Plan B

[MrD1879]

It's become very apparent this year that we have been found out at home. Press high and get physical and we struggle as again we did yesterday. I'm disappointed that Slav said post match that "they did what we expected" because first half we clearly got it all wrong and weren't prepared for the physicality.
We miss that outlet up top Fonte I really like but he's s number 10 I hope AK can do it but when the pressures on we have to have an outlet that we can play long to or we 'll continue to be bullied. We neef to adapt quickly as every team will do it to us now.

[filham]

The Preston centre back and centre forward were so physical and effective, perhaps the strongest we have had to play against for a good while, we found it tough to play against them.

Yes, we needed Kamara in our line up. It is possible that Kamara up top with Fonte just behind him could work well.

[Lighthouse]

I hate to this this but we have been vulnerable to the same tactics for over a year. Any team who presses us high in the pitch will do well against us. Any team who can get high crosses in will do well as we don't have a dominant defender. Any team that has a strong defence will dominate our lack of forwards and we have to get at them via the wide areas and hope.

We managed last season to get some great results but were always open to the right tactics. By not bringing in the central defenders or forwards we have not changed that.

[ffc73]

I hate to this this but we have been vulnerable to the same tactics for over a year. Any team who presses us high in the pitch will do well against us. Any team who can get high crosses in will do well as we don't have a dominant defender. Any team that has a strong defence will dominate our lack of forwards and we have to get at them via the wide areas and hope.

We managed last season to get some great results but were always open to the right tactics. By not bringing in the central defenders or forwards we have not changed that.

:plus one:

It is not really "plan B" though.  It is more about being able to compete and impose yourself on the opposition so that "our" football can be played.  We are looking like the cliche 'southern softies' that 'don't like it up um"

[b+w geezer]

We coped with this on several occasions second half of last season by being absolutely in the groove with our team play, enabling us to pass around the unrushing horde. But through injury, mainly, and iffy form we are aren't in that groove yet.

[toshes mate]

We managed last season to get some great results but were always open to the right tactics. By not bringing in the central defenders or forwards we have not changed that.

+1 

[Tabby]

Joka didn't show much interest in the plan B when he had Matt Smith for a year. Blaming Kline for not bringing in large strikers might be letting Joka off light. He has a way he wants the team to play, and he has stuck to it every game I can recall. Only difference is in slight modifications to the formation, not the playing style.

[BedsFFC]

I disagree really strongly with the OP solution. Playing long to a direct striker may temporarily make supporters exhale as the ball is not in our final 3rd but is bread and butter to most teams and within 15 seconds we will be on the back foot again. Honestly, that is just nowhere near a plan B I want us to even think about. Thankfully, I'm sure it won't even enter Slavisa's thinking.

We've been here before. Last season, exactly a month ahead of today, sheff wednesday came to the cottage and drew up the blueprint for what you refer to. They did it far better than Preston yesterday. They pushed high, were very aggressive, wasted time and broke fast. Weirdly, a fullback scored a last-gasp equalizer for us. Wednesday were far better than Preston, who I thought we battered into submission the 2nd half.

Pretty much every team has come to the cottage and done that since. This forum was busy then with people talking about plan b's, belittling the possession stats etc. I do understand why. I really do.

What our manager did then wasn't get a plan B, he just made us better at plan A. What happened? We went on a huge run and were far and away the best team in the league in the 2nd half of the season. Do not lose sight of the fact that we are probably running at about 75% max. Fonte finding his feet, TC out/not fit, Soares not played yet and AK47 out.
With a bit of luck, we may be close to 100% in about 3 or 4 weeks. You always feel we can get considerably better. That was Probably about as good as Preston can get.

Also, you see tweaks being made mid game. Slavisa is a fabulous coach, I have full faith in him

[St Eve]

And no Fredericks or Piazon

[hovewhite]

Things consiring agains us this season but 1 loss in 8 games not on top form is great.
However we need to be on it from the off at the cottage. Every game!

[Woolly Mammoth]

If we do not face up to the fact that we are not physically strong enough or aggressive enough over the 90 minutes, and be prepared to go toe to toe with whoever we are playing, we will continue to be bullied. It's a competition and we have to compete every minute we are on the pitch. If this is not addressed, it will undermine our chances of finishing in a promotion spot. As the word has clearly got round that we have a soft underbelly.

[The Rock]

We managed last season to get some great results but were always open to the right tactics. By not bringing in the central defenders or forwards we have not changed that.

+1

I think not bringing in help for the back 4 is solely responsible. We have goals in us. "We are one of the best teams on the ball" (SJ) Fonte is very good and got in a wonderful position to create the penalty. Rui, AK47 etc might be even better if they had better service, and it all starts at the back I think.

