| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season 09:26 - Sep 2 with 1120 views | Darth_Koont |
I thought we were pretty average for large spells on Saturday and the Shrews were unlucky not to score at least one.
But ...
1. We were pretty comfortable and the early two-goal cushion meant we didn't have to take the game to Shrewsbury.
2. I think we can play better as the season progresses and the first-choice team emerges
3. We were at a different level when we broke forward and attacked them at pace. Norwood is mobile and a good focus for the attack but Jackson deserves a lot of credit for really stretching defences this season.
4. And perhaps most importantly, this seems to be how automatic promotion sides mostly play (at least from looking at the Championship over the past couple of decades). The stronger teams don't blow sides away that often but they keep the opposition at arm's length and look to capitalise on mistakes or the odd flash of inspiration. That's a base level they can keep repeating game after game to get them over the line rather than relying on total football which will come and go with form. I've got no problem with the more direct style either - with Norwood and Jackson posing different questions of the defence, it's effective and it's repeatable.
On a side note, it's also apparent from the first 6 games how much League One defences will cough up chances and how the attacks won't punish you to anything like the same degree as the Championship. I thought that the standard would be closer to the Championship than the Championship is to the Prem but it seems those people who knew about League One were absolutely right: there is a fairly big drop-off. Hopefully this will be an ideal period to get a team working well together and bedding in our younger and newer players for a decent Championship season next year.
The future looks a little brighter.
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| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season on 09:37 - Sep 2 with 1054 views | Guthrum |
Indeed. we don't need to beat the other top sides (winning and drawing against them is a bonus), neither do we need to be running up big scores all the time. Win by a goal or two most weeks and the GD will look after itself. Grittiness is more important than flashiness - or, more accurately, a cool determination (rather than McCarthyite grim defensiveness).
What you say about standards is, I think, the fundamental mistake which Hurst made in the summer and autumn of 2018. |  |
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| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season on 09:41 - Sep 2 with 1035 views | Darth_Koont |
| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season on 09:37 - Sep 2 by Guthrum |
Indeed. we don't need to beat the other top sides (winning and drawing against them is a bonus), neither do we need to be running up big scores all the time. Win by a goal or two most weeks and the GD will look after itself. Grittiness is more important than flashiness - or, more accurately, a cool determination (rather than McCarthyite grim defensiveness).
What you say about standards is, I think, the fundamental mistake which Hurst made in the summer and autumn of 2018. |
Good point re: Hurst. Players can definitely make the step up to a higher division but they often do that as individuals coming into a fairly settled team or as part of a team that gets promoted.
Hurst's approach of creating a Championship team of League One and League Two strangers was way off the mark. | |
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| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season on 09:54 - Sep 2 with 980 views | Guthrum |
| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season on 09:41 - Sep 2 by Darth_Koont |
Good point re: Hurst. Players can definitely make the step up to a higher division but they often do that as individuals coming into a fairly settled team or as part of a team that gets promoted.
Hurst's approach of creating a Championship team of League One and League Two strangers was way off the mark. |
I think he also set up tactically with the expectation of facing a L1-style defence and having to stand off that type of attacking threat. Which, as we are seeing, is not really so close to what you get in the Championship.
That, as much as the standard of players, was why his initial plans did not work and why he then started wildly casting about for an alternative with near-random team selections.
Which is odd, when you consider he'd played 159 times in the second tier himself (albeit 13 years before). | |
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| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season on 10:03 - Sep 2 with 924 views | thatdamgood89 |
I was particularly impressed with the way we effortless went through the gears. 2-0 up they started to threaten again which in turn prompted us to go from coasting in 3rd into 4th gear for the 3rd goal. |  |
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| The Shrews game bodes very well for this season on 13:31 - Sep 2 with 736 views | Freddies_Ears |
I fully expected a big gap in class in this league, based on the way Rotherham have yo-yoed. Watching some Championship games in tv, it looks so much faster!
In League One, defences are so much poorer, and attacks so much less effective. But I did expect teams to have some kind of tactical approach that would shut us down. Only AFCW have really got close to that. I
In principle, we should beat the bottom two-thirds of this league home and away. That alone would likely secure a top-2nd finish! |  | | |
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