Are our players improving their technical ATTACKING skills?

[Jenny55]

You see, I don't agree with this.
I genuinely believe it could be achieved gradually based on signing players with the potential for improvement.

You may believe that is achievable but can you see it happening? Isn’t Brownhill someone we signed with potential for improvement? We see Vydra on the bench every week, football wise he is a better footballer on the deck than Barnes or Wood.
He isn’t going to get a start though unless both Wood and Barnes get injured. We are seriously lacking midfield creativity and players who can actually keep the ball. It was very evident when Mee and Tarks were both out that our strengths lie in our two centre half’s and our goalkeeper. Now they are both back we have stopped leaking goals largely due to their immense work rate. We are grinding results out but on the whole are not playing attractive football through the midfield. Instead we relieve pressure by trying to hit the front men quickly and rely on Barnes to win cheap free kicks so that we can trouble defences with our set pieces. This is the Dyche way. It would be great if Rigg and Dyche did identify a few players with potential from the Football League, however I won’t hold my breath. Alternatively we could spend a lot of money like Fulham have on overseas players but is that the way we want to go forward? Fulham played some very attractive football last night by the way.

[Zlatan]

I’ve got to agree with DJW on this.

However much a child might practice, if they don’t have that natural ability, they won’t make it.

Practice can always bring about improvements - you don’t get to where Messi and Ronaldo have without practicing, honing skills and developing that natural talent.

Hell, I played football in every spare minute I had as a kid, but I was only ever going to reach a level way, way below league standard. Without the natural talent (and all that encompasses) you just cannot achieve the levels required, no matter how hard you work or how much you practice.

The section I’ve highlighted is directly contradictory to what I think DJW was trying to say, especially considering his reference to the book Bounce - which advocates hard work and practice as the route to success.

I don’t think you can dismiss the hard work route or the naturally gifted scenario - it’s a wide ranging spectrum and there are players who are naturally gifted but refuse to work at it and end up being poor and conversely there are players who aren’t necessarily gifted but succeed through hard work. Of course when you get a sublimely gitfted player who also works hard you have Christiano Ronaldo

[boatshed bill]

You may believe that is achievable but can you see it happening? Isn’t Brownhill someone we signed with potential for improvement? We see Vydra on the bench every week, football wise he is a better footballer on the deck than Barnes or Wood.
He isn’t going to get a start though unless both Wood and Barnes get injured. We are seriously lacking midfield creativity and players who can actually keep the ball. It was very evident when Mee and Tarks were both out that our strengths lie in our two centre half’s and our goalkeeper. Now they are both back we have stopped leaking goals largely due to their immense work rate. We are grinding results out but on the whole are not playing attractive football through the midfield. Instead we relieve pressure by trying to hit the front men quickly and rely on Barnes to win cheap free kicks so that we can trouble defences with our set pieces. This is the Dyche way. It would be great if Rigg and Dyche did identify a few players with potential from the Football League, however I won’t hold my breath. Alternatively we could spend a lot of money like Fulham have on overseas players but is that the way we want to go forward? Fulham played some very attractive football last night by the way.

i really have no problem with anything you've said there.
But we have had 5 years to start implementing improvement in terms of technical ability in forward areas, and should have done at least a bit. McNeil being a genuine nugget of improvement, totally unexpected at the time.
Having said that, our ability to defend is beyond criticism.
i'm becoming a bit concerned that we are more governed by mindset (underdog mentality) than by any attempt to look beyond that.

[Jenny55]

i really have no problem with anything you've said there.
But we have had 5 years to start implementing improvement in terms of technical ability in forward areas, and should have done at least a bit. McNeil being a genuine nugget of improvement, totally unexpected at the time.
Having said that, our ability to defend is beyond criticism.
i'm becoming a bit concerned that we are more governed by mindset (underdog mentality) than by any attempt to look beyond that.

Gotta agree with you also. McNeill only got into the side because of an injury crisis but what a breath of fresh air he was.
We are governed by mindset and by survival being paramount. When people on here have been critical of our style of play, others come on and acclaim the ‘Premier League Clarets’ as if it is the be all and end all to be in the Premier League. I am actually proud of the way we defend and never tire of telling anyone who will listen that we have one of the best centre half pairings in the Premier League and arguably the best keeper. However, I too would love to see us being more forward thinking and implementing the improvement in technical ability and player personnel. We can only hope.

[superdimitri]

There's only so much time you can train and a very small proportion goes to toward technical traits on the ball. We've always been a very rigid outfit under Dyche relying on individuals for creativity.