Too expansive?

[Dark Cloud]

No goals or assists from any subs this season is a damming statistic.

In fairness it's bloody hard to do that in 45 seconds!!

[milkcrate_mosh]

Mumbongo got an assist and Vydra the goal after they came on as subs in the cup so assume that stat refers to the league only.

[warksclaret]

Using this logic, should we be taking

4 points off Arsenal
4 points off Everton
3 points off Liverpool (with a home game to come)
4 points off Villa
6 points off Palace and a double over them

Yes two thirds of our points against 6 sides, with 20 teams in the league.Something does not appear right

[KRBFC]

Cork bad before this latest injury? Or last year?

I'd say that Brownhill struggles at this level, and keeps making the same mistakes. Westwood is a solid prem midfielder. Cork is class. Stephens clearly wouldn't struggle to get a game in league one, that's a total nonsense statement.

I think, in answer to the open questions, rather than too expansive, what's been strange in the last 2 games, is that the central midfield 2 have been caught too square. Normally one sits, one goes, but look at the Newcastle 2nd yesterday, both square, high up the pitch and wide apart. That's very unusual of this midfield.

with the way the ''players become better while injured and not playing'' system works on here, Cork is probably one of the best midfielders in Europe right now. I thought Cork was rubbish before the injury last year. As for Stephens he looks and moves like he's 55 years old, i'm not convinced he'd be a regular in League One for the top 10 or so sides. His legs have completely gone.

[AlargeClaret]

In a nutshell it shows were nowhere near good enough when we play “ expansive football” it’s felt almost “ Coyle like” Thougn I would add Taylor being fit Is a huge jigsaw piece , not only a very athletic defender he’s cracking getting crosses in

[Hipper]

Does anyone think this 'expansive football' has anything to do with Alan Pace/the takeover?

[ŽižkovClaret]

Thought this was a thread about a tight-fisted Boer

[jojomk1]

Does anyone think this 'expansive football' has anything to do with Alan Pace/the takeover?

Of course it does

I believe Alan now conducts all training sessions, pre match team talks and advises Dyche on substitutions

Dyche clearly doesn't listen

[Bordeauxclaret]

with the way the ''players become better while injured and not playing'' system works on here, Cork is probably one of the best midfielders in Europe right now. I thought Cork was rubbish before the injury last year. As for Stephens he looks and moves like he's 55 years old, i'm not convinced he'd be a regular in League One for the top 10 or so sides. His legs have completely gone.

21 points from Cork’s last 10 games before the injury.
The other ten players must have been really really good.

[bf2k]

We’ve played well against Southampton and Newcastle. Played decent football in both, pushing forward, and creating plenty of chances. Lost both.

Not sure I’m liking this new style to be honest. Most worrying for me is how easy it is for the opposition to have possession on the edge of their own box, pass through us and score in seconds.

At 2-0 against Southampton we just needed to sit in, keep our shape and take the game to HT but we kept playing and got punished. They equalise today and we fly forwards like it’s the 89th minute & get caught again from possession deep in their half.

If we play like that against United we’re going to get an absolute hiding.

I'm sorry but what you have said is pure crap. The issue isn't the style, it's quite effective. Look at the number of goals we're scoring and chances creating. The issue is the lack of depth and options in the squad, in particular in midfield. It's also showing up that the defence isn't as world class as people think without that extra layer of protection in front of them. The issue we have are down to poor recruitment (well documented) and poor use of the squad when we had one (i.e. sticking with the same team week in week out without rotation - we're going to struggle to get players in for a squad with good quality depth with that philosophy - see Gibson and up until late Vydra).

[dandeclaret]

I'm sorry but what you have said is pure crap. The issue isn't the style, it's quite effective. Look at the number of goals we're scoring and chances creating. The issue is the lack of depth and options in the squad, in particular in midfield. It's also showing up that the defence isn't as world class as people think without that extra layer of protection in front of them. The issue we have are down to poor recruitment (well documented) and poor use of the squad when we had one (i.e. sticking with the same team week in week out without rotation - we're going to struggle to get players in for a squad with good quality depth with that philosophy - see Gibson and up until late Vydra).

Quite effective in a Kevin Keegan we score 3 you score 4 way?

The philosophy you ridicule has yielded 2 too 10 finishes in the last 4 seasons.... clearly that lack of squad rotation and recruitment has really hindered the club, which, even in the current position continues to punch well above its weight, led by a manager who delivers results above pretty much everybody else in the country.

[bf2k]

Quite effective in a Kevin Keegan we score 3 you score 4 way?

