Is Parker too defensive?

[Milo]

I made a thread at the start of the season and asked, "what is Parker's style?". I couldn't see any clear tactics apart from a glimpse of a hangover from the Jokanovic era regards possession football.

I think the other night when we opted for 3 defensive midfielders (admittedly with a few injuries)... and for the past handful of games when he has chosen to see matches out by throwing on defenders for the final ten minutes.. we have begun to see that he is actually developing a more defensive managerial style.

Tonight was further proof for me. An opportunity to bring off Arter and put on Cav at 65 minutes.. bringing Reid into the middle and really attacking Millwall while we had the upper hand. In the end.. we just slowly fizzled out. I even noted that Arter and Reid tried to run down the clock by going to ground towards the end.

My question is, do you agree that Parker is developing a defensive managerial style? Will it cost us points when we should be chasing wins? Or, do you think a draw at Millwall is a fair result given the unpredictable nature of the Championship?

[FFC1987]

I think this game and Charltons game showed me he's only interested in not losing rather than winning at times. Most of the time that's fine but with this squad, it can be a bit unforgivable really. Shame really, just another missed opportunity.

[ffcne]

WBA had 20 odd shots on Sunday against this lot
When i saw the line up knew he was happy with a draw ,
Kebano should have been on at HT

[Statto]

WBA had 20 odd shots on Sunday against this lot
When i saw the line up knew he was happy with a draw ,
Kebano should have been on at HT

Not sure that's a fair reflection of the two performances.
Millwall had more possession and more chances of their own against West Brom than they did against us tonight.
And West Brom still only had 6 shots on target.
Yes West Brom did better overall but the difference isn't so stark as the number of shots implies.
They just took their chances better at one end, and rode their luck better at the other.

[Milo]

It is interesting to compare the Jokanovic game a few seasons ago when we won promotion against Millwall and the game tonight.

Hard fought first half.. second half there for the taking... one year we did it and this year we didn't even threaten.

[The Rational Fan]

WBA had 20 odd shots on Sunday against this lot
When i saw the line up knew he was happy with a draw ,
Kebano should have been on at HT

Not sure that's a fair reflection of the two performances.
Millwall had more possession and more chances of their own against West Brom than they did against us tonight.
And West Brom still only had 6 shots on target.
Yes West Brom did better overall but the difference isn't so stark as the number of shots implies.
They just took their chances better at one end, and rode their luck better at the other.

In the last four games, Milwall conceded 28 shots to Leeds, 15 shots to Wednesday, 28 shots to WBA and 9 shots to Fulham. We made them look good.

[Woolly Mammoth]

WBA had 20 odd shots on Sunday against this lot
When i saw the line up knew he was happy with a draw ,
Kebano should have been on at HT

Not sure that's a fair reflection of the two performances.
Millwall had more possession and more chances of their own against West Brom than they did against us tonight.
And West Brom still only had 6 shots on target.
Yes West Brom did better overall but the difference isn't so stark as the number of shots implies.
They just took their chances better at one end, and rode their luck better at the other.

In the last four games, Milwall conceded 28 shots to Leeds, 15 shots to Wednesday, 28 shots to WBA and 9 shots to Fulham. We made them look good.

I believe more to the point they made us look average at times, due to their high press, and desire not to have a consecutive defeat so soon after losing to Albion. A key factor of course was their goal being allowed to stand by an incompetent Lino, and as I often say goals change games, and Fulham allowed themselves to be visibly shaken by that error of judgement. Whereas it gave the Wall a spring in their step. It's a funny old game.
However, I do feel he errs on the side of caution, and I also agree that Kebano should have come on at half time.
Scott has to learn to be more proactive and less reactive.

[colinwhite]

It is interesting to compare the Jokanovic game a few seasons ago when we won promotion against Millwall and the game tonight.

Hard fought first half.. second half there for the taking... one year we did it and this year we didn't even threaten.

If Millwall had been gifted a goal by the opposition in that game it would have looked very different as well. On the general question of the original post what do you expect ? Jokanovic threw caution to the wind in these games and hes one of the best managers weve ever had in my view. But there was no preperation for life in the premiership and when we carried on in the same vein in that division we got slaughtered. Parker is setting us to be be a different side who can play and also defend,which for me is very positive if we do go up.
Millwall like most teams set up with 5 at the back and play long most of the time. The pitch last night made things difficult but I thought the team did well in the second half,although quite a few of our players (including Mitro ) got bogged down in the physical challenges and had a hard time showing their skill.
First Parker was inept,had no nouse and looked out of his depth,and should go. Now when we are six games unbeaten and in with a definite shout of finishing in the top 2 hes getting accused of boring negative football ( albeit not in the OP ).  I think Parker is a better coach than I expected and that he will get us to the premier league, with a hugely improved chance of staying ther because of his more cautious approach.

[70sPimlico]

It is interesting to compare the Jokanovic game a few seasons ago when we won promotion against Millwall and the game tonight.

Hard fought first half.. second half there for the taking... one year we did it and this year we didn't even threaten.

