By the look of it MR and his coaching staff are asking very simple things of all the players and asking them to play within themselves. Do a job, that all know and are comfortable doing while understanding an individual and collective responsibility to each other.
We look content not having the ball, we seem to be happy to drop deep and look solid at defending anything while keeping all in front of us. We recover and get our shape faster than we did before which allows us to close passing lanes quicker. We just look solid and teams are finding it hard to create clear openings against us.
Players like Fadz are loving it, no pressure on him to be Baresi, just kick, head and block everything that comes his way. Panzo, Rose and Doyle are the same they keep it simple, the ball is going long or out if nothing is on. Which is why all are doing well, as a team we press, cover and balance each other all over the pitch. Its probably been hours of work on the training pitch, which is ultimately is about not getting isolated in and around our box.
The clever thing we do is what Sheff Utd manager spotted, we set traps. Not all filter back all the time, we leave spare up and it makes the opposition wary of leaving space. They cant leave Vik and once Palmer, Hamer and O hare get on they wil be very wary of turning the ball over or leaving space behind them. Its definitely going to be interesting to see how we balance it.
But lets hope it carries on, Stoke will test us on Saturday the left sided player will be a handful with his pace. And Powell is a top player when fit, they could find a way to get behind us, be happy with a pt.
