Will we see free flowing football from Malky's boys this season?

Perhaps the greatest contradiction has been that between performances and results which despite having held a ridiculously good lead for months now has left so many of us feeling deeply unsatisfied and refusing to think that this is really our year.

In so many games are we less than convincing and rarely dominant with the swagger that generally befits champions elect.

Malky is a pragmatist and has made us very hard to beat but it seems at the cost of taking off the brakes and ripping teams apart.

Of course promotion by whatever means is the ultimate goal but it would be lovely to see us delivering a few belters before this season is over. Something we can remember for the rest of lives whatever comes next.

I can't help but agree. I too would like to see a bit more of an attractive brand.

However, this defensive mindset will certainly help us in the PL, it is the teams with all the attackive swagger that end up struggling and coming back down again.

Remember, a lot of Championship teams have unplayable pitches. Sometimes hoofball is the only option.

love to see us go out with flair and aplomb and put 6 or 7 past the wurzels, but if 3 points can only be guaranteed by a defensive 1-0 then will settle for that

We certainly have the players to do it on paper, with the likes of Bellamy, Whitts, Kim, Campbell, Smith, Noone and Conway. I can only assume we aren't doing it due to tactics and mentality. Either that or we're luring our future premier league rivals into a false sense of security and will blow them away with our attacking prowess next season.

Just watched the "highlights" of yesterdays game on City player. Christ, that was a dull affair.

Rhys wrote:I can't help but agree. I too would like to see a bit more of an attractive brand.

However, this defensive mindset will certainly help us in the PL, it is the teams with all the attackive swagger that end up struggling and coming back down again.

I think we will benefit from this style more in the Premiership IF, IF, IF we go up.

I wonder if we secure promotion/the title with a few games to go if we will start going for it in games as we'll have nothing to lose and the pressure will be off.

Arkay v2.0 wrote:

Rhys wrote:I can't help but agree. I too would like to see a bit more of an attractive brand.

However, this defensive mindset will certainly help us in the PL, it is the teams with all the attackive swagger that end up struggling and coming back down again.

I think we will benefit from this style more in the Premiership IF, IF, IF we go up.

I have to disagree with you both though i am only using one example which may not prove my point. What stuck in my mind was how many times Derby had 1-0 scorelines during their season when they went up through the play offs. During a run from mid November to the beginning of February Derby played 14 games winning 11, drawing 1 and losing twice. They scored just 14 during that run but conceded just 4 and had 8 wins by the score of 1-0.

The following year Derby were relegated with a record low of 11 points and 89 goals conceded.

Now there is a hell of a lot more to it than just that one set of stats i am sure. What i will say though is that i believe that if we get to the Premier League that we need to find ways of controlling games more. Backs to the wall, defensive gameplans with the idea of sneaking a breakaway goal would be madness in the Premier.

That is not to say i am worrying for us if we go up. We are a different team to Derby with a lot of attacking potential and i am sure, if we go up, that there will be substantial resources for Malky to play with. I just don't think our defensive meanness now will have that much bearing on next season if we go up.

You'd have to agree that it's a better foundation to start with than Blackpool's 'attack at any cost' gameplan though.

Arkay v2.0 wrote:You'd have to agree that it's a better foundation to start with than Blackpool's 'attack at any cost' gameplan though.

Not conceding is the basis of a successful side i think. I am sure Malky won't go gung ho in the Premier if we get promoted this season and i think that will be the right tactic.

It is easier not to concede when the ball is in the opposition half though which brings me back to us needing to do a bit more going forward next season, if we go up, to keep some of the pressure off the defense.

We played some swift, flowing football early on this season and I think Malky has slowed things down and tightened up to grind out results during the winter period. When pitches start to improve and the weather warms up, I'm expecting us to open up a bit more. Noone back for Bristol!

Malky's just a jammy tw@ who has presided over of a string of frankly lucky single goal difference wins... The charlatan will be exposed for the idiotic fool that he undoubtedly is when we fail to win the European championship for the 6th year on the bounce in 2020

When you have a manager that used to be a defender, invariably your play also becomes very defensive based. It's not the best to watch but as others have said it is effective and in a premier league survival race often it's better to be difficult to beat than it is to go all out to win games.

That's not to say I'm a fan of the system though, and I doubt anybody is. Everyone wants to see their team play exciting high energy football, but it's not always the best for results.

I don't think its a question of whether we play defensively or not. Its a question of what we do when we have the ball regardless of the system we play. At present we don't keep the ball very well or pass it well. As a result we are not making many chances and also come under more pressure than we should. If we played like that in the premiership we would get smashed.