Blues boss Brown: I don't think the team are playing for me

[* ORM *]

As you know 'seventies' this is a bugbear of mine.

Shooting and set-piece taking practice should be a compulsory add-on after training is scheduled to finish, until a player can get it right 9/10.

I mentioned once before that Ian Wright, in his autobiography, mentions about how he used to spend hours practicing shooting into certain parts of a goal. Time after time. Right and Left foot, until he perfected it. Often picking a spot in the goal net that he aimed to hit each time.

Like a cricketer in the nets or a snooker player on a practice table, you can never have too much practice at perfecting your skills.

Much as I’m not a fan of Beckham he would do the same when others had long gone. Admirable

 

[Polish_Blues]

What PB did is dangerous as he say he lost the dressing room, it’s be interesting in his next team selection (if PB survives), if any of our players is dropped for Bradford game, then we know who the players that are underperforming against Rovers yesterday!

 

[eastling]

Exactly this. I can understand that pb may have peed off players criticising them in public or frustrated with personal favourites being picked over and over again despite not in form but to have witnessed that second half where our players bar Oxley could not be bothered was unacceptable. The away support for them was vocal and supporting, no acknowledgement of us at the end. Felt so sorry for Oxley.

 

[Tampa Blue]

What an admission to have to make! I can't understand why he would say it.

is PB trying to get some sympathy from the fans?

is he admitting failure?

is he having another public 'pop' at the players?

PB is not stupid so there must be a method in his madness - I just don't know what it is though.

 

[AndyT]

A lot of it, I think, is self-protection.

Sometimes it's a way of getting a reaction from players, but that wasn't an interview looking for that. It was an interview of someone who either expects to be sacked or almost hopes to be.

I feel a "mutual consent" coming soon.

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

As you know 'seventies' this is a bugbear of mine.

Shooting and set-piece taking practice should be a compulsory add-on after training is scheduled to finish, until a player can get it right 9/10.

I mentioned once before that Ian Wright, in his autobiography, mentions about how he used to spend hours practicing shooting into certain parts of a goal. Time after time. Right and Left foot, until he perfected it. Often picking a spot in the goal net that he aimed to hit each time.

Like a cricketer in the nets or a snooker player on a practice table, you can never have too much practice at perfecting your skills.

Yes it's been mentioned a few times on here. My point was that Szmodics is living proof from his own mouth that practice and putting in the effort can improve you as a player, especially when it comes to striking a ball. We had this debate before and a few posters said if they can't kick a ball properly by now blah, blah. It has nothing to do with yesterdays very poor performance. Lots of great strikers and midfielders in the past have gone that extra mile to improve striking the ball. As a kid the one I always remember was Bobby Charlton. He devised different routines for himself. The first thing he said he spent months after training striking the ball in the middle of the goal from the edge of the penalty area. then he would move back a yard and start again, then back another yard and so on. He said he only had to be a fraction off and the ball would fly into the corner with power. It's going to be off a fraction most times when hitting from distance and with the ball moving, but he said his secret was aim for the middle of the goal. He said short distance he off course did not aim for the middle of the goal, but picked a spot or blasted it full power. At Southend there are a few that practice after training, but there is a few that couldn't hit a barn door that should be practising. Mark Gower seemed to do it the most in the past. I'm just a big believer in players improving themselves. If every attacking player improved their shooting by 30% or more at any club, it would probably add over 15 points to their season total. Anyway, I used to hate Man U, but loved watching Charlton and Best.

[video=youtube;er_rTB4Q3ys]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er_rTB4Q3ys[/video]

 

[AndyT]

Spot on 'seventies'.

It's even more important to practice in a football environment than, say, snooker. With snooker you get several chances to have another attempt (especially over long matches). Same with cricket. Yet, both sports demand a high level of repeat practice.

With football, you might only get one sniff at goal in 90 minutes. Like Josh Wright, yesterday. So it's even more imperative to make it count.

As you say, it's worth 15 points a season, possibly. The same applies to striking corners and free-kicks or just crossing the ball. All things that can make the difference between a 1-1 draw and a 2-1 win.

 

[united we stand]

As you know 'seventies' this is a bugbear of mine.

