I’m all Parkered out

[rebel]

All season we have conceded sloppy goals and not scored enough goals which is a conundrum in its self considering we are in the Play Off's, could it be the players have not been used in the right way or the players have not stepped up to the plate? The Cav's, Knock's and BDR's etc etc etc have some responsibility to.

Many of the points above are all apt, and I have said on here before I have not always enjoyed the Parkerball served up and the lack of tempo at times. But, he is a Rookie Manager learning his trade and whatever we think the squad should be achieving we don't always know what scenario's there are within a squad and what a Manager has to deal with.

Just need to be behind the team, Manager and club for the next few games and then look at the season as a whole at the end.

My two pennies anyway.

It's the way the team is set up. Our attacks are 'nullified' even before they begin, we don't move opposition players out of their positions, it's so comfortable for them, we don't work the opposition keepers, all the things you need to win football matches.

This. 100% this.

And then we see repeated posts that Cav is crap, Reid is crap, Knockaert is crap, etc. What will happen is they'll go elsewhere and automatically be a great player again. I think even then, some won't see the truth above and will put it down to other things.

Even Mitro - yes, he's top scorer, vut he survives off scraps. How mant chances does he get per game on average? Actual chances not half chances where he has muscled his way in front of his marker and flung himself at a ball lumped aimlessly in the box? The best way to think of it and know it was a chance is, how many chnaces does he get and you think 'should have buried that'? I'd say between 0-1 per game. Which by any metric is awful.

ill bite. Do you honestly think our system, as bad as it may be, makes bobby miss sitter after sitter, does it make knockaert blast wide rather than try to set someone up? Does it make cav look anonymous time after time. Yes we don't play to mitros strengths, and yes he feeds off of scraps, but again, that's down to our attacking players not being very good at their jobs is it not. Bryan seems to be able to get assists, but our other attacking players can't, I wonder why that is 🤔 and yes, I really hope that Reid cav and knockaert go on to have fantastic seasons for someone else next season, and that would mean we've recouped some of the money we've wasted on them this season

Total garbage, 'Parkerball' has sacrificed our attacking options. Everyone knows how we attack, pass the ball to Mitro, Mitro these days has 2 / 3 players converge on him. More often then not, these days he loses the ball. Our attack is back to square one. Mitro needs over 4 chances to score one goal, the reliance on him is another 'failure'. 

[fulhamben]

All season we have conceded sloppy goals and not scored enough goals which is a conundrum in its self considering we are in the Play Off's, could it be the players have not been used in the right way or the players have not stepped up to the plate? The Cav's, Knock's and BDR's etc etc etc have some responsibility to.

Many of the points above are all apt, and I have said on here before I have not always enjoyed the Parkerball served up and the lack of tempo at times. But, he is a Rookie Manager learning his trade and whatever we think the squad should be achieving we don't always know what scenario's there are within a squad and what a Manager has to deal with.

Just need to be behind the team, Manager and club for the next few games and then look at the season as a whole at the end.

My two pennies anyway.

It's the way the team is set up. Our attacks are 'nullified' even before they begin, we don't move opposition players out of their positions, it's so comfortable for them, we don't work the opposition keepers, all the things you need to win football matches.

This. 100% this.

And then we see repeated posts that Cav is crap, Reid is crap, Knockaert is crap, etc. What will happen is they'll go elsewhere and automatically be a great player again. I think even then, some won't see the truth above and will put it down to other things.

