Chris Wilder Says... Answer to me from Press Conference

Well done for trying Rob. I Also thought Craig Johns had a good go too. Wilder is a heck of a political player. He answers the question he wants to answer.

As others have said I don't think he really gets what the problem is. I hope to God tomorrow is better but I'm not hopeful based on what he's saying. He thinks he's right, he think the players are to blame. They need to be better than they are.

The problem is they aren't. He thinks he has the players he had at Sheff Utd.

I will have a good drink before the match and try to be mellow to not embarrass by son by shouting abuse at Wilder for 98 minutes.
 
The point about the politician is interesting. I noticed early on that a question requiring a 30 second answer would become a 5 minute one which effectively drains the remaining time out of an interview. The same point gets endlessly rehashed and the question isn't necessarily addressed. It's a skill just as evident in all political parties.
 
I'm not bothered about the results or league position.....as long as we have good possesion and xG stats that's the most important thing

Reminds me of my brother, all he ever used to whine on about is possesion, as if it's means anything at all, like judging how good a snooker
player is by how much time he spends in a frame versus a player who just pots everything 5x quicker
 
Randy said:
A shining light since he came in. Give him the support required and we'll be ok and he'll easily hit double figures before the end of January.
Click to expand...
Just so but he's isolated. It's blindingly obvious. He's started with two strikers only 3 times in 9 games. Where is the famed second striker? Because everyone knows it's certainly not McGree. Is he hoping Akpom suddenly recovers and does the job? Watmore is ten times the danger that Mcgree poses but can't last more than a half. Why exactly is Forss or the other project here?
 
Gunslinger said:
I'm not bothered about the results or league position.....as long as we have good possesion and xG stats that's the most important thing

Reminds me of my brother, all he ever used to whine on about is possesion, as if it's means anything at all, like judging how good a snooker
player is by how much time he spends in a frame versus a player who just pots everything 5x quicker
Click to expand...

Except that's not what he's said at all?

He's clearly very bothered about the results and league position.

Our problem this season, for once, is not scoring goals, it's keeping them out.
 
You do hope that, over the course of a season, things like xG do more accurately correlate to league position. You do have to cut out silly mistakes for that to happen though
 
Alexander Supertramp said:
You do hope that, over the course of a season, things like xG do more accurately correlate to league position. You do have to cut out silly mistakes for that to happen though
Click to expand...
In my experience at work, if the same mistakes are being regularly made by different people, at some point you stop assuming it's down to the person and look at the system and procedures leading to the mistake. And usually identify the weakness and change something. Everything else might be OK.
Why is football different?
 
Rofesleg said:
In my experience at work, if the same mistakes are being regularly made by different people, at some point you stop assuming it's down to the person and look at the system and procedures leading to the mistake. And usually identify the weakness and change something. Everything else might be OK.
Why is football different?
Click to expand...

What part of the system caused McNair to not track back after Crooks lost the ball?

What part of the system caused Fry to get completely done by Ng?
 
I really hope Forss goes on international duty and plays well, the comments about us not having what we want up top until Akpom is back are concerning when we have Forss on the bench.
 
Alexander Supertramp said:
Centre backs being dragged into areas of the pitch they don’t want to be, I suppose.
Click to expand...

The middle of our box?

Probably the main place you'd expect a centre back to be defending.

Clarke before him, who was equally at fault for that third goal, was also not dragged out of position, he was just bypassed.
They took a throw in, two of our defenders then failed to defend properly and Ng scored.
 
Alexander Supertramp said:
I can’t remember to be honest… I thought he cut in from their right wing when he skinned a couple of our defenders
Click to expand...

Clarke was on the edge of the left hand side of our box, where you'd expect him to be in a when defending in our final third, they just passed around him.

Fry then got taken out of the game by a really basic cut inside and he slotted it past Roberts, who could have done better too as it was right at him.

Poor defending rather than an issue with where they were positioned, at least for me.
 
fmttmadmin said:
Q: In the second half v Cardiff we saw some of the intensity that we started games with last season and we also a feature of last season was (over) loading the box with players. It is something we haven't seen so much getting so many players into the opposition box.

CW: I disagree. Our stats compared to last year are better stats in terms of penalty area entries and stuff like that. I think sometimes you look rose tinted glasses maybe at some of the stuff that happened last year but we've got the stats in front of us and we are crossing the ball more, we are getting more touches in the penalty area so obviously that means we are getting more players in the penalty area. There is all stuff like that, it might look like that, as I said Rob, sometimes to the naked eye it might look like they are not trying, it might look like we are not getting forward, it might look like we are not playing 2 up front, we might not be as positive.. we have had more passes in the opposition third, we have had more touches in the penalty area, we have had more crosses than last year. But what we haven't done, when we absolutely look over everything, is we haven't kept the ball out of the back of our net.

