irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
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Post by irishrover on Jan 6, 2020 23:51:35 GMT
It's unusual for me to watch 2 games in a row these days, especially one away and one home. With a new manager in place I thought I'd note a couple of observations.
-So I see mainly away games. My feeling is that over the last 3 seasons, whoever the manager, if we started an away game with a 4-5-1 formation we generally look solid and competitive. But when starting with 3 centre backs we look dodgy with obvious holes right across the field.I hope after the MK game Garner now learns this lesson. All 3 of those centre backs were slow and uncomfortable on the ball. If you play with 3 of the back ideally 2 of them need to be mobile. On top of that our wing backs are average at best defensively. We also have lack a proper holding midfield. Multiple managers have played Upson in this role and he just isn't an good at it. He's neither strong enough or mobile enough to cover the space. Ogogo strikes me as the better bet for that role but we're too tempted to give him the spoiler job further up the pitch. Bottom line - 3 at the back may be OK at home when teams aren't pressing us as much and we're tying to get on the front foot. Away from home it doesn't work and we look crap every time we do it.
-Thought it was odd that Garner came out after the MK games and torched his players. We were terrible and he wasn't wrong in many ways but it's odd that he mentioned turning over the squad. It was assumed that the main reason he got the job is that he's prepared to work within the AQ's tight budget. That he'd be prepared to do this suggests something else might be going on or maybe it's just an excuse to hide a massive cost cutting exercise behind a turnover of the squad. Signing 2 young players suggests that may be right.
-On the other hand though he really isn't wrong. I think we have a poor squad that is tremendously unbalanced, full of deadwood and dreadfully short on quality. Yet we've done well. It's a paradox but if I was a new manager I'd still rather back my own player than this lot I think.
-The Coventry game was entertaining and I thought it was possible to see a difference from GC. We tried the high press at times and were generally less passive. It didn't always work but I quite liked the approach.
-On the downside there seemed such a gulf in quality. Coventry were so much more comfortable on the ball and confident on the break than we are. We have a competitive bite about us but we lack pace, skill and dynamism.
-Bennett needs to go - can't even see what he's trying to do most of the time.
-Sercombe has not been the same player since getting injured last season. Doesn't contribute anywhere near enough.
-Nichols looked decent against MK Dons I thought (one of the few that did) but was awful against Coventry.
-This is our main problem - our creative players are underperforming or not good enough. At least the manager has recognised that but I worry he's going to try and change too much too soon.
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TaiwanGas
Paul Bannon
Tom Ramasuts Left Foot.
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 1,336
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Post by TaiwanGas on Jan 7, 2020 4:17:23 GMT
Agree with most of what you say, Coventry were not only more comfortable and confident they hardly wasted any passes from midfield to attack, and more often the long ball found it's intended target and they attacked with pace, they do look a very good side. We have a good defense ourselves to stop and break up attacks, but once in possession we tend to aimlessly hoof the ball down the park and straight back to the oppo, countless times and more frequently in the last two games. We do need Midfielders but we also need a new prominent attacker if any good is going to come from the two new young midfield signings, Nichols, Victor & Tyler are just not of the calibre to keep scoring on a regular basis and keep us in the top 10.
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Post by CabbagePatchBlues on Jan 7, 2020 8:05:32 GMT
<-Nichols looked decent against MK Dons I thought>
I thought he actually looked pacy then I realised it was because he was running a lot off the ball into space. This seems to suggest that running with the ball at his feet slows him down and would explain why he gets in a tangle so much and gets robbed so easily. He never looks comfortable running at defenders with the ball at his feet. Just a thought.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2020 12:41:12 GMT
The success coughlan had this season to get us to 4th in the league has been based around the 3-5-2 system including many away wins so although i myself dislike the set up it clearly worked for the team.
So the op is not making any sense for me in that aspect of his report.
A team of limited ability got by,in fact thrived by being well drilled and having some talented players.
We have already had a little window of light on what happens when you mess about with something that was working very well.
Obviously the garner/wael dream is to change the whole strategy to bringing in young players and playing a wonderful pass and move style of football like coventry but a lot of wael dreams have a bad habit of not materialising.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2020 13:17:38 GMT
You were at a different game on Sunday.
Sercombe, despite the players obviously having no idea what they were supposed to be doing and confusion reigning all over the pitch, was by far our most effective player.
On 18 minutes a training ground move worked, we had the ball right midfield, players switched behind the man in possession, a man came short to receive the ball and the front 2 actually crossed, yep, Nichols moved, I know! The ball was played sideways and one of our players (can't remember who) had a run at their defence; Coventry were in a state of total confusion for a couple of seconds until they got their shape back.
This kind of confirmed that Garner, right now, is a coach, not a manager. He's been watching Barca, but there's bad news Ben, Ollie Clarke ain't no Xavi.
