Bris Vegas Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Genuine question - What makes us so good?I've seen plenty of managers this season say that we're the best team in the league, destined for the Premier League etc. And Charlton's boss is the latest to laud us after ou win against them tonight.But... Were we really that good? What was so good about us?I don't know what it is, but Chris Powell, Steve Evans, Dougie Freedman, Styart Gray and now Guy Luzon have been singing our praises - but we've hardly battered these teams... And they've all received a bigger tonking off one of our other promotion rivals this season.So what makes us so good compared to everybody else?Hand on heart, we've not battered anyone this season. Fulham was a late capitulation, we scored five goals past Wolves but we were clinical that day and it was hardly chances galore - I don't even remember their GK making an actual save in that match.Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich, however, have hammered teams this season.Brentford managed 42 shots against Blackpool. Would we do the same? I highly doubt we'd make half of that figure. In fact, we haven't even made that figure over our last three games - against Rotherham, Sheff Wed and Charlton.Our win at Cardiff was bizarre, we were actually poor going forward - in the second half we had like one shot (Bennett) and that was it - but we wereso in control of the match it didn't even matter. We could have played all night and they still wouldn't have laid a glove on us.I'm rambling. Just want to know what you guys think? Why are we 'supposedly - according to other bosses' so good? Is it our control on matches? It surely can't be because we've blown teams away with chance after chance as we're not that sort of team... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RamNut Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Its standard practice for a defeated manager to minimise defeat by praising the quality of the opposition so i'd take some comments with a pinch of salt.having said that we were totally dominant in the first half v charlton. They hardly got a kick..Our strengths are a combination of - the system; the possession we generate; will hughes; the quality we have all over the pitch,; the strength in depth. Our weaknesses are a tendency to overdo the passing across the back four such that we sometimes lose the momentum - and find it hard to raise the tempo again; we have a strange habit of failing to perform at key times (e.g. Forest); and we possibly lack an Archie Gemmill to keep driving us on - a leader. But the league table doesn't lie.We're top but we're not so good that we are running away with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Appreciate the question Bris. I agree with Ramnut's standard practice remark too.The short answer is its McClaren.The longer answer is that I think it's just that when a team plays possession football with an emphasis on attack and fast combination passing, it's pleasing on the eye, you get that kind of feedback. We play a Dutch style, quick passing, no long ball, and its pretty. Modern coaches love that stuff, and that's why they say what they do. And you don't have to be slaughtering teams to gain that sort of admiration from those people. Domestically, think Swansea a couple seasons ago, Arsenal at times, Liverpool last year, and Chelsea this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Am Sheep Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 There are lies, damned lies and statistics... apparently.At the end of the day we're top of the league and top of the league for a very good reason. It's our ability to control and switch the gameplay as and when we need to. Charlton knew they had to go into damage limitation mode and to keep it at 2-0 was a moral victory, even though we had decided to stop wasting our own energy.As for "We're top but we're not so good that we are running away with it." I genuinely think we're going to now, I really do. Why? Because George. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloughandtaylor Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 What makes us so good? Its because of the coach and his coaching staff, its because of the tweaking of the players when McClaren took over, its because of the quality of players we now have, its because of the style of football we play and most importantly simply because we are....so good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Van der MoodHoover Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We're absolutely brilliant at convincing teams we have another 2 or 3 gears to find. Even if we don't actually then find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We play football, on the floor, at pace if we need to and for periods of the game, when the players are interested, we want to win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thierry Ennui Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We were close to our best yesterday. Thorne is so influential. On the ball he was continually dealing with three running at him and then calmly distributing. That's three players out of the game straight away. He also likes to play it forward. As the game went on he became more confident to turn and pick a pass. The only reason it wasn't a cricket score yesterday was the lack of Chris Martin. We had no target (and I don't mean for aerial balls, I mean the fizzed balls to feet that Hughes and Thorne are so good at). Hendrick filled in that role as he was able (and had his best game this season) but I can totally see why any manager would end up dropping Bent - he barely contributes to the build-up. Of course he's been great for us, but I don't see him ever being an option when we are 0-0 or winning, as a possession side with him playing we relinquish control in the final third and are forced to pass sideways and backwards.It will be incredibly harsh to drop Bent but in my opinion it needs to happen for us to reach our potential. We are incredibly fortunate in that we have the best centre forward in the league to replace him with. On top of that we have better options for wingers than last season. And with Thorne back and Hughes increasingly potent we're a better side than at our peak last season. Barring injuries we should win this league at a canter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TigerTedd Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We were close to our best yesterday. Thorne is so influential. On the ball he was continually dealing with three running at him and then calmly distributing. That's three players out of