Marginal gains

5% reduction in the weeks wages every time Kelly makes an unopposed backwards pass. That wage reduction applies to the whole team, not just Kelly. Should soon see it stopped, and if it doesn’t, at least we’ll now be able to afford the wages.
 
james_AFCB said:
5% reduction in the weeks wages every time Kelly makes an unopposed backwards pass. That wage reduction applies to the whole team, not just Kelly. Should soon see it stopped, and if it doesn’t, at least we’ll now be able to afford the wages.
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By the end of the game the players will be paying the club just to be on the pitch!
 
I was appalled at the post match comments from Cookie and Woody stating that the team were knackered from playing too many games. Interesting to note that you never hear Spurs, Arsenal or Chelsea complaining of being knackered by all their various EPL and Euro Champ games. It’s time our bunch of fairies manned up and showed some grit, passion and toughness.
 
I’d like to see more zest in our movement especially whilst attacking.
We are often lethargic when a burst of speed might be more appropriate.
Rather than adopting the pace of louche middle aged lotharios it’d be nice to see us attack with the pace of sex starved priapismic adolescents.
 
... Iwould hazard a good guess that there are many good man managers on this forum...many who have a good tactical knowledge of football through playing the game or coaching at lower levels...many good motivators and inspirational thinking people...

I often wonder what makes a good football manager at professional level...often it isn't that they themselves have been very successful players, because that is a rarity tbh....in fact the greats like Sir Alex...Bob Paisley...Arsene Wenger...Jock Stein...Bobby Robson....were not great footballers but became great managers...
 
I would like to see:

a) A bit more No. 8, No. 8, Harry Arter type grit

b) Wilshere doing what he does best: strolling through the midfield with the ball seemingly tied to his foot and then threading the ball through to someone in a goal scoring position

c) Dominic Solanke receiving the ball with his back to OUR goal rather than the one he is aiming at.

d) A bit more No. 8, No. 8, Harry Arter type going forward and having a shot at goal.

e) Fewer passes that give the ball away.

f) Dominic Solanke not tuning into a defender and losing the ball.

g) A bit more No. 8, No. 8, Harry Arter type never-say-die attitude.
 
ErikthViking said:
c) Dominic Solanke receiving the ball with his back to OUR goal rather than the one he is aiming at.
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A very good observation. It's almost as if he considers turning his man to be obligatory and then he'll take it from there. He seems to be more focused on hold up play than scoring goals these days, which for our main striker is a bit of a worry.
 
In today's ohec Woody has already got his excuses in by saying the April fixture list as "absolutely ridiculous",

Surely it's the same for all clubs?

At least he's being consistent by carrying over previous manager's (before EH) reasons for poor performances.
 
Garbo said:
... Iwould hazard a good guess that there are many good man managers on this forum...many who have a good tactical knowledge of football through playing the game or coaching at lower levels...many good motivators and inspirational thinking people...

I often wonder what makes a good football manager at professional level...often it isn't that they themselves have been very successful players, because that is a rarity tbh....in fact the greats like Sir Alex...Bob Paisley...Arsene Wenger...Jock Stein...Bobby Robson....were not great footballers but became great managers...
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Fundamentally, I would say that it's not just true of football, but good management is about getting people to do the things they do well consistently at their best, find new things they can do that they didn't know they could do, and then forming a team of those people to compliment each of other.

Asking people to be better at things they don't do well, by simply highlighting a need for better or a need to try harder doesn't achieve anything like the same result as trying something different so that they might add something to their repertoire.

Thus when I started this thread I wasn't looking for a suggestion box for JW but more confirmation/ hope that there are so many small things we can try to do differently that could make the difference between just making the playoffs and winning them. I believe they can but its never bad thing to test ones beliefs.

Reading above, maybe I am alone in thinking we have lots of genuine areas to make gains through small achievable differences, or at least judging by comments where people are effectively saying play better without any sense of how. Surprised with hindsight not to see an unhelpful, score more, concede less.

On Kelly for example, he needs to discover a higher probability ball he can play rather than pass back. Personally, I would show him that his pass to Bego 100% but when combined with a Bego clearance it's probably more like 10% chance of developing into more than 5 touches from this, so it's not hard to favour a better option. There is no harm playing a potentially hopeless long ball, if his team knows that's his plan is. Not asking him to do anything he can't do to achieve a marginal gain.
 
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Mossy1 said:
In today's ohec Woody has already got his excuses in by saying the April fixture list as "absolutely ridiculous",

Surely it's the same for all clubs?

At least he's being consistent by carrying over previous manager's (before EH) reasons for poor performances.
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It's deja vu all over again!

Remember the time when we were managerless between Sean O'Driscoll and Groves (12th October 2006 to 1st September 2008)?

