Stepping off the gas

[matherto]

Why do we do it in every game we take the lead in?

I've seen ridiculous posters on here suggest it's a strategy to tire the opposition out and hit them at the end but surely we wouldn't voluntarily surrender the impetus and possession and concede just to tire them out.

Been a problem since SAF's days. We'd go one or two up in the first 20-30 minutes then do absolutely naff all and usually concede and suffer a load of pressure only to make it look a little easier by scoring at the end.

Fed up of seeing it. Fed up of us just doing 'enough'.

Proper first world/spoilt fan problem I know because we still win and I'm thankful we do but my word is it frustrating.

 

[jem]

Why do we do it in every game we take the lead in?

I've seen ridiculous posters on here suggest it's a strategy to tire the opposition out and hit them at the end but surely we wouldn't voluntarily surrender the impetus and possession and concede just to tire them out.

Been a problem since SAF's days. We'd go one or two up in the first 20-30 minutes then do absolutely naff all and usually concede and suffer a load of pressure only to make it look a little easier by scoring at the end.

Fed up of seeing it. Fed up of us just doing 'enough'.

Proper first world/spoilt fan problem I know because we still win and I'm thankful we do but my word is it frustrating.

I hate it - it's so incredibly frustrating, and it's been happening for a long time now.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Why, why do we keep doing it?

I understand doing it against Arsenal, Liverpool, City etc.. but against West Brom, Watford, Middlesborough; teams that WANT to cross the ball and get set pieces and aren't going to try and play through you, it's absolutely suicidal.

We took our foot off the gas and sat off, let them come into the game. All the while we pressed high in the first half they didn't have a sniff.

Instead we drop off to our own box and let them cross the ball under no pressure. All that does is suit teams that want to go long, we should be pressing them in their own half and making them play, they aren't good enough for that.

Jose needs to realize that you can't do the same tactic in every match, it nearly cost us against Watford and again today, a shite team that hasn't scored in god knows how long, they nearly scored twice against us!

Jose sort it out.

 

[Raw]

It's just so fecking predictable. Tough away place, get a good lead and sit on it and invite shit loads of pressure. Is this what Mourinho actually wants? Does he think it's an effective strategy?

 

[Kush]

If anything it makes us waste more energy because if we concede, our defence and midfield gets worked overtime due to opposition overloading our half.

 

[el3mel]

To conserve efforts for the upcoming congested period. SAF knew this better than anyone.

The problem wasn't in that at all. The problem is our serious lack of composure when we're put under any pressure.

 

[Turkleton]

It's clearly a tactic that doesn't work. Amazing Mourinho still does it all the time.

 

[Globule]

After the start of the season, when we were twisting the knife at the end of games, I was hoping we'd moved on from this, but once again we're giving opponents way too much respect and it's making things difficult for ourselves.

 

[LuisNaniencia]

Tactics at 2-0 up away should never be to step off.

 

[BluesJr]

It's always been one of our biggest problems, even in the SAF days. Players must be told to conserve energy but why do it if you aren't 3-4 up? This is the mistake. We always stop playing too early.

 

[Florida Man]

I wouldn’t put it down to being a spoilt first world fan. It’s perfectly reasonable for just about any team to want to kill off a game, especially against teams we’re better than.

 

[Sied]

We're not the only ones guilty of this. It's commonplace. We often did it under SAF and I never understood why inviting pressure was a good idea then, either.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Players should remember some Van Gaal type slow possession for those situations.

 

[cyberman]

We don't step off the gas though. 90 percent of our wins have been punishing sides chasing an equaliser.

 

[BTG]

Every sport I've ever watched going in to turtle mode never works.

It's a crap tatic and I hate it. If you want to tell the players don't go hard for a 50 50 ball after gaining the lead that's one thing. But to completely change tatics and invite pressure when the opponents are going to go high pressure just begs for problems.

 

[Florida Man]

To conserve efforts for the upcoming congested period. SAF knew this better than anyone.

The problem wasn't in that at all. The problem is our serious lack of composure when we're put under any pressure.

Fair point, but wouldn’t it be easier to conserve efforts being 3 or 4 goals up?

 

[Thecarrickfan_2016]

This bollocks, I knew a thread about this would come up, We won for feck sake, Jesus Christ, I wonder what some of you want.

 

[Raoul]

We don't really step off the gas. Case in point, our 4 goal wins earlier this season.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

It never started off like that. Initially, we would walk the ball forward and pass it back. Rashford and Lingard were guilty of this several times. Once WBA got a foot into the game, we showed that lack of composure we constantly display every game. Then we sit back and nothing goes right.

To me, it stinks of arrogance. We got two goals and we think the game is finished. Its been a problem for years.

 

[Bojan11]

We're not the only ones guilty of this. It's commonplace. We often did it under SAF and I never understood why inviting pressure was a good idea then, either.

We didn’t do it against West Brom. We also had Vidic and Ferdinand who were monsters in the air. Smalling is good but he isn’t as good as the other two.

We let teams cross for fun and they got too much time to put accurate balls.

 

[Minimalist]

It's almost certainly a team strategy which has its advantages on paper. It wouldn't be so problematic if we were more clinical in attack.

 

[Gopher Brown]

Not sure it’s Mourinho doing that. I think it’s the players getting nerves and that fact that the opponent will always try to apply much more pressure in the last quarter of the match.

