One thing I would praise is the team's fitness levels under Powell. 3 games since without conceding and scoring in the 92nd minute, also shows guts and determination!!
From what I can make out this was very similar to the QPR game with us struggling to make chances from open play and then nicking it late on from a set-play.
There is such a fine line between success and failure at this level, if Bournemouth had scored with one of their chances and nicked it 1-0 then it would be all doom and gloom.
Truth be told Riga is probably not doing all that much different to Chris Powell, he is basically trying to squeeze every last drop out of an under-resourced squad that will do very well to stay up no matter who was in charge.
This is just it. For so long we were told that nobody in the world of football could do a better job with these players than Powell. Not saying that everything is down to Riga, but maybe by the end of the year Powells job may not look quite as miraculous.
For what its worth my view is that over his 16 games in charge till the end of the season that Riga will do marginally better than Powell, probably just enough to keep us up.
Powell was tracking at 27 points from 30 games and Riga now has 5 points from 3 games - but has some very tough games coming up.
I reckon that over the remaining 13 games that Riga will pick up about 15 points, taking him to 20 points from 16 games.
That would take us to 47 points - a total which would have kept us up in six of the last ten Championship seasons.
I would love to be more optimistic but this squad has simply not shown the ability all season to put wins together so we are probably looking at a similar stop-start scenario for the rest of the season.
Thanks Lucky Missed the injury news, so appreciate the enlightenment. Wonder what we would have done without him.
No worries, you had me wondering why on earth CP played him before I realised that Hamer was out! It's a good point though, I don't know if we'd already loaned out Pope at that point - and we would have been more than a little screwed I reckon, not the greatest feeling to only being left with one senior keeper.
I agree 100% that Riga's substitutions helped win the game last night.
We'll never know of course. But as much as I have lots of man love for Chris Powell, I doubt he'd have taken off Harriot (ok I gather he was injured, but he was very poor from the off) & Green so early & brought on a couple of strikers.
I know Powell didn't have Obika, but I doubt he'd have brought on say Sordell and Reza and gone with 3 up front.
I say I doubt it, because I don't recall him doing it in 3 years. (He may Have).
Anyway, I'll always love Chris Powell, but I have to say I'm very impressed with Riga's attractive & more attacking football.
There's no point in lying about it. We can see it with our own eyes.
but I have to say I'm very impressed with Riga's attractive & more attacking football.
There's no point in lying about it. We can see it with our own eyes.
Circumstances have meant i've not seen any of the last three games to make any form of judgement on things which may be different.
However.....
I don't think we will have any real idea about Riga's brand of football until next season (if he is still manager).
At this point of the season, where we are playing weekend / midweek every single week for the rest of the season, all training will consist of is largely recovery work , light shape work and set plays.
We might see some minor tweaks to ethos / approach, but any noticeable changes will likely be based on individual player selection and the differences they bring to play, rather than shape / style / approach.
This will be particularly emphasised by those doing the coaching, are the same coaches as before.
Riga to me seems more positive and pro active, a manager who will dare to lose to win a game. However it is very early days to say the departure of cp was correct.
I also think if CP was coming in now as a new manager he would of also give everyone a lift.
Weird. Seems the Powell outers are trying to use 5 points in 3 games as evidence that Powell wasn't good enough.
Couldn't make the match last night but we beat QPR with a last minute set piece not too long ago under Powell. We also passed the ball better against Birmingham but couldn't score.
Powell tried 3 up front last season.
Powell won his first 4 games.
Powell started out trying to play more of a passing game than Parkinson. He then started the title winning season doing the same, but went a bit more direct to help ensure we got results.
Decent start for Riga and a great result last night but it doesn't prove anything either way. We may or may not have stayed up under Powell, we will never know.
but I have to say I'm very impressed with Riga's attractive & more attacking football.
There's no point in lying about it. We can see it with our own eyes.
Circumstances have meant i've not seen any of the last three games to make any form of judgement on things which may be different.
However.....
I don't think we will have any real idea about Riga's brand of football until next season (if he is still manager).
At this point of the season, where we are playing weekend / midweek every single week for the rest of the season, all training will consist of is largely recovery work , light shape work and set plays.
We might see some minor tweaks to ethos / approach, but any noticeable changes will likely be based on individual player selection and the differences they bring to play, rather than shape / style / approach.
This will be particularly emphasised by those doing the coaching, are the same coaches as before.
Disagree AFKA. There has been a marked change in all 3 games.
We are far far far more positive & tried to win all 3 games and the football has been much more pleasing on the eye.
