Ah, but that's the thing. Did he send us out to do that?

Huge numbers of football teams look like they're playing fast, attacking football when they're successful. But when they're not - and especially when the manager's only been here 5 minutes, is still trying to get his ideas across to the players, and the assistant just left - it can look like hoofball when in fact it's just footballers having a really bad day.

Confidence is critical. The right system is critical. What the opponents are doing is critical (yet most fans barely notice the latter at any point). At international level, for example, England rarely go out to hoof it - but end up doing so because 4-4-2 (in the summer, quite unbelievably, it was 4-2-4!) perenially undermans us in midfield, so we have no-one to pass to.

The system didn't work today. It went horribly wrong. That happens. It doesn't mean the manager's mindset is 'hoofball' at all.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Jan 24, 19:12:59