[MrD1879]

I'd just like to clarify that I don't think we need to completely change the way we are playing just have the option for someone to hold the ball up if the pass out from the back isn't on which 99% of the time the opposition are stopping but at the moment they know we have no option as Fonte isn't going to win the aerial battle consistently so can merrily push up knowing we will play ourselves in to trouble

[BedsFFC]

If we do not face up to the fact that we are not physically strong enough or aggressive enough over the 90 minutes, and be prepared to go toe to toe with whoever we are playing, we will continue to be bullied. It's a competition and we have to compete every minute we are on the pitch. If this is not addressed, it will undermine our chances of finishing in a promotion spot. As the word has clearly got round that we have a soft underbelly.

Perhaps we could bring in Harry Bassett as an extra coach on match days. He could shout "get stuck in lads" & "Give em a bit of the rough stuff".

Look, I sort of get what you mean. I imagine you love a defender like Lewis Dunk. So do I. Preston chased us around the pitch for 75 minutes yesterday and after a couple of injuries were absolutely hammered. I saw I think 2 or 3 legitimate cases of cramp.
I would rather TC gets back fit and we do our fighting with the ball and pull the opposition all over the place. We don't get bullied. Teams are just playing a high line and giving our midfielders no time on the ball. Flying into tackles and giving us very little time to play. We do need to combat this. Of course.
TC is a joy to watch when fit because he has the beautiful skill of never looking like he is in danger of losing the ball and beating a man. One guy in the midfield doing this, frees up much needed space. Watch what happens to the teams you think are bullying us when we take the pee with them with the ball. They wont look so tough

[Carborundum]

I agree with pretty much everything written above.  We are a quick team and we like to retain possession.  But we're small and relatively weak compared to our opponents. 

In our home games most opponents seem to take the view that if they play at an even tempo for 90 minutes we will play them off the park.  So they roll the dice and press us in the early stages hoping to rattle us.  It's a heck of a compliment. Over the past 18 months we have got a lot better at dealing with this.  But frankly it's all about our opponents and us weathering the storm.  Have a feeling that if Tom Cairney had played the first half not the second yesterday I'd be reading despondent posts prophesising his career obituary.

The beauty of not having a Plan B is that all the players know what we are, what we are trying to do.  Plan B's can confuse our players just as much as our opponents.  Poor Matt "Plan B" Smith suffered because the long diagonals we punted to him were garbage.  When we try 3 at the back it's usually keystone cops on ice.  Stick with what we are good at and accept that sometimes the other lot are better or luckier.  It's a long season.

[NogoodBoyo]

If we do not face up to the fact that we are not physically strong enough or aggressive enough over the 90 minutes, and be prepared to go toe to toe with whoever we are playing, we will continue to be bullied. It's a competition and we have to compete every minute we are on the pitch. If this is not addressed, it will undermine our chances of finishing in a promotion spot. As the word has clearly got round that we have a soft underbelly.

Perhaps we could bring in Harry Bassett as an extra coach on match days. He could shout "get stuck in lads" & "Give em a bit of the rough stuff".

Look, I sort of get what you mean. I imagine you love a defender like Lewis Dunk. So do I. Preston chased us around the pitch for 75 minutes yesterday and after a couple of injuries were absolutely hammered. I saw I think 2 or 3 legitimate cases of cramp.
I would rather TC gets back fit and we do our fighting with the ball and pull the opposition all over the place. We don't get bullied. Teams are just playing a high line and giving our midfielders no time on the ball. Flying into tackles and giving us very little time to play. We do need to combat this. Of course.
TC is a joy to watch when fit because he has the beautiful skill of never looking like he is in danger of losing the ball and beating a man. One guy in the midfield doing this, frees up much needed space. Watch what happens to the teams you think are bullying us when we take the pee with them with the ball. They wont look so tough

I was going to write a reply to Woolly but BedsFFC said it all for me with a great follow-up by Carborundum.   Toughness, in yer face, plan B, all of this is a side show.  The best managers in any walk of life are the ones who keep it simple, who get everybody on their teams to understand their roles and then get them to execute.  Joca is the best we've had at this since Hodgson.  And to be honest, Joca's brand of football is more entertaining than Roy's.
With Cairney, we have the player who can make the ball (and the opposition) do all the work.  Teams find that almost impossible to counter.  When TC is fir and on-song, it's as if we have an extra man on the park.   
Nogood "no more talk of Plan B or machismo please, we're here to watch football, see" Boyo

[RaySmith]

Football has always been a skill based game, even in the days of  big, powerful centre forwards, who could knock keeper and ball over the  goal-line (allowed), and  broken nosed, take no prisoners,  centre halves- you  simultaneously had your Haynes's,  John White's,  Stan Matthews, Jimmy Greaves's, George Best's, Jim Baxter's, Danny Blanchflower's etc, etc, and these were the players who were the seen as the  stars of the game, with their silky skills, and often not being able, or expected, to throw a punch in anger.