Every single Friday, almost without exception, this geezer used to trot out a litany of excuses in the Ohec as to why we wouldn't win the next day. The sad thing is, he was right about this (if nothing else) and, mostly, we didn't win.

Although I desperately want the outcome that we can overhaul Reading and sneak in to the playoffs, the article does not fill me with confidence. Read for yourselves:

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/s...ams-absolutely-ridiculous-efl-april-schedule/
 
ErikthViking said:
It's deja vu all over again!

Remember the time when we were managerless between Sean O'Driscoll and Groves (12th October 2006 to 1st September 2008)?

Every single Friday, almost without exception, this geezer used to trot out a litany of excuses in the Ohec as to why we wouldn't win the next day. The sad thing is, he was right about this (if nothing else) and, mostly, we didn't win.

Although I desperately want the outcome that we can overhaul Reading and sneak in to the playoffs, the article does not fill me with confidence. Read for yourselves:

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/s...ams-absolutely-ridiculous-efl-april-schedule/
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Agree that it doesn't send the right message when of the players away on international duty (Travers, Mepham, Kelly, Long, Moriah-Walsh and Kilkenny) only Kelly would be likely to be in a starting 11, the rest are either bit part at present, or subs).

The caveat is that we don't know whether the part where he does talk about it being the same for all of the top teams was cut from the interview.
 
Getting nostalgic for deja vu EtV? Let's make them both a thing of the past and look forward to a bright new future (date unspecified)/(when Eddie returns?)
 
One very easy thing. Pass the ball harder. Too many times IMO we play slow passes that crawl along to their destination allowing opponents to close us down. It also gives the team a feeling of lethargy and weak purpose, opposed to faster ball movement which sparks life into the game.
 
redskins said:
One very easy thing. Pass the ball harder. Too many times IMO we play slow passes that crawl along to their destination allowing opponents to close us down. It also gives the team a feeling of lethargy and weak purpose, opposed to faster ball movement which sparks life into the game.
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Agree. If you play your passes with more "zip" it forces players to be more on their toes and less on their heels standing around ( sound familiar ? ). As you say, it has the added benefit of almost automatically generating a more lively and energetic style of play which helps prevent lethargy creeping in.
This would indeed be a small change with potentially big positive effects :thumbup:
 
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It's noticeable that some players are on the back foot when a pass is played, as if they didn't expect it, Lerma in particular is often guilty of this. In a recent game, Wilshere moved out to the left side, taking his marker with him and leaving a big space right in front of their penalty area. The rest of the players stood and watched for a second or two before one of them (can't remember who) kind of jerked awake and started to move into the space but by then it was too late and the opposition had closed the gap. Unfortunately, that that kind of thing happens in most games and I really feel it's something that should've been coached out of them way before they got into the PL and back down into the Championship.
 
Johnny Comelately said:
It's noticeable that some players are on the back foot when a pass is played, as if they didn't expect it, Lerma in particular is often guilty of this. In a recent game, Wilshere moved out to the left side, taking his marker with him and leaving a big space right in front of their penalty area. The rest of the players stood and watched for a second or two before one of them (can't remember who) kind of jerked awake and started to move into the space but by then it was too late and the opposition had closed the gap. Unfortunately, that that kind of thing happens in most games and I really feel it's something that should've been coached out of them way before they got into the PL and back down into the Championship.
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You lose a lot of time accelerating from a flat-footed standing start. If the players were on their toes more of the time they could react quicker to such situations.
Our players do seem to do more than their fair share of standing around when they don't have the ball. At least be up on your toes, bouncing about a bit and ready to push off and run whenever the situation demands it. Like you say, it's something they should work on in training. Players caught standing flat footed showing no movement or intent to move should get shouted at as a matter of course. Ideally, excluding perhaps the keeper at times, all players should be moving or ready to move pretty much all of the time. Anybody caught standing flat-footed should get an instant "friendly reminder" from the touchline !
 
Johnny Comelately said:
It's noticeable that some players are on the back foot when a pass is played, as if they didn't expect it, Lerma in particular is often guilty of this. In a recent game, Wilshere moved out to the left side, taking his marker with him and leaving a big space right in front of their penalty area. The rest of the players stood and watched for a second or two before one of them (can't remember who) kind of jerked awake and started to move into the space but by then it was too late and the opposition had closed the gap. Unfortunately, that that kind of thing happens in most games and I really feel it's something that should've been coached out of them way before they got into the PL and back down into the Championship.
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Seen quite a lot of walking back and very often with backs to the ball in some recent games. I am not sure it's that easy to coach out through anything other than substituting / dropping players.

On the issue of standing still, lack of general movement or moving into spaces, I think this a question of football intelligence not physical ability or desire. There are just some players who lack ability or pace but they more than make up for it with smarts. In contrast there are others with no real footballing brain, and it's made worse if they rely on coaching from the sidelines rather the players around them to just get the best out of them.
 
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