....does a professional football club, playing in a reasonably high level professional football league........ not have a defensive coach? My God we need one, and fast.
Hill busy at Hartlepool....was really good as a guest on the podcast this week... https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/56046/running-up-that-hill--podcast https://m.soundcloud.com/west-twelve-media/running-up-that-hill-1
A coach works on all aspects of play and postions, with and without possesion. Just because someone was a decent defender doesnt mean they will be a decent defensive coach, same applies with any position. Speaking from a personal view having coached at a high standard for over 15 years now, you can coach scenarios until your feet bleed, you can drill set pieces day and night. You cant coach for mistakes like a player slipping, a midfielder losing possesion and speed, to name a few examples. No scenarios in football are the same as you cant predict and replicate the unknown. You can coach an offside line sucessfully, you can coach one on ones, two on twos etc but always remember that the opposition attackers are coached aswell, theres always going to be a winner and a loser in every scenario that appears on a pitch, from a tackle, header, shot ,sprint one on one etc etc. Sometimes ability wins the battle, sometimes its strength, bravery , concentration or even luck. Its even more difficult to actually do rigorous coaching sessions in this league when you dont have any breaks between games. Its a match, rest day, light session then a match again.
The basics of defending and how we are defensively set up should've been done in pre season training, this isn't a new concept that we're conceding alot of soft goals. Warburton has never been a good coach as far as extracting defensive qualities out of his players goes. We need to understand that as far as entertaining football and improving our younger players, then Warburton fits the bill. However if we wish to get promoted any time soon, it will take a manager with a bit more nous and nuance and understanding of grinding out narrow wins at a cost of entertaining play than Warburton possesses.
To be honest I think that’s a bit unfair on MW. He came in at a particularly hard time for the club, with not a great reputation for changing things when needed. He’s done amazingly well with what he’s been given and has pulled us up to the top half of this difficult league. He’s gone for attacking football, using wingbacks, which makes us vulnerable to the counterattack - and proven our Achilles heel for sure. We’re certainly not ready for the EPL yet, but he has, with the board, improved the club again this season. He certainly deserves time to further develop the team and further improve. I have certainly had my doubts about him, but I have to say he has won me over. He has a good management and coaching team with him and kept them all on board. Developed a team culture that is one of, if not THE, best in the league. We have our weaknesses, our frustrations, but we sure can be entertaining. I’ll take that after some of the seasons we have endured. Keep improving us Mr Warburton, I’m more than happy to see you be successful at our wonderful club.
I don't disagree with any of that, I simply pointed out his failings regarding conceding goals. His career record shows what you'll get, sadly this doesn't include much time spent on the defensive side of the game. There's a reason why Sky have our next 8 league games on and it's because they'll be plenty of goals at both ends !
Maybe we are “The Entertainers” of the championship (To the neutral fan of course. Often the entertainers to us Hoops fans, sometimes ‘the frustraters’).
As has been said by others we've improved year on year but our expectations have been fuelled by a good pre-season and getting a number of good signings. The reality is our squad doesn't have the depth to cover injuries and suspensions to key players and our style of play is vulnerable to counter attack, we're seeing what the downside is at present. It doesn't help constantly changing the team as some formations aren't working. With all fit and our best 11 we'd be top six but it's going to be tough to achieve it playing like yesterday...
