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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:12 pm 
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The 9 man posh win was a fantastic game. One of our best ever.

But that apart, absolutely nothing.

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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:16 pm 
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Yeah posh with 9 was special and I also enjoyed the hyde game which was one of the few we got the ball down, controlled the game and played with confidence in a comfortable win. Yada yada I know its vs lesser opposition but it was away on a peculiar pitch and going against scrappy teams in front of the cameras with the pressures of embarrassment looming is never easy. The spirit and connection after with hyde fams was great with the capaign.


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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 8:44 pm 
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Bar Posh, QPR & AFC Away I can’t think of a game I’ve enjoyed under Neilson.

Even the few games we’ve won have been boring.


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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 8:51 pm 
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Posts: 416
He identified the need for height and strength but just didn't work out despite his best efforts.

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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 8:54 pm 
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Posts: 150
I know this is hard but my main memory is going to be wondering why Pete didn't get rid of him in October. Second is the more and more empty seats where people couldn't be arsed to turn up. Third is every week thinking they all knew something I didn't when I walked home wondering why I was bothering.

I'm just hoping that delay won't bite us come the end of the season.

Interestingly I heard something today which was along the lines of what if Robbie had resigned and Pete was the one insisting on "by mutual agreement". Puts things in a different light perhaps.


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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:00 pm 
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Dont believe conspiracy theories but oh well, would mean he wouldnt be due a pay out.


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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:08 pm 
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He gave us Budapest. That was enough for me. :D


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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:21 pm 
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Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:02 pm
Posts: 81
Lord Doogle wrote:
He identified the need for height and strength but just didn't work out despite his best efforts.


You see I just don't get this argument. We're not playing in the conference. Nine times out of ten, the team who win a football game are the team with the best footballers and more skill/quality. It almost feels like RN's recruitment strategy was based on the tallest players he could buy -- not the best ones.

The only time when I think there is some logic behind it is the argument that teams with more height tend to score the most from set-pieces, yet seeing as we've been absolutely dire from them this season, it isn't necessarily the case and you need only look as far as the Premier League: Arsenal aren't the most physically imposing side yet top the league in terms of goals scored from set-pieces with 11, they score them due to very good delivery from Oezil and clever runs and tactics from them, not just having players who are two inches taller than the opposition on the pitch and just assuming that automatically gives you an advantage.

We got promoted with some physicality in our side obviously, as McFadzean and Kay were tough centre-halves, and Afobe wasn't exactly weak, however, I think that RN's focus on physicality and some of our fans obsession with it (like OTD, who constantly harped on about it) has been thoroughly disproven; the best players win football games, not the strongest. I'm not saying that a bit of resilience and strength doesn't help, but RN's height and strength based recruitment policy has clearly fallen flat. Maybe it would have worked 10 years ago, but League One is a much better footballing division that it has been previously, I'd even go as far to say that the football played in League One is better on the eye than in the Championship, where RN's approach might have been more successful as many teams, most notably Warnock's Cardiff, have their physical strength as their best asset.

I think that such recruitment is the key failing of the Neilson era. Would we really have signed the likes of Ngombo, Muirhead and Tshibola if they weren't taller than six foot two? I doubt it, and they were/are complete and utter shite. The fact is, our promotion team had significantly less physicality than our current one, yet it wouldn't really make a difference, would it? If we played our promotion team right now, regardless of how easily Cissé would win a header against Reeves, or Ebanks-Landell would bully Grigg off the ball, they'd absolutely fucking batter us. We didn't need to sign stronger players, we needed to sign better ones.


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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:26 pm 
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Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:06 pm
Posts: 2665
RobbieGiveUsAWave wrote:

You see I just don't get this argument. We're not playing in the conference. Nine times out of ten, the team who win a football game are the team with the best footballers and more skill/quality. It almost feels like RN's recruitment strategy was based on the tallest players he could buy -- not the best ones.

The only time when I think there is some logic behind it is the argument that teams with more height tend to score the most from set-pieces, yet seeing as we've been absolutely dire from them this season, it isn't necessarily the case and you need only look as far as the Premier League: Arsenal aren't the most physically imposing side yet top the league in terms of goals scored from set-pieces with 11, they score them due to very good delivery from Oezil and clever runs and tactics from them, not just having players who are two inches taller than the opposition on the pitch and just assuming that automatically gives you an advantage.

We got promoted with some physicality in our side obviously, as McFadzean and Kay were tough centre-halves, and Afobe wasn't exactly weak, however, I think that RN's focus on physicality and some of our fans obsession with it (like OTD, who constantly harped on about it) has been thoroughly disproven; the best players win football games, not the strongest. I'm not saying that a bit of resilience and strength doesn't help, but RN's height and strength based recruitment policy has clearly fallen flat. Maybe it would have worked 10 years ago, but League One is a much better footballing division that it has been previously, I'd even go as far to say that the football played in League One is better on the eye than in the Championship, where RN's approach might have been more successful as many teams, most notably Warnock's Cardiff, have their physical strength as their best asset.

I think that such recruitment is the key failing of the Neilson era. Would we really have signed the likes of Ngombo, Muirhead and Tshibola if they weren't taller than six foot two? I doubt it, and they were/are complete and utter shite. The fact is, our promotion team had significantly less physicality than our current one, yet it wouldn't really make a difference, would it? If we played our promotion team right now, regardless of how easily Cissé would win a header against Reeves, or Ebanks-Landell would bully Grigg off the ball, they'd absolutely fucking batter us. We didn't need to sign stronger players, we needed to sign better ones.


All of this, and some....

I totally agree about The Championship. I think it’s that the tactical coaching is far superior to our level and theres more managers who can set up a team not to get beat. That’s what makes for the dull football in comparison to L1.


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 Post subject: Re: The Neilson Era
PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:17 pm 
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Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2017 4:15 pm
Posts: 147
i think there's a balance. i agree neilson leaned too far one way but robbo's teams sometimes clearly lacked physicality and speed - most notably when we had williams and kay at centre-back and a lack of penetration up front (which is why i always thought powell was an asset).

finding a few players (mcfadzean, dele, afobe) who could fit into the passing philosophy but also gave us a bit more pace and/or power was the turning point. problem is they're very difficult to get.


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