The "United lag"

Eplel

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May 15, 2016
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The "United lag" is the phenomenon where 9 out of 10 times, our players react to a challenge, a forward pass, an opponent mistake or a press, 0.5 seconds late, thus giving the opposition a significant edge.


Am I the only one noticing this? It has been going for many years now, even before Ole. It looks like every single game our opponents are much more swift on the ball, and many of the situations where we're on the defensive, could have been avoided with a better initial reaction.

Is it a byproduct of our zombie-like attacking play that has been instilled by LVG, Mourinho and Ole? Or is it because of how undemanding the club is of our players, leading them to become complacent and lazy, even disillusioned when facing competition or a challenge?

And more importantly, how do we overcome it?
 
I think every fan thinks there own team has a 'lag' its to do with hope and expectation and well mainly hope. The fact is at the top the players are in the main all similarly quick and skillful (especially in the 20-30 age group) and the way the ball pings around is pretty random really.
 
JebelSherif said:
I think every fan thinks there own team has a 'lag' its to do with hope and expectation and well mainly hope. The fact is at the top the players are in the main all similarly quick and skillful (especially in the 20-30 age group) and the way the ball pings around is pretty random really.
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Yep, every fan thinks their team should win every 50/50, when by their very definitions you’ll probably win about half.
 
Rangnick spoke before about teams having such a firm identity that if you woke them up in the middle of the night and threw them out onto the pitch they'd start automatically playing that way even half-asleep. And there was a quote by some other manager about sides that aren't fully organised looking slower than ones that are that I can't find. That's all part of it.

Basically if you have what you're supposed to do in certain situations thoroughly drilled into your mind then you'll react faster when those situations arise. In fact you'll often react without even thinking. When people talk about teams having clear patterns of play on the ball, that's where the value there lies too. Because you've thoroughly drilled what you're supposed to do on the ball you're able to do it with greater speed/co-ordination and less hesitation, just like with anything else you practice well enough. And all that gives you that half second of extra sharpness that makes the difference.

Beyond that though, there's a bit of confirmation bias at play too. A side like City are obviously extremely well coached but even they have moments and games where you see a similar lag. But when those moments/games are rarer and don't stop the team from winning consistently they're easy to ignore entirely.
 
The solution is simple. Put in better internet at OT for weekend league and buy a good monitor with low input lag for career mode.
 
I'm not sure the 0.5 second idea is a good characterisation because it makes it sound as if there's maybe one or two factors that are producing a consistent outcome when in fact our consistent averageness is just a summation of our average ability.

It's a bit more random than being one step off the pace too. Occasionally we put together 20 minutes of intense football, closing the ball down, and passing sharply. However the vast majority of the time we're noway near it which is the same as a lot of non-winning sides. They turn up very occasionally but are mostly average, as the team is indeed average. What exactly is our baseline performance in terms of attitude and intensity? Compared to the top sides we're a 5 or 6/10, sometimes dropping lower and occasionally higher.

Whether it is fitness, attitude, ability - or more realistically a combination of all of them. Having the pride to be fit and the mental fortitude to approach the game correctly are abilities after all.
 
phelans shorts said:
Yep, every fan thinks their team should win every 50/50, when by their very definitions you’ll probably win about half.
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It definitely doesn’t feel like we win them 50% of the time.

Feels like we’d lose a 75/25 in our favour.
 
JebelSherif said:
I think every fan thinks there own team has a 'lag' its to do with hope and expectation and well mainly hope. The fact is at the top the players are in the main all similarly quick and skillful (especially in the 20-30 age group) and the way the ball pings around is pretty random really.
Click to expand...

Not in this case. The pressing is definitely off...there was one point Fred sprinted 30 yards to close down a spurs midfielder and got there just as the ball was travelling to attacker in the gaping hole he left.

So much amateurish play.
 
Eplel said:
The "United lag" is the phenomenon where 9 out of 10 times, our players react to a challenge, a forward pass, an opponent mistake or a press, 0.5 seconds late, thus giving the opposition a significant edge.


Am I the only one noticing this? It has been going for many years now, even before Ole. It looks like every single game our opponents are much more swift on the ball, and many of the situations where we're on the defensive, could have been avoided with a better initial reaction.

Is it a byproduct of our zombie-like attacking play that has been instilled by LVG, Mourinho and Ole? Or is it because of how undemanding the club is of our players, leading them to become complacent and lazy, even disillusioned when facing competition or a challenge?

And more importantly, how do we overcome it?
Click to expand...
It goes further back than that, i still remember the epic thread "slow-motion zombie football" when Sir Alex was still in charge.. we've just never quite adapted to this new modern way of playing football where every player gives 110% for 90 minutes and gives very little away, even bog standard prem teams like Brighton know that you have to do that as a bare minimum now, just to keep your place in the team, not our lot though.. there's no accountability, whether they do it or not, they still pick up their £200k pay check at the end of the week, so why bother?
the closest we've come to looking organised and quick to the ball was playing counter-attack under Ole.. and the pundits and press ripped us to shreds for daring to play counter attack for some reason..
 
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