Is this the most entertaining team we've seen?

[IndoMike]

There was a reason that this thread arose in the first place. We need to remember that we were playing exciting football and scoring for fun earlier in the season, those players haven't suddenly become bad players and there's no reason why that early season form can't be recaptured. For whatever reason, injuries, constant squad rotation, a winter at SJP or whatever, our form has dropped away recently and our star players have also lost form. Doesn't mean we're out of it for good though. This is however a proper test of Matt Taylor's management and I think we'll know more about him come the end of the season.

We lost Law as well, and Williams for many months. And a few red card suspensions. And injuries. But, in his third season he should have the experience and know-how to handle it.

 

[John William]

The answer is of course, currently, no.

The sad thing is that despite the worrying dip in form we are currently no worse than most L2 sides either. Of course, other teams have also had injuries, suspensions, rotation, awful pitches, etc. And the poor positioning, slapdash ball control, misplaced passes, lack of movement, blaming the pitch, all seem to be features of most of the teams we have seen recently as much as ourselves. Question is, is this a one-off driven by the current circumstances of CV, no fans, uncertainty, etc?

Maybe the standard will improve when we have fans back?

 

[Grecian Max]

Certainly at the time I posed the question we were playing some fantastic stuff and up there with the best.

We're still on 51 goals, some 10 ahead of Cheltenham.

Perhaps the title should change to "Is this the most frustrating team we've seen?"

 

[IndoMike]

We play some nice passing at times, but this team is nowhere near as good or attractive as the 1989/1990 Champions or the team we had with Beer, Kellow, Lammie, Delve etc. Worlds apart.

 

[Legohead]

I've only been a fan for about 5 / 6 years so caught the last few years of the Tisdale era and of course the Taylor era. Not much to compare then i guess. I have seen a lot of league 2 football though with Torquay over the years and i have to say that Exeter at times play a passing game and intricate passages of play that would not look out of place at the top level IMO. By far the most attractive and technical football i've seen in League 2 for years.

However, the theme for the past X amount of years has always remained the same. We tend to have loads of possession, are renowned at our level for playing passing football and are very easy on the eye BUT we lack a brutal streak and we lack grizzly strikers to be able to turn all these positive traits into success. Until this gets addressed we will continue to fall just short IMO.

Last night for example. Lots of energy, some brilliant interchanging of passes and movement and dominated Walsall throughout. Yet we rarely looked like the opening goal was inevitable. As Max says, frustrating. I really enjoyed the overall play and i am proud of the team for being able to play that way and continuing to play that way but when it comes to the business end we need a lot more. We also need more aggression and a nasty streak too which we simply don't have.

 

[ExmouthMart]

I've only been a fan for about 5 / 6 years so caught the last few years of the Tisdale era and of course the Taylor era. Not much to compare then i guess. I have seen a lot of league 2 football though with Torquay over the years and i have to say that Exeter at times play a passing game and intricate passages of play that would not look out of place at the top level IMO. By far the most attractive and technical football i've seen in League 2 for years.

However, the theme for the past X amount of years has always remained the same. We tend to have loads of possession, are renowned at our level for playing passing football and are very easy on the eye BUT we lack a brutal streak and we lack grizzly strikers to be able to turn all these positive traits into success. Until this gets addressed we will continue to fall just short IMO.

Last night for example. Lots of energy, some brilliant interchanging of passes and movement and dominated Walsall throughout. Yet we rarely looked like the opening goal was inevitable. As Max says, frustrating. I really enjoyed the overall play and i am proud of the team for being able to play that way and continuing to play that way but when it comes to the business end we need a lot more. We also need more aggression and a nasty streak too which we simply don't have.

I think Bowman and Parkes have a nasty streak, particularly Bowman. Wasn’t he well known in Scotland for use of his elbows?! Both of them look like there always one tackle away from a red.

 

[Legohead]

Bit of a daft comparison to compare Exeter with Spain but here i go. I remember the Spain side about 10 years ago who won the World Cup in South Africa. I started to avoid watching them because i found them so drab to watch. The constant passing and moving and technical skill on show was awesome but it was all about keeping the ball and switching play from side to side. Often at a slowish tempo. Obviously they had a superb side but for all their possession, they would spend far too much time with the ball and not so much time creating clear cut chances with it. Thus lots of games they played in they dominated but would only win 1 or 2 nil. Simply grinding the opposition down until that one passage of play unlocked the defence.

I found this really boring to watch tbh and this kind of football set the tone for the next 10 years and even now. Teams are so slow at moving the ball and love having possession and moving the ball from side to side. It's bloody boring and i found that last night with Exeter. At half time i was a bit bored because, despite the dominant display and clever passing and movement, what i REALLY want to see is excitement. The game v Walsall provided some passages of play to be admired and built on, but it didn't provide any excitement. Excitement that should naturally have followed all our dominance.

I do miss the games that are like some FA Cup ties where there is little quality on show but teams are up one end one minute then back defending the next. A ping pong match played with such intensity, ferocity and tempo. Wingers whipping balls into the box for strikers to attack. Not laborious build up play around the edge of the opponents penalty area, which seems to be a trend these days.

I don't mind classic hoofball. So long as it's exciting.

 

[ExmouthMart]

Entertaining would be the Argyle game as a benchmark. How many games have there been like that in recent seasons?! Not many..... we played as a team at a good tempo, defended well when necessary and took our chances really well. Argyle had no answer.
Loads of possession reminds me of Tisdale teams. Looks nice but no good if you don’t take or create clear cut chances. Which in turn means if not happening chance your approach.
Best team for me..... Terry Coopers Championship winning team. They were a complete team from the goalkeeper to the strikers. Never better since.

 

[Rosencrantz]

Entertaining would be the Argyle game as a benchmark. How many games have there been like that in recent seasons?! Not many..... we played as a team at a good tempo, defended well when necessary and took our chances really well. Argyle had no answer.
Loads of possession reminds me of Tisdale teams. Looks nice but no good if you don’t take or create clear cut chances. Which in turn means if not happening chance your approach.
Best team for me..... Terry Coopers Championship winning team. They were a complete team from the goalkeeper to the strikers. Never better since.

It's easier to play at a high tempo when a team comes out to play like Argyle did. They tried to play out from the back and our high press caught them out and we took our chances. See also games against Colchester and Tranmere earlier this season. In those games we were ruthless with our finishing.

When you play against sides that sit back like Walsall did it's not as straight forward. We dominated possession but didn't create a steady stream of clear cut chances. That is something to improve on. It quite often means taking a half chance or forcing a mistake and then the game opens up. That didn't happen last night, but it did against Stevenage at home when Archie scored a screamer early on.

We are not a complete team and no one, including Matt, is claiming otherwise.

We were a very attacking side under TC, particularly on the ball but not quite so much a counter attacking team. The difference in our home and away records kind of demonstrate that. But we were such a good all round side with a prolific strike partnership we walked away with it with a home record rarely seen in the leagues.

 

[raleighnc]

Most teams, particularly in the lower reaches of the league, will come to our place and play like Walsall in anticipation of collecting a point. Doesn’t our manager and coaches understand this and plan tactics accordingly? We so rarely seem set up to attack and take the game to the opposition, last night being a classic example. Frankly, it was more likely that Walsall would nick the three points than us winning conclusively. Have spent more than 60 years now watching and encouraging this football team and have seen progress from continual re-elections to mid table division 4. Seems like a sporting life wasted!