If Millwall had been gifted a goal by the opposition in that game it would have looked very different as well. On the general question of the original post what do you expect ? Jokanovic threw caution to the wind in these games and hes one of the best managers weve ever had in my view. But there was no preperation for life in the premiership and when we carried on in the same vein in that division we got slaughtered. Parker is setting us to be be a different side who can play and also defend,which for me is very positive if we do go up.
Millwall like most teams set up with 5 at the back and play long most of the time. The pitch last night made things difficult but I thought the team did well in the second half,although quite a few of our players (including Mitro ) got bogged down in the physical challenges and had a hard time showing their skill.
First Parker was inept,had no nouse and looked out of his depth,and should go. Now when we are six games unbeaten and in with a definite shout of finishing in the top 2 hes getting accused of boring negative football ( albeit not in the OP ).  I think Parker is a better coach than I expected and that he will get us to the premier league, with a hugely improved chance of staying ther because of his more cautious approach.

I agree with this, other than the bit about him getting us promoted.

Stop the midfield. Stop fulham. We score the odd great goal because of the quality we have but the tactics are so rigid and mitro so isolated, we're so easy to make look average. And we do look so average, every game.

I hope you're right but I've woken up realising we were very poor last night

[Bassey the warrior]

It is interesting to compare the Jokanovic game a few seasons ago when we won promotion against Millwall and the game tonight.

Hard fought first half.. second half there for the taking... one year we did it and this year we didn't even threaten.

If Millwall had been gifted a goal by the opposition in that game it would have looked very different as well. On the general question of the original post what do you expect ? Jokanovic threw caution to the wind in these games and hes one of the best managers weve ever had in my view. But there was no preperation for life in the premiership and when we carried on in the same vein in that division we got slaughtered. Parker is setting us to be be a different side who can play and also defend,which for me is very positive if we do go up.
Millwall like most teams set up with 5 at the back and play long most of the time. The pitch last night made things difficult but I thought the team did well in the second half,although quite a few of our players (including Mitro ) got bogged down in the physical challenges and had a hard time showing their skill.
First Parker was inept,had no nouse and looked out of his depth,and should go. Now when we are six games unbeaten and in with a definite shout of finishing in the top 2 hes getting accused of boring negative football ( albeit not in the OP ).  I think Parker is a better coach than I expected and that he will get us to the premier league, with a hugely improved chance of staying ther because of his more cautious approach.

I agree with this, just look at Sheff Utd. They weren't a standout team in the Championship, were always quite decent but mainly were solid and look at them now. Conversely, Norwich were outstanding last year and are relegation csrts this year.

Having said that, Parker was definitely too cautious in the 2nd half and for me we utterly failed to give Mitro service. I agree Kebano has been underused, he should be ahead of Kamara in the pack.

[Jim©]

In the last four games, Milwall conceded 28 shots to Leeds, 15 shots to Wednesday, 28 shots to WBA and 9 shots to Fulham. We made them look good.

And because of exactly that, they went to 5 at the back and probably will do against teams like us.
We should all know by now that comparing like for like in this division just doesn't work. Unless you all think that Charlton would beat Leeds 3-0 using Forest as a yardstick?

[filham]

Yes,Parker is going for more defensive tactics and the excitement has gone out of our attacking play.
However remember how we were leaking goals game after game and Parker will be judged at the end of the season by points on the board not by shots at goal. I am not going to criticize him at this stage.

[Milo]

Yes,Parker is going for more defensive tactics and the excitement has gone out of our attacking play.
However remember how we were leaking goals game after game and Parker will be judged at the end of the season by points on the board not by shots at goal. I am not going to criticize him at this stage.

With Hector can we not start to trust our defence a bit more?

We need 3 points.. promotion is there for the taking!

[Artful Dodger]

If Parker had put Cav on for Arter and then we lost 2-1, he would be accused of throwing it away and a point would have been a great result given the pitch and the linesman etc. I for one am glad we don't have opposition midfielders running in to the box unmarked to score easy goals now as was happening in the 1st half of the season so I will take more 1-0s and the odd draw rather than dropped points because we had 7 attackers on the pitch and not enough defenders!

[hovewhite]

Felt we we we're lucky to come away with a point as it was a crap performance and feel we will be lucky to go up via the p/os

[Ordar]

Problem with the tactics/system that he's trying to play

- We create very very little, and are very easy to defend against due to how slow the build up play is.
- We are an incredibly boring team to watch (apart from 5 mins per game where we look brilliant).
- The majority of our possession is meaningless. Passing the ball slowly around our own half doesn't accomplish anything besides gifting the opposition clear goal scoring opportunities when one of our defenders makes an error
- None of the central midfielders seem to know what they're meant to be doing. No-one is running past the strikers into the box, and the defence is still exposed by a lack of protection.
- We play with 2 wide wingers, but dont utilise them whatsoever so they become meaningless.
- The only ways we score are worldies from 25 yards or Joe Bryan crossing to Mitro

[Sting of the North]

Felt we we we're lucky to come away with a point as it was a crap performance and feel we will be lucky to go up via the p/os

I think we played rather poorly, but still think we were overall the better team. No luck involved. We were also the only team scoring a good goal, as Millwall's should of course have been disallowed.