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View from an outsider

SwissYellow

SwissYellow

Active member
Had the good fortune to chat to someone in the Football Industry today, we chatted about Pep, he said he was a good guy, a good smart technical manager but he was trying to play a style of football that didnt suit our players and more importantly didnt suit our opposition.

Said our strikers were immobile by instruction and not by choice, Ledson was too critical to our midfield and our defence was being asked to hold on to the football until high % chances appeared.

The positives are that he recons we're in a really good place if the new boss can instill a bit of urgency and simplicity. He raved about Agon and Pekalski saying they've both been really unlucky injurywise.

Thinks we're well set for a big push, with positive momentum. Lovely to hear and a case of zeroing a lot of criticims on players during Pep's reign to give them a bit more time before they get labelled as bad signings.

All really interesting that this Prem level person had so much info on us!
 
I’m not sure why so many people have a downer on Mehmeti when he’s hardly been given much of a chance to fit into the team (and one playing so badly!). I hope he plays Saturday and proves a few people wrong.
 
I wouldnt expect him to pull up any trees for us. My friend who works for Stæbek said he was a poor excuse for a footballer when playing for them.
 
You had me until the comment about Agon. I’m sorry but anybody who saw his performance against Bury must surely agree he’s not what’s required. And that’s coming from me who was really wanting him to succeed. He was way off the pace and looking for free kicks as soon as the ball came anywhere near him. In some of the leagues he’s played in that might work but certainly not in English league 1 football. He might just need some time to find his feet but neither he or us have time on our side unfortunately
 
I would say peps style of football totally suited our opposition, paul Cooke even said so.
 
yellowbow said:
You had me until the comment about Agon. I’m sorry but anybody who saw his performance against Bury must surely agree he’s not what’s required. And that’s coming from me who was really wanting him to succeed. He was way off the pace and looking for free kicks as soon as the ball came anywhere near him. In some of the leagues he’s played in that might work but certainly not in English league 1 football. He might just need some time to find his feet but neither he or us have time on our side unfortunately
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Out of interest why don’t we have time to let him adapt to the league? It’s basically a dead rubber season now so perfect to let a player bed into a new league and culture.
 
yellowbow said:
You had me until the comment about Agon. I’m sorry but anybody who saw his performance against Bury must surely agree he’s not what’s required. And that’s coming from me who was really wanting him to succeed. He was way off the pace and looking for free kicks as soon as the ball came anywhere near him. In some of the leagues he’s played in that might work but certainly not in English league 1 football. He might just need some time to find his feet but neither he or us have time on our side unfortunately
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I'd counter that with people moaning about Danny Hylton at the start of his spell with us.

Until he gets a run of games in a side that is actually providing chances then we haven't a clue either way. If you are judging solely on the Bury game then would we keep any of the players who played that day?
 
yellowbow said:
I was referring more to the players age. Old dogs new tricks and all that..
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He's 28 not 40....
The other thing is, if his instructions from Pep were to stay in certain parts of the pitch and to look for free kicks and penalties then maybe with another manager he can do differently.
 
I think a fit Mehmeti looks, potentially, a real asset. In the VERY limited minutes (perhaps 200? Starting two games?) he’s played for us his movement has looked a notch about our other forwards. ‘If’ we can get him fit definitely worth persevering - especially with better delivery post transfer window.
 
Mehmeti needs more games before he can be judged. What I find really odd about the Pep 'reign' is that he is obviously really well regarded as a coach and yet....
1. He brought some shocking players to the club. I know I have banged on and on about Tiendalli but he was/is awful. And Xemi? Nowhere near L1 level, and....
2. The Charlton game made me realise how slowly we were playing under Pep. Laboured sideways passing, no pace. As soon as we started moving the ball much quicker, we looked a different team
So...he recruited some terrible players, and had us playing at a snail's pace. And yet he had a good rep in the game. Odd to say the least. .
 
I think I would go further. It is obvious he had trouble motivating the players too. Way too many games this season where we showed no fight whatsoever.

Plus it was not just the quality of players he signed it was the lack of identifying the holes in the squad and adequately filling them.

Maybe he is a well regarded coach in the game, but for whatever the reasons for us in this league he proved quite a poor manager.
 
malcolmsmoustache said:
Mehmeti needs more games before he can be judged. What I find really odd about the Pep 'reign' is that he is obviously really well regarded as a coach and yet....
1. He brought some shocking players to the club. I know I have banged on and on about Tiendalli but he was/is awful. And Xemi? Nowhere near L1 level, and....
2. The Charlton game made me realise how slowly we were playing under Pep. Laboured sideways passing, no pace. As soon as we started moving the ball much quicker, we looked a different team
So...he recruited some terrible players, and had us playing at a snail's pace. And yet he had a good rep in the game. Odd to say the least. .
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Not to underestimate the difference having wingers on their correct wing made either, especially the last 20 mins where we had ibr and silva as well as napa all bombing down their natural side and having the ability to then put in a cross. Playing inside forwards never has worked for us (joey the exception). Especially this season as they just run into an already congested area. Get down the line put the ball in the mixer, easy. And when we have hall back down the left and ibr/napa down the right and rothwell breaking through the middle. That will be a frightening fast attack who ever we play up front.
 
