Football 2010-2011

[The Nal]

Fergie breaking Sir Matts record of the longest serving manager at Old Trafford this weekend. Unbelievable stuff from Fergie!!

This is cheap.

[worm]

the defence would still be just as comfortable, and they'd also have another four players to help them. Yeah, that'd make them worse.

[TheGayTent]

Your last two posts demonstrate perfectly why when it comes to football you have an almost zero grasp of the game.

You cannot debate with a moron, so I shan't bother anymore. I'll leave you to others.

[worm]

Care to tell me where that's wrong?

[eFestivals]

It is indeed.

No apology with your admission that you were wrong then?

But changing the coaching structure of a whole league campaign is not the basics of football.

And neither is sticking with what you have despite it not working.

The point is to try to win. If you stick with tactics that are failing dismally and refusing to consider alternatives due only to dogma (which is what what Mowbray did - he stated that was the case) then that's a guarantee of failure when there is a possibility of a better outcome by trying something different.

As I've said, wanting to play attractive football is admirable from the spectacle side of things, but being dogmatic only because you wish to be does not make that good management.

Edited December 17, 2010 by eFestivals

[worm]

No apology with your admission that you were wrong then?

[eFestivals]

PS: if I'm so wrong, then Owen Coyle is frootball's biggest genius ever.

About a year ago, Bolton were in the regulation zone, playing their normal 'battling' style. I doubt that many would have believed that they could change their playing style over night - as they did - to play in a more stylish manner and do far better, yet they did.

Coyle has proven with Bolton that a change of style mid-season can bring a significant improvement.

But apparently Owen Coyle can't know anything about football in some people's minds.

[eFestivals]

Why would I do that when I wasn't wrong? What you said was moronic, reductive and uneducated just as I said.

OK, you're right then, and Owen Coyle knows nothing about football in your opinion.

Yet that know-nothing is getting far better out of his team of cheapies than Bruce is getting out of his millionaires.

I bow down to your unending genius.

That wasn't the issue. The issue was you stating that they were capable of changing the structure. You have no idea if they were or not and I'm certainly not prepared to take your word for it after saying that it's simply a case of ''kicking a ball in a different way''.

They WERE capable of changing the manner of playing. That part is without any doubt at all.

What can be doubted is whether it would have brought an improvement. But there would have been absolutely nothing to lose by trying, because without trying what happened - relegation - was going to happen.

Last season Coyle tried changing style with Bolton and it saved them from relegation.

But I'm suggesting the impossible apparently.

[TheGayTent]

OK, you're right then, and Owen Coyle knows nothing about football in your opinion.

Yet that know-nothing is getting far better out of his team of cheapies than Bruce is getting out of his millionaires.

I bow down to your unending genius.

They WERE capable of changing the manner of playing. That part is without any doubt at all.

What can be doubted is whether it would have brought an improvement. But there would have been absolutely nothing to lose by trying, because without trying what happened - relegation - was going to happen.

Last season Coyle tried changing style with Bolton and it saved them from relegation.

But I'm suggesting the impossible apparently.

[ampersand]

But apparently Owen Coyle can't know anything about football in some people's minds.

[TheGayTent]

Unless Bolton get new owners PDQ they'll be in the championship within 2 seasons regardless of what Coyle does or doesn't do.

[eFestivals]

No one knows what would have happened had they chosen to utilise different tactics. They may have survived. Or they may well have done a Swindon/Derby/Sunderland. And that is the point. You claim they would have been better off. You claim that as a fact. Which it patently isn't.

You say "no one knows" - which applies just as much to whether they'd go down if they kept playing as they did just as much as it does to if they'd changed their style in an attempt to stay up.

Yet the almost unanimous opinion was that they'd go down playing as they were. And they did.

Isn't it funny how - despite no one apparently knowing - nearly everyone called it right?

Many of those same people said that if they tightened up they'd do better. While that is of course unprovable (cos it didn't happen via which we could find out), my money is on those people who have the record of calling it right, not just with WBA at that point but with many other clubs over very many years.

Yes, I'm going with an unprovable opinion. And so are you. But only one of us is calling it the same as those with the best records of calling it right, and that ain't you.

[eFestivals]

Unless Bolton get new owners PDQ they'll be in the championship within 2 seasons regardless of what Coyle does or doesn't do.

I presume you think they're heading for financial meltdown for some reason?

[5co77ie]

Regarding the Champions League draw ....

I can't be bothered to go look it up somewhere cos I can't remember who finished where, but is it the case that the winner of each group gets to play the 2nd leg of the last 16 tie at home, while the runner up gets it the other way around?

Edited December 17, 2010 by 5co77ie

[TheGayTent]

You say "no one knows" - which applies just as much to whether they'd go down if they kept playing as they did just as much as it does to if they'd changed their style in an attempt to stay up.

Yet the almost unanimous opinion was that they'd go down playing as they were. And they did.

Isn't it funny how - despite no one apparently knowing - nearly everyone called it right?

Many of those same people said that if they tightened up they'd do better. While that is of course unprovable (cos it didn't happen via which we could find out), my money is on those people who have the record of calling it right, not just with WBA at that point but with many other clubs over very many years.

Yes, I'm going with an unprovable opinion. And so are you. But only one of us is calling it the same as those with the best records of calling it right, and that ain't you.

[TheGayTent]

I presume you think they're heading for financial meltdown for some reason?

[eFestivals]

It was almost a unanimous opinion that Blackpool would go down this season - by the very same people...

It's an easy and cheap thing to say.

true (tho it's a prediction made on a different basis). But it's still normally the case that predictions like that are true.

And the difference between Blackpool this year and WBA that year is that few people are still saying it about Blackpool at this point of the season, while it was said of WBA all season.

If Mowbray had managed the same as Blackpool have managed then we'd not be having this convo. It was precisely because he didn't manage to do anything much by playing in that way that people were so insistent that he should try doing something different.

When WBA were relegated in 05/06 (finishing 8 points and 3 wins from safety...) under Bryan Robson they played a more defensive style than under Mowbray three seasons later.

So was Robson right and Mowbray wrong? Despite Robson having a worse record and playing more suited to the way you think Mowbray should have?

Robson was right shit tho. Mowbray does have something as a manager, while Robson has nothing at all. I don't think any fair comparison can be made with Robson and anyone.

My fav Robson story is from when he landed the Nigeria job - to which the guys who'd put up the money for a famous manager withdrew the money cos it was Robson.

[ampersand]

holloways been at it again!

video, not text!

[luckysalt]

Goddman snow!

Our match called off this afternoon [Villa away at Wigan]

and now ESPN's game Liverpool v Fulham has been called off.

SIGH!

[Paul ™]

Wrong thread

Edited December 18, 2010 by Paul ™

[Paul ™]

@ the pitch at Ipswich v Leicester

[ampersand]

@ the pitch at Ipswich v Leicester

[Kowalski]

Britain's best keeper showing his class yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5OwprpwnuE

[pink_triangle]

I cant believe all these premiership matches called off. Considering all the grounds (blackpool excluded) have undersoil heating. I can only conclude its another example of the health and safety police gone mad, terrifeid of their risk assessments showing a fan could slip and graze their knee.

[ste4_20]

I cant believe all these premiership matches called off. Considering all the grounds (blackpool excluded) have undersoil heating. I can only conclude its another example of the health and safety police gone mad, terrifeid of their risk assessments showing a fan could slip and graze their knee.