Plymouth Argyle Daily News - Wednesday 7 April

Interesting that Tony Pulis has such a low win percentage, considering how he moved us out of trouble that year. I assume he must have one of the highest draw percentages, with attritional tactics that left him unloved at most of his clubs.

According to these stats first half Saturday should be decent

As long as we turn up, unlike Monday

Vampires11":3ol99h48 said:

According to these stats first half Saturday should be decent

As long as we turn up, unlike Monday

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I do not suppose EFL i-follow will allow us to pay £5 and just take the first half only? :greensmile: :greensmile:

Quintrell_Green":iri8gu21 said:

Vampires11":iri8gu21 said:

According to these stats first half Saturday should be decent

As long as we turn up, unlike Monday

Click to expand...

I do not suppose EFL i-follow will allow us to pay £5 and just take the first half only? :greensmile: :greensmile:

Click to expand...

And pay the players 50% appearance money only :greensmile:

There is a lot of current discussion on Pasoti threads about problems with players, the manager, team formations etc. But the first and second half tables demonstrate the simple fact that if our second half performances matched our first half performances we would be heading for automatic promotion and we would all be very happy. Surely that is the big issue to address. Why has this been happening and how do we improve our second half performances?

In my view it’s simple to understand: other managers figure out how to play us and change things around at half-time, and our manager doesn’t know how to respond to the changes the other side has made.
Any other plausible explanations?

The huge difference is due to a number of issues:
The opposition would have scouted and researched us so they know how we play and might implement their plan in the second half, the change in tactics outwits us.
Our mostly young and inexperienced team lack concentration at the start of the second half, we have no leaders to make sure the team keeps it tight.
Similarly we are full of enthusiasm and energy for the first half and generally score goals.
The second half substitutions rarely make an impact, in fact they usually make the team worse.

Last season in League Two we were 4th best in the first half and 3rd best in the second half but we did have the likes of Canavan, Sawyer, Sarcevic and Wootton playing regularly.

Stopping us from falling off a cliff during the second halves is Lowe's biggest challenge for next season.

This season it's been going on for a while, I first noticed it back in mid-November ...

The tables of halves are highly interesting, just hope it’s something that the club’s statistician has picked up on and emphasised to the management.
Although RL clearly knows about the problem as he’s referred to it several times.
What concerns me is that going by his interviews he seems to tell the team “more of the same in the second half”, and he has also said more than once that he doesn’t understand why we perform less well after half-time.
But what if “more of the same” (in other words, the “game-plan”) is what is getting us into trouble, because it is no longer relevant to the circumstances as the opposition have changed tactics after half-time?
That would account for the “game-plan” no longer working, would it not?
In which case, it would be the game-plan and the manager that are principally responsible, not the players. Of course the players will play less well if the opposition has seized all the initiative and has all the momentum, which is what we see time after time in the second half. How can they stick to the game-plan if it is no longer possible to put it into effect because the opposition have counteracted it?!
Putting all the blame on the players is a cop-out, in my view, and this is what RL needs to stop if it is indeed what he is doing, and not just what he says in interviews.

philevs":24yda462 said:

In my view it’s simple to understand: other managers figure out how to play us and change things around at half-time, and our manager doesn’t know how to respond to the changes the other side has made.
Any other plausible explanations?

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I think that's an element but can't be the only thing, you'd expect all teams to have done their homework and have a game plan, as we do. I think part of it may be to do with the pressing he expects from front to back. i remember Klopp taking three full seasons to get the right players in and make the total pressing system work.

Can Ryan expect this to work at league 1 level? Fleetwood did it to us with great effect but overall they are in the same place as us in the table, so can't be consistently doing that either. I wonder if second half we just ease off the press, maybe it's fitness, maybe they are pressing too much, in the wrong areas of the pitch, or not going together, and their decision making isn't there. Camaras a good example of that.

I remember Klopp saying this is really important for each player to know when to press or not. Are they burning out? Just a thought. The stats suggest there is a significant change between halfs, if it were the other way around and we were best in second halfs that would suggest not a fitness issue.

Ryans clearly got a lot to learn about tactical changes. That's another element I feel.

We need 2 old pros in the line up to be vocal at the start of the 2nd half to get into the team, gee them up, be loud ensuring they keep their concentration.

We have no leaders...

I’d be interested to see the data from first to second half in terms of running, sprints etc. You have to wonder if our way of playing takes the legs out of players in the first half and drains them in the second? I might be entirely wrong, but if our performance levels drop then we need to figure out a way of equalising levels across two halves. Totally hypothetical of course. There may be no problem. Lowe often talks about kilometres run over a match but i wonder if there is a difference between halves.

They must be doing lots of analysing the stats, which would be interesting to see in detail. But you can almost sense the 'oh no, not again' attitude of the players when they concede early in the second half(s). I agree with everyone who says that this is when some more level headed experience is needed. I'm sure that many of us will remember when we were players at whatever level, the importance of a trusted, vocal captain who lifted the whole team when things got tough. No offence to Edwards, who has had a good season, but Argyle do seem to lack that.

Welwyn Pilgrim":244dhq6f said:

We need 2 old pros in the line up to be vocal at the start of the 2nd half to get into the team, gee them up, be loud ensuring they keep their concentration.

We have no leaders...

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Why do they need to be old to be vocal?

Yes we need greater experience and more leadership, but I don't get the emphasis on those concerned being "old", in footballing terms obviously. We need recruits to be good players as well as leaders - there's more than having a couple of old (footballing) men with big gobs. There are plenty in their mid 20s who possess leadership skills.

saxman":1qmsta3t said:

They must be doing lots of analysing the stats, which would be interesting to see in detail. But you can almost sense the 'oh no, not again' attitude of the players when they concede early in the second half(s). I agree with everyone who says that this is when some more level headed experience is needed. I'm sure that many of us will remember when we were players at whatever level, the importance of a trusted, vocal captain who lifted the whole team when things got tough. No offence to Edwards, who has had a good season, but Argyle do seem to lack that.

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Yes agreed that the players' heads probably drop, but that doesn't explain why we keep conceding early in the second halves! The goal is conceded before the heads drop. And for me that means our tactics are to blame rather than our personnel, in other words, the root cause is the manager and not the players' attitude.