Cjay wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2024 5:20 pm
Isn't it part of a manager's job to find solutions as Bielsa used to say though?
He had January if he wanted to try something different but needs 1 or 2 new players?
I don't think Gnonto is suited to playing a right wing traditional role as I said before and felt if Farke insisted on persisting with his BuendiaLite role in his team then Gnonto was probably the only option of him, James, Anthony and Summerville.
But Summerville is perfectly capable of playing as a traditional right winger, so is James, so the options for trying it were available even just on occasion. Just because this inverted winger thing worked once for him with Buendia it doesn't mean you have to shoehorn it into every team you have?
Our lack of goals and craft from midfield was well known in January, we could have looked for something extra then? We could have given Archie the role as he himself sees himself as a box to box midfielder and given him that freedom.
But today again Gray played the role exactly the same as Kamara.
I think the midfield is a massive problem when you play out from the back, think of how important Klich was to Bielsa with him dropping deep then taking up forward positions between the lines to give an extra passing option.
Look at Southampton today and how easily they did it and how important the runs from Smallbone and Downes were and the speed they did it at.
Our midfield basically stand in a square with the 2 cbs, so your only options are back and sidwards between eachother until Jimmy or Gnonto comes back or Georgie for an extra passing option but where do they go? Midfield is behind them or next to them? How often do we see one of them have to pass back or try and turn and beat a man to open up the pitch to find a passing option?
How often have we seen Rodon stride forward into space, get to the halfway line and the cms are next to him marked and the front 4 are in front of him marked so he goes back?
Finally I understand we may not have ideal players to try tweaks or whatnot but isn't that part of being a Championship team? You won't have a squad of ideal players so you just have to try and make the best of it?
I'd rather have a manager who tries and fails than one who just repeats again and again and again even long past when it last worked?
Today was pretty much a freebie in the sense realistically we all knew it was pretty much done.
Once Ipswich scored you knew it was done.
So wasn't today an opportunity to try something else vs a playoff rival? See if we can find a different way? Some tweaks? Ultimately we repeated the 1st time we played Southampton and had the same result.
They walked through us at will.