the game straight away. He also likes to play it forward. As the game went on he became more confident to turn and pick a pass. The only reason it wasn't a cricket score yesterday was the lack of Chris Martin. We had no target (and I don't mean for aerial balls, I mean the fizzed balls to feet that Hughes and Thorne are so good at). Hendrick filled in that role as he was able (and had his best game this season) but I can totally see why any manager would end up dropping Bent - he barely contributes to the build-up. Of course he's been great for us, but I don't see him ever being an option when we are 0-0 or winning, as a possession side with him playing we relinquish control in the final third and are forced to pass sideways and backwards.It will be incredibly harsh to drop Bent but in my opinion it needs to happen for us to reach our potential. We have better options for wingers than last season. With Thorne back and Hughes increasingly potent we're a better side than at our peak last season. Barring injuries we should win this league at a canter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hinzy9 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We dominate possession in all matches and pretty much all our forward/attacking players have shed loads of goals in them. That coupled with Hughes' (and now Thornes) incisive passing makes us very difficult to defend against even when we're not at our fluent best. Teams have to be 100% switched on at all times or they are likely to get punished. We've also improved our consistency this season so even a bad performance is enough to keep us in most games. The strength in depth, with equally talented players coming off the bench probably influences managers comments about us as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TigerTedd Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 What's great, at this stage of the season, is that teams are starting to look at where they can pick up the points this season, and most are looking at us and writing the game off from the start. If they've got anything about them, they'll give it a go, you've always got to give it a go, but once we go a goal or two up, it's very easy just to cut your losses, and go into damage control mode, as goal difference could end up making a difference, especially for teams at the bottom, or on the cusp of the play offs. That's what happened yesterday, I think.Therefore, being good is a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. The more we win, the more people will assume they'll loose, the more we can just cruise to victories against teams that aren't really trying, saving their energy for the next relegation 6 pointer.I've heard people say it might be difficult when we're playing against teams who are fighting for their lives, but they'll have already discounted any points they might hope to earn from a game against us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TroyDyer Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 The management, the players, of course, the fans. Isn't that the standard response? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McRamFan Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We do enough to get the job done. Everyone knows what is needed and its not just about the game they are playing now, its also about keeping a consistant approach.Sooner see us cruise through 6 games and win 2-0 that 3 games at 5-0 2 draws and a defeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoollyJumper Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I'm convinced it all stems from Sam Rush and his appointment. He probably realised that what was happening at the club when he came in was that he was never going to convince the owners to back the team and player management. He has bought in an extremely professional player management team that has the ability and experience to create positive results, that have far more global success, and this Sam has been able to sell to the owners, which have in turn shown a willingness to back Sam's vision. Early positive results and progress has lead to increased confidence, and the forward momentum has continued. The current management have the experience to entice a broader/better standard of player in a style of play that is positive. It has been mentioned on a number of occasions, that the money is there for the team, and I'm confident that it would not have been made available with the former set-up. This is in no way designed to have a free swing at the previous management, and more a comment about the difference in successful experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambitious Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We're incredibly hard to break down and very controlled. I think it's rare you see a team that scores on average two goals a game that keeps as many clean sheets we do. The possession is obviously the main factor - both at home and away from home. We're just a very complete side; we're as strong at the back as we are going forward and our midfield controls games comfortably. It'll be interesting if we're promoted to see how well we do. Swansea managed to continue in the same vein. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Mills Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I'm sorry to say again but its Moysey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmic Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Some teams are hard to beat, some teams score more than the opposition. We're just a class above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheron85 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Genuine question - What makes us so good?Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich, however, have hammered teams this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Contain Nuts Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 The opening post mentions that we haven't battered teams, which is true, yet we've got a goal difference better than anyone else in the league (+2 on Bournemouth, possibly only until tonight).Bournemouth won one game 8-0, another 6-1, they've had a 5-3 and a 4-0... but at this moment in time we've scored the exact same number of goals as they have (66, along with Watford)We battered plenty of teams last season, were far and away the top scorers but in the end it counted for naught. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Don't disagree, but I think Bent with Dawkins doing the holding up can do a similar job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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