Brief Synopsis

[philevs]

I note you live in Italy. I think that must be where your love of 'passion' comes from. Yes, let's see Ryan Lowe running around with his hands in the air, crying when we lose, throwing his coat on the ground, that sort of thing.... :roll:

Ha, yes maybe. Or we could accept that he's 'proud of the lads' - who'd just let a very poor side run rings around us for large parts of the game.
I guess I'm too old to appreciate this 'powder puff' approach to the game (I mean the players, not RL). I want to see a team that 'gets up and at 'em' from the start, not wait to see how it pans out. I want to see players urging each other on. Passion? Yes, I want to see that!
I want to see Argyle do well but, at the moment, we are light years behind the Prem, the Championship and even the top of League 1.
Maybe I'm just falling out of love with football, I don't know. I don't get all this faffing around at the back that every team seems to play now, it doesn't work for me, it doesn't entertain me.

I don’t agree with Lousy Pint’s summary of the game, especially that S.U. were miles better than us. The tight score line shows we were well in it and some of our play was excellent, with a number of very good performances. I thought we played well, and had Camara taken that golden opportunity the game would have taken a completely different course.
But mainly, the “faffing around” he refers to is due to changes in the laws of the game, especially regarding what constitutes a foul - a lot of which is utterly absurd, as we see from the many free-kicks given for the slightest physical contact. So the “blood and guts” approach is simply not allowed any more. That’s why we see teams playing as they do, and maybe that does lead to less “passion” in the game.
But the blame lies with the lawmakers, not the managers and players who are trying to play under such ludicrous rules.
The rules also encourage much of the cheating we see, which in my view is as big a threat as anything to the game’s future.

 

[Lousy Pint]

Yes, I agree with you philevs, the fault lies largely with the lawmakers. There are some ridiculous laws now and football is rapidly becoming a non contact sport. Some may like that, fair enough, but it's not the game I grew to love many, many years ago.
(As an aside, this law about the ball not having to leave the penalty area from a goal kick - ridiculous! This is what leads to the faffing about I alluded to earlier).
As for your comment UTL - passion does not necessarily go with the managerial nightmares you mentioned. Pep and Klopp, amongst many others, get quite animated a lot of the time and I wouldn't say their teams are that bad to watch!!

 

[Kentishgreen]

I don’t think you can blame Cooper for Sharp’s goal. If it was our centre forward in a one on one with the keeper in those circumstances you’d expect him to score at least 9 times out of 10. If it was anyone’s fault it was the team as a whole for getting caught out on the break and the big centre half for getting out muscled by a smaller man.

 

[EyeOpener]

I don’t think you can blame Cooper for Sharp’s goal. If it was our centre forward in a one on one with the keeper in those circumstances you’d expect him to score at least 9 times out of 10. If it was anyone’s fault it was the team as a whole for getting caught out on the break and the big centre half for getting out muscled by a smaller man.

...or the CDM being drawn out of position to allow their midfielder to make the pass through the massive gap that he had left.

 

[Quintrell Green]

I don’t think you can blame Cooper for Sharp’s goal. If it was our centre forward in a one on one with the keeper in those circumstances you’d expect him to score at least 9 times out of 10. If it was anyone’s fault it was the team as a whole for getting caught out on the break and the big centre half for getting out muscled by a smaller man.

I seem to recall the Sharp goal was a result of loss of possession by 'faffing around' between 2 Argyle players on the left hand side, near the half way line. Mayor had previously been on the ball. Argyle's defence never retained their composure from that point until the goal was scored.

 

[philevs]

I don’t think you can blame Cooper for Sharp’s goal. If it was our centre forward in a one on one with the keeper in those circumstances you’d expect him to score at least 9 times out of 10. If it was anyone’s fault it was the team as a whole for getting caught out on the break and the big centre half for getting out muscled by a smaller man.

I seem to recall the Sharp goal was a result of loss of possession by 'faffing around' between 2 Argyle players on the left hand side, near the half way line. Mayor had previously been on the ball. Argyle's defence never retained their composure from that point until the goal was scored.

Yes I think that’s right, and if it was Mayor it wouldn’t be the first time he has inexplicably lost the ball when we are in good positions (quote often simply losing control of the ball under no pressure when in the clear). This aspect of his game needs to be improved imo, and I find it really frustrating to watch!

 

[philevs]

Just seen replay and Mayor didn’t lose the ball in the build-up to their second.

 

[Pogleswoody]

Just seen replay and Mayor didn’t lose the ball in the build-up to their second.

Yeah but that doesn't mean it wasn't his fault!!

 

[briangreen]

I think at the end of the day argyle gave them too much respect and should have treated them like any other football team and got in and mixed it up with them. Too much room given and certain players giving the ball away when we were in the ascendancy. Shame, because I firmly believe we could have taken them.
We move on and annihilate Swindon instead... :scarf:

 

[Biggs]

The ‘faffing about’ is a calculated risk and for 99 times we keep possession and possibly even create a chance like the Camara miss, there’ll be one time we lose it and gift a chance to the opposition... that’s the trade-off and it’s judged to be worth it, and a damn sight better than just whacking it forward.

Also for all Sheffield United’s superior quality, they actually gave the ball away more than us when playing from the back, including for our goal.

 

[Biggs]

I think at the end of the day argyle gave them too much respect and should have treated them like any other football team and got in and mixed it up with them. Too much room given and certain players giving the ball away when we were in the ascendancy. Shame, because I firmly believe we could have taken them.
We move on and annihilate Swindon instead... :scarf:

Definitely agree with that in the first 20 mins or so, from the Camara chance onward we had the belief that we could keep possession and create chances.

 

[davie nine]

You are right, philevs. I thought he did but, if you watch the start of the second half, which you can on BBCiPlayer, he, Mayor, lost possession more than 30 seconds before they scored their second goal and the goal happened after Camara broke away on the right and tried, unsuccessfully, to find Jephcott.

 

[Balham Green]

Surely, a CDM, although in a semi defensive position, needs to have a positive attitude and to try to create offensive positions. How often does he make successful passes forward to Jephcott, Hardie, Edwards or Grant?
It seems to me that when he receives the ball, in space, he is more likely to pass backwards, to find Aimson, Opoku or Watts.
It did seem that, when Reeves came on he provided a lot more positivity and I think that he deserves an opportunity in that position.
Of course, on Tuesday, we will also have Lewis and Ennis available and that may change our starting XI.

I agree and thats why I would prefer to have Edwards in there. I can't see that happening though considering the impact he is having on the right wing so Reeves is the next best option for me.

My idea of a CDM is to break up play, win tackles, regain possession and recycle it through our flair players in Midfield. Doesnt need to be Hoddlesque. Macleod is best we have but the reason we have him is higher league clubs no doubt did not want to take a risk with his injuries. Reeves is comfortable on the ball so fits some of criteria but not sure he will win many tackles.

 

[Cobi Budge]

Find it really strange that some people are blaming Cooper for their second goal. It had far more to do with the absolutely gigantic space left in the middle of the park and directly in front of the defence. If Fornah was in that pocket and shielding properly then the chance wouldn't have come about. Fornah is very tidy on the ball but off it, his positioning is really quite poor and we're giving up too much opportunities to our opponents as a result.

 

[Tugboat]

Where was Fornah?