28-08-2018, 13:12
I expected more of the unexpected from Martin Allen than Take Care missives. So far he appears to have changed very little; for Evatt read Nelson, for Hird read Evans and every time we concede you drop Maguire. Our forwards can't score (see O'Grady) and even when someone is doing okay (for Dennis see Hines) it never poses a threat that stretches any opposition to its limit. Our one midfield improvement, Carter, is injured so that whole area of the field is anonymous and since Talbot and Humphreys made a reasonable fist of compensating for the huge loss of Darikwa and Jones our full backs have been disappointing at best. And I've said enough about keepers with our discards succeeding all round the EFL and us playin' rush goalies since Tommy Lee's shoulder.
The trouble with football managers is they are just too football-manager. They are almost inter-changeable. They are ex-players and when things aren't going well they reach for the quickest, easiest solution, which you really can't get wrong. And if you belt the ball downfield at least the opposition won't be shooting from the edge of their own area will they? Anything that goes wrong isn't your fault. Unfortunately neither Gozie, nor Fortune is a giant. They are big-ish guys who have a chance when a long ball finds them, but if they are fed with aimless hooves they aren't the John-Fashanu type who'd be running and leaping all over the centre backs and making their life a nightmare with elbows and knees everywhere.
When he came Lee Shaw said his game was to buzz about, disrupt the opposition and take the chances which resulted. Even if he gets on the field at his height I don't see how he can do that at the moment, or how this style suits Kyel Reid or Zavon Hines.
I'm very much of the opinion that any style of play or formation CAN work, but it has to suit the players. At the moment we seem to squeezing our team into a system that emphasises our problems. We end up with a fairly weak central midfield combination with outside them usually a full-back playing out of position, and an attack-minded wide man having to work back. Might it not work better if we played a lone centre forward supported by an attacking midfield three keen to buzz about and cause problems (Reid, Shaw and Hines) who, coming from behind the front man, would surely be much more difficult for the defenders to pick up? The two (boring) central midfielders would then have fewer responsibilities and might protect the centre backs more effectively and the full backs could choose their rarer attacking options. If the three little guys were the mainspring of our attacking hope then the temptation to launch the ball forward would be greatly reduced (as it would if we played Maguire in position at centre back, because he will try to play out from there, if only to avoid having the piss taken out of him by his big brother).
Bielsa has his Leeds team cleaning the dressing room themselves, Klopp has brought in a specialist throw-in coach at Liverpool, and Mad Dog who I expected would have his lads on a commando course up the Heights of Abraham, he's just telling everyone to take care. I don't want to ditch him, but I want him to be more of himself. MA hasn't got great resources and isn't likely to have them either, so he needs to start thinking outside the box. Now I always thought that was his strength, that he didn't go for the safe, boring option. If he wants to launch the long ball, sign Rowan Liburd and Danny Mills who are pretty much surplus to requirements. Get his defenders launching long passes every day in training, get Muggleton to a javelin coach, sign a flier to pick up the pieces from the big men and start John-Becking it big time.
But don't just belt it forward out of fear.
The trouble with football managers is they are just too football-manager. They are almost inter-changeable. They are ex-players and when things aren't going well they reach for the quickest, easiest solution, which you really can't get wrong. And if you belt the ball downfield at least the opposition won't be shooting from the edge of their own area will they? Anything that goes wrong isn't your fault. Unfortunately neither Gozie, nor Fortune is a giant. They are big-ish guys who have a chance when a long ball finds them, but if they are fed with aimless hooves they aren't the John-Fashanu type who'd be running and leaping all over the centre backs and making their life a nightmare with elbows and knees everywhere.
When he came Lee Shaw said his game was to buzz about, disrupt the opposition and take the chances which resulted. Even if he gets on the field at his height I don't see how he can do that at the moment, or how this style suits Kyel Reid or Zavon Hines.
I'm very much of the opinion that any style of play or formation CAN work, but it has to suit the players. At the moment we seem to squeezing our team into a system that emphasises our problems. We end up with a fairly weak central midfield combination with outside them usually a full-back playing out of position, and an attack-minded wide man having to work back. Might it not work better if we played a lone centre forward supported by an attacking midfield three keen to buzz about and cause problems (Reid, Shaw and Hines) who, coming from behind the front man, would surely be much more difficult for the defenders to pick up? The two (boring) central midfielders would then have fewer responsibilities and might protect the centre backs more effectively and the full backs could choose their rarer attacking options. If the three little guys were the mainspring of our attacking hope then the temptation to launch the ball forward would be greatly reduced (as it would if we played Maguire in position at centre back, because he will try to play out from there, if only to avoid having the piss taken out of him by his big brother).
Bielsa has his Leeds team cleaning the dressing room themselves, Klopp has brought in a specialist throw-in coach at Liverpool, and Mad Dog who I expected would have his lads on a commando course up the Heights of Abraham, he's just telling everyone to take care. I don't want to ditch him, but I want him to be more of himself. MA hasn't got great resources and isn't likely to have them either, so he needs to start thinking outside the box. Now I always thought that was his strength, that he didn't go for the safe, boring option. If he wants to launch the long ball, sign Rowan Liburd and Danny Mills who are pretty much surplus to requirements. Get his defenders launching long passes every day in training, get Muggleton to a javelin coach, sign a flier to pick up the pieces from the big men and start John-Becking it big time.
But don't just belt it forward out of fear.