Being more direct is the way to go?

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I'm not arsed, just as long as the style we do use gets results this season. No extreme one way or the other will be the right way, we need to mix it up and adapt to different tasks posed by opposition e.g. soaking up pressure and counterattacking at Wolfsburg.

I believe Martinez' usual style is fine and the players have been injured/tosh for most of the season. The manager hasn't been as good either, like, but I think a combination of a bit of momentum, growing confidence (which we might be seeing currently) and players getting fit and staying fit (not holding my breath) will win us many more games in the long-run than fiddling with the style of play will.

We know the passing style works, we know these players can make it work, however teams set up against us. With even the slightest shred of luck, it will work for a good portion of this season and we'll salvage something positive from the season.
 

Seamus Colemole said:
A system on its own doesn't win or lose football games.

Players in the right system for those players wins games, players in the wrong system for those players loses games (in general but obviously not a hard and fast rule).

Last season teams were sitting off and letting us have the ball, hence our defnesive unit making a lot of passes between themselves. They weren't pressing as high up the picth with the ball, they were waiting till they had it before moving up the pitch with the ball.

This season started similar. Until Spurs away. They pressed us high, our defensive unit then found themselves unable to play as usccesfully in the same system due to the change in systems of the opposition. Others teams did the same as spurs and we couldn't cope.

At which point you either change the players to ones who could play that system under pressure or you change the system. The former isn't an option yet so it has to be the latter. Doesn't have to be permanent, just until you can do the former.

It's that simple for me, The difference between last season and since Spurs away is the high pressing of the opposition. Since then, the way of playing hasn't been the right one for the players we have.

But since West Ham we've changed to a slightly more suitable one and have had performance and average results, but better ones than most of the previous 9 or so matches.
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It's an interesting thought. And it would account for those numbers dropping off a fair bit in our slump period (which is ironic really given that the maintenance of it is blamed for our latest losses).

But I think it also suggests this: we had a squad of pretty confident (given last season) players who were mostly fit and focussed players in the late summer/autumn and they were able to resist and play around opponents in the defensive third who might disrupt us. Problem being for that system is that confidence + fitness has to be maintained or it can go to ****....as it has done.

The conclusion you must draw is that the manager gets in the players he believes can withstand the rigours of the system and add depth to our squad to combat injury and fatigue (something that a Wenger has in spades. for example). Yes, (your point) we need be a little more pragmatic and less purist when we need to be, but the fundamental way forward past all that for us is to match the squad with the system.
 
The man we could really do with at the moment is Darron Gibson.

We could really do with his quarterback-like ability to win possession and spray a long pass (i.e. not hoof it, purists) down the flanks for forwards to run on to. This would help solve the problem of 'getting it forward more quickly' without drastically changing the basic principles of a possession-based philosophy.

But sadly he is still injured. Shoot me down.
 
The Equaliser said:
The man we could really do with at the moment is Darron Gibson.

We could really do with his quarterback-like ability to win possession and spray a long pass (i.e. not hoof it, purists) down the flanks for forwards to run on to. This would help solve the problem of 'getting it forward more quickly' without drastically changing the basic principles of a possession-based philosophy.

But sadly he is still injured. Shoot me down.
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Might be biased because I love him, but Besic can do a better job than Gibson IMO
 

nsno-chris said:
Those so called stats in the OP don't mean jack, do you know how many variables there are to even determine some sort pattern
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I await your counter analysis 'full of variables' that destroys the broad conclusion that leaps out....or you could just dive in again with something petty.
 
davek said:
I await your counter analysis 'full of variables' that destroys the broad conclusion that leaps out....or you could just dive in again with something petty.
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I'm not getting into another argument with you. But to sum it up, you just can't say x + y = Z. You need to find the values of x and y first, and the reasons for those values, if you want to perform a statistical analysis on the data.

The formation of the other team, the percentage of time they spent in our final third, the average number of players they had in our final third, plus other data sets; these are things which affect the outcome in consideration to your initial post
 

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