Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Mikhail Chigorin wrote:Dimples wrote:johnny crossan wrote:Justified logic wrote:.. Spanish-style football don't work here pal! We've been at our most effective when we've been fast and direct. Thistippy-tappy, playing it sideways and then backwards when it reaches Clichy or Navas is killing us.
but that's Pep's USP, the only reason he's here is to promote his vision and methods in our primitive football wilderness.
Maybe he has looked at Spain's record compared to England's and decided that tippy-tappy is a better option?
Very very unfair to judge him this season.
[color=#40FF00]He is a visionary and needs time to implement his ideas.
[/color]Players know they are being moved on at the end of the season yet he has to rely to them to put in the effort?
Finally,
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, 4th place would be in the bag now if the system was not corrupt.
Arsenal and the Rags would be nowhere near us.
So how about a bit of balance - you guys sound and act like a mob.
He may well be a visionary and, moreover, he might be the greatest manager ever to have lived.
However, the way things are going at the moment, it would feel nice just to have a competent, pragmatic personage at the helm and someone who can mould the players we have into an effective unit, playing in a style that suits them. I don't want to have to go on an extended, seemingly endless trek across arid, burning deserts in the hope that somewhere in the future, we might possibly reach our promised land.
I don't want to be regarded as being wilfully impatient but the way things have gone this season, give grounds for some degree of scepticism as to how well the next campaign will go.
Excellent post as always.
I love football visionaries: Valeri Lobanovski, Giovanni Trapattoni, Rinus Michels, Arrigo Sacchi and so on. However football is also pragmatic game. If it's not working, you got to change it. Look at the visionaries mentioned there. They all had some base system but were also reactive. In fact, what really made them visionaries was their ability to take notes and make changes. Pep on the other hand is extremely rigid with his system. Not only will he rarely if ever change the base system he will rarely be flexible with the philosophy according to opposition. And then he ask for completely unsuitable players to fit into his system.
This rigidity is actually the reason why I'm so worried about him. And to me that sort of rigidity is kind of opposite of being visionary. His system is more fancy and complicated than 4-4-2 wide that some English managers held onto u til it was completely outdated and go some extent Pep has hint of that stubborness about him.
In all fairness NQDP, this season has seen the team produce some very nice football and, at times, some absolutely magnificent play. However, the Bravo issue aside, if there was one thing I wish Pep would have re-appraised at a fairly early stage, it would have been with regard to the defensive aspect.
He can't be faulted for trying to play the high pressure, high intensity game that he wants - after all, that was part of his 'modus operandi' and part of the reason he was brought in, in the first place. However, when it became apparent that our ageing side weren't completely capable of operating this way throughout the full 90 minutes of a game and that our defenders didn't possess the attributes required of them in such a 'system', I just wish he would have modified his approach to take account of this, in the short term, until that time when he was able to bring in the players who he believed could play in this way.
On this basis, I just wish he would have 'allowed', if that's the best word to use, the side to defend a little deeper and not to be quite so overstretched when possession was lost and we were open and susceptible to the rapid counter-attack.
This wouldn't have unduly endangered the passing game he wishes to play and it wouldn't have ruled out the squad rotation he employs, especially for the back line, as the side would have had a way of playing in which they were at greater ease and one in which different players could be slotted in at various times.
However, it might have resulted in a marginally better defensive record overall and produced a few extra points which would have not seen us looking back over our shoulders, in danger of being overtaken by the Scum and falling out of the top four.
Just my own thoughts.