Relegation and all that.....

[colinwhite]

The appointment of Claudio Rannieri proved to be a very poor decision by the owners of the club and ultimately sealed our fate after an abysmal start to the season.He inherited a group of players totally unsuited to the type of football he advocated.
  With a bit of perspective, the football that Jovanovic wanted to play in the premier league set us up to be there for the taking,given the players at his disposal . We weren't capable of retaining anything like the possession of our championship days ,even against the lesser teams in the division, and the style of players brought in made us a bit of a one trick pony.
Our lack of stability and pace in the full back position weakened us both in defending and going forward.  In my opinion , Bettinellis decline to second choice played its part ,as did use of a number of defenders just not up the the demands of the league. But these are only surface reasons for us conceding so many goals.
When watching us play Spurs in the cup a couple of seasons ago it was clear that premiership sides are much more savvy in their press than we were used too,and once you got `turned over `you get be punished . This proved to be true all season long for the whites, with PL players  not just having more quality than their championship counterparts but also having more pace and strength as well.

Pace is one  quality we have sadly lacked particularly in forward positions. Our lack of a threat of running in behind teams meant that opposition teams  could press us very aggressively. Arsenal did this and put five past us on a day when some of our play looked ok. Southampton and Burnley scored goals past us through basic pressure even when we were playing reasonably well. Our midfielders never really had the option of playing in behind which magnified our defensive problems tenfold , in part because of our encouraging teams to press us and also because when we did lose possession it was often in front of our opponents ,with the ball rarely being played beyond our opponents back line.
This lack of balance in our attacking play effected not only our ability to score goals but also  partly at least, played a role in how many goals we conceeded.
The issue of lack of pace needs to be addressed if we are to be successful next season.
We will never know for sure how much influence Slavisa had on how the squad was shaped. Some of the players brought in were not good enough ,but  no club ever gets that right all the time. The greater issue for me was the imbalance of the type of players brought in ,with over-obsession for ball retaining midfielders and a lack of cutting edge in defenders and forwards both in terms of pace ,height and strength.

[snarks]

In fairness to Raneri, he had picked up 9 points in his first 8 games, and then mawson got injured and we only picked up 3 more whilst CR was in charge. I do think sometimes it's down to luck and Fulham's was  out, which coupled with other well documented issues led to relegation.

[colinwhite]

When you do the right things ,luck tends to go your way .

[ALG01]

By and large I think the OP is a good point of view. some of it I accept more than others but I particulalry felt the spurs cup game a couple of years ago and the southampton one too showed the gap between where we were and where we needed to be.

I agree lackl of pace was a big issue this season and also the total lack of a defence. Mawsom was no use because he was totally unfit from start to finish. I am sure if and when he recovers he will be an asset but getting an injured player as the main man is plain stupid. So as it turned out our defence was in rality weaker than last season and it wasn't that good then.

CR was always a step backwards and guaranteed what was almost cetainly always inevitable with such a poor squad. he may have picked up a few points but it wasn't impressive. The first game was never down to him, he picked up the squad in time for internationals and just looking at the points total belied how poor and dispitrited the team was. I think we were lucky to get as many as we did under him. But his biggest crime was changing the team after beating brighton, he should have gone then, if we would have got a result at palce using the same 11 and tactics we may yet have survived.

Good post, enjoyed the reasoned argument.

[Statto]

I still think Jokanovic's tactics could have served us well given the right additions and a pre-season to integrate them.

We were never going to beat the big teams no matter what tactics we employed. Our contest was with the likes of Burnley, Brighton, Huddersfield, Southampton and Cardiff and I've seen us outclass most of those teams this season playing essentially the same way we did last year.

I agree we've lacked pace, but attribute that to our fastest player (Fredericks) leaving, our second fastest player (Sessegnon) losing confidence, and other fast players (eg Kebano and Kamara) just not being good enough for this level, rather than us needing to fundamentally overhaul our tactics or team.

Unfortunately deals for fast players to replace/cover Fredericks, sessegnon, Kebano, Kamara et al just didn't happen (we were heavily linked with Cavaliero) didn't work out (Fosu-Mensah never worked out how to use his pace like Fredericks) or happened too late (had Babel been signed in August, we'd have been a different team). Had Jokanovic been given those tools to work with, IMO he could have achieved success without completely abandoning his preferred style of play.

[colinwhite]

Statto ,dont think we needed to completely abandon Jokanovics style of play.But our lack of options to play in behind teams made us not only predictable but also very vulnerable to teams who wanted to press us and could do so without taking huge risks.

[Milo]

Think AK could've been good enough for Premiership level having had a full season! Still young. However.. well the rest is history isn't it.

[colinwhite]

Ak was too easy to wind up and once he thought he was a given in the team ,it went to his head. Well rid of I believe.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Ak was too easy to wind up and once he thought he was a given in the team ,it went to his head. Well rid of I believe.

Rather like TK, oops I mentioned him again.
I am doing my best to cut them down, old habits and all that.

[RaySmith]

We definitely needed a more defence based set up, with a keeper who could rule his area and imbue confidence in the players in front of him.

We took the lead at Burnley and West Ham, but they came back by bombarding our area with high balls, and from set pieces, which our keeper and defenders couldn't cope with and they ad little confidence when dealing with sustained pressure, and would make stupid mistakes.

We missed the pace that we'd had at full back, both defending and going forward, as you say


We needed defensive ball winning players in midfield too, who could protect the defence by winning the ball in the middle, and also play a bit and create attacks, alongside Chambers, who did so well when put in a defensive  role.

We didn't have the players to play in the defensive, counter attacking way Ranieri wanted, and he didn't seem to know what else to do.

[sunburywhite]

When you do the right things ,luck tends to go your way .

Gary Player said its funny, the harder I practise then the luckier I get

[Dixie]

When you do the right things ,luck tends to go your way .

Gary Player said its funny, the harder I practise then the luckier I get

I saw that quote attributed to David Jason in the Metro today!