I guess Riga is under a lot less pressure internally than CP, he's in a win-win situation - stay up & it's down to him, go down & it's down to the previous regime. He has obviously known Duchatelet for a long time & there is a working relationship there, he can be more relaxed about being gung-ho. Powell uncertain for his future & probably feeling under even more pressure to achieve results after rejecting the interference from above probably cannot be blamed for holding what he had in certain situations (Wigan away springs to mind)...
Not saying we are out the woods yet and I was a big CP fan. CP would of shut up shop and nicked the point. Jose went 3 up top and nicked 3. That's the difference !
I've said before that going for 3 instead of keeping 1 sometimes works - I was shot down for it but, unless you try, you don't find out. Protecting a point is fine but, if the coach goes for it, the players respond. Keep it up JR!
This is one of the stupidest threads on here, and that's saying something. Our last two goals have both come in injury time under two different managers, and yet somehow this thread exists. We got a lot of late goals under Powell. We will hopefully get a lot under Riga. You could find more correlation between late goals and Obika being on the pitch than you can the change in tactics. I liked Powell, and I am also supportive of Riga. Can we please avoid having 'we never would have got that under Powell/a Powell team would have held out' threads?
This is one of the stupidest threads on here, and that's saying something. Our last two goals have both come in injury time under two different managers, and yet somehow this thread exists. We got a lot of late goals under Powell. We will hopefully get a lot under Riga. You could find more correlation between late goals and Obika being on the pitch than you can the change in tactics. I liked Powell, and I am also supportive of Riga. Can we please avoid having 'we never would have got that under Powell/a Powell team would have held out' threads?
Indeed, in these situations it really is a case of people seeing what they want to see.
Even under Powell in League One we played a LOT of direct football up to YK that was not that different to how we played under Parkinson at times.
The plain fact is that in English football - outside of the rarefied heights of the Premiership - the vast majority of teams are going to knock it long for a fair chunk of the time, its just the way we play the game in our country.
Once you have got your nose in front then you can pick teams off on the break but until then a lot of teams will play safety first football.
Comments
Powell was tracking at 27 points from 30 games and Riga now has 5 points from 3 games - but has some very tough games coming up.
I reckon that over the remaining 13 games that Riga will pick up about 15 points, taking him to 20 points from 16 games.
That would take us to 47 points - a total which would have kept us up in six of the last ten Championship seasons.
I would love to be more optimistic but this squad has simply not shown the ability all season to put wins together so we are probably looking at a similar stop-start scenario for the rest of the season.
Missed the injury news, so appreciate the enlightenment.
Wonder what we would have done without him.
Onwards and upwards.
We'll never know of course. But as much as I have lots of man love for Chris Powell, I doubt he'd have taken off Harriot (ok I gather he was injured, but he was very poor from the off) & Green so early & brought on a couple of strikers.
I know Powell didn't have Obika, but I doubt he'd have brought on say Sordell and Reza and gone with 3 up front.
I say I doubt it, because I don't recall him doing it in 3 years. (He may Have).
Anyway, I'll always love Chris Powell, but I have to say I'm very impressed with Riga's attractive & more attacking football.
There's no point in lying about it. We can see it with our own eyes.
However.....
I don't think we will have any real idea about Riga's brand of football until next season (if he is still manager).
At this point of the season, where we are playing weekend / midweek every single week for the rest of the season, all training will consist of is largely recovery work , light shape work and set plays.
We might see some minor tweaks to ethos / approach, but any noticeable changes will likely be based on individual player selection and the differences they bring to play, rather than shape / style / approach.
This will be particularly emphasised by those doing the coaching, are the same coaches as before.
I also think if CP was coming in now as a new manager he would of also give everyone a lift.
Couldn't make the match last night but we beat QPR with a last minute set piece not too long ago under Powell. We also passed the ball better against Birmingham but couldn't score.
Powell tried 3 up front last season.
Powell won his first 4 games.
Powell started out trying to play more of a passing game than Parkinson. He then started the title winning season doing the same, but went a bit more direct to help ensure we got results.
Decent start for Riga and a great result last night but it doesn't prove anything either way. We may or may not have stayed up under Powell, we will never know.
We are far far far more positive & tried to win all 3 games and the football has been much more pleasing on the eye.
Even under Powell in League One we played a LOT of direct football up to YK that was not that different to how we played under Parkinson at times.
The plain fact is that in English football - outside of the rarefied heights of the Premiership - the vast majority of teams are going to knock it long for a fair chunk of the time, its just the way we play the game in our country.
Once you have got your nose in front then you can pick teams off on the break but until then a lot of teams will play safety first football.