I appreciate the thoroughness of your message however would like to offer you an alternative point of view. Perhaps even a bit of a qualified alternative point of view as I was a season ticket holder at the great Ajax mid nineties and a regular visitor of Ajax also under the Boer.

The main reason why the money floods in the English game is the attitude you seem to think rather derogatory about. Directness, attacking in principle, lots of things happening in the box. I think that is what brings worldwide TV money in the game. Now I will not say we were brilliant to watch under Allerdyce but in principle there is nothing wrong or not entertaining with a direct style.

You mention Guardiola and van Gaal. The first is indeed a prime example of system over everything. he now has to spent a s***load of money to try and repeat what he did at Barcelona and Bayern but any comparison with us is non existent as they are in a different league altogether. Van Gaal I would rate as tactically very very strong, he almost got us in the World cup final with a very average squad and to be honest very defensive football. Yet at Man Utd he made exactly the mistake that I am worried FdB is also making right now: putting system over squad and reality not taking into consideration what the crowd wants and be arrogant and know it all about it.

And you may think its appropriate to call a groaning crowd pathetic but sorry to say that I may well have been one of the groaners. Maybe you should allow people to have there own preference of style and not by default assume a new system will bring superior football and entertainment. I come across to England not to see a possession based style of football that leads to no treat, no action in the box and defenders playing it to each other. I have seen so much of this in the Amsterdam Arena that it may just be too much effort to travel across for. And yes, I feel strongly about it and will ask the question: do we really get more entertainment from a different style? And would we really think, at the moment we are a club that can move up the table into European positions? Tweak things yes, try things out fine, but the attitude of "a new system is there to be implied, whatever" is not something I will buy.

Also I would think it is rather odd you call the Chelsea style of football of last season s***ty, yet this is exactly the style FdB wants to introduce. What furthermore, strangely so, has gone completely under the radar is that FdB never ever played this system at Ajax. That was simply a 4 man defense, with 3 in midfield and yes, 2 wingers and central attacking player upfront. Something I would hope he would soon settle for with us.

Edited by DutchEagleJohan (14 Aug 2017 5.45pm)

Edited by DutchEagleJohan (14 Aug 2017 5.46pm)

Agree with this , A Great Post by Johan.

This style of football only works if you have top players. So yes when Barcelona, Bayern etc play it they win. But take any mid table team from any other league and put them in the premier league and they will be just as s*** as we were today.

O.k I understand some of the frustration and also agree that there is no point installing FdB as manager and not giving him the opportunity to do what he has been put in place to do. What I don’t understand is why everyone is so sure that we have to ‘progress’ to possession game in order to be successful, Leicester played a counter attacking game and won the league, Chelsea do enjoy more possession then the opposition in most matches but that’s because most team do what Allardyce did and defend, when Chelsea play a top team they sit back and counter attack. Athletico Madrid rank 10th for possession last year in la Liga , Juventus beat Barcelona in the champions league quarter final 3-0 with just 32% possession and pass success rate of 74% compared to 88%.
Arguable Palace are actual quite good in possession in certain circumstance mainly when we win the ball in our half with the other team attacking, when is Zaha at his best ? When he can attack a full back at speed with 30-40 yards to run in to. I appreciate that is not going to come as a shock but we are poor is when teams come to defend we can’t break them down. What we need is a good number 10, to break down set defences and link up the play in the final third not a radically over haul of the team ,system or style. I’m not arguing that we should ‘hoof it’ but there is nothing wrong in moving the ball quickly into an attacking position and not allowing the opposition defence to get set, possession for possession sake or slowing the game and playing out from the back doesn’t really suit us.

Edited by Ketteridge (15 Aug 2017 4.53pm)