4 - 0 with 31% possession...

[Baldseagull]

Can I burst your even bigger bubble, how many games have we played this season when we have had less than ten shots on target, that'll be most of the games we have played. If we had done this, if we had done that, if whatever. Drawing people out of position so that we can exploit the gaps they leave behind them as the opposition become as bored as the paying public. It doesn't happen like that, do you remember the Reading game and as I have now seen throughout the season a change in strategy of the opposition pressing quickly on our defenders as we try to pass across the back four creating errors from our own players. Tippy tappy from a physically small Spanish team was the correct strategy at the time, but times have moved on and new approaches have developed and our attempt to emulate such a style is poor and unproductive.

Shooting on or off target has nothing to do with the process that brought the shooting opportunity about, it isn't the style of play that caused Ulloa to hit a penalty kick into the roof of the North Stand.
If you check shooting stats we have more shots at goal in total, and more shots on target than Reading, and have had more shots at goal in total than Burnley, but they have shot on target about 30 times more than us this season. As Oscar has been saying all season, we need to be better with the chances we create.

 

[westy]

Isnt that just a comment on the difference in levels and quality, not a reason to condemn possession football..

The alternative is a poor mans Stoke City ( under Pulis ).

Im not condemning possession football, im just saying it needs to be fused with pace and purpose. In general we need to play at a higher tempo with an ability to up the speed of our game as we approach the final third. Too many times we are predictable and 1 paced which plays into the hands of teams when they park the bus.

 

[Mowgli37]

It's funny how when Mourinho goes away and gets a 0-0 it's a "tactical masterclass" yet when Alladyce did the same at Chelsea earlier in the season his "lowly Hammers...defended stoutly".

 

[Brighton Mod]

Did you see the Reading Cup game at the Amex, when we completely outplayed them and had we not been so wasteful in front of goal 1-0 Could easily have been 4 or 5. Up at their place we again played them off the park with their keeper being man of the match. QPR we soaked up pressure and hit them on the break, Leicester who like us played proper football went the same way twice. We come unstuck against the packed defence lump it and hoof it teams, like Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds. But if we can score early their game plan goes out of the windows.
To defeat that type of team on a regular basis we need skilful players who have the vision to spot an opening (Vicente, Orlandi, Spanish Dave and Crofts) We lost a bit of craft when Noone went off to C'diff we still have that with Lualua and an emerging Solly March. Given a proper pre season where Oscar can lay down his game plans for the players to remember and sufficient drill time to practice them, next season will certainly be different. To come into a club so close to the season's start and work with players who are not your choice, Oscar has done remarkably well.
Had Gus stayed then we would have at least expected automatic promotion which he knew he could not deliver hence the imfamous tantrum on Sky.

Reading in the league game at home, we couldn't even score, had to rely on an own goal to get a point. When have we scored an early goal and when have we scored an early goal and managed to hang on to it. That we can't score against a team that only 'hoofs' it reflects on us, that the opposition make it hard for us at the Amex must be a given, no one is going to come here and make it easy for us, in the same way that we play away. Yes, I want to give Oscar a pre season, but it must used wisely and I believe that in his thrid year in first team management he is going to need to step up a little in his style of play and his team selection as both lack confidence to my view. I agree with your point of having skilful players to spot an opening, but please don't include Lua Lua in that, he has no vision at all.

 

[Brighton Mod]

Shooting on or off target has nothing to do with the process that brought the shooting opportunity about, it isn't the style of play that caused Ulloa to hit a penalty kick into the roof of the North Stand.
If you check shooting stats we have more shots at goal in total, and more shots on target than Reading, and have had more shots at goal in total than Burnley, but they have shot on target about 30 times more than us this season. As Oscar has been saying all season, we need to be better with the chances we create.

No it wasn't the style of play that caused Ulloa to send that penalty to the back of the stand, but it was the selection of the penalty taker. We have had opportunites which should have been converted and we see this game in and game out and having more shots than Reading is irrelevant, do any of Lua Luas random shots count? Oscar is correct we should be taking the chances we have and its his job to do something about it.

 

[westy]

Reading in the league game at home, we couldn't even score, had to rely on an own goal to get a point. When have we scored an early goal and when have we scored an early goal and managed to hang on to it. That we can't score against a team that only 'hoofs' it reflects on us, that the opposition make it hard for us at the Amex must be a given, no one is going to come here and make it easy for us, in the same way that we play away. Yes, I want to give Oscar a pre season, but it must used wisely and I believe that in his thrid year in first team management he is going to need to step up a little in his style of play and his team selection as both lack confidence to my view. I agree with your point of having skilful players to spot an opening, but please don't include Lua Lua in that, he has no vision at all.

Have to agree.