I'm a bit with Jimmae, Josh and Ryan...
I'm actually not a Pagan fan, and have been wanting to see a younger coach for a while. And his decision to leave Gibbs on Johnson was a shocker. However...
Over the last few years, I have been very critical of Pagan's coaching, specifically the defensive attitude, the unwillingness to encourage risk taking (or so it seemed), the flooding, chipping, possession football. I said back then that I would much prefer to see the players allowed to run and create and play flowing, attacking and DIRECT football, even if it meant we were going to be belted a few times (or even a lot of times) because we weren't flooding and dragging the game back down to the level of a scrap.
It seems this year that that is what they are trying to do. There is much more of an emphasis on getting the ball, going into the corridor, and playing long and direct, backing the one-on-one. And I will happily put up with that, and the beltings that sometimes come with it, if it means we learn how to play that style of exciting footy. The defense will work itself out, in time. We have got great reboud out of the backhalf this year, as for the defensing aspect, they will need a couple of years. Which is ok, because we have a couple of years.
We have a massive hole at CHF. Look what happened in the first half on Saturday night...for the first time this season, we had a dominating CHF, and we looked great in attack. Not only could we play through him, and not just rely on Fev, but Whitnall brogught other players in as goal kickers. CHF is a huge priority for as at the moment. I'd love to see us kicking 18 goals each week and Fev only contributing 4 or 5 of them.
We are still too Fev conscious, and Pagan must get through to the players that if Fev is being double teamed, it means someone else is free, and Fev is just as valuable as a decoy as he is as a goalkicker.
But there has definintely been a significant change in the game plan this year, which I like...even though it will lead to some beltings. As I said, I can live with that if it means we learn to play an exciting, attacking brand of footy (which, IMHO, will ultimately kill flooding football). Who is responsible for this chage, I don't know. Could be Pagan, could be the assistants, could be a group thing.
One more thing, we look so much better when we play man-on-man and not a zone. Yes, sometimes we get beaten because our players are still developing, but we are so much more effective when we go man-on-man.
_________________ Mens sana in corpore sano.
Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!
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