05 Dec 2018 22:33:31
I wonder what RH's impressions will be after watching that one. If anything that was probably the ideal first game for him to watch as Spurs are one of the best sides in the league and we demonstrated our weaknesses today.
1. Individual errors, our biggest problem this season, at the back. And we've been caught out too many times. Is this something you can coach out of players.
2. Being too slow, watching us today, we seem very indecisive, like most of players don't know what they're going to do before they get it. This leaves them taking too many touches and moving the ball sideways or backwards. I can see this one being coached out of them with the new managers tactical style.
3. A lack of pressing, we never.


1.) 06 Dec 2018
06 Dec 2018 00:22:43
Agree with that - pretty much a non-game for us, whoever was in charge I wouldn’t have expected us to get anything out of it - 3-1 would probably have been my prediction under Hughes as well.

I can see him starting from the back and treating Cardiff as a must not lose as opposed to a must win, a drab 0-0 to start like Poch did I can see happening.
The positive is that although we’ve only won one game, we’re only a point off safety and it’s a simple situation of outscoring three of Huddersfield, Cardiff, Fulham, Burnley and Newcastle over the next 23 games and I’m confident we can do that - hopefully if we can pick up a win or two by January then we’ll have time to sort this out.

Thankfully even though we only have 9 from 15, I can’t see anywhere near 40 being necessary to stay up, probably 26 from 23 under Ralph will be enough and rebuild from there.
Don’t care how it’s done, staying up will do me just fine for this season.


2.) 06 Dec 2018
06 Dec 2018 08:09:38
Haha, never got to finish this post off, accidentally clicked post when typing this up on my mobile
3. A lack of pressing, we never really pressed until the last 20 minutes of game. The new man's approach is too press, so this will need to be worked.
4. Not being clinical. We had plenty of opportunities to score, hit the woodwork 3 times and Prowse had a golden chance as did Davis, Yoshida managed to clear the ball from Tottenham's line after JWP freekick.

I agree with your point about taking points from teams in and around the same position as us. I think the new man has probably come in at a bittersweet time. We're not even half way through the season and the table is so close and couple of good results for us and a couple of bad games for the teams around us and we'll climb the table. However, it is December and we've got so many games to play this month, so the new man won't get as much time with his team as he might have had if he had been appointed earlier.


3.) 06 Dec 2018
06 Dec 2018 10:33:04
The positives are that we gave away 2 goals from set pieces which is something that a bit of organisation will be able to sort out fairly quickly. Targett was also freakishly unlucky on the third. We created a good few chances, hit the woodwork three times and forced good saves from their keeper including one worldy from Hojberg so we didn't show ourselves up too much.

Otherwise, as you say, it was a bog standard performance from us - ponderous in defence and attack for the most part and individual errors frustrating at both ends.


Hassenhutl's reputation is very strong and he is considered one of the most promising coaches in world football. Other managers from the German leagues have done very well recently in our domestic leagues and the style of football Hassenhutl was deploying with RB Leipzig suits this league perfectly. He may well simply get the team organised and functional this season and then look to have them play more expansively next season so we may need to be patient, but after tonight's performance, I cannot wait for him to get us playing well again.


4.) 06 Dec 2018
06 Dec 2018 11:58:04
I agree Figo, if we scrap zonal marking, and mark man to man both set piece goals probably won't be conceded. That's for the manager to decide though. If he can hammer him his style of football by the Huddersfield game then I reckon we should be able to beat all the teams in and around us.

Being an optimist I can see us picking up 10 points from the next 4 games. For that to happen Hassenhuttl needs to decide on his best 11 with the players he has at his disposal to play his style well.

I think consistency is the key word and by that I mean the starting 11. Both of our last managers, chopped and changed the starting 11 nearly every match to force a result, when we got a result they'd keep the same squad, if we didn't they would rotate again. I think this is part of our problem. I don't want to see that with our new manager and I don't think we will. His specific brand of football will probably see this as our main starting 11 (fitness provided) .

AM
CS MY/ JS JV RB
PEH ML
SA NR
MG DI

You watch back the goals we've conceded this season and is simply a case of if this player didn't do X then that probably wouldn't have happened. Like last night, if Targett had hit the ball out of play sooner, that goal wouldn't have been conceded. If Yoshida had thrown himself in front of ball for Lucas' second shot, he wouldn't have scored. It's easy to see this. However, decision making like this in matches can't necessarily be coached into the players, a good system of football can. But we'll see where we're at by the end of Jan, hopefully a decent amount of points outside of the relegation zone!


5.) 06 Dec 2018
06 Dec 2018 12:05:08
Agree. He will have seen quickly the key issues that he can get to grips with prior to January.

Not a good result, but a performance that will help him to immediately focus-concentration from start to finish, press, move the ball quickly, cut out errors.