So, going forward for me is not an issue. Even though I don't think we are the strongest. New players coming into the team. Maybe not the options we would have wanted at the top end of the pitch at this moment in time but hopefully that will change when Chuba comes back. But definitely we have had more control and more of the key stats with the ball. There is not an issue going forward at all in my point of view. The only issue from an xG point of view. So, the xG is the expected goals. We are in the Top 4. I don't think we were in the top 4 last year for xGs. So, that says that we are doing more going forward.


xGgs against, expected goals against is 8. Which would put us in the top ten from a defensive point of view. But it is 15, so that is double.

So, what I am saying is the pressure we are putting on teams is as much as did last year. Stay with me with this Rob... is Lionel? (I was wearing a Burning Hell band Tshirt with Lionel Richie on it)..

Q: - Yes..

CW: All Night Long?

Q: Yes (laughs)

CW: And the other way. Expected goals. Is that we are not under the pressure that we should be in terms of goalkeeper making save after save after save after save than we were last year. But expected goals are 8 (from stats) and our goals are 15 (we have conceded 15 in real terms). So for me.. Going on those stats. Going on the eye. Going on watching games of football is down to stuff we are doing individually that is basically putting ourselves in that position. I think you will always look at points as well which is understandable because that is what we are in it for.

Did that make sense?

Q: Yes, yes.

CW: And this is what I am saying about the structure of the team. If the structure of the team in possession was poor we would not be high up in the xGs. (goals for). And if the team was unbelievably struggling we would be in the bottom 3 or 4 for xGs against but we are in the top five or six for expected goals and in the top eight or ten for expected goals against.

So, then you are talking about not putting the ball in the back of the net enough and the ball going in the back of our net too many times, not through pressure, not through possession, not through areas where they are getting into, not through shots that they are having, not through chances that they are creating BUT OUR MISTAKES.

But it is quite a difficult want to take. And I hope that has sort of explained it a little bit regarding the system and stuff. It doesn't really need a wrecking ball to it because it didn't a wrecking ball to it last year I don't think it needs a wrecking ball to it this year but we have to be better at stopping the ball going in the back of the net and cutting out those individual errors..

You look at Watford and you look there were two individual errors that cost us the goals against arguably the most talented attacking team in the division and if we had come away with a point everyone would have said Oh that's alright.. We beat Swansea who are possession based, we changed the way we played. We beat Sunderland.

So, it is quite difficult to take at the moment.

Q: Hopefully we can start putting it right on Saturday night...

CW: Definitely.
Click to expand...
Good work. Well done.
 
Unless Clarke is just not cut out to play on the side of a back 3. It’s a very specialist position, and not many centre backs are comfortable in full back areas.

I dont understand why wilder thinks he’s the answer at LCB just because he’s left footed. He looks like more of an old school, “stick your head on everything”, type of centre back to me.

If you don’t have the players suited to certain positions in a system, do you then have to look at tweaking the system?

Would we be more solid with a back 4 of Bola - Clarke - Fry - Dijksteel ?
 
Alexander Supertramp said:
Unless Clarke is just not cut out to play on the side of a back 3. It’s a very specialist position, and not many centre backs are comfortable in full back areas.

I dont understand why wilder thinks he’s the answer at LCB just because he’s left footed. He looks like more of an old school, “stick your head on everything”, type of centre back to me.

If you don’t have the players suited to certain positions in a system, do you then have to look at tweaking the system?

Would we be more solid with a back 4 of Bola - Clarke - Fry - Dijksteel ?
Click to expand...
Clarke's never going be comfortable there because he doesn't have any pace.
 
Alexander Supertramp said:
Unless Clarke is just not cut out to play on the side of a back 3. It’s a very specialist position, and not many centre backs are comfortable in full back areas.

I dont understand why wilder thinks he’s the answer at LCB just because he’s left footed. He looks like more of an old school, “stick your head on everything”, type of centre back to me.

If you don’t have the players suited to certain positions in a system, do you then have to look at tweaking the system?

Would we be more solid with a back 4 of Bola - Clarke - Fry - Dijksteel ?
Click to expand...

He played in a back 3 at West Brom and won player of the season.

He was excellent in a back 3 on his debut for us.

He's struggled in our last few games, there's no denying that, but then so have players like McNair that we already know are fully capable of playing in this system.

He's only been here 4 games, and has only been poor in the last 2, I'd give him more than two games of struggle before deciding to give up.

But if we did switch to a back 4, I'm sure he'd probably suit that.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top