Even Mitro - yes, he's top scorer, vut he survives off scraps. How mant chances does he get per game on average? Actual chances not half chances where he has muscled his way in front of his marker and flung himself at a ball lumped aimlessly in the box? The best way to think of it and know it was a chance is, how many chnaces does he get and you think 'should have buried that'? I'd say between 0-1 per game. Which by any metric is awful.

ill bite. Do you honestly think our system, as bad as it may be, makes bobby miss sitter after sitter, does it make knockaert blast wide rather than try to set someone up? Does it make cav look anonymous time after time. Yes we don't play to mitros strengths, and yes he feeds off of scraps, but again, that's down to our attacking players not being very good at their jobs is it not. Bryan seems to be able to get assists, but our other attacking players can't, I wonder why that is 🤔 and yes, I really hope that Reid cav and knockaert go on to have fantastic seasons for someone else next season, and that would mean we've recouped some of the money we've wasted on them this season

Total garbage, 'Parkerball' has sacrificed our attacking options. Everyone knows how we attack, pass the ball to Mitro, Mitro these days has 2 / 3 players converge on him. More often then not, these days he loses the ball. Our attack is back to square one. Mitro needs over 4 chances to score one goal, the reliance on him is another 'failure'. 

our reliance on mitro is also down to the fact that our other attackers couldn't score in a brothel is it not? And if you think mitros four chance to score a goal is bad, have a look at how many it takes bobby and knockaert to score a goal

[ByTheRiver]

All season we have conceded sloppy goals and not scored enough goals which is a conundrum in its self considering we are in the Play Off's, could it be the players have not been used in the right way or the players have not stepped up to the plate? The Cav's, Knock's and BDR's etc etc etc have some responsibility to.

Many of the points above are all apt, and I have said on here before I have not always enjoyed the Parkerball served up and the lack of tempo at times. But, he is a Rookie Manager learning his trade and whatever we think the squad should be achieving we don't always know what scenario's there are within a squad and what a Manager has to deal with.

Just need to be behind the team, Manager and club for the next few games and then look at the season as a whole at the end.

My two pennies anyway.

It's the way the team is set up. Our attacks are 'nullified' even before they begin, we don't move opposition players out of their positions, it's so comfortable for them, we don't work the opposition keepers, all the things you need to win football matches.

This. 100% this.

And then we see repeated posts that Cav is crap, Reid is crap, Knockaert is crap, etc. What will happen is they'll go elsewhere and automatically be a great player again. I think even then, some won't see the truth above and will put it down to other things.

Even Mitro - yes, he's top scorer, vut he survives off scraps. How mant chances does he get per game on average? Actual chances not half chances where he has muscled his way in front of his marker and flung himself at a ball lumped aimlessly in the box? The best way to think of it and know it was a chance is, how many chnaces does he get and you think 'should have buried that'? I'd say between 0-1 per game. Which by any metric is awful.

ill bite. Do you honestly think our system, as bad as it may be, makes bobby miss sitter after sitter, does it make knockaert blast wide rather than try to set someone up? Does it make cav look anonymous time after time. Yes we don't play to mitros strengths, and yes he feeds off of scraps, but again, that's down to our attacking players not being very good at their jobs is it not. Bryan seems to be able to get assists, but our other attacking players can't, I wonder why that is 🤔 and yes, I really hope that Reid cav and knockaert go on to have fantastic seasons for someone else next season, and that would mean we've recouped some of the money we've wasted on them this season

In short, yes. Yes I do. I'll try to address each individually.

Knockaert blasting wide as he hs no other options. Receives the ball out wide, defenders all in place, no one running into space, no one overlapping down the line, only Mitro in the box marked by two men. What option? Cut inside, beat one man, have a pot shot. Simply no attacking options again and again.

Cav looking anonymous. Cav's game has always been running into space, hitting on the counter, running one on one against a defender trying to get back and cover (watch a compliation of wolves goals etc). Not unlocking a tightly packed defence (and more often than not DM too). We don't counter attack. Ever. He's never sprayed a ball out wide with two men back after an opposition corner for example. It's pointless playing him.

Bryan's assists have almost all been from early cross from deep. Partly due to startiong position further back. But the key word here is early. While the team are getting back and gettign their shape, he swings it in, Mitro has room to move on to it. Watch them back. So yeah, this proves my point rather than disproves it, hti early. Hit on the counter.

