Rafa On Sunderland

[El Jefecito]

Rather beat everyone 1-0 and end on 38 goals than beat Derby 6-0 and struggle for winners against birmingham, wigan, blackburn etc.

Even so, let's stop mindlessly repeating the "defensive" mantra when that is clearly not an accurate representation of how we play and the results we get.

[the rev leeroy brown]

Rafa doesn’t do attack minded football, especially away from home. It’s all about defence and hopefully sneaking a goal…

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That's what will cost us our title 'challenge' then.

why should this cost us our title challenge? chelsea played some of the most boring long ball football i've seen under mourinho yet still won the league.....twice!

i'd rather play the most **** boring football and scrape 1-0 wins and challenge for the league than play attacking flowing football and battle for 4th with arsenal.

[Craig_H]

Even so, let's stop mindlessly repeating the "defensive" mantra when that is clearly not an accurate representation of how we play and the results we get.

Away from home, it often is. No point denying it, we all saw Blackburn and Portsmouth away last season, to name just a couple.

[Rigadon]

Even so, let's stop mindlessly repeating the "defensive" mantra when that is clearly not an accurate representation of how we play and the results we get.

We did well last year, but we drew 13 games. If we are going to win the league, then we need to be a little bit more attack minded, especially against the so called… **** teams

[Craig_H]

why should this cost us our title challenge? chelsea played some of the most boring long ball football i've seen under mourinho yet still won the league.....twice!

i'd rather play the most **** boring football and scrape 1-0 wins and challenge for the league than play attacking flowing football and battle for 4th with arsenal.

Firstly, Chelsea didnt play 'boring' football. They just stopped searching for goals at 1-0 or 2-0. Not ideal, but they were machine-like and able to keep the clean sheet most of the time. Before they were ahead though, they outplayed virtually all of the lesser sides and completely dominated them.

We, on the other hand, often go away with a clean sheet as our priority, rather than a win. We try to pinch a goal if we can get it, but it doesnt usually seem to be the main focus.

It's not about boring or entertaining football, i dont care if it's boring.

It's about having a mentally that smacks of 'lets win' rather than 'lets not lose'. It'll cost us a challenge because we draw too many games due not frequently not being able to pinch that goal, or conceding one when we do.

[Rigadon]

why should this cost us our title challenge? chelsea played some of the most boring long ball football i've seen under mourinho yet still won the league.....twice!

i'd rather play the most **** boring football and scrape 1-0 wins and challenge for the league than play attacking flowing football and battle for 4th with arsenal.

It did last year

[Rigadon]

Firstly, Chelsea didnt play 'boring' football. They just stopped searching for goals at 1-0 or 2-0. Not ideal, but they were machine-like and able to keep the clean sheet most of the time. Before they were ahead though, they outplayed virtually all of the lesser sides and completely dominated them.

We, on the other hand, often go away with a clean sheet as our priority, rather than a win. We try to pinch a goal if we can get it, but it doesnt usually seem to be the main focus.
It's not about boring or entertaining football, i dont care if it's boring.

It's about having a mentally that smacks of 'lets win' rather than 'lets not lose'. It'll cost us a challenge because we draw too many games due not frequently not being able to pinch that goal, or conceding one when we do.

Spot on

[the rev leeroy brown]

Firstly, Chelsea didnt play 'boring' football. They just stopped searching for goals at 1-0 or 2-0. Not ideal, but they were machine-like and able to keep the clean sheet most of the time. Before they were ahead though, they outplayed virtually all of the lesser sides and completely dominated them.

We, on the other hand, often go away with a clean sheet as our priority, rather than a win. We try to pinch a goal if we can get it, but it doesnt usually seem to be the main focus.

It's not about boring or entertaining football, i dont care if it's boring.

It's about having a mentally that smacks of 'lets win' rather than 'lets not lose'. It'll cost us a challenge because we draw too many games due not frequently not being able to pinch that goal, or conceding one when we do.

i agree with most of what you've said here bout our team. but if you reckon that chelsea didn't play boring football when all they seemed to do was launch long balls into the oppositions corners for robben and duff to chase then

[Craig_H]

i agree with most of what you've said here bout our team. but if you reckon that chelsea didn't play boring football when all they seemed to do was launch long balls into the oppositions corners for robben and duff to chase then

To be fair, they usually only resorted to long balls when they were losing and chasing a goal - and in all honesty, how often was that? Not too often, i dont think.

This isnt about how attractive or boring the football is, or about how short and quick the passes are, or how long and direct it is. It's about mentality, not attractiveness of the play. I want us to dictate and control the game, not just participate it. We need to be the ones making things happen, rather than waiting for it to happen and reacting to it.

[Rigadon]

i agree with most of what you've said here bout our team. but if you reckon that chelsea didn't play boring football when all they seemed to do was launch long balls into the oppositions corners for robben and duff to chase then

If we had a fit Robben and Duff in our team, we'd win the league

[El Jefecito]

We did well last year, but we drew 13 games. If we are going to win the league, then we need to be a little bit more attack minded, especially against the so called… **** teams

How many of those games did we fail to score in? Could something be said about the concession of goals from set pieces that might have contributed to that record? etc etc etc

[Craig_H]

How many of those games did we fail to score in? Could something be said about the concession of goals from set pieces that might have contributed to that record? etc etc etc

Are you saying that the notion of us being over cautious in away games and seeming like we're more focused on not losing, than we are on winning, is a myth?

[Rigadon]

How many of those games did we fail to score in? Could something be said about the concession of goals from set pieces that might have contributed to that record? etc etc etc

No. Defensively, we're excellent. We should outscore our opponents more often.

[Craig_H]

I agree, our problems were with breaking teams down, rather than defensively.

[El Jefecito]

Are you saying that the notion of us being over cautious in away games and seeming like we're more focused on not losing, than we are on winning, is a myth?

Hmmm, not sure what I was saying now I had a really good point though. Honest

It was so subtle, it went over even my head