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kingswood Polak
Without music life would be a mistake
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 10,255
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Post by kingswood Polak on Jan 7, 2020 18:34:48 GMT
The success coughlan had this season to get us to 4th in the league has been based around the 3-5-2 system including many away wins so although i myself dislike the set up it clearly worked for the team. So the op is not making any sense for me in that aspect of his report. A team of limited ability got by,in fact thrived by being well drilled and having some talented players. We have already had a little window of light on what happens when you mess about with something that was working very well. Obviously the garner/wael dream is to change the whole strategy to bringing in young players and playing a wonderful pass and move style of football like coventry but a lot of wael dreams have a bad habit of not materialising. Understatement of the year, although only 7 days old |
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Post by PessimistGas on Jan 9, 2020 12:00:25 GMT
You were at a different game on Sunday. Sercombe, despite the players obviously having no idea what they were supposed to be doing and confusion reigning all over the pitch, was by far our most effective player. On 18 minutes a training ground move worked, we had the ball right midfield, players switched behind the man in possession, a man came short to receive the ball and the front 2 actually crossed, yep, Nichols moved, I know! The ball was played sideways and one of our players (can't remember who) had a run at their defence; Coventry were in a state of total confusion for a couple of seconds until they got their shape back. This kind of confirmed that Garner, right now, is a coach, not a manager. He's been watching Barca, but there's bad news Ben, Ollie Clarke ain't no Xavi. I'm more animated than Garner when I'm playing Championship Manager. That's obviously his style but my preference would be for someone who can lead and inspire and drag every drop of potential out of a what is a limited squad. I doubt anyone is feeling overly inspired. He needs results badly otherwise he won't get the opportunity to implement any of his fancy theories he no doubt has. Couple this with the malaise off the pitch and we really are in a rut. |
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bondigas
Joined: December 2017
Posts: 370
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Post by bondigas on Jan 9, 2020 13:41:06 GMT
I couldn't agree more, if you go horse racing you have a good look in the paddock before backing a horse. We supposedly had a selection panel of three looking at our horse, he was a rank outsider with no bloodline, yet we lump big money on him, one of those three is culpable I wonder who had the last say.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2020 16:13:41 GMT
You were at a different game on Sunday. Sercombe, despite the players obviously having no idea what they were supposed to be doing and confusion reigning all over the pitch, was by far our most effective player. On 18 minutes a training ground move worked, we had the ball right midfield, players switched behind the man in possession, a man came short to receive the ball and the front 2 actually crossed, yep, Nichols moved, I know! The ball was played sideways and one of our players (can't remember who) had a run at their defence; Coventry were in a state of total confusion for a couple of seconds until they got their shape back. This kind of confirmed that Garner, right now, is a coach, not a manager. He's been watching Barca, but there's bad news Ben, Ollie Clarke ain't no Xavi. I'm more animated than Garner when I'm playing Championship Manager. That's obviously his style but my preference would be for someone who can lead and inspire and drag every drop of potential out of a what is a limited squad. I doubt anyone is feeling overly inspired. He needs results badly otherwise he won't get the opportunity to implement any of his fancy theories he no doubt has. Couple this with the malaise off the pitch and we really are in a rut. Listen to Garner. Listen to Wael. Peas in a pod. Wael chose this bloke. What with him having been at the top table in the Women's game and his FIFA contacts, what could possibly go wrong. |
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Post by chelt_gas on Jan 9, 2020 21:36:53 GMT
I'm more animated than Garner when I'm playing Championship Manager. That's obviously his style but my preference would be for someone who can lead and inspire and drag every drop of potential out of a what is a limited squad. I doubt anyone is feeling overly inspired. He needs results badly otherwise he won't get the opportunity to implement any of his fancy theories he no doubt has. Couple this with the malaise off the pitch and we really are in a rut. Listen to Garner. Listen to Wael. Peas in a pod. Wael chose this bloke. What with him having been at the top table in the Women's game and his FIFA contacts, what could possibly go wrong. I thought Holloway was the obvious choice. The squad seems to react positively to motivational coaches (see Southend HT/FT) which Ollie is made for. Garner is probably a good coach with the right audience. I hope he does well here, we need to give him time and support. The last coach we hounded our as soon as he walked through the door was Dave Penney - that benefitted no one. |
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bondigas
Joined: December 2017
Posts: 370
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Post by bondigas on Jan 9, 2020 22:25:30 GMT
You are right about one thing, Div 1 and Div 2 is about motivational managers, name me one in either Div 1 or 2 presently who has the profile of our new manager.
A shareholder in Dwane Sports picks the the team now, achieving what he has always wanted to do
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Post by PessimistGas on Jan 11, 2020 19:40:40 GMT
I'm more animated than Garner when I'm playing Championship Manager. That's obviously his style but my preference would be for someone who can lead and inspire and drag every drop of potential out of a what is a limited squad. I doubt anyone is feeling overly inspired. He needs results badly otherwise he won't get the opportunity to implement any of his fancy theories he no doubt has. Couple this with the malaise off the pitch and we really are in a rut. Listen to Garner. Listen to Wael. Peas in a pod. Wael chose this bloke. What with him having been at the top table in the Women's game and his FIFA contacts, what could possibly go wrong. Yes, I can see what Wael would have seen in him, apart from being cheap. Peas in a pod indeed. |
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