45 minutes of football

So what can be done about this? Feels like we always have an okey to good 45 and the other half is utter shite. What's this about and how is it fixed?

Thought we had a very good first 45 today and normal service resumed, we fall to pieces second half. It's mindboggling. What on earth can be said during half time to cause players to just stop playing football?

Utterly predictable performance, exactly as per last season with a couple different faces. The bench simply cannot cope with opposition tactical changes and games simply slip away. Same shit, different day

It's Bruce's lack of tactical nous that causes it, whilst the opposition adapt to what we've been doing the first half, and change their set-up and tactics accorindingly for the second-half, Bruce is more likely to come out and tell them to do more of the same, and keep working hard, simply because that's all he knows.

I'm not so sure that it is tactical. To me it seem to be a mental thing. We just switch off. There was a point before they scored where we lost possession in our own half and I thought to myself that, this is the type of physically weak, lack of purpose, child like challenges people do when they expect to concede. We nearly look apathetic.

It doesn't actually look like we think we have a chance of keeping 1-0 on the board when going into the second half.

I'm pretty gutted now as I thought this was exactly the sort of stuff we wouldn't experience this season.

I was quite impressed with their manager, and by Aina, their RB.

We were a bit of a mess though, with Gabby's pre-season I'd have stuck him up front, not on the wing. Elmo looked pretty poor to me, aside from a few nice crosses, he seems allergic to trying to tackle or fight for the ball, a complete lack of urgency to get into position too. With Taylor not getting forward, why not start Green and have Gabby play up front? Equally Elmo seems to be a replacement for Adomah but really I'd have preferred to see Bacuna play on right wing.

One thing Bruce needs to sort out (aside from tactics, team selection, substitutions and anything else a manager is supposed to do) is encourage players to go for the ball rather than wait for it and get robbed.

On the plus side I thought Wheelan and Hutton were excellent and I think their goal was really good rather than us messing up.

We need Kodjia, Grealish and Adomah back ASAP though.

Yes but I think our lack of tactical know how, is what enables teams to eventually dominate us, which in turn, leads us to dropping our heads, because we simple don't know what to do, and then it becomes a mental issue, one leads to the other.

FoxyAV wrote:I was quite impressed with their manager, and by Aina, their RB.

We were a bit of a mess though, with Gabby's pre-season I'd have stuck him up front, not on the wing. Elmo looked pretty poor to me, aside from a few nice crosses, he seems allergic to trying to tackle or fight for the ball, a complete lack of urgency to get into position too. With Taylor not getting forward, why not start Green and have Gabby play up front? Equally Elmo seems to be a replacement for Adomah but really I'd have preferred to see Bacuna play on right wing.

One thing Bruce needs to sort out (aside from tactics, team selection, substitutions and anything else a manager is supposed to do) is encourage players to go for the ball rather than wait for it and get robbed.

On the plus side I thought Wheelan and Hutton were excellent and I think their goal was really good rather than us messing up.

We need Kodjia, Grealish and Adomah back ASAP though.

That surprises me. Most people I've seen comment think he was poor. I can't say I personally saw much too him, positive or negative. He was good preseason mind.

Shame we got two yellow cards early on both CM's though. That's very annoying. That referee was pretty far up Hulls arse.