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Petriix

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Posts posted by Petriix

  1. Posted

    3 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

    Whilst conning this club out of 2 new contracts in the process. He must have one good agent

    It's only really Webber (and a few fans) that he's conned. Webber has assembled this squad and continues to believe in it despite growing evidence that it simply doesn't compete at this level. McLean epitomises the low skill/high endeavour emphasis of our squad's 'development' and represents exactly where we've gone wrong. 

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    This is all compounded by the de-skilling that's gone on throughout the squad. The lack of technical ability, creativity, movement and vision means we keep losing the ball and fail to create the openings when we do have possession.

    We keep overcommitting players forward in the folly of the 'high press' means we're both toothless in attack, and wide open whenever we lose the ball. All teams have to do against us is form a low block, give us the ball and wait for us to go out of position and give away the ball before cutting through us.

    With every departure from our previous Championship winning midfield we've got progressively worse. How Cantwell was deemed surplus to requirements when we're now playing Hernandez every week just highlights how far we've regressed. 

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

  5. Posted

    It's basic stuff. There are simple tactical structures fundamental to a coherent midfield at every level of the game which even non-league clubs do, but we are not. Tracking runners, covering crucial areas, blocking passing angles. Out of possession there is a reason why we are used to seeing teams fall into two banks of four or five so as to be as difficult as possible to break down.

    Our midfield is a shambolic mess with huge holes which even the lesser teams in the league are able to exploit. The players we have simply don't have the positional awareness and don't do the basics. We leave players completely unmarked to stroll through the huge gaps we afford them.

    We look like a bunch of amateurs. It's hard to fathom how our wage bill has been so ridiculously high. We're still paying Premier League wages for League One players. It's a mess which is going to take a total restructure to recover from.

    I know it will be unpopular but players like McLean and Hernandez are absolutely central to the problem. They lack the instincts and awareness to do the basics to anything close to the required standard.

    Changing the manager will not fix it. We need to get the new sporting director in ASAP and overhaul the squad before it can possibly improve. Stuart Webber needs to be gone in the morning. 

    • Like 16

  6. Posted

    2 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

    probably in some cases from the same people

    I see this argument a lot, but I think it's nonsense. Just because *some* people were saying it and now *some* people are saying that opposite, doesn't mean it's the same people.

    For the record I always advocated keeping wages low, signing and developing 'rough diamonds' and only 'investing' in a few key areas (CDM anyone?) on promotion. I never wanted Farke to be sacked. 

  7. Posted

    6 minutes ago, canarybubbles said:

    Let's face it, Sara and Rowe have gone - it's just a question of whether it's January or June.

    I seriously hope you're wrong: they are the only quality we have. If we're building for the future then they need to be at the heart of it. But we basically need to start again. On the current trajectory it might well be from League One. 

  8. Posted

    5 minutes ago, king canary said:

    I could be wrong here but it seems to me that actually our actions after relegation may have done more financial damage than what happened the season before

    I think it's part of a bigger picture which started with the tranche of our 2019-20 Premier League windfall bizarrely handed out in the form of new contracts to many of the existing players. This was compounded by the business done in the summer of 2021 by which point we were committed to a wage bill more fitting to an established mid-table PL team; IIRC around double what Brentford were paying. 

    Let's generously call it 'wishful thinking' from Webber. He seemed to belive that the players would perform to the level of their pay and was so wedded to the belief in his squad that he continued to double down on them: first sacking Farke, then keeping the majority of the squad together for a promotion push last season.

    Ultimately we've vastly overpaid for some very average players and continue to do so. The delusion at the club runs deep because the manager and coaching staff seem to keep asking the players to perform beyond their ability. What's needed now is a bit more honesty so that we can address the real issue: there's a lot of overpaid 'dead wood' to cut from this squad and we need to find a tactical approach commensurate to the ability we actually have. 

    These accounts show the depth of Webber's failure. We're essentially in the same (albeit slightly worse) position we were when he arrived. 

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

  9. Posted

    The stats are absolutely essential. However, figuring out the right combination of attributes to focus on is far from straightforward; hence signing Placheta. We've lost sight of the bigger picture ever since the summer of 2021. Letting our best players leave, to be replaced by more athletic, less skillful runners has incrementally made us worse, culminating in the mess we see today.

    We could absolutely do with returning to the successful system of seeking out those 'rough diamonds' and actually giving them the opportunity to develop rather than wasting time giving minutes to geriatrics and/or loanees. I'm growing tired of the delusion of tinkering with the current setup hoping to somehow make it come good. It's time to rebuild for the future. 

     

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    I think our problems are all about not having the right skills in the right areas of the pitch:

    • our backup strikers are so poor at actually scoring that I genuinely advocate playing without either. We should play three attacking midfielders who can rotate in the 'false 9' position. 
    • Kenny isn't a CDM and shouldn't be playing so deep. If someone is going to drop into the defence all the time, they should be an actual defender. We should play three centre backs, allowing Kenny to play at 8 and the fullbacks to become wingbacks.

    So I want to see a 3-4-3 in possession, 5-5-(0) without the ball. 

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    2 hours ago, hogesar said:

    Kenny is probably the last problem on the long list this season. For someone who's not a natural CDM, he's also not being played in that role anyway. He's being played in 3 different ones and been one of our better players this season.