The attacking players should work as a unit and all have equal part to play. It's not 'if Mitro doesn;t have any chances, the other players are all crap'. We don't have the luxury of having Mitro just sit waiting for a chance on a plate, he needs to be involved. Dropping deep, collecting and quick through ball into the channel for Cav or Knock/Reid who have run beyond (think that move Spurs used all the time under Poch - with Kane coming deep and playing in Son or Moura).

What happens is we pass it around slowly, get to the final third, everyone is back, no one makes a run into space so it either gets passed backwards, goes into Mitro who loses it or gets a freee kick backing in, or it goes wide where Cav/Knock/Reid have to beat three men or pass it back/take a pot shot. Every. Single. Time. We are hoping solely for Mitro to win a cross/set piece, or omeone to score an effort from outside of the box. Otherwise we don't look like scoring precisely because of the above, not because of the players.

We could buy any wingers you like in world football and they would all look poor this season, I promise you.

[bobbo]

Agree 100%. I hate the way we play. Long for the days of Jokanovic.

me too , those players , cav ,knoc , Reid have not al three just become poor for no reason, they have to be playing to instruction , from who No less than Paul Parker. He has had plenty of chance to shuffle his tactics but hasn't. IMHO I think we should have walked this division this past season , but we haven't. I'm not bold enough to say I want PP out but someone needs to take the reins.

[alfie]

Thanks Scott, I think you've done relatively well this season, with a more than average team, but, you remind me to much of Paul Bracewell, and his negative, slow, buildup type football.

On the face of it, a draw at WBA seems a decent result, but, not when you're cemented in the playoffs, and a win gives you a slim chance of second, it's poor.

I'd have rather lost that game absolutely going for it, than playing out for a bore draw, which, however you look at it, was exactly.

It's the playoffs for us now, and I just hope that we show up with a bit more enthusiasm than that, or we'll be out before it's even started.

Hopefully the club are already looking for his replacement, because I can't stomach another season of parkerball.

:plus one:
Re we should have gone for it and not be concerned about losing - it made no difference whatsoever if we lost by 3-4 at this point!
I don't necessarily agree that we should be changing the manager though, rather he has the chance to change the tactics

WBA had 3 / 4 clear opportunities to score, so the clean sheet owed a lot to 'lady luck'. So our defending was o.k., but needs to be a lot better. Having not really attacked, missed the opportunities to score goals, had one of their opportunities gone in, then we would have lost.

No sorry, clean sheet was because they did not score, that was their failure.

[itombomb]

Every team (apart from Wigan last night) miss sitters. Using individual failings in front of goal to hide the general ineptitude across the park is a strawman of the highest order.

It's not fair to compare Parker to Bielsa given the respective stages of their careers (but much fairer to compare to Thomas Frank) and you look at the movement and understanding of the team when they have the ball and it is completely different gravy.

Our movement and cohesion with the ball is horrific (with the only exception being when BDR is given a free role to run into channels). Everything is individualistic, requiring players to win 1 on 1/1 on 2 battles. There's barely any movement off the ball to move the opposition around. We very rarely move the ball quickly up the pitch between players. You look at Leeds players move the ball quickly because they know where their teammate will be. Ours pick it up, take 5 touches and release it to someone sideways who already has a defender on them, repeat or pass back.

The 'patience' works against poor teams as our defensive shape has got a lot better (though I pull hair out everytime I see Ream follow a CF into the channel vacating the box) and players will win a load of 1 on 1s. Against teams with better coaches/players we're stuffed.

[Bassey the warrior]

All season we have conceded sloppy goals and not scored enough goals which is a conundrum in its self considering we are in the Play Off's, could it be the players have not been used in the right way or the players have not stepped up to the plate? The Cav's, Knock's and BDR's etc etc etc have some responsibility to.

