Marching On Together

BGwhite wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:47 pm He's lost the plot mate end of. He needs to remember these are footballers not scientists. Tinker man No 2 and we know what happened to No 1.

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mentalcase wrote: Nail on head.
Also as CJ says, he hates being questioned and will do it more to prove he's the boss and no-one else at any expense.
I said in an other thread about DJ as CF when we have JG on the bench, a striker whom we badly need didn't even get a chance, not one minute of game time, why is that ?

Scoobychief wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:43 pm We're burnt out. And the opposition have also sussed our style of play.. also massive holes in midfield was never addresses. Playing 3 wingers. Inferior players that are championship level. It's a real mess this season. Would take a dramatic window to tun this around for the second half of the season. But cut see radz spending a bean this window.

BGwhite wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:47 pm He's lost the plot mate end of. He needs to remember these are footballers not scientists. Tinker man No 2 and we know what happened to No 1.

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mentalcase wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:56 pm Nail on head.
Also as CJ says, he hates being questioned and will do it more to prove he's the boss and no-one else at any expense.
I said in an other thread about DJ as CF when we have JG on the bench, a striker whom we badly need didn't even get a chance, not one minute of game time, why is that ?

faaip wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:02 pm Injuries for the main part, We've had 4-6 starters out virtually all season and the re-jigs are killing us. We're a 10-16 quality team which is a massive improvement on the lower mid Championship team when MB joined.... There's a grass is greener jealousy from our fans too but I doubt that manifests itself at grounds. Not sure how hard it is for footballers to ban themselves from the internet though, most have twitter accounts it seems.

Cjay wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:41 pm I will just point out the square pegs as a major issue.

I firmly believe that at the top level that is a recipe for disaster. It doesnt work long term and even the best teams struggle with it and only do it as a last resort (Man City had Fernandinho playing cb for a while few seasons back and it didnt work)

Bielsa does it as a choice even when it isnt entirely forced.

It reached ludicrous levels yesterday.

So we had

Winger Dan james playing as a striker

We had striker Rodrigo playing as a central midfielder.

We had holding midfielder Adam Forshaw (he definitely is check his career stats the man hasnt a creative or goalscoring bone in his body) playing box to box midfield and was even at times our furthest forward player

We had Holding midfielder Kalvin Phillips playing centre back.

We had Central defender Diego Llorente playing right back at times (as did KP).

We had centre midfielder Jamie Shackleton playing right back.

We had winger Stuart Dallas playing full back/centre midfield.

Its ludicrous and whats worse is many of those changes werent forced, they were choices made by Bielsa.

We know Bielsa feels the system is king and players should be interchangeable but at the top level when man to man you are generally ourmatched talent wise all over the pitch it is asking for trouble.

Players have specialist positions for a reason, you dont see Klopp playing Henderson right wing for a reason, you dont see Van Dijk in the holding role for a reason, you dont see Rodri playing right back for a reason.

Even the best players would struggle out of their natural role against opponents who are their equal or who are even inferior, for our players against superior individuals being allowed to play their specialist role its like asking our players to play on ine foot, its a total hindering factor.

So for me i think one of our major issues is MB's square peg policy.

Ive never been keen but it has reached ludicrous levels like yesterday.

Injuries havent helped but he could have easily made it less daft yesterday.

Gelhardt to the striker role, James to the wing role, drop Harrison for Raph and Rodders for Klich.

Their is a stubborn side to Bielsa, i do wonder as more pressure comes will we see him do this sort of thing more and more?

We know he doesnt like to be questioned so the more he is questioned he may double down.

But yea for me this Square peg thing is beyond a joke now an it has reached ludicrous levels.

And id go as far as to say that his belief in the system over the individual is an active hinderence now as it causes him to make ludicrous selections that make no sense.

YorkshireSquare wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:54 pm I think there is only so far you can push a group of players without them crashing to a certain extent.

Three years seems about the most you can really push a team. See Liverpool last season, they seemd to fall off a cliff intensity wise plus with a few key injuries they struggled. Same with us this season.

But Liverpool have a bigger squad to draw on and the cash to splash to solve their problems in January. We are forced to plau U23s, who although talented are not yet that level, and others out of position. I really dont get why we splashed £25m on James when it's clear we needed a central midfielder. Bielsa becomes fixated on players and now we are playing him as a striker rather than our Spanish international or bright young thing.

SG90 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 2:11 pm We just didn't improve the squad when we needed to. Also last year everything was fresh, new and exciting. Now we don't have that behind us, so we have to work harder. But the players are tired after 3 long seasons before.

WestgateRun wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 3:51 pm Maybe Karen had a point...
Three seasons of Bielsaball will take their toll if you don't get fresh players on board.
Especially if you have a small squad and pick up some injuries.