -- not really enforcers, not really play-makers.

I think the club needs to employ an enforcer to boss the midfield (Andreasen, Murphy, Etuhu) paired with an attacking, roving central-attacking mid (a la Lampard, Gerrard -- or Bullard for us).

When I played lacrosse in high school, our defense was a "sluffed man-to-man" -- not really zone, but not really man-to-man. And it didn't work.

And neither is Woy's tactics for the CM's on the squad.

 

Sanchez's mistake was not recognizing that, while long ball is effective for getting that first goal, or for catching up when you're behind, it's horrible for holding onto a lead. Because "long ball teams" don't pass the ball through midfield, they don't retain possession and therefore give the ball back to their opponents far too cheaply.

 

Alright ... time for a small-ish rant ...
I HATE the phrase "bad luck" ... especially when it's describing a run of form or a stretch of games ...
I've tried to become comfortable with it and even thought to myself that if I uttered the phrase in Fulham's defense that it would start to grow on me ... but it hasn't and probably never will.
I know it's not how everyone intends it, but looking at a loss and calling it "bad luck" just comes off as ambiguous and doesn't ultimately hold the team and manager responsible for the game’s outcome.
Maybe I'm just splitting hairs here, but to me it would sound more appropriate if a manager said, “we played well but just didn’t do quite enough to win the game … despite how well we played, we obviously had lapse(s) and have to improve in those areas if we’re going to win in this league.”
Not “we played well and can improve in some areas but were unlucky not to come away with anything” …
I’ve played in lots of games in several different sports and even if we lost a game we probably should have won there was no “bad luck” and there wasn’t any “should have won” … it was about realizing where mistakes were made, taking responsibility for those mistakes and then correcting them going forward.

To me the word “luck” is like the word “accident” …

Angel - "We don't say accident anymore."
Butterman - "Why not?"
Angel - "Because the word accident implies that no one was at fault."

*** rant over ***

 

I still have faith,although we do need a little bit of steel in the midfield,I was at the Sunderland game and trust me on this,they were well and truely robbed.This time last year they would have won 3-0 and not broken sweat,this year we pinched a point,thats the difference in the teams last season to this.

 

Did anyone else see Jimmy Bullard smack Chimbonda on the balls twice right before Chimbonda was called for leaning into the wall, the penalty which disallowed the free kick goal Sunderland scored?
It was HILARIOUS!!!
He poked him in the nuts and then when Chimbonda complained to the ref he did it again ... Jimmy had a smirk on his face the whole time and even Chimbonda was kind of laughing. He looked like he was laughing out of shock. LOL ... funny stuff!!!

 

was it on TV,I was in my seat in the hammy end and we could not see a thing,we thought the Ref had had a brain storm,or that lady luck that had gone missing for most of last season had come back to us!!!!!!!

Let me ask my brothers and sisters on the other side of the puddle a question-if somebody offered good money for Jimmy In Jan would you take it(say 3/4 mil) and spend the cash to improve the team???? I asked this questionto my mates in the Golden Lion before the match and it was an even split between yes and no

o and by the way,the quote from Hotfuzz-fantastic :banana:

 

OB, I would. Jimmy seems like he is a likable guy and pretty decent player, but I get this feeling that he enjoys horsing around a bit too much and isn't as serious of a footballer as I think we need for a guy in his role. I also get the feeling he is a Beckham wannabe. He prides himself on his accurate passes and set-piece's, but he is not as good as he thinks he is. I would try and trade-up with his sale.

 

By the way

Hull, 3rd place, 17 points, 0 GD
Fulham, 17th place, 7 points, -2 GD

 

I think it's time to bring this thread up...

just in time to kill it :twisted:

 

yeah, we can delete this now

 

ah... we'll keep it around

I'll just lock it