The philosophy you ridicule has yielded 2 too 10 finishes in the last 4 seasons

No it hasn't. We played some good football during the two top 10 finishes creating chances and winning games. Arguably our worst run of form has coincided with playing poor football.

.... clearly that lack of squad rotation and recruitment has really hindered the club, which, even in the current position continues to punch well above its weight, led by a manager who delivers results above pretty much everybody else in the country.

That I agree with, although I'm not sure if its a sarcastic dig or not (never been good at reading sarcasm )

[DCWat]

I'm sorry but what you have said is pure crap. The issue isn't the style, it's quite effective. Look at the number of goals we're scoring and chances creating. The issue is the lack of depth and options in the squad, in particular in midfield. It's also showing up that the defence isn't as world class as people think without that extra layer of protection in front of them. The issue we have are down to poor recruitment (well documented) and poor use of the squad when we had one (i.e. sticking with the same team week in week out without rotation - we're going to struggle to get players in for a squad with good quality depth with that philosophy - see Gibson and up until late Vydra).

The issue is the style, if it leaves us too open.

I’m all for a style of play that brings with it more attacking opportunities, but you need the personnel or system to prevent being caught at the back and through midfield.

For all we’ve scored a few goals (one a penalty) of late. Despite plenty of possession, we haven’t actually created loads of chances, certainly not ones that would be seen as a chance missed as a opposed to an opportunity.

We’ve sort of gone from one extreme to the other, when what we need to find and presumably what Dyche is searching for is an effective balance between solidity and the ability to attack.

You’re bang on that recruitment hasn’t helped, hopefully this summer may be different, but I’m not holding my breath.

[Spijed]

What I don't understand is in the last two games, once we'd got control why not revert to type and see both games out, like we did against Everton?

[Spijed]

Cork hasn't played in the last four games, yet we got four points from Arsenal and Everton.

[bf2k]

The issue is the style, if it leaves us too open.

I’m all for a style of play that brings with it more attacking opportunities, but you need the personnel or system to prevent being caught at the back and through midfield.

For all we’ve scored a few goals (one a penalty) of late. Despite plenty of possession, we haven’t actually created loads of chances, certainly not ones that would be seen as a chance missed as a opposed to an opportunity.

We’ve sort of gone from one extreme to the other, when what we need to find and presumably what Dyche is searching for is an effective balance between solidity and the ability to attack.

You’re bang on that recruitment hasn’t helped, hopefully this summer may be different, but I’m not holding my breath.

I agree with that. Hopefully that balance will be found shortly

[CFS]

What I don't understand is in the last two games, once we'd got control why not revert to type and see both games out, like we did against Everton?

It's not FIFA.

[Quickenthetempo]

The issue is the style, if it leaves us too open.

I’m all for a style of play that brings with it more attacking opportunities, but you need the personnel or system to prevent being caught at the back and through midfield.

For all we’ve scored a few goals (one a penalty) of late. Despite plenty of possession, we haven’t actually created loads of chances, certainly not ones that would be seen as a chance missed as a opposed to an opportunity.

We’ve sort of gone from one extreme to the other, when what we need to find and presumably what Dyche is searching for is an effective balance between solidity and the ability to attack.

You’re bang on that recruitment hasn’t helped, hopefully this summer may be different, but I’m not holding my breath.

We are certainly better to watch, but our defenders need to play better. Lots of panic in their recently. Maybe two CHs that can defend further up the pitch, rather than back off like an Italian tank driver will help.

[Newcastleclaret93]

21 points from Cork’s last 10 games before the injury.
The other ten players must have been really really good.

Bordeaux might be able to confirm, but I believe we have scored 1.27 goals per game with cork in the team. Without him it significantly drops, to around 0.65

[NewClaret]

I'm sorry but what you have said is pure crap. The issue isn't the style, it's quite effective. Look at the number of goals we're scoring and chances creating. The issue is the lack of depth and options in the squad, in particular in midfield. It's also showing up that the defence isn't as world class as people think without that extra layer of protection in front of them. The issue we have are down to poor recruitment (well documented) and poor use of the squad when we had one (i.e. sticking with the same team week in week out without rotation - we're going to struggle to get players in for a squad with good quality depth with that philosophy - see Gibson and up until late Vydra).

I’m not suggesting they aren’t separate problems. And think my views on lack investment are well known. But they’re not going to change this in the next six games, are they? We’ve got the squad we have now until the end of the season.

The question is how you make best use of that squad to get the points we need to stay up? Is it playing more expansive football or our “normal” style? It’s okay creating more chances, but it counts for nothing if you lose. Taking a more cautious approach in both games would’ve seen us pick up points in my opinion.

It’s less exciting to watch but I don’t care about that at the moment.