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lake district canary

Max - "a return to something we know"

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Max's comments after the match today reveal quite clearly that the last regime were not pursuing football that suited the players - and you could sense a relief from him that they were "returning" as he said, to football methods that happened before with Farke.

What that seems to mean (to me anyway) is an up tempo version of farkeball, requiring top fitness and energy that we seemed to have lacked over the last year. I know we are supposed to have moved on from Farke, but it sounds as if Max and some, if not all the players, will feel better about playing under Wagner than the last regime.

Not a win today, but a good work out for future league matches! 

Edited by lake district canary
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15 minutes ago, lake district canary said:

Max's comments after the match today reveal qute clearly that the last regime were not pursuing football that suited the players - and you could sense a relief from him that they were "returning" as he said, to football methods that happened before with Farke.

What that seems to mean (to me anyway) is an up tempo version of farkeball, requiring top fitness and energy that we seemed to have lacked over the last year. I know we are supposed to have moved on from Farke, but it sounds as if Max and some, if not all the players, will feel better about playing under Wagner than the last regime.

Not a win today, but a good work out for future league matches! 

Feels positive. Now the focus 💯 league business.  

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1 hour ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Max towing the party line shocker…


Do you not think he is speaking honestly?

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38 minutes ago, Graham Paddons Beard said:

Toeing. Sorry - I hate to be pedantic. 

I love to be pedantic, but you beat me to it 🤣

 

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11 hours ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Max towing the party line shocker…

Max has been here a long time and he's hardly been rent-a-quote. The way I read this is he deliberately made that statement to let the fans know that the players weren't happy with Smith and are glad he's gone. Speculation on my part, speculation on yours.

EDIT: My evidence for my speculation is that all of the 'old guard' - Max, Hanley, Gibson, Dimi, Pukki, Dowell - have seen a sharp decline in performance over the past 14 months. One possible exception is McLean, who has kept more of his form, but even he has put in three of his best performances for a long time since Smith walked out of the door.

Edited by canarybubbles
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1 hour ago, canarybubbles said:

Max has been here a long time and he's hardly been rent-a-quote. The way I read this is he deliberately made that statement to let the fans know that the players weren't happy with Smith and are glad he's gone. Speculation on my part, speculation on yours.

EDIT: My evidence for my speculation is that all of the 'old guard' - Max, Hanley, Gibson, Dimi, Pukki, Dowell - have seen a sharp decline in performance over the past 14 months. One possible exception is McLean, who has kept more of his form, but even he has put in three of his best performances for a long time since Smith walked out of the door.

I agree with this, I am sure he is acting as the mouthpiece of the club but his comments went far beyond the usual we’ve let 5he old manger down but now looking forward to working with the new boss.

It was a very clear message to the supporters that it’s acknowledged didn’t work with Smith and this is a deliberate change (and ironically  is also a move back to  the Farke days to at least trying to establish a set style and approach).

we all know max can seem quite downbeat but here he seemed genuinely pleased to have seen a change in approach already.

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It has been clear from the body language of the players this season that things were not quite right. Max's interview certainly isn't a full on criticism of Smith. Some might read it as a bit of an excuse, some might see it as redemption for the players. It's a bit of both, somewhere in the middle. It doesn't excuse dreadful individual errors which shouldn't happen no matter who the manager is, and yet again we saw it yesterday.

From Max's perspective he clearly wasn't happy with Smith and I think we knew that, but I wouldn't read too much into it.

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12 hours ago, mr footy said:

Predictable player waffle

I was quite impressed actually - he seemed thoughtful and articulate and not on automatic cliche mode.

I think Max, more than most players, was effected by Smith's tactics as his great strength was as a attacking full back, something that was tightly constrained under Smith.

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The biggest thing I never understood with Smith was how he used the fullbacks. Aarons and Dimi are best on the front foot and we lack any particularly good wide players. It always made sense to me that you'd want to find a system that allowed them to bomb forward, not one that puts the emphasis on them being solid defensively. 

I'm really hoping Wagner changes this- I think a few months of Max playing as we know he can could at least help restore some of his value if we sell in the summer.

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Max was always having to play narrow when defending under the Smith tactic. Now when our CBs spread wider he can play further up the pitch instead of starting from a narrow deep position. Both full backs looked far happier and relaxed yesterday.

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I think that's the biggest moment for me. You could see what we were trying to do vs Blackburn. Okay, we lacked that final punch but we were opening Blackburn up constantly. If we get that final moment right, we could start pushing on quite dramatically from here and go into the play offs as a form team. Wagner already admitted that they haven't worked on the final third stuff yet, but we finally saw width and a game plan which is hugely promising. It feels like players like Pukki and Aarons are now playing with more freedom. My god how bad was Smith

Edited by Michael Starr
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Just now, Michael Starr said:

You could see what we were trying to do vs Blackburn. Okay, we lacked that final punch but we were opening Blackburn up constantly.

And that's against a good Championship side that spent the whole second half defending their box and protecting the lead we'd gifted them. Disappointing result, but promising signs.

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