"They are very direct "
Is something I keep hearing. Hasselbaink said it the other night on Sky and now the Daggers management team have said it yesterday .Am I correct in thinking they mean we just punt it up the park or have I got the wrong end of the stick ? it does not seem to be very complementary ,
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My guess is that they have been unsettled by a team that runs at you and wants to make progress towards goal at pace. That's what it's all about if it can be managed. Endless cross field passing, as used to be the habit of the England team is boring and not very productive.
I agree. It does seem less than complimentary and not really how I'd descibe most of our play this season. Perhaps they just mean that we don't fart around passing it sideways all the time. However our 'reputation' for being direct may be helping as other managers/teams miss the more subtle side of our play
I think we are very direct in the sense that we don't tend to mess about at the back. We get the ball forward to the front men or out wide, and we try to play most of our football in the final third of the pitch. That's not the same thing as having only one option of lumping it up to one or two big men. I think our football is fast and exciting and we play some decent stuff, mainly orchestrated by Hayes. But I don't feel in any way insulted by the "direct" label.
Anyone who played under John Beck will have that in the back of his mind. But its not really like that its just playing to strengths.
I think at this level, the teams that are successful can mix it up both ways. We clearly can get it down and play it on the deck, but many footballers at this level just aren't good enough to play tiki taka alone.
Che seemingly isn't around any more to get offended by this, but his beloved Yeovil were the last team I can recall to get promoted playing primarily on the floor. It was a massive weakness of the Gormania era side that so many rave about that we didn't have a Plan B or a willingness to "win ugly" - yes the unbeaten record was a great thing but remember all those draws?
We do have some real passing players in this side and even have that rarest of things for L2, a ball-playing centre back (Mawson).
But you can't argue with success and our games at present are a damn sight more exciting than, say, the Peter Taylor era.
Quite agree PBo
We don't hang around when getting the ball into the strikers or wide midfield players. In that sense I would agree we are direct but that is different from saying we are long ball.