    I totally disagree with this. I think Kenny (and his role) is exactly what's wrong. He runs around a lot and gets involved in the play but his distribution is pretty limited and he makes a high number of positional errors. Yes, he's exposed by the system we're playing, but that just validates the view that he's not the right kind of player for that role. 

  17. Posted

    4 hours ago, TheBaldOne66 said:

    Play decent football without stupid simple mistakes the fans wouldn’t get on people’s backs

    This is palpably untrue. We've been very successfully passing the ball out from the back, yet fans boo and jeer. We surge forwards in near silence at times. The atmosphere is totally flat and much of the good work goes unappreciated. There were boos at half time last night at 0-0 FFS; quite the sense of entitlement from the fans. 

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    I've been saying it for some time that patience is needed. Our squad is weaker than at any point since Farke's first season and arguably since our relegation to League One. Booing and calling for the heads of anyone from Delia, Webber, Wagner, Doris the tea lady and Splat the Cat (RIP) will not change that. 

    The first 20 minutes last night showed everything about the system we're trying to play and how it could work, yet also exposed the simple truth that we lack the quality to convert those decent positions into goals. Then we saw more of the vulnerability of having our midfield spread out. Pressing is double-edged: you can win the ball back high and create openings, but you leave yourself short at the back.

    Ultimately our biggest weakness is a lack of technical ability in midfield. The ignorant will blame the defence but the deeper detail is that we lack players who can receive the ball in tight areas, take a touch and pick a pass. There's a lack of movement and desire to look for space in central areas. The ball falls to McLean when he drops deep and he simply doesn't have the passing range to open sides up.

    We're also lacking a striker who can time a run behind the defence. Middlesbrough we're playing a very high line yet we struggled to play the sort of ball that Pukki routinely scored from: a combination of a lack of vision and a lack of running.

    I actually thought we'd tweaked our midfield tactics sensibly last night. Rowe was noticeably deeper and more defensively minded and we were more solid as a result. The two goals we conceded were from misplaced passes rather than poor positioning. 

    The trouble is, once the negativity sets in, it's hard to shift. For that reason I think we need a paradigm shift. Webber will be gone soon, the ownership is... in transition. Patience indeed. 

    I can't imagine what other manager might get a better tune out of this rabble.

    • Like 5

  19. Posted

    16 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

    Thought he was not too bad for around 60 minutes, but then utterly crap - allowing their players far too much time wasting, falling for feigned injuries and completely losing control of what was happening at one point. He seemed to see any number of fouls by our players yet not similar by theirs.  Get him back in the PL and away from us asap please.

    What are you on about? He added 9 minutes and he booked their player who was substituted and made him walk off behind the goal. Aside from a couple of relatively soft fouls he didn't give, that was about as good a refereeing performance I've seen in the Championship. 

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    What would we give for a player of Cantwell's ability now? With the dog's dinner of a midfield we're putting out these days, we're crying out for someone who wants to receive the ball into feet and actually has the ability to take a touch and pick a pass. Instead we've doubled down on McLean and Hernandez who run around a lot but lack the skill and vision to create anything.

    The mismanagement of the squad goes back to the summer of 2021 from which point every transfer window has weakened the squad. We should have been building around players like Cantwell rather than casting them aside. 

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    I agree with your assessment of the problem, but I'm certain that Forshaw isn't the solution. Kenny and Sara is fine if the three attacking midfielders are deeper and narrower. We need to be more compact so that we're harder to break down.

    At the moment we're effectively playing a 4-3-3 with a number 10 as well and that is tactical suicide, especially against a top side like Leeds.

    We need to get our best players into the most dangerous positions so I want to see Rowe as the striker with Sara at 10, then we can play more defensively minded midfielders behind and generally be a lot tighter.

    We're actually not a million miles away from getting it right, we're just lacking real quality in key areas (CDM and striker most obviously). 

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with our defenders. The goals we're conceding all stem from frailties in midfield: both tactical and individual. 

    The first Leeds goal came from Kenny leaving his man (number 24) to press the next player in the Leeds half leaving a clear run towards our box. A simple foul on the 24 stops the attack dead and isn't even a booking. The golden rule is that you don't let the man past you so you either run with him or into him.

    The second Leeds goal was our midfield failing to close down the man on the edge of the box after the corner.

    The third Leeds goal was an absolute brain-dead pass into an area where Leeds were 3 vs 1, compounded by our only covering midfielder running towards the ball when he should have been tracking the runner. The pass was ludicrous because we had three players around the ball and an overload on the left yet played it to the opposite side where we were outnumbered.

    We're playing a system where we're regularly outnumbered in midfield. Without a proper CDM we lack the ability to deal with those situations: usually track the deepest runner, make a tactical foul or at least block the passing angle to prevent the most dangerous ball. For all their other strengths, Kenny and Sara simply don't have this defensive awareness; nor do any of our other players so let's not pretend that swapping someone else in would fix things.

    The very simple solution is to reign in the attacking intent of our wide players to provide more cover or switch to a proper double pivot, especially once we're already winning. At 2-0 against one of the best teams in the league you need to make it much more difficult to get through our midfield.

    • Like 3
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