Many of the points above are all apt, and I have said on here before I have not always enjoyed the Parkerball served up and the lack of tempo at times. But, he is a Rookie Manager learning his trade and whatever we think the squad should be achieving we don't always know what scenario's there are within a squad and what a Manager has to deal with.

Just need to be behind the team, Manager and club for the next few games and then look at the season as a whole at the end.

My two pennies anyway.

It's the way the team is set up. Our attacks are 'nullified' even before they begin, we don't move opposition players out of their positions, it's so comfortable for them, we don't work the opposition keepers, all the things you need to win football matches.

This. 100% this.

And then we see repeated posts that Cav is crap, Reid is crap, Knockaert is crap, etc. What will happen is they'll go elsewhere and automatically be a great player again. I think even then, some won't see the truth above and will put it down to other things.

Even Mitro - yes, he's top scorer, vut he survives off scraps. How mant chances does he get per game on average? Actual chances not half chances where he has muscled his way in front of his marker and flung himself at a ball lumped aimlessly in the box? The best way to think of it and know it was a chance is, how many chnaces does he get and you think 'should have buried that'? I'd say between 0-1 per game. Which by any metric is awful.

ill bite. Do you honestly think our system, as bad as it may be, makes bobby miss sitter after sitter, does it make knockaert blast wide rather than try to set someone up? Does it make cav look anonymous time after time. Yes we don't play to mitros strengths, and yes he feeds off of scraps, but again, that's down to our attacking players not being very good at their jobs is it not. Bryan seems to be able to get assists, but our other attacking players can't, I wonder why that is 🤔 and yes, I really hope that Reid cav and knockaert go on to have fantastic seasons for someone else next season, and that would mean we've recouped some of the money we've wasted on them this season

Total garbage, 'Parkerball' has sacrificed our attacking options. Everyone knows how we attack, pass the ball to Mitro, Mitro these days has 2 / 3 players converge on him. More often then not, these days he loses the ball. Our attack is back to square one. Mitro needs over 4 chances to score one goal, the reliance on him is another 'failure'. 

Agree. Just think where we would be without Mitro, mid table. Granted we may have signed another striker to replace him but we wouldn't get someone as good.

[rebel]

Thanks Scott, I think you've done relatively well this season, with a more than average team, but, you remind me to much of Paul Bracewell, and his negative, slow, buildup type football.

On the face of it, a draw at WBA seems a decent result, but, not when you're cemented in the playoffs, and a win gives you a slim chance of second, it's poor.

I'd have rather lost that game absolutely going for it, than playing out for a bore draw, which, however you look at it, was exactly.

It's the playoffs for us now, and I just hope that we show up with a bit more enthusiasm than that, or we'll be out before it's even started.

Hopefully the club are already looking for his replacement, because I can't stomach another season of parkerball.

:plus one:
Re we should have gone for it and not be concerned about losing - it made no difference whatsoever if we lost by 3-4 at this point!
I don't necessarily agree that we should be changing the manager though, rather he has the chance to change the tactics

WBA had 3 / 4 clear opportunities to score, so the clean sheet owed a lot to 'lady luck'. So our defending was o.k., but needs to be a lot better. Having not really attacked, missed the opportunities to score goals, had one of their opportunities gone in, then we would have lost.

lady luck and that Westbroms players were to stupid, to pick a decent pair of boots with long enough studs to prevent them from slipping over in the box. I think it was twice that their footing gave way just as they were about to pull the trigger.

You must of missed the headed opportunities that they had, on another day they might have scored.

[Bassey the warrior]

Agree 100%. I hate the way we play. Long for the days of Jokanovic.

me too , those players , cav ,knoc , Reid have not al three just become poor for no reason, they have to be playing to instruction , from who No less than Paul Parker. He has had plenty of chance to shuffle his tactics but hasn't. IMHO I think we should have walked this division this past season , but we haven't. I'm not bold enough to say I want PP out but someone needs to take the reins.

