See I've enjoyed it, on the whole. There is definitely room for improvement, don't get me wrong. I just think for all the criticism Russ-ball gets, certain players have to be held accountable too.
I also have no problem with being 4th. I have a massive problem with the way we have played against decent teams this season. I hate the way we play. I hate the fact we are clearly getting worse. I don’t like the subs. I think the youth have been horribly mismanaged - but more than anything I hate that I don’t trust RM to make us better during the course of a match. It isn’t about position. It is about the football on the pitch.
Yeah wouldn't mind that at all. Also, Robins and Cifuentes look good. Carrick and Corberan too. But in reality, we'd find faults with all of them after a while, once they got a few dodgy results.
Sure, but they might do that odd thing of setting up the team for the opposition and stuff, not to mention playing to the strengths of the squad you have. Not just blindly persisting with the same thing because "that's my philosophy".
Honestly, what is the point. Whoever we get next, will have to play possession based football. Our fans will get bored and the first sign of trouble, will cry xxxxx OUT.
Nothing wrong with possession based football though. Just not like this. Possession based whilst not taking ludicrous risks constantly from the back. Possession based, fast, one-touch, progressive football. Possession based with two DMs shielding the back four and allowing the FBs to move safely forwards. Possession based where the FBs aren't moved inside in defence allowing the opposition to safely cross the ball whenever they fancy. Sign me up for that.
Some would say it's all about the position. Not me necessarily, but it's a more than fair argument. Every manager we've had since Poch, there have been problems with. It obviously isn't as easy winning games of football as fans like to think it is. I don't like the youth players being ignored. I don't like inviting pressure onto ourselves at certain points in the game. But I also don't like that our keeper is statistically the worst in the league. I don't like that our strikers need 4 or 5 big chances before they eventually score. I don't like that we have only one decent DM. I don't like that too many of our promising players turned out to be a massive let-down in this division. It's more than just playing possession football that has caused us to drop points this season.
Oh I agree and it doesnt phase me personally, but there are a lot of fans out there who don't like it and will scream at the 1st sign of trouble.
Right, but it's all hypothetical. How many times in recent seasons have fans complained that we have no identity; no clear way of playing football? We're trying to do that now. A lot of people were claiming that Farke would have been a better choice. He hasn't done any better at Leeds, with a better squad.
I don't subscribe to Farke or Maresca necessarily being better. I do subscribe to Danny Rohl being better. I also subscribe to having an identity, just not one that is rooted in stubbornness like this. Remember the Red Arrows one? That identity is what we should/could have been this season (and actually the one I think that SR think they want). He's not the right guy for that.
To be honest, I don't think SR know what they want. They've from Ralph's style of football, to Jonesball, back to Ralph-lite and then into possession football. I wonder how much influence Wilcox had in style of football last summer, and whether that might change with a new man in place.
Fair play to Wednesday for hiring Rohl, but, it's his first job in management. I'm not surprised we didn't go for him. Red Arrows was a Poch thing I'm guessing? I mean it's a different kettle of fish being the plucky unfancied team in amongst the big boys, compared to a big fish going up against parked buses most weeks. Poch should be doing much better at Chelsea, given the players he has, but he isn't. Should they sack him?
Possibly, but that's because he's being given players he doesn't necessarily want. But he's a quality manager in a basket case club. We were never going to go for Rohl, particularly after the disasters of last season, but I absolutely think we should change over the summer, and I'd be delighted to have him in. This isn't working, and it won't work in the future, because RM is far too stubborn.
Would you be happy with Rohl at the end of the season? He was quite sentimental and complimentary about us when we played them.