 

[dichinero]

To conserve energy but pretty most of the goals we've conceded have come from us inviting the pressure. Some tactic that.

 

[cyberman]

It's just so fecking predictable. Tough away place, get a good lead and sit on it and invite shit loads of pressure. Is this what Mourinho actually wants? Does he think it's an effective strategy?

We've win every single game that we've taken the lead in this season.
So yes. Yes he does.

 

[Jev]

It's a tactic that manages to be incredibly boring and extremely ineffective at the same time.

But since it happens so often, it's clearly on purpose. Must be some José brilliance that I'm just too stupid to understand.

 

[el3mel]

Fair point, but wouldn’t it be easier to conserve efforts being 3 or 4 goals up?

I don't disagree, but that wasn't our problem today. Did you feel any sort of pressure on us during the second half till their goal ? Everything was going fine, and the game was very boring. The main problem today is our reaction after that goal. We should never react like this when we're put under any pressure. We only play well when all things are going in our favor, which Mourinho should sort out.

 

[Paxi]

We don't really step off the gas. Case in point, our 4 goal wins earlier this season.

I remember I created a similar thread at the start of the season only for United to score 2 goals straight after.

 

[leontas]

I think the hope is to sit back and kill them off on a fast break a la Madrid in the Mourinho days, but without Pogba, we completely lack the player to connect defence to attack.

 

[steffyr2]

Why do we do it in every game we take the lead in?

I've seen ridiculous posters on here suggest it's a strategy to tire the opposition out and hit them at the end but surely we wouldn't voluntarily surrender the impetus and possession and concede just to tire them out.

Been a problem since SAF's days. We'd go one or two up in the first 20-30 minutes then do absolutely naff all and usually concede and suffer a load of pressure only to make it look a little easier by scoring at the end.

Fed up of seeing it. Fed up of us just doing 'enou

Proper first world/spoilt fan problem I know because we still win and I'm thankful we do but my word is it frustrating.

It's a combination of things -- don't tire the players out, work on the defense, try out different strategies. People like to complain.

 

[Loublaze]

We don't need two threads about the same thing. This one was created a few minutes before
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/stepping-off-the-gas.434639/

 

[2 man midfield]

I wouldn't mind it if we looked assured when we do it. As a tactic, inviting pressure which you know you can control could work to our advantage. Soaking up their play, letting them tire knowing you're never in danger, then hitting them on the break with our pace sounds great on paper. The problem is we don't have players with the composure or technical ability to cope under pressure. It doesn't take a lot for us to fall to shit in games so it's a bit weird we do it so much. The only conclusion I can come to is that Jose believes that practice makes perfect.

 

[spiriticon]

Can't we kill a game LVG style by passing around with no real purpose, rather than sit back and soak?

I mean, I want exciting football but not when its our goal being bombarded

 

[Raw]

We've win every single game that we've taken the lead in this season.
So yes. Yes he does.

It's not like we comfortably saw out those leads though. We were incredibly close to conceding near the end today.

Plus it happened a lot last season too. It's like we never learn.

 

[Bobcat]

It's always been one of our biggest problems, even in the SAF days. Players must be told to conserve energy but why do it if you aren't 3-4 up? This is the mistake. We always stop playing too early.

I think this is it. We have 6 games the next 15 days, and with all the injuries and shite Jose must have told them to take it easy. Which is fair imo, WBA never looked that dangerous until Brunt came in and started swinging in crosses

 

[whatwha]

To conserve efforts for the upcoming congested period. SAF knew this better than anyone.

The problem wasn't in that at all. The problem is our serious lack of composure when we're put under any pressure.

Do they really save any energy by inviting pressure? Psychologically, it seems very stressful.

 

[Sied]

Not sure it’s Mourinho doing that. I think it’s the players getting nerves and that fact that the opponent will always try to apply much more pressure in the last quarter of the match.

Perhaps, but towards the end of the game there were options to pass the ball backwards, switch it, pass it around, etc. and relieve pressure. The players didn't even seem to consider that option. It just got hoofed up, even when there was no immediate pressure on the ball.

 

[cyberman]

Fair point, but wouldn’t it be easier to conserve efforts being 3 or 4 goals up?

How many times do you expect us to score 4 this year?

 

[el3mel]

Do they really save any energy by inviting pressure? Psychologically, it seems very stressful.

We weren't inviting any pressure on us till their goal. Again I'll ask, did you feel any kind of pressure on us till their goal ? It was after their goal that we lost our mind as a team.

 

[Jev]

Do they really save any energy by inviting pressure? Psychologically, it seems very stressful.

This. Of course you conserve more energy by moving the ball around and being on top of things. People are delusional if they think what we saw today was the best way to conserve energy after the second goal.

 

[Morpheus 7]

After 2.0 parked the bus against a bottom side, it's negative no matter how you look at it. We limped over the line against a very poor side. Hardly made an attempt to score in that second half. Dave had more touches on the ball that some of our midfielders. It may be the lack of quality in midfield except for matic. Jesse was positive but not many others were. When you are bringing on Scott while hanging on, shows little depth in my opinion. Herrera offered nothing this season, Fellaini wants out too. Time to rebuild that midfield with quality. Good sign playing bad and getting the win, unfortunately we are a poor view without Pogba.