Wouldn't make sense to get him out now, but I'd like him to leave at the end of the season. Even if we go up. This is just boring.

We have the squad to play good football and I'm sure there's plenty of managers that could come in to help us do that.

[rebel]

All season we have conceded sloppy goals and not scored enough goals which is a conundrum in its self considering we are in the Play Off's, could it be the players have not been used in the right way or the players have not stepped up to the plate? The Cav's, Knock's and BDR's etc etc etc have some responsibility to.

Many of the points above are all apt, and I have said on here before I have not always enjoyed the Parkerball served up and the lack of tempo at times. But, he is a Rookie Manager learning his trade and whatever we think the squad should be achieving we don't always know what scenario's there are within a squad and what a Manager has to deal with.

Just need to be behind the team, Manager and club for the next few games and then look at the season as a whole at the end.

My two pennies anyway.

It's the way the team is set up. Our attacks are 'nullified' even before they begin, we don't move opposition players out of their positions, it's so comfortable for them, we don't work the opposition keepers, all the things you need to win football matches.

This. 100% this.

And then we see repeated posts that Cav is crap, Reid is crap, Knockaert is crap, etc. What will happen is they'll go elsewhere and automatically be a great player again. I think even then, some won't see the truth above and will put it down to other things.

Even Mitro - yes, he's top scorer, vut he survives off scraps. How mant chances does he get per game on average? Actual chances not half chances where he has muscled his way in front of his marker and flung himself at a ball lumped aimlessly in the box? The best way to think of it and know it was a chance is, how many chnaces does he get and you think 'should have buried that'? I'd say between 0-1 per game. Which by any metric is awful.

Agree 100%. Mitro needs approx. 4 chances to score 1 goal.

[rebel]

All season we have conceded sloppy goals and not scored enough goals which is a conundrum in its self considering we are in the Play Off's, could it be the players have not been used in the right way or the players have not stepped up to the plate? The Cav's, Knock's and BDR's etc etc etc have some responsibility to.

Many of the points above are all apt, and I have said on here before I have not always enjoyed the Parkerball served up and the lack of tempo at times. But, he is a Rookie Manager learning his trade and whatever we think the squad should be achieving we don't always know what scenario's there are within a squad and what a Manager has to deal with.

Just need to be behind the team, Manager and club for the next few games and then look at the season as a whole at the end.

My two pennies anyway.

It's the way the team is set up. Our attacks are 'nullified' even before they begin, we don't move opposition players out of their positions, it's so comfortable for them, we don't work the opposition keepers, all the things you need to win football matches.

This. 100% this.

And then we see repeated posts that Cav is crap, Reid is crap, Knockaert is crap, etc. What will happen is they'll go elsewhere and automatically be a great player again. I think even then, some won't see the truth above and will put it down to other things.

Even Mitro - yes, he's top scorer, vut he survives off scraps. How mant chances does he get per game on average? Actual chances not half chances where he has muscled his way in front of his marker and flung himself at a ball lumped aimlessly in the box? The best way to think of it and know it was a chance is, how many chnaces does he get and you think 'should have buried that'? I'd say between 0-1 per game. Which by any metric is awful.

ill bite. Do you honestly think our system, as bad as it may be, makes bobby miss sitter after sitter, does it make knockaert blast wide rather than try to set someone up? Does it make cav look anonymous time after time. Yes we don't play to mitros strengths, and yes he feeds off of scraps, but again, that's down to our attacking players not being very good at their jobs is it not. Bryan seems to be able to get assists, but our other attacking players can't, I wonder why that is 🤔 and yes, I really hope that Reid cav and knockaert go on to have fantastic seasons for someone else next season, and that would mean we've recouped some of the money we've wasted on them this season

Total garbage, 'Parkerball' has sacrificed our attacking options. Everyone knows how we attack, pass the ball to Mitro, Mitro these days has 2 / 3 players converge on him. More often then not, these days he loses the ball. Our attack is back to square one. Mitro needs over 4 chances to score one goal, the reliance on him is another 'failure'. 