Dave T said:
Not to underestimate the difference having wingers on their correct wing made either, especially the last 20 mins where we had ibr and silva as well as napa all bombing down their natural side and having the ability to then put in a cross. Playing inside forwards never has worked for us (joey the exception). Especially this season as they just run into an already congested area. Get down the line put the ball in the mixer, easy. And when we have hall back down the left and ibr/napa down the right and rothwell breaking through the middle. That will be a frightening fast attack who ever we play up front.
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I don’t pretend to be a coach by any stretch of the imagination but it seems obvious to me the reason for playing wingers to cut inside is to give more room for overlapping fullbacks. Under Pep we very rarely played fullbacks even capable of overlapping and in the case of Carrol it almost looked like he’d specifically been told NOT to get forward
 
yellowbow said:
Dave T said:
Not to underestimate the difference having wingers on their correct wing made either, especially the last 20 mins where we had ibr and silva as well as napa all bombing down their natural side and having the ability to then put in a cross. Playing inside forwards never has worked for us (joey the exception). Especially this season as they just run into an already congested area. Get down the line put the ball in the mixer, easy. And when we have hall back down the left and ibr/napa down the right and rothwell breaking through the middle. That will be a frightening fast attack who ever we play up front.
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I don’t pretend to be a coach by any stretch of the imagination but it seems obvious to me the reason for playing wingers to cut inside is to give more room for overlapping fullbacks. Under Pep we very rarely played fullbacks even capable of overlapping and in the case of Carrol it almost looked like he’d specifically been told NOT to get forward
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Even then I’m not so sure it works at this level. Hall as a prime example will do it 20/30 times per game and score 1 like the Swindon goal in a season. Marv and COD got down their own side and scored more. Some of our best over lapping of full backs was when George was going past graham or macca (both also right footed.
I know why it’s should work and the theory, but at this level, keep it simple and play to the players strengths create chances by putting the ball in the box
 
Mehmeti was poor against Bury but someone could take him aside and tell him that the diving at every touch is a waste of time in this division, that's an easily solved problem. Whether he turns out to be any good other than that is a guess after playing so little, might as well give him a run and see what he can do when we have so little to lose.
 
holdsteady said:
Mehmeti was poor against Bury but someone could take him aside and tell him that the diving at every touch is a waste of time in this division, that's an easily solved problem. Whether he turns out to be any good other than that is a guess after playing so little, might as well give him a run and see what he can do when we have so little to lose.
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I should’ve also added that to me he seemed slow and a bit lightweight but I suppose both could be put down to lack of fitness. I don’t want to sound like I’ve totally got it in for the guy, I’m the first to say that we should support any player that pulls in a yellow shirt and not criticise, but I suppose I was disappointed as I’d anticipated more from him. Hopefully he’ll show me how little I know and bang a few goals in for us before the end of the season!
 
Football as we know is a confidence thing, we all need it, Pep sat on his rear for 90% on the bench offering no encouragement or advice, he may be a technical person but in League 1 you need more than that, we don’t have the players with the skill to be comfortable at all time playing from the back.
 
Dave T said:
Not to underestimate the difference having wingers on their correct wing made either, especially the last 20 mins where we had ibr and silva as well as napa all bombing down their natural side and having the ability to then put in a cross. Playing inside forwards never has worked for us (joey the exception). Especially this season as they just run into an already congested area. Get down the line put the ball in the mixer, easy. And when we have hall back down the left and ibr/napa down the right and rothwell breaking through the middle. That will be a frightening fast attack who ever we play up front.
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Must admit, when Rothwell picks the ball up and starts to motor its a joy to watch. But also technically gifted and a bit of class.

(im not judging Agon just yet)
 
Dubai Yellow said:
Dave T said:
Not to underestimate the difference having wingers on their correct wing made either, especially the last 20 mins where we had ibr and silva as well as napa all bombing down their natural side and having the ability to then put in a cross. Playing inside forwards never has worked for us (joey the exception). Especially this season as they just run into an already congested area. Get down the line put the ball in the mixer, easy. And when we have hall back down the left and ibr/napa down the right and rothwell breaking through the middle. That will be a frightening fast attack who ever we play up front.
Click to expand...

Must admit, when Rothwell picks the ball up and starts to motor its a joy to watch. But also technically gifted and a bit of class.
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Same with ibr and napa. It’s the first time in a long time of seen people rise off their seats with the anticipation as they run with the ball. We’ve been to keen to get rid of it like a hot potato lately. Like in that fan video, people get excited, shouts of go on, or whip it in. And if it doesn’t go across we can still win a corner. Which have improved a lot with mowatt and silva taking them, actually beat the first man. Just need to work on attacking them now
 
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