Lord Duckhunter

You would have moaned like fuck.

Hopefully

Spells?

Ronald Koeman whole managerial career was all about getting to manage Barcelona, anyone who thinks he’ll come back to us afterwards is deluded.

What do you reckon the BBC employees voting % is, I reckon you’ll be lucky to find 20% that vote Tory. The lefts whinging about getting a fair hearing is just pony. They don’t lose elections because of bias, they lose elections because they’re out of touch with the electorate. Discussions about who has and hasn’t a cervix and calling people scum isn’t going to win over floating voters. They’re just appealing to people who’d never vote Tory in a million years, people already on their side of the ledger. Fucking clowns.

We’ll said mate. I long for a manager who looks at the players we’ve got and picks a system to suit them. Not a bloke who wants to play the same way every fucking week and shoe horn players into “his” system. You also end up with the situation where every fucking team we play knows exactly how we’re going to play, and can therefore prepare for that easily. It’s ok for the better sides because their talent will shine through regardless, so it doesn’t really matter if you know how they’ll play. We chuck Long & the big fella on, and still play Ralph ball. No matter who plays in our midfield it’s sideways, backwards, slowly. It’s like they’re all programmed. They’re like Stepford fucking Wives .

Who said anything about screaming abuse. Watch other sides, they dig each other out. Players have done it for years. Why didn’t anyone go to the referee, other sides do it. Nope, we’re good little boys, credit to the game. Have you ever wondered why we keep making mistakes?

Telling that not one of our players got into Bednarek or the referee after the goal, not one. They just dropped their heads and waited for wolves to get back for the kick off like the nice polite boys they are. Does either one of our keepers ever dish out bollockings when we’re done, does the skipper ever gee people up or get on their case. No, we’re soft as shite.

Have you seen our record since the turn of the year? It’s hardly knee jerk to expect better results, other clubs wouldn’t put up with it. Our Nods just sit their bemoaning our luck and taking crumbs of comfort from the occasional glimmer of hope. We’re heading one way under this fraud, The Alpine Klopp, lol, The Alpine Branfoot more like

If somebody had turned up with 5 minutes left and didn’t know the score , they’d have thought it was 0-0. There was absolutely no urgency or a change of approach from us. We chucked Shane Long and the big fella on, and then continued to pass it backward square and slowly. Why wasn’t golden bollocks getting hold of the game and the side, pushing them on, driving us forward. Instead he was fannying around pushing up his passing stats. Woeful.

What’s his record since he made a cock of himself by blabbing when we beat Liverpool

Even a halfwit would play Tino in front of KWP, and play a proper left back. Why he can’t see it is beyond me.

According to Jimmy Case, Bob Paisley was the most tactically knowledgeable bloke he met in football. Prior to the European cup final in Rome his team talk consisted of “last time I was here I was liberating it in a tank, you’re better than them, go out and give them a doing”. He then walked out. Prior to last seasons final what did pep do, baffle the players and pick the wrong side. He got a doing that night. Sometimes things can be over complicated

Good case in point. It was always said it was an old fashioned system that held English football back, it wasn’t, it was 4-4-2 without the ball, but a 4-1-3-2 when we had it. Nobby sat in front of centre halves before Claude Makalele was even born. Martin Peters was an incredibly modern player, 10 years before his time!, he was 50 years ahead of his time, he’d fit in any side today. Bally tucked in but broke wide, Bobby Charlton broke through the lines, or whatever pony describes it now, and Bobby Moore set up attacks better than any modern day centre half. The only real difference from now is the full backs sat and Big Jack kicked a few. As I posted earlier 4-4-2 is a lazy description of many varied tactics that now have hipster names.

It’s nearly as bad as some posters spelling.

What's this pony, write English man. What the fuck is Pep's passing lane. Is that were he blew the champions league final by playing Gündoğan as his central midfield player? More hard shoulder than passing lane I'd have said. What the fuck is a luxury 10, a fucking chocolate? Curb's, BFS and Twitchy, easy Targets mate. It's always ever been slight tweaks to basic formations, but you hipsters have given them new names and make out the wheel's been re-invented. Like I said earlier Malcolm Allison discussed using Pep type football in the 60's. Genuine innovative thinking is few and far between and most of it is driven by rule changes. Goalkeeping has gone through a massive change, but not getting barged into the net, kicked up into the air or having to dribble through a fucking great puddle probably did as much for the evolution as tactical brains.

Perhaps that’s why Ralph doesn’t play it, only Broja could start as target man , the other strikers are permanent signings

4-4-2 isn’t the Mike Bassett throw back some people claim. It’s only certain managers that make it so. Defensively it’s 2 banks of 4, but many many “old fashioned “ managers had different permutations when going forward. It just wasn’t given stupid names and over analysed .

Can you let me have your email address & I’ll email you my response to this post.

Correct 4-4-2 was the formation when sides were defending (or “against the ball lol”). Going forward there were many many different variations. From England’s 66 winning team, where Bally & Martin Peters weren’t traditional wingers, to Graham Taylor’s Watford that had 2 wingers. Pressing is another one. It’s not modern. Big Jacks Ireland used to squeeze the pitch & press years ago, the difference is they knocked it into channels to get up the pitch. Once up there they squeezed & pressed sides. Malcolm Allison was talking about every player playing in every position and circulating the ball, passing the opposition to death when Pep wasn’t even in his dads ball bag. Difference was you couldn’t really knock it about on the Baseball ground mud, or with Chopper Harris kicking you up in the air. As I said earlier, rule changes changed the game more than modern coaches ever did.

Interesting discussion that should be split and have its own thread

Load of old pony. Pitches, rule changes & balls are more responsible for tactical changes than the modern tactical genius, they’re bluffers most of them. Pep, fuck me, holland were playing that way 50 years ago. I presume you’ve heard of Johan Cruyff and his influence on Pep. Difference nowadays is managers stand on the touch line ( or technical area lol) and tell people where to stand, where to run and who to pick up. In past years the players sorted most of it out themselves. If the full back was struggling the midfield would shift over, if they were getting over run in midfield a striker would drop in. The didn’t give it fancy names or try to pretend they’d re invented the wheel. There’s not a formation or tactic that’s anything new, it’s all just a slight twist on the way it’s been done for years.

There was different terminology for some things in my old mans era compared to mine, the difference is hipsters nowadays think they’ve invented something new. It’s the same old simple game it’s always been. Some of us don’t need a computer game or pony stats to form our opinions.

Yeah agreed. Freak game that doesn’t happen to us very often. Once a season at most.