Style of play.

[Guest Mahonio]

I was quite amazed that Ian Murray was positive about John Hughes' style of play on Sportscene last night and seeing goals against United (10-11 passes) and 2nd goal at weekend (10 passes) had even me impressed, I also agreed with Ian when he said it would take time for our players to get used to his style of play and that John needs his own players in, players that know John's style of play.

So, I for one, am happy with John's passing style of play, just need to cut errors out at back.

[old caley girl]

Not sure how many players we can afford to bring in tho given most are already signed up?

[Guest Mahonio]

He doesn't need many but it depends on who leaves.

[cantankerousoldgit]

I don't really buy into the idea that a style of play which got us to second in the league with the players we have was somehow a wrong style to be fixed for football purist reasons. I would rather see Hughes being able to adapt and get the best out of the players we have and score goals and win games.I agree that he will be very limited in how he can change the squad for next season anyway.

[bdu98196]

Exactly, if Hughes wants to change the style or play we had which was fast paced counter attack down the wings and soaking up pressure, to some kind of tippy tappy football with multipule touches and players in fear of driving forwards or shooting, then why did he sign up the whole team so early in his tenure? This now leaves us with a squad of quality that got us into 1st in the league for 8 games and held 2nd a long time plus a cup final who are being expected to play in a style they do not suit and still get the same results. Must be frustrating for all.

[Renegade]

I was quite amazed that Ian Murray was positive about John Hughes' style of play on Sportscene last night and seeing goals against United (10-11 passes) and 2nd goal at weekend (10 passes) had even me impressed, I also agreed with Ian when he said it would take time for our players to get used to his style of play and that John needs his own players in, players that know John's style of play.

So, I for one, am happy with John's passing style of play, just need to cut errors out at back.

 

How many matches have you attended in order for you to form that opinion?

 

The problem isn't just "errors at the back", it's that Hughes' tactics are fundamentally flawed and his unwillingness to change them that is leading us into problems.  It doesn't help that his "pass at all costs" mentally has lead to goals drying up, just like at all his other clubs.

 

I honestly doubt that we'd be able to sign any players in any position that are better than what we have just now, they just need to be utilised better.

[BA]

I've got no problem with the keep the ball on the deck, working from the back mentality. That said, this philosophy only works if the team, especially with 5 in midfield, play with width, that way the players in the middle of the park can get going into the pockets of space and create the play from there. We play so narrow it means that in a space that should be 2v2, 3v2 it's actually 4v4, 5v5, meaning there is no space for midfielders to create anything thus going back the way before a long punt.

[+DoofersDad]

Maybe someone with more knowledge of the game than me can shed some light on what seems to be a bit of a contradiction in the way players are told to play.  A lot of comment has been made about an apparent pass at all costs mentality which seems to have got us into a lot of defensive difficulty when a good hoof up or out of the park, whilst not pretty, would have cleared the immediate danger.  However, as soon as the ball gets back to the keeper it appears that he is instructed to let everyone get into position up the park and then - hoof!  Quite often Raven and Shinnie make themselves available for a safe out ball but Brill waves them up the park.

 

So, when a defender has the ball and it is risky to pass they are being encouraged to pass, but when the keeper has the ball and it is safe to pass and keep possession he is being told to hoof it. Can't get my head around it.

 

 

[TheCommissioner]

 

 

I honestly doubt that we'd be able to sign any players in any position that are better than what we have just now, they just need to be utilised better.

 

 

I don't believe we need many new players, but we certainly need a few. The squad is growing tired and mistakes are being made, partly due to the influx of games. The squad isn't big enough to handle a league cup final, a Scottish Cup quarter final, game cancellations and be pushed to try enter Europe. It's been a difficult season in truth. The team has shown how much they have improved to handle with that pressure as best they can.

 

We need a player to both add, and take away pressure from Billy. To make him work for his place (to improve him) and to let him rest. With the current defensive problems, I would be tempted to push Shinnie up the field into midfield and have both Tremarco and Raven on. This means we essentially have both a midfielder and an additional defender. . 

 

The style of play Yogi is trying to play has to be favoured from the previous style. Sure it worked for us, but teams had sussed us out by now. It's time for change, and I do feel Yogi and Lapaty have an idea of where to take the team. Sometimes you just have to take one step forward and two steps back to really improve. Give them this summer to iron out any bugs, and I'm sure the next season will kick off just fine. 

[+roarer]

I was quite amazed that Ian Murray was positive about John Hughes' style of play on Sportscene last night and seeing goals against United (10-11 passes) and 2nd goal at weekend (10 passes) had even me impressed, I also agreed with Ian when he said it would take time for our players to get used to his style of play and that John needs his own players in, players that know John's style of play.