Leave the physical  violence to the rugger players, and the boxers and cage fighters.

I don't think lack of physical robustness is why teams like Preston do well against us. How well would Preston do against  one of the top Prem sides?

And in the end , it was our battling  , never say die spirit that got us that point yesterday.

[Woolly Mammoth]

If we do not face up to the fact that we are not physically strong enough or aggressive enough over the 90 minutes, and be prepared to go toe to toe with whoever we are playing, we will continue to be bullied. It's a competition and we have to compete every minute we are on the pitch. If this is not addressed, it will undermine our chances of finishing in a promotion spot. As the word has clearly got round that we have a soft underbelly.

Perhaps we could bring in Harry Bassett as an extra coach on match days. He could shout "get stuck in lads" & "Give em a bit of the rough stuff".

Look, I sort of get what you mean. I imagine you love a defender like Lewis Dunk. So do I. Preston chased us around the pitch for 75 minutes yesterday and after a couple of injuries were absolutely hammered. I saw I think 2 or 3 legitimate cases of cramp.
I would rather TC gets back fit and we do our fighting with the ball and pull the opposition all over the place. We don't get bullied. Teams are just playing a high line and giving our midfielders no time on the ball. Flying into tackles and giving us very little time to play. We do need to combat this. Of course.
TC is a joy to watch when fit because he has the beautiful skill of never looking like he is in danger of losing the ball and beating a man. One guy in the midfield doing this, frees up much needed space. Watch what happens to the teams you think are bullying us when we take the pee with them with the ball. They wont look so tough

I was going to write a reply to Woolly but BedsFFC said it all for me with a great follow-up by Carborundum.   Toughness, in yer face, plan B, all of this is a side show.  The best managers in any walk of life are the ones who keep it simple, who get everybody on their teams to understand their roles and then get them to execute.  Joca is the best we've had at this since Hodgson.  And to be honest, Joca's brand of football is more entertaining than Roy's.
With Cairney, we have the player who can make the ball (and the opposition) do all the work.  Teams find that almost impossible to counter.  When TC is fir and on-song, it's as if we have an extra man on the park.   
Nogood "no more talk of Plan B or machismo please, we're here to watch football, see" Boyo

Well you are entitled to your views as I am entitled to mine, but I disagree with you as much as you disagree with me, we are a soft touch for a team with aspirations of a promotion challenge as indicated by the number of points we have surrendered already. So you can huff and puff as much as you like, and I shall huff and puff back as much as I like, and unless Fulham change their philosophy of how to deal with each individual challenge by different oppositions, then sadly we could be having a similiar debate in May 2018, and that would be dissapointing.
The pen maybe mightier than the sword Gentlemen, but you cannot write with a broken arm.

[MrD1879]

For those dismissing the need to try something different when we need to a question:

Are you happy with us continuing to persist with our beautiful game but miss out on promotion again or would you rather we sacrificed it at times when required to get the results to go up?

Don't get me wrong we are playing the best football we have done since Tigana however I would rather see us go up and at the moment our naivity at home will stop that from happening

[toshes mate]

I don't believe it is brawn that is beating us at Craven Cottage and whilst PNE were physical that isn't what nearly won the game for them any more than time wasting etc was.  Although possession stats for this season are comparable to last it is what we are not doing with the ball compared to last season that is the difference and that is largely down to 'team' confidence.  Had Aluko and Malone (and even Martin for that matter) still been around at the start of our campaign the number of 'strangers' on the pitch would have been much reduced, but their absences added to our injury roll means too many of the players are still bedding in without any consistency within a core team because of the constant necessity to change.  I also believe our defence is looking flimsier simply because we are not scoring for fun at the other end of the pitch, although I still believe we should have signed at least one really decent quality central defender (and a 'proper' striker) in the window.

With due consideration to all that has happened this season we are not doing too badly, slightly better than I expected by this stage, and there are improvements to be found among almost all the players indicating SJ is working through the problems and finding solutions.  Frederick's is less of a fuse looking for a bomb; Sessegnon has curbed his enthusiasm a little and looks more thoughtful about his game; Norwood puts in some good work even if he isn't top class; Ream and Kalas are more solid in normal circumstances (i.e. when we don't give the ball away foolishly in dangerous areas of the pitch); Johansen has worked hard to provide telling passes without a Cairney figure beside him drawing defenders away.  There are a lot of pluses but the key, for me at least, is confidence.  If we can beat Villa then the run I spoke of a few weeks into the season will have started earlier than I anticipated but I don't see any need to panic and/or change whatever the result of that game is.   Cairney still looks a risk to me and I hope we can get by for a few weeks with him playing as a 'sub' when opponents are tiring.  After the next International break we may have some really good news about returns from injury and then we can see all the hard work begin to pay off.  I still believe we can get really close to a top two finish this season and at least be in the mix for automatic promotion by mid-April.