You don't really convince me Blue. Watson is 44, Weaver at Harrogate is 40, Edinburgh is 48, Guardiola is 48-ish, Mourinho is 55, Martin Allen is 53. They're part of over lapping generations. You're discovering a non-existent phenomenon mate. Martin Allen would become a modern manager in every supporter's eyes if he won the next four games and every single goal was from a dead-ball, or a long throw. Steve Watson would stop being a modern manager if Rigg were returned to his parent club and not replaced.
Martin Allen's managerial performance is currently crap. He has massively more resources than Steve Watson, so we can't blame DA or AC. Even if he's intending playing a long ball game, which I'm not convinced of anyway, MA is making a shocking job of it. Lincoln for instance didn't just lump the ball, their midfield pressed, they were the fittest team, they won the ball in midfield, their centre backs ..... well one is now in Division One and the other in the Championship ..... and their full backs were decent too. But they did use the long ball both as an outlet and an attacking threat. And it worked.
If you are permanently one-dimensional in any way, then defence IS easy. We've recently had a side which regularly achieved 50+% possession, but that counted for nothing, because it didn't even turn that into unsuccessful efforts on goal. Teams will let you pass in front of them, just as they'll deal with a long ball if you can't find your own man or he isn't supported. (In local football we used eat teams that just wanted to show us their passing game, we just took away the pitch! We closed them down, pushed our defence to the halfway way line, if they'd wide men, we forced them inside. They'd spend the whole game trapped in one area of the pitch, giving up the ball from time to time in areas where they seriously didn't want to lose it. Unless they'd got something more, they were finished.)
MA needs to sort his head out and decide what he's doing and make it clear what the team is doing (whatever that is!). Why waste a contract on Muggleton if his only use is to come on and hurl the ball if we reach the last ten minutes and reach desperation. That means of five subs we're allowed , one is mostly going to be a keeper 'cos ours is ancient and another will only be used in desperate circs! So MA is already reducing his stock of potential game changers to three, and one of those probably has to be a defender in case of injury ....... so options off the bench are minimal before we even kick off. Good thinking!
I've said before my thought is come out of the traps like a a bolt from hell, press in midfield, force the opposition into conceding corners and throw-ins before they've settled and profit both when we do something right and the opposition fcks up, because a very high percentage of goals do just come from opposition mistakes and sheer dumb luck. So that means if you've got the bloke with the longest throw start him, take him off ten minutes into the second half if you want, but you either make use of him, or get rid of him. Why handicap yourself with a bloke on the bench you don't want to use?
I thought signing a fourth centre back would be good, because it increased our options, we might even play three at the back and still have a fit guy in reserve ....... but MA has used Hollis to break up any centre back combo', so we get no consistency. I reckon centre backs are pivotal. If they work you're three quarters of the way to a team. Get a partnership FFS! And a partnership involves two players of differing abilities, so they cover each other's weaknesses and play to each other's strengths!
If anyone is a dinosaur surely Warnock qualifies, but surrounded by these younger men, with new ideas, at clubs with boards much more prepared to invest than Cardiff's it was Warnock who won promotion. There was nothing revolutionary about his style, his team was full of old-fashioned values. Only now when he comes up against teams which massively out-resource him all over the field, do the values and methods he instilled come into question.
Top of Division One - Portsmouth and Peterborough ..... top of Division Two - Lincoln City. They are there because they win, not because they're beautiful or full of modern inventions. That doesn't mean I don't want to see an original like Bielsa succeed even though he's at Leeds. I love his ideas. I admire Guardiola. But that doesn't stop me thinking all kinds of styles can work, but you have to use them well.
Martin Allen's managerial performance is currently crap. He has massively more resources than Steve Watson, so we can't blame DA or AC. Even if he's intending playing a long ball game, which I'm not convinced of anyway, MA is making a shocking job of it. Lincoln for instance didn't just lump the ball, their midfield pressed, they were the fittest team, they won the ball in midfield, their centre backs ..... well one is now in Division One and the other in the Championship ..... and their full backs were decent too. But they did use the long ball both as an outlet and an attacking threat. And it worked.
If you are permanently one-dimensional in any way, then defence IS easy. We've recently had a side which regularly achieved 50+% possession, but that counted for nothing, because it didn't even turn that into unsuccessful efforts on goal. Teams will let you pass in front of them, just as they'll deal with a long ball if you can't find your own man or he isn't supported. (In local football we used eat teams that just wanted to show us their passing game, we just took away the pitch! We closed them down, pushed our defence to the halfway way line, if they'd wide men, we forced them inside. They'd spend the whole game trapped in one area of the pitch, giving up the ball from time to time in areas where they seriously didn't want to lose it. Unless they'd got something more, they were finished.)
MA needs to sort his head out and decide what he's doing and make it clear what the team is doing (whatever that is!). Why waste a contract on Muggleton if his only use is to come on and hurl the ball if we reach the last ten minutes and reach desperation. That means of five subs we're allowed , one is mostly going to be a keeper 'cos ours is ancient and another will only be used in desperate circs! So MA is already reducing his stock of potential game changers to three, and one of those probably has to be a defender in case of injury ....... so options off the bench are minimal before we even kick off. Good thinking!
I've said before my thought is come out of the traps like a a bolt from hell, press in midfield, force the opposition into conceding corners and throw-ins before they've settled and profit both when we do something right and the opposition fcks up, because a very high percentage of goals do just come from opposition mistakes and sheer dumb luck. So that means if you've got the bloke with the longest throw start him, take him off ten minutes into the second half if you want, but you either make use of him, or get rid of him. Why handicap yourself with a bloke on the bench you don't want to use?
I thought signing a fourth centre back would be good, because it increased our options, we might even play three at the back and still have a fit guy in reserve ....... but MA has used Hollis to break up any centre back combo', so we get no consistency. I reckon centre backs are pivotal. If they work you're three quarters of the way to a team. Get a partnership FFS! And a partnership involves two players of differing abilities, so they cover each other's weaknesses and play to each other's strengths!
If anyone is a dinosaur surely Warnock qualifies, but surrounded by these younger men, with new ideas, at clubs with boards much more prepared to invest than Cardiff's it was Warnock who won promotion. There was nothing revolutionary about his style, his team was full of old-fashioned values. Only now when he comes up against teams which massively out-resource him all over the field, do the values and methods he instilled come into question.
Top of Division One - Portsmouth and Peterborough ..... top of Division Two - Lincoln City. They are there because they win, not because they're beautiful or full of modern inventions. That doesn't mean I don't want to see an original like Bielsa succeed even though he's at Leeds. I love his ideas. I admire Guardiola. But that doesn't stop me thinking all kinds of styles can work, but you have to use them well.