Tinkerer or brilliant?

[Nuff Said 5,128]

Interesting article on the Dortmund manager in the light of what seems to be the consensus on here:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/07/thomas-tuchel-borussia-dortmund-jurgen-klopp

Sorry but can''t do clicky links on my tablet.

[Katie Borkins 1]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/07/thomas-tuchel-borussia-dortmund-jurgen-klopp 

The idea of a "settled eleven" is a bit old school for my liking.

There are areas which you would rather not change, i.e. the central defensive pairing, centre midfield and possibly the striker.  Other than that, wide and "flair" players need to be on a horses for courses basis including form, fitness and ability to follow instruction.  Now it might be that a squad has eleven standout players whatever the tactical demands raised by countering the strengths or attacking the weaknesses of the opposition, but in the modern PL this is unlikely to be the case.

In that context, "tinkerer" is a derogatory term and "brilliant" is too far the other way.  I note that in our current run of 3 games, 7 points, the "tinker" tag has fallen out of favour a bit.  You can bet that if AN makes 3 changes tomorrow and we lose, his "tinkering" will be brought up.

One of the other ironies to enjoy is people criticising AN for "tinkering" with a losing side, as if losing 5-6 games in a row is somehow a reason to stick with the same losing team....

Also worth remembering Claudio Ranieri was derided as the "tinkerman" when at Chelsea, and yet with Leicester he has stuck with a largely settled side. It would be too simplistic to suggest that stability alone is the cause of their success, but it shows managers can also change their approach to team selection based on what they have to pick from.

So in summary, don''t know but thanks for letting me vent.

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

Interesting piece, like how Tuchel makes his defenders hold tennis balls in training so they don''t hold the shirt of the man they''re marking

[Lewis DW 11]

Settled eleven didn''t nothing for us today.

GET WES BACK IN THE TEAM AND NAISMITH OUT.

All he does is chase peoples once the ball is played and whinge. Such a waste of a player on the pitch.

[Katie Borkins 1]

So he should have tinkered after all?

*shakes head wearily*

[Herman 9,756]

 [:D]

[TCCANARY 263]

"Thomas Tuchel summed up Borussia Dortmund''s dramatic defeat to Liverpool succinctly - ''s*** happens''."

It doesn''t matter what you do, stuff happens.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

Surely it''s an inevitable reaction of whether what you had before was working or not?

Yes you can rotate your side too much or burn out players but for the likes of Ranieri, it''s been easy to stick with the same 11 whereas for the likes of Man U, they''ve had more games and injuries and have had to chop and change.

What it does show is that Ranieri through either luck or skill identified his best line up early which is fair enough I guess. Even Spurs took a few weeks to get going which has inevitably probably cost them the title.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

The linked article about the Brentford owner (Moneyball guy) was pretty interesting too:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/15/brentford-owner-matthew-benham-hates-moneyball

Part of what I try to say on here to those who completely dismiss stats as any use, he sums it up well, Stats have their use, but always need context.

The point he made about being wary of signing the 20 goal a season striker who only had 40 shots is pretty good (I wonder if RvW had these sort of stats at Sporting?), as is the example about the guy who tackles loads (sounds a bit lie the Bassong interceptions debate).