Ryan
Journey Man
Good to see you stick to your guns no matter how wrong you are @Ryan That is admirable. The first 20 minutes were nothing to do with fitness, it was all attitude. As you say the last part of the game we finished admirally. If we were unfit we would have just got worst the longer we went. I know when I exercise I sure as hell do not feel better the longer I go.
But I do agree something is not right there. It may be the defensive coach, maybe the coach, maybe the fact we are a team rebuilding, might be the fact we had 3 games in 10 days. I do not know and I do not pretend to know. But one thing the majority agree on is that the first 20 minutes was nothing to do with lack of fitness.
It's a common theme (and has been for many years), that you have to "match it with the opposition early". My opinion is, if we do that, we completely gas, and we struggle for the remainder.
Therefore, I DO think it's a strategy or structure to remain "even keel" during the opening phases of the game. But I put that down to inability to play up tempo for 80 minutes.
In fact, I'm pretty sure we've seen it 4 out of the 5 games so far.