our reliance on mitro is also down to the fact that our other attackers couldn't score in a brothel is it not? And if you think mitros four chance to score a goal is bad, have a look at how many it takes bobby and knockaert to score a goal

Not really, Parker has said in interviews, he wants everything to go through Mitro. So there you have it in a 'nutshell'.
Everybody knows what our attacking options are, get the ball to Mitro. Mitro no longer holds the ball up as well as he use to. If he does, it needs to get to him quickly, as was the case with the Knockhart shot from 25 yerds. We are basically stuck with something that isn't effective now, but has been effective in the past, so we just keep doing it. Where is the variety in our attacks. People bang on about Mitro being top scorer, but that just hides our lack of attacking threat.   

[rebel]

Agree 100%. I hate the way we play. Long for the days of Jokanovic.

me too , those players , cav ,knoc , Reid have not al three just become poor for no reason, they have to be playing to instruction , from who No less than Paul Parker. He has had plenty of chance to shuffle his tactics but hasn't. IMHO I think we should have walked this division this past season , but we haven't. I'm not bold enough to say I want PP out but someone needs to take the reins.

Good shout.

[Denver Fulham]

My son, who doesn't watch much soccer, sat with me to watch the first half yesterday. At one point, he asked if Fulham's goalkeeper was in the orange kit or green kit. I said "Orange. You can tell because Fulham are trying to score in the opposite direction of him." He replied, "Yes, but they go backwards a lot, so I wasn't sure."

Five minutes later, he said "This is boring."

[AnOldBrownie]

My son, who doesn't watch much soccer, sat with me to watch the first half yesterday. At one point, he asked if Fulham's goalkeeper was in the orange kit or green kit. I said "Orange. You can tell because Fulham are trying to score in the opposite direction of him." He replied, "Yes, but they go backwards a lot, so I wasn't sure."

Five minutes later, he said "This is boring."

But not every game is boring.   The previous game is an example of this.   

It's not that Parker ball can't succeed...or at times be semi entertaining.   I think it can.

It's just that when it's the only game in town and your opposition is good enough to counter it, it's extremely frustrating.

Fulham don't even have a long ball alternative option to break up the monotony of Parker ball  because they don't have players for (other than AK47) that style of football.   Average speed, smaller players aren't going to stretch good defenses and generate quick scoring opportunities with a target #9 that lacks pace like Mitro does. (I've only watched football for 5 years so this is just my opinion...not saying it's correct)

[Fulham Joe]

We are boring to watch, like watching grass grow.

[Brawn]

The Khans have been incredibly brutal with managers, particularly Meulensteen and Ranieri. I feel, and always have felt, that given our defence is fairly poor Scott has tended to err on the side of caution, potentially because he's scared of losing his job with any poor results. Mind you, West Brom were probably favourites to go up at the start of the season and we haven't lost in 5 games so I can't really buy into the "Parker out because we're not winning every game 8-0" mentality at all. If that was game 1 of the season we would be happy with 0-0 away to WBA.

Every time we don't win by 2+ goals there's a "Parker out" crowd which just seems churlish.

[FFC1987]

Maybe I'm wrong but I'd love to see if the instruction to the team is to set up like basketball, and generally wait on the ball, allow people to get into banks then slowly advance. There was a number of times against WestBrom where it was painful. So slow and seemingly purposeful as we had channels and players in space but held onto it. Makes me think we were genuinely playing for a draw. A bit like the Charlton game.

[Arthur]

If that was game 1 of the season we would be happy with 0-0 away to WBA.

But it wasn't the opening game of the season. It was the third-to-last and we knew that only a win could keep alive our slim chance of automatic promotion.

And yet you're right in one sense: we seemed to play as if a draw were a desirable outcome. And it's the futility of our doing so that's frustrating for many on here - not simply that we didn't win.