Just back

From the pub, anything interesting happened?

Quoted from oldun

From the pub, anything interesting happened?

Nope, Town lost again.

The thing that worries me though is that we have played two sides in  the last 3
days - admittedly from higher leagues, but we have failed to score in either game,
the one thing we have learned from our seasons in this league is that almost every
side, full time or not, are tight defensively, particularly when they come to BP, we
have signed the right type of  pacey player, but unless we come up with the right
sort of tactics to get behind teams and get the best out of these players ,we will IMO
fall short again and this goes back to something myself and many others have
mentioned - the lack of attack minded coaches at the club- in the final third of the
pitch we have the right players, but  we have to get the right tactics and to be honest
this is precisely what worries me about Paul Hurst - i hope i am wrong, but i fear i
may not be.

Quoted from petethemariner

The thing that worries me though is that we have played two sides in  the last 3
days - admittedly from higher leagues, but we have failed to score in either game,
the one thing we have learned from our seasons in this league is that almost every
side, full time or not, are tight defensively, particularly when they come to BP, we
have signed the right type of  pacey player, but unless we come up with the right
sort of tactics to get behind teams and get the best out of these players ,we will IMO
fall short again and this goes back to something myself and many others have
mentioned - the lack of attack minded coaches at the club- in the final third of the
pitch we have the right players, but  we have to get the right tactics and to be honest
this is precisely what worries me about Paul Hurst - i hope i am wrong, but i fear i
may not be.

P t M - I think you are right. There is not one coach at the club who is / has been a forward - who understands the mentality of forward play (to my knowledge). At this level is the coach imbalance, and Mr Fenty needs to recognise this and address it in my view.

Alan Buckley was a very fine striker, but under him we have kept the highest number of clean sheets in the clubs history. Point is you don't have to have played in that position to be good at coaching it, perhaps even just the opposite. As a keeper, I can tell you about all the attribute that would make a striker more likely to score against me, better than I could tell you what makes a good keeper.

Yeah, Thanks Tees, can i add a bit to my opinion, for what its worth, i played the
game for 30 odd years at a decent  (but not  pro, i admit) level - i was a goalkeeper,
i spent all of my playing days looking down the length of the pitch, this is a similar
view a full back  has(which is where PH played his entire career) - i like to think
defensively i knew the game inside out, but stick me at the half way line looking
across the pitch and  trying to analyise attacking play, i wouldn't have a clue, i know
PH has achieved his coaching badges, but once a defender, always a defender i
believe and we need someone who  has played in the final third, often with his back to
goal to give a different perspective to our play IMHO - at the moment we have  an ex
fullback and a central defender.
I might be doing PH a diservice, but i think  without addressing this we will continue to
struggle to break teams down and resort to the long boot game that will not be successful
on its own.
Just an opinion.

Imperial, you make a very valid point about AB, he was a good manager, who not only
played the right way in the final third, but also gave the defensive side of his teams a
high priority (and had good players in those positions), what he never did (and i am not a Buckleyite before anyone says so) is launch the ball from deep, because he knew as an ex forward that the odds were always in the favour of a defender attacking the ball - this
IMO is what has happened too much under PH and some of the many good players we
have had at the club  c'ant  and haven't blossomed under such tactics.
PH is a very good manager from a defensive point of view, but IMO he  isn't from an
attacking point of view, if he had someone to give  him a different perspective i believe he
would become a better manager.

Quoted from petethemariner

Imperial, you make a very valid point about AB, he was a good manager, who not only
played the right way in the final third, but also gave the defensive side of his teams a
high priority (and had good players in those positions), what he never did (and i am not a Buckleyite before anyone says so) is launch the ball from deep, because he knew as an ex forward that the odds were always in the favour of a defender attacking the ball - this
IMO is what has happened too much under PH and some of the many good players we
have had at the club  c'ant  and haven't blossomed under such tactics.
PH is a very good manager from a defensive point of view, but IMO he  isn't from an
attacking point of view, if he had someone to give  him a different perspective i believe he
would become a better manager.

Which is maybe why he cannot seem to get a striker by now..

He has always come across as a very defensive manager which is not always bad but when you play like that you need to make sure you have a man who can put it in the onion bag, we don't have that at the minute.

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

Alan Buckley was a very fine striker, but under him we have kept the highest number of clean sheets in the clubs history. Point is you don't have to have played in that position to be good at coaching it, perhaps even just the opposite. As a keeper, I can tell you about all the attribute that would make a striker more likely to score against me, better than I could tell you what makes a good keeper.

I can't remember but I expect Alan Buckley had a decent team of coaches helping him. Paul Hurst has Chris Doig and Dave Moore.

Alan Buckley's right hand man was the late Arthur Mann - a defender of very good repute. These were an excellent coaching team- you build teams from the top.