Hound I’d argue those are likely contradictory. Can’t be patient in possession if you’ve played direct from the back.
How many goals have we actually conceded from playing out from the back? 1 I think - stokes second. Yet I’d suggest at least 2 of our goals scored have come from the oppo playing too high to press (plus Barnsley send off). And I’ve not even really thought about our other goals and if they’ve come from passing it out
I can’t remember us conceding many since Stam tbh from actual mistakes passing it out. Sure there must have been some but it’s a really low percentage
Agree with Hound here.
What I noticed yesterday (can't remember Preston) was that we made MANY errors and many while NOT under pressure
If we lose possession when trying to beat a high-press, OK.. someone would need to do the stats to see if we get goals we otherwise wouldn't versus, how many we could avoid from being caught out.
BUT
Yesterday, as I say, the players were just not at the races and were sloppy even when NOT pressed. Olise has started to believe his own publicity and wants to win the game on his own.
I'd say the sloppiness has been since Blackburn. Maybe it's psychological. When we were underdogs, expected, at best to finish 10-12th, we were disciplined, (especially Laurent and Rhino) and shut other teams out totally down the middle.
Only a few attacks stretched us (eg got behind) and these were WING attacks. Someone posted here that this was fine because Morro-Moore ate crosses for breakfast.
Classic defensive midfielders play about 80% of the game in a small area, just "doing their job". That was how I saw us, EVERY game up until the Blackburn game. Now we see Laurent and Rhino often on the edge of the opponent's box.
We seem to have stopped playing to a strict team-method. I made the remark "Sunday football". The skills and power are there (although I think we need a speed-merchant) and when we are VERY disciplined, we just stop sides seeing our goal. Now, for Blackburn, Coventry, Preston, Stoke, we've gone (relatively) "gung-ho" which may LOOK cool but drops us into a basketball game.
IMO we need to go back to how we started. If we have to bore everyone for 35 minutes, FINE, it's still 0-0. IMO we've become cavalier and a lot more "random". We aren't playing to our strengths. Our strengths are we know how to get 0-0s. Then we add the chances we make after 35 minutes and in the second half.
Is it any accident that Laurent-Rhino were being praised for closing the game down? Now they aren't.