Were starting to press much higher up the pitch

[TSB]

Sounds good, but do our CBs have the pace to deal with a high line?

Upson's positional sense is good enough to cope with lack of pace. Gordon's...well, I don't think he'll be first choice next year.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

What on earth does that mean?

How do you work that out? Short passing game with space being made to release the occasional long ball to a player, normally on the wing. Very little actual hoofing, more a long ball to a player. When did a British team play that way, Premier League teams apart? It's not always working but I'm sure hit and hope is not the plan as was the British way imo.

To my eyes it's taking Poyet's style of football one step further. I don't think Gus thought we had the players to play his style quickly. He may yet be proved right but Oscar is giving it a go and trusting the players.

I know it was a flippant comment I made, but a possession game with quick and accurate passing, and rapid attacks - that's the holy grail of football! There's an idea on NSC that Oscar can develop Poyet's controlled passing game into the same but quicker and more deadly. With the same group of players, thats highly unlikely. Without improving the players, speeding up attack inevitably means sacrificing possession - which is the conundrum that all teams face, and in Britain, the latter iswhat most British teams do. The Gus way of possession-first was new to us. So that's what I mean by turning us back to a British team.

Gus was getting closer to the ideal though, he got the passing play, the control, the tricky wingers, the tight defence sorted relatively early, but he was always struggling to get that talent and flair in the centre of the park that would be key to a quicker passing play. It was originally Bennett (and we were capable of quick possession football in L1), but he wanted to leave, then he tried a season and a half with Vicente as that man but of course he was injured all too often, and then he settled on the Orlandi-Lopez combination that was hot-and-cold and led to arguably some of our finest performances under Gus in the final 10 games of last season - and also some of our most disappointing (if both were on form we were great, if one of them we were good enough - and when they were both playing badly we were shite - a la Palace )

Oscar wants to do it a bit differently, and we have to wait for the injured players to be back first of course, and obviously as others say on this thread, its a transition season and, if he's a good manager, we will see the new system take shape and become successful in the second half of this season.

 

[yxee]

I don't know if it's Poyet + speed. It just seems like Poyet + some sort of purpose going forward, rather than passing across the back 5 for five minutes. OG was brought in on the merits of his coaching, he wasn't able to bring in new players in his previous two roles so he's a good fit for a club that doesn't seem to want to splash out any more money.

It's not whether we can find new players capable of faster passing, it's whether he has enough time at the club to train the current players to do it successfully. I think with TB, he does have enough time.

 

[BensGrandad]

I think the return of Bridcutt will enable Andrews to get further forward and press the opposition back further as he is a ball winner and to do that in or around their box will prove very effective, with Bridcutt breaking up the breakaways

 

[Rugrat]

I think the return of Bridcutt will enable Andrews to get further forward and press the opposition back further as he is a ball winner and to do that in or around their box will prove very effective, with Bridcutt breaking up the breakaways

Who makes way for Andrews then?

 

[casbom]

Who makes way for Andrews then?

I should imagine the midfield 3 will be Bridders, Andrews and Crofts