I know it’s early days . Just interested in those who watched the last couple of matches if they could see signs of this managers playing style. In his last interview he said the players are trying to learn his style but a bit slow with the passing on the offensive. So comments on signs of high press, winning the ball back, numbers in the box, playing the ball forward rather than sideways and backwards. Any other observations. Comments please

I doubt anyone could really notice his style of play that basically appears to be getting the ball up the pitch quicker as opposed to clubs at our level trying to copy Premiership style stiflingly slow chess style possession football which they really aren’t capable of and is as boring as hell.
A bit like doing 0 to 60 in a Lada

The coaches/managers all read the same script quoting they like to play fast attacking football, Hartley said it in his first interview when asked what style of play would we see.

Ye.
They tell ya what ya want to hear.
Then it's game over trying to implement it and getting a few Xtra penny's from above just to have a small chance of achieving it.

you can add players interviews to all this bullshit we hear. does anyone actually believe any of the shit they all come out with and if they do are they just grasping at straws.

exactly the style of play goes out the window soon as the team you play have anything about them. Its all on the day for me. DS will say lok do this do that - dont give possession away here, dont make those runs this game etc etc and soon as a ball is kicked its either mayhem or controlled until we go 1-0 down !

how many times at this level do you see a player(s) just doing their own thing. Some players have a certain way of playing due to being coached that way from an early age (those with better coaching from higher up tend to be the better players as you would expect, but not always the case). There is then this whole we go 1-0 up and decide to rest on it, Hoping the new lads way of thinking and playing doesnt result in this appalling attitude to football this season !

Downhill

Actions speak louder than words!

its more or less about playing to players strengths rather than playing a game how you actually want them to play. once they cross the white line there is little a manager can actually do apart from little tweeks in formations or tactics but can never make a player different once on the pitch. like its pointless playing a ball in the air to on who is weak there or on the ground when they are clumsy but will win a good number of airiel battles.

Non of our recent managers have spoke of a high press.

Challinor - 532. Looked to dominate the CM with dynamic wing backs who would feed two strong strikers. No real high press although we would press well as a unit, well drilled.

Graeme Lee - Wasn't really clear on what he wanted to achieve as no preseason and limited time.

Paul Hartley - didn't know what he was speaking about and didn't really care. No identity.

Keith Curle - wanted to play direct football, missing the middle third out completely. He was very open about wanting to play football in the opposition third. He wasn't against playing football, but didn't care for possession in our half.

John Askey - perhaps some of the signings like Dan Kemp, who was excellent (pretty sure Askey inherited him) dictated how we played, same can be said for Mancini. Problem was, he didn't know how to coach or sign defenders,so the foundation to play attacking and attractive football was never there and we ended up shite.

Kevin Phillips - keen to play with a back 4 and with Joe Monks signed some defenders to allow this to happen. Managed to get the best out of Joe Grey and seemed to have some balance about his approach.

Darren Sarll - wants fit players to play the high press. He may struggle if Mani D and Featherstone are in team, Fev is getting on and Mani D is a typical lone striker who barely chases down defenders.

Something under the radar for Sarll is his comments similar to Keith Curle. Sarll said he will 100% sacrifice the middle third if that means Pools gets the defensive and attacking third. Sounds fair enough, but consider who he has signed in CM and what that may mean. He hasn't signed Dan Kemp style players he's signed big, strong CMs who can all play in defence.

Do not expect 60%+ possession from Sarll, he will be expecting the defenders and CM to hit the attackers like Mani D as early as possible, press high, with big strong midfielders to win second balls.

He will be looking to score goals off ball recoveries in the final third rather than Mancini magic.

Let's see.

It was Curle who signed Dodds

Think you're right about the new midfield (and Grey, Cambell, Charman and Mancini, depending on who plays in a given game) doing the pressing in the oppostion half. I doubt Sarll will want Mani D knocking his pan out pressing when his goals and hold up play are so important.

Last season's midfield was really bad at getting a foot in and winning second ball - surely the new lot will be better at that.

Decent assessment, Cheers.

DC also played risk/reward football.But the one thing that stuck in my mind was.
He said after games. “Lose the game, Lose your time off”

Great post. I’d disagree slightly about Challinor, he had a press, it was Shelton and Holohan chasing everything down in the middle of the park, stopping the opposition playing through the middle and shielding Featherstone to allow him to be the ball player. It wasn’t a full team press, but it was effective, and you could really tell the difference if one of those two were out injured, we were much easier to play against.

When Holohan was released by Grimsby the usual jokers on here didn't want him anywhere near the Vic because he was 'past it.' No need for them to worry, he's in League One with Crawley

good post
Problem is this style of football looks f'ing awful when its not coming off/when Mani D isolated etc.. Hopefully we get it right but I can see a few games where we are 'what the f have we just watched there'

A few of our former players had the sense to see Pools were rapidly becoming a sinking ship.
Hols was one of them.
Just looks like we investing in a lot of luck.
I can't see it working.

We'll know we are in the shit when we play Yeovil if we see the likes of Feather , and Dixon in the starting line up

Gunna be a tough fixture for sure.

Did I read when the fixtures come out game 46 is a title winning game.

I actually think we have an easy start-3 of clubs coming up from the league below, a southend side who are playing catch up and a couple of clubs who did fuck all last year and a Woking side on the verge of admin doesnt mean we will come out flying, but I dont want to hear the time to gel excuses.
November is a tough month fixture wise.....wonder if Sarll is still around by the time we hit December !

It will more likely be us playing catch up than Southend.

if a high press means our games will be played in our opponents half rather than in ours i,m all for it. would be interesting to know what the stats were last season where the amount of posession we had was on the pitch. even when we won games we were rarely camped out in our opponents half of the pitch and when we attacked the town end my neck was stiff in looking to my right.