Shooting and set-piece taking practice should be a compulsory add-on after training is scheduled to finish, until a player can get it right 9/10.

I mentioned once before that Ian Wright, in his autobiography, mentions about how he used to spend hours practicing shooting into certain parts of a goal. Time after time. Right and Left foot, until he perfected it. Often picking a spot in the goal net that he aimed to hit each time.

Like a cricketer in the nets or a snooker player on a practice table, you can never have too much practice at perfecting your skills.

Beckham did the same thing with free kicks and crosses-, after training - 100 from the left, a hundred from the right - even when he was acknowledged as being excellent at it

 

[LBBlue]

I think it is simply down to tactics and attitude. When they get their noses in front they have the will to hang on and grind a result - last week we all though they were excellent. When they go a goal down they realise they are buggered because they haven't got the pace or guile or guts to get back into the game. Go behind early they get stuffed. It's happened time and time again. We haven't been behind at home often, Northampton when we pulled back to draw.

The last 9 games on average we have managed a shot on target every 30 minutes. They know there is no goal threat so they don't bother. They just want the game to end.

There is little difference to the side that did well last season. However we miss the pace of Thompson and the running of Atkinson - neither of whom can hold down regular first team places now.

We've got a number of decent players but they don't gel as a team.

His summer singings have been a disaster for one reason or another.

Personally I take everything he says with a pinch of salt. It's typical narcissist behaviour.

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/14-signs-of-narcissism

Fits the bill completely.

He needs to do what he did after Rochdale last year, accept that he is getting it wrong, and let them try and win a game instead of trying not to lose.

Glen Pennyfather and Paul Clark spot the problems why can't Brown. Slow static defenders who give the opposition far too much room

Paul's best one was " you watch them in the warm up and their shooting is awful, so don't be surprised that they take it into the game".

 

[davewebbsbrain]

I think it is simply down to tactics and attitude. When they get their noses in front they have the will to hang on and grind a result - last week we all though they were excellent. When they go a goal down they realise they are buggered because they haven't got the pace or guile or guts to get back into the game. Go behind early they get stuffed. It's happened time and time again. We haven't been behind at home often, Northampton when we pulled back to draw.

The last 9 games on average we have managed a shot on target every 30 minutes. They know there is no goal threat so they don't bother. They just want the game to end.

There is little difference to the side that did well last season. However we miss the pace of Thompson and the running of Atkinson - neither of whom can hold down regular first team places now.

We've got a number of decent players but they don't gel as a team.

His summer singings have been a disaster for one reason or another.

Personally I take everything he says with a pinch of salt. It's typical narcissist behaviour.

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/14-signs-of-narcissism

Fits the bill completely.

He needs to do what he did after Rochdale last year, accept that he is getting it wrong, and let them try and win a game instead of trying not to lose.

Glen Pennyfather and Paul Clark spot the problems why can't Brown. Slow static defenders who give the opposition far too much room

Paul's best one was " you watch them in the warm up and their shooting is awful, so don't be surprised that they take it into the game".

Brown's teams have always been set up to try and win 1-0. If we score first, we start to play deep and soak up pressure and try and attack on the break. If we nick a second goal, like against Oldham, we are onto a winner. We do seem to concede at 1-0 quite often too, meaning a few draws into the mix. As soon as we go 1-0 down, there is no plan B, the players don't know what they should be doing, and end up conceding more. It's all about the tactics

 

[AndyT]

There's always time for Plan B.

Just ask Enter Shikari!

In fact, the lyrics are absolutely apt, here, as well.

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

I've listened to the interview now and I find his comments about Timlin interesting. 'It was my biggest managerial mistake to leave him out'. Let's not kind ourselves, that was the team talk on the pitch and you're never going to forget that Phil! BUT he could have brought Timlin on at any point yesterday, yet he didn't AND Timlin played Wednesday and made little or no difference in what was another poor performance...

