Style of football under Paul Sturrock?

[Beefy]

With varying degrees of success, we were a nice little passing side under Steve Tilson. Some of the movement of the ball when we were really playing well was a joy to watch. Yeovil and Brentford in the League One winning season stand out, Carlisle at home the next season (a match we somehow lost 1-0 despite playing some sublime one-touch football for most of the 90 minutes) and many other matches all showed a style of football that we could be proud of. Even the Manchester United and Spurs matches, which many lower league sides would have approached in an aggressive 'up-and-at-em' attitude, we went into looking to get the ball down and give our opponents a game of football.

In the last season or so those philosophies were sacrificed somewhat, not least because we lacked the players with the ability to put their foot on the ball and pick out a pass, but the hallmark of a Steve Tilson side was a confidence to try things, even if they didn't always come off.

Whilst Paul Sturrock's Plymouth side that won League Two way back when were renowned as an attacking team playing a nice brand of football, some of his subsequent sides more recently have played a far uglier, far more pragmatic style of football.

So my question would be, would you like to see the passing philosophy which has been what Southend United have been about the past six years retained next year or do we just want a winning/surviving team no matter how they achieve it?

 

[leeblue]

With varying degrees of success, we were a nice little passing side under Steve Tilson. Some of the movement of the ball when we were really playing well was a joy to watch. Yeovil and Brentford in the League One winning season stand out, Carlisle at home the next season (a match we somehow lost 1-0 despite playing some sublime one-touch football for most of the 90 minutes) and many other matches all showed a style of football that we could be proud of. Even the Manchester United and Spurs matches, which many lower league sides would have approached in an aggressive 'up-and-at-em' attitude, we went into looking to get the ball down and give our opponents a game of football.

In the last season or so those philosophies were sacrificed somewhat, not least because we lacked the players with the ability to put their foot on the ball and pick out a pass, but the hallmark of a Steve Tilson side was a confidence to try things, even if they didn't always come off.

Whilst Paul Sturrock's Plymouth side that won League Two way back when were renowned as an attacking team playing a nice brand of football, some of his subsequent sides more recently have played a far uglier, far more pragmatic style of football.

So my question would be, would you like to see the passing philosophy which has been what Southend United have been about the past six years retained next year or do we just want a winning/surviving team no matter how they achieve it?

I would always take results over performances, sod how we win as long as we win games, the season we finished 8th and just missed out on the play offs for example think of millwall at home where we played em off the park but still didnt get the result, maybe if we had had an ugly side we may have nicked the win, although its fair to say the tilly style when in full flow was moist making

 

[GBJ]

TBH I don't think it matters, as long as we win.

Take Chelsea for example, they play some boring ****, yet always seem to come up trumps. Whereas Arsenal play arguably the slickest football, yet can't seem to win trophy's.

 

[palexander]

yup, substance over style for me.

 

[Swiss Tony]

yup, substance over style for me.

Agree,lets leave the stylish academy football crap to Wetspam,points mean prizes.

 

[leeblue]

TBH I don't think it matters, as long as we win.

Take Chelsea for example, they play some boring ****, yet always seem to come up trumps. Whereas Arsenal play arguably the slickest football, yet can't seem to win trophy's.

spot on sir

 

[NobbySnide2]

lets adopt a style that suits the players we may sighn or already have in our books....how many of them will stay or feature in his plans, will the likes of Moose be out the door, or persueded to stay?

 

[Beefy]

I'm surprised so many people would be happy to see route-one football at the Hall. Especially considering that every targetman that we ever bring in is so universally unpopular.

 

[leeblue]

I'm surprised so many people would be happy to see route-one football at the Hall. Especially considering that every targetman that we ever bring in is so universally unpopular.

maybe not route one but a solid more workmanlike team may be on the cards, only time will tell

 

[Medway Blue]

lets adopt a style that suits the players we may sighn or already have in our books....how many of them will stay or feature in his plans, will the likes of Moose be out the door, or persueded to stay?

Spot on.

Difficult to say until we know what sort of a squad we have. If we have a team full of 6"3', ugly northern *******s then they will bviously be more suited to the direct game.

What will be annoying is if it's evident that we have pace and decent passing ability in the side, yet he persists in the long game when it's clear that it doesn't work and isn't suited to our players.

 

[Perth Bambi]

But even when we have had targetmen we have never really played a target man style which is why they haven't been successful. Maybe if we actually play a game where the target man needs to win flick ons or gets the ball played to his feet and holds if up for the rest of the players then he will be successful.

I imagine we will play whatever style that suits any players we may actually get in.

 

[sammyboy]

anything better than the s*it we had to watch at the back end of last season will do me!

 

[Pubey]

I think Ricky Duncan has focussed on a technical passing game, so hopefully Sturrock will maintain that as even if we bring in some bodies we'll still have to prop up our squad with Youth Teamers I guess.

Personally I'd be disappointed if we ended up a hoof merchants, because our 9 remaining players are all fairly decent technically (barring JFC).

 

[Jam_Man]

Direct football is one thing, hoof ball another.

If we just rely on booting the ball forward and play with no flair I would be gutted.

Winning is one thing but I wouldnt want to watch Lincoln of a few years back....

 

[BrettieAngell]

Direct football is one thing, hoof ball another.

If we just rely on booting the ball forward and play with no flair I would be gutted.

Winning is one thing but I wouldnt want to watch Lincoln of a few years back....

True, we were direct at times when Theo Robinson was here and it was pretty effective.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Anything better than games where Herds throw was our only weapon.

 

[BoyWonder2]

At the end of the day, football is a results business and PS will be judged on results rather than performances.

I'd take a scrappy, hard earnt 1-0 win over a fantastic display but losing or drawing.

In an ideal world we'd play the type of football we played against Yeovil in the second half when we beat them 4-1 all the time, but it simply won't happy. The players, whoever they maybe, will need to roll their sleeves up and battle. Especially away from home.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

+

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I really enjoyed our football under Tilly, and whilst I'd have once said I don't care about how we achieve the results that's no longer the case. I would prefer to see us win playing good football than win playing hoof ball and losing whilst playing good football is preferable to losing playing bad football.

That said, we didn't play particularly good football the last couple of seasons, with hackers like McCormack in central midfield ahead of the cultured Moussa. What is striking is how few passers Tilly ever signed. He inherited Gower and Maher and made no attempt to replace them, whilst continually searching for big targetmen (Foran, Harrold, Revell, Paynter etc). The only one I can think Tilly signed was Guttridge and that has to be cancelled out by signing Peter Clarke whose passing was abysmal.

I can only think that Tilly was badly burnt by his championship experience when he tried to go too far in favour of passing football and we found ourselves bullied rather than passed out of the division. He was too quick to get rid of "Mark" God Bentley, the pace of Wayne Gray and the head down on the overlap Duncan Jupp and then spent the rest of his time at the club over-compensating.

I think he'll have us exceptionally well organised defensively, which will give a couple of us something to appreciate and I have a feeling Paterson might be a key player for him. Apparently he's not afraid to give youth a go, which can only be a good thing. Speaking to a Swindon fan I know, he said that whilst there were a lot of 1-0s in the fourth division, he adopted a more expansive game in the third, once he had a chance to get the players in he wanted (eg Cox and Paynter).

 

[NZamba Legend]

Well, Sturrock is a man who knows how to use a 'target man' without resorting to the hoof and as we know Tilson never really cracked this aspect and was better utilising strikers with pace and/or movement. Mickey Evans was the man for Sturrock for about three seasons and I think he basically resurrected the guys career.