Our Style of Play

[Bittners a Legend]

I think it is fair to say that the Tisdale style of passing and pressing is now long gone. We have played some pretty dire stuff for 18 months now, with the odd David Noble exception. Certainly the crisp passing of previous years is long gone.

So do we have a style? In so many of the games I've seen this season we have lumped the ball long for Cureton. We don't even knock it in behind the centre backs for Curo to run on to, we just hoof it aimlessly up in the air. Does Tisdale want us to play this way? Presumably not?

I didn't mind us not utilising wingers, many top clubs now tend to play a much more compact and tighter game which involves high pressing and slide rule passes in behind the centre backs but it is clear we do not do this any longer. So why the opposition to wide players? Do we need a target man? Does Tisdale see either Bauza or O'Flynn as target men? (as bizarre as that might seem).

Do people enjoy the way we play the game anymore? It is clear from comments that opposing managers have made recently (Brendan Rodgers, John Sheridan etc) that people within the game associate Tisdale with a progressing, attractive, passing game...but is that the reality any longer? Are injuries to blame?

I don't know what to think, but I sense our style is dreadful and Tisdale has completely failed to impose any sort of identity or style on our current bunch of players. Perhaps we do still play an attractive game and I've just been unfortunate to pick the worst games...!

 

[Grecian_Jay]

Spot on Bitts. I've been banging this drum for a while but usually on my own. We have no style.

All this 'no one plays with wingers is crap', most do but they're not your typical wingers of the old days. Swansea play great football with wingers and so do Barcelona. They just play them as reverse wingers. Real have Di Maria, Arsenal have Walcott and Ox, Spurs have Lennon, Liverpool have Downing, United have Valencia and Nani etc. Most teams at our level pkay with wingers. Its a great way of getting up the pitch and spreading the game and expanding the oppo.

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

What I can't get my head around is this.....OK wingers are out of favour and this seems to be quite a general trend now and more teams, as you say Bitts, are playing a compact "ball through the middle" game but, when we're not lobbing the ball aimlessly upfield and we do occasionally break away from our more normal sideways and backwards game, instead of going through the middle, we pass to the wings. Our build up is usually labouriously slow and more often than not we end up giving away possession as a direct result of interminable passing between players. I just don't get it.

 

[Bittners a Legend]

All this 'no one plays with wingers is crap', most do but they're not your typical wingers of the old days. Swansea play great football with wingers and so do Barcelona. They just play them as reverse wingers. Real have Di Maria, Arsenal have Walcott and Ox, Spurs have Lennon, Liverpool have Downing, United have Valencia and Nani etc. Most teams at our level pkay with wingers. Its a great way of getting up the pitch and spreading the game and expanding the oppo.

Agreed. We are pitifully one dimensional and while this occasionally yields great success, particularly when teams are chasing the game, we seem utterly unable to influence or the change the pace of a game with our often sideways passing and aimless hoofs. Arguably our most attractive football was played when we had Wayne Carlisle in our side. I'm not arguing we have to play with out and out wingers, but given we seem to have no other identity, it seems weird that Tisdale is so opposed to stretching the play.

 

[globegrecian]

Have great sympathy re the injury situation, it must be gutting for Tisdale.

Tis has been such a huge success, it feels bad for us to collectively kick him when he's a bit down... BUT it has been a dire nearly two seasons now and I'm really p*ssed off with our approach to the local derby games, I mean look at the League table, we should have done the double double - they are CACK.

Also, nearly every game now there seems to be an incident where one of the team or management have a barney with one or more of the crowd - grow a pair ffs, no wonder we are such chokers.

We're only in the play-off places because somehow we kept turning up at far-flung grounds on Tuesday nights and turning over the opposition - we are sh*te at home.

At the end of the day, our inability to prosper against two very poor Devon sides and an okay Gas team has cost us dear in terms of getting points on the board, before injuries put paid to our prospects for the remainder of the season, sadly.

 

[Mogga]

Good OP. I had just this conversation at the game today and it's pretty undeniable that our style of football has been poor this season. I don't accept that it was poor last season - we played it along the deck quite well, certainly a lot more than we have this season, but we had absolutely nothing going on in the final third so it was all in vain. We don't have the quality in the squad this year to play good football, certainly not if our best XI isn't out. We have a chance of getting it down a little bit if two from Doherty, Gow and Bauza are in the side, but this is hardly ever the case. To be fair, there are only a handful of midfielders in this league at all who have the quality to get it down and play. The long ball hoofing tactic to Cureton/O'Flynn simply must be a managerial instruction given its prevalence throughout the season. It makes very little sense and completely relies on us winning the second ball or capitalising on a mistake. We are pretty clueless in terms of creativity when Gow isn't on the pitch and the hoof appears to be our Plan B. Though our goals scored stat is pretty impressive and can't be ignored, I feel it is at times a little deceiving with a fair portion of our goals more attributable to substandard opposition rather than our own creative nous.

In terms of wingers, didn't we play with two today? Davies was just devoid of almost everything once again and despite a few good moments for Gosling in the first half he'd regressed to a standard at least as bad and probably worse than Davies by the time he was substituted in the second. I think we might have to drop the wingers altogether, as our best (albeit nearly as meagre) bet for creating anything today looked to be from Molesley or Keohane driving through the middle. Cureton needs someone to play close to him and, as has been said on the matchday thread, any sort of attacking threat we once posed was extinguished when Bauza came off. D'Ath was no way near him and gave him no support whatsoever. I think we need Bauza to play alongside him for the run-in.

Arguably our most attractive football was played when we had Wayne Carlisle in our side.

I really don't understand this at all. The subsequent four years from when Carlisle left were each better in terms of the quality of football. If you don't believe that then you have to admit that the side which finished 8th in League One was, in terms of style, streets ahead of the 2007/2008 side to which it seems you are referring.

 

[Moomin Grecian]

Agree with the OP. At home we are, a lot of the time, predictable and pedestrian. Teams who have a go at us at SJP are easier for us to play against but anyone who is organised and solid almost always get a result as we're too easy to play against. Curo is abot 5ft 6 inches and we just smack the ball up to him a lot of the time, it's depressing. We've also no pace in the midfield. Davies is God awful and from the Jimmy Gardner school of football and Bennett can't pass water. With no Oakley, Doherty or Gow we offer very little creativity.

Only been to two away games but maybe our style is more impressive on the road, which has been proven in the results.

 

[wemissmoxey]

Spot on Bitts. I've been banging this drum for a while but usually on my own. We have no style.

That is not fair Panny !

 

[Stuffy]

I think it is fair to say that the Tisdale style of passing and pressing is now long gone. We have played some pretty dire stuff for 18 months now, with the odd David Noble exception. Certainly the crisp passing of previous years is long gone.

Oh so true. It seems an age when City were noted by many for the way they splayed the ball around the park with some intelligent passing. The wins were great but when we did it with style, it really was a joy to behold.

The beer after the match tasted that much better.

 

[crocks]

As I have said elsewhere, I just dont think that the players have a clue what they are supposed to do when they get out on the pitch.

This is a very poor Exeter City team and the manager is not getting the best out of them.