Publicly criticising the players hasn't worked so publicly questioning the players commitment is possibly the only card he has left to play. Who knows, maybe some players will ask themselves have I been 100% committed. I echo those that say when performances are poor they should train harder... They train for 1h 30mins or so a day, what's an extra hour? As fans, I'm sure we wouldn't think twice about staying late to make sure we get it right when it counts.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

I've listened to the interview now and I find his comments about Timlin interesting. 'It was my biggest managerial mistake to leave him out'. Let's not kind ourselves, that was the team talk on the pitch and you're never going to forget that Phil! BUT he could have brought Timlin on at any point yesterday, yet he didn't AND Timlin played Wednesday and made little or no difference in what was another poor performance...

Publicly criticising the players hasn't worked so publicly questioning the players commitment is possibly the only card he has left to play. Who knows, maybe some players will ask themselves have I been 100% committed. I echo those that say when performances are poor they should train harder... They train for 1h 30mins or so a day, what's an extra hour? As fans, I'm sure we wouldn't think twice about staying late to make sure we get it right when it counts.

They can train all day every day. They don't want to play for him. If my manager kept running me down publicly, blaming me for every issue that came up, I wouldn't be motivated to want to put the effort in

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

They can train all day every day. They don't want to play for him. If my manager kept running me down publicly, blaming me for every issue that came up, I wouldn't be motivated to want to put the effort in

They train for roughly an hour and 15 mins. TSNB done a training report.

 

[AndyT]

They can train all day every day. They don't want to play for him. If my manager kept running me down publicly, blaming me for every issue that came up, I wouldn't be motivated to want to put the effort in

If that is 100% the case, then he has to be moved on.

Personally, I don't think it's anything like that much, but I do believe there are divisions amongst some of the players and a bit of unrest around.

Whether that's to do with other players, the manager, training regimes and so on, I'm not sure.

What we do have is some very good and intelligent footballers in our side. I can name six or seven off the top of my head. I do believe that most of them might have a differing view as to how we should play. Whether that's now being tested to the limit, I'm not sure.

As soon as Macca went off yesterday and McG came on, you could sense the system would become unbalanced. Our strength is playing 4-4-2 as a unit. Once parts of that unit break-up or are not 100% working, the whole thing implodes quite quickly. Hence why we consider batches of goals, when it does.

I think the players sense that and it all goes downhill from there.

Most matches that doesn't happen and we chisel out enough results to be mid-table, but is that enough to motivate the side to put the hard yards in when the going gets tough.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

They train for roughly an hour and 15 mins. TSNB done a training report.

I meant that they could train all day every day and it wouldn't make them play better as they do not want to play for PB

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Chucks the players under the bus after every defeat then can’t get his head around why they’re not motivated to play for him? Clown

 

[fbm]

Brown's teams have always been set up to try and win 1-0. If we score first, we start to play deep and soak up pressure and try and attack on the break. If we nick a second goal, like against Oldham, we are onto a winner. We do seem to concede at 1-0 quite often too, meaning a few draws into the mix. As soon as we go 1-0 down, there is no plan B, the players don't know what they should be doing, and end up conceding more. It's all about the tactics

To be honest I have never agreed with the above.

His favourite score is 1-0. It shows a discipline and clean sheet mentality, which is why he likes it.

But in an ideal world he will want 2 or 3 goal wins. He absolutely does not want to sit back and defend. You should see and hear him on the touchline when we go 1-0 up and sit deep. He is actively trying to get them to do the opposite.

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

I meant that they could train all day every day and it wouldn't make them play better as they do not want to play for PB

Ohhhh, sorry man. I misread. Yeah, at this point I wouldn't want to play for Phil but I can't speak for everyone and some may still ask themselves that question. It goes further than just Phil though doesn't it. If they're not committed to him, they're not committed to the club or its fans... If they look at the bigger picture they're letting down a lot of people because of one man...

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Ohhhh, sorry man. I misread. Yeah, at this point I wouldn't want to play for Phil but I can't speak for everyone and some may still ask themselves that question. It goes further than just Phil though doesn't it. If they're not committed to him, they're not committed to the club or its fans... If they look at the bigger picture they're letting down a lot of people because of one man...

No worries, I didn't make it that clear originally. The players have seen the treatment of Barrett, Bolger etc as well as the issues this season and last. It's easy to say they are letting down a lot of people but there is only so much the players can take