So, I for one, am happy with John's passing style of play, just need to cut errors out at back.

You were quite amazed!

Reading your posts, I am quite amazed!!!

[Guest Mahonio]

Oi, no need for that!!

[NoIInTeam]

Now we know the footballing philosophy Yogi and Latapy are introducing we can have a real debate about it. I'm not 100 per cent sure that playing it through the middle and not using wingers is going to work with our current squad of players. I love a winger and Doran is one of the best in the legue. Seeing less of him playing at his best is a big negative for me and Billy is not gong to thrive with this system. We may as well sell these two which will bring in some good money and buy what we need.

I'm not happy with this but it's going to be hard going if we don't break up the team and keep having to suffer our square pegs being forced into round holes.

[bigman]

I have never seen such c-------p the players don't seem to like it the supporters don't like it its not Caley Hughes is going to be the only person in the ground at this rate.

[+DoofersDad]

Further to my comment above, it was interesting to see Esson try to play a short ball whenever possible.  Sometimes he looked for alternative short options before resorting to the normal keeper's hoof.  He looked uncomfortable trying to play the short ball.  Makes me wonder whether Brill was dropped because he's been involved in one or two mix ups recently or because he wasn't following instructions.

[closed]

Don't know if this a good or bad observation. We played patient passing football tonight without any real penetration and got sucker punched minute we chased the game a bit. Came home and stuck on Man U v Bayern on itv+1 and had another bloody hour of passing the ball back and fore except it wasn't ICT now it was Bayern!! To be fair to Guardiola he did have his wingers robben and ribery playing but it was same pass forwards,sideways back philosophy.

[Macduffer]

Hughes doesn't believe in wingers - so we can assume our wingers - Doran, Watkins, Williams - will be going at the end of the season

[bishbashbosh]

passed the above mentioned ian murray coming out the satadium front door before the st Mirren game on Saturday.

[starchief]

So the style doesn't suit McKay, Doran, Williams or Watkins.  I'd also suggest it doesn't suit Foran or Warren either.  Giving Hughes 'time' would mean these players underperform or we get rid of them.

 

Or we get rid of him!

[Sean93]

The passing philosophy is fine I'd love good passing football if we were capable of it.

 

Lets use two very good models of passing football with success.

 

1) Barcelona - Do they play with wingers? Why yes they do.

 

2) Bayern Munich - Do they play with winger? Why yes they do.

 

All we acheive by packing the centre of the park is removing any space for the creative players to work in rather than allow for chances to be created in the centre.

 

All defences in the league must be loving the thought of playing us right now.

 

No plan B and plan A is useless to start with.

[bigman]

Draper was playing out of his skin and should have been man of the match. The team played to plan using the final telling pass back to esson. We demonstrated last night that we can neither go forward or backwards. I think Hughes will realise Billy is surplus to requirements who needs striker with this system it would allow him another mid fielder.

[clacher_holiday2]

Having loads of central midfielders on the books isn't a bad idea, it means you can send them out to get booked every week knowing there's replacements in reserve, either midway through a match or when the suspensions roll in.

[KingBeastie]

I liked the quick counter attacking game we used to play.

As we seen it certainly effective away from home.

 

I'm not convinced by this "passing game" pish.  Even if we do get the players playing this style well are we going to win more games?...

[KingBeastie]

One thing that get me about this "passing game" is that if you look at some of the goals we have scored using this style they are still struck from a long way out.

What difference does the "passing stylish play" make if you end up striking from distance?  This style of play is not needed and has no real bearing when a player strikes from further out.

Maybe if we were passing or walking the ball into the net but we are rarely getting the ball into the net at all.

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

The idea behind the passing game is that you retain possession. If your opponents don't have the ball, they can't score.

 

Unfortunately, now that everyone knows we play like this, they press the ball, and we start passing backwards to retain possession. This ultimately leads to a back-pass, which then leads to a big hoof up the park. The added excitement is that we have a habit of either messing up the back-pass, allowing an opponent a 1 on 1 with the keeper, or take so long to pass it back that the opposition can close the keeper down leading to the comedic series of goals we have conceded.

 

So, given that the keeper just hoofs the back-pass upfield, why don't we get the centre backs to do that instead?

[KingBeastie]

Not doubting the retaining possession element but when you do nothing with that possession or nothing that you couldn't do without having to use a system that the players don't seem to be able to work with I don't see the point.

 

At M'well we were caught out with a long ball over the top and again in the home game I believe.  I don't want us to be a long ball team just saying that there are other styles and that they can be mixed.

 

Being good on the break was working very well for us I think.