As you say, there is not much difference in the quality of players in teams from 11th down (i would say Leicester and Everton have a lot more quality than us)bubbles1966 wrote:[
That team yesterday was full of bang average or fading players. They are a mix of bottom half PL and top half Championship standard with the odd exception. They were going for three's and four's earlier in the year in an 'attacking' (losing) 4-2-3-1 set up.
All the teams at our level (7th-19th) are overwhelmingly dependent on a small number of players in their group to add sparkle and class. Take them away , the football quality dips as do the results.
Therefore tactics, motivation and fitness gain a lot more importance
Go out with a defensive mindset, and loads of defensive players, and the other team gets the upper hand. We have gone for three against Newcastle (H), Bournemouth and Brighton in recent months playing with 7 at the back. Not that much of an improvement vs Bilic. We actually managed to get some clean sheets under Bilic against teams around us (Huddersfield, Swansea, West Brom - admittedly they were very dull games)
Go out with an attacking line-up, get at the opposition defence from the off, get them on the back foot. Otherwise we will be one nil down and chasing the game with minimal attacking options
The way we played v Watford at home last year for first 30 minutes was probably the best we played all season. Then Collins/ Adrian had a mix up and game changed on its head. A repeat of that first 30 minutes is what we need.