please log in to view this image Just to get it out of the way, I think Cifuentes is better than our last two managers (not hard to achieve). We have clearly been an improved side under him, although not significantly so. We do seem a little bit more professional and well organised, looking like we can compete in this league. I'm guessing that if we'd started this season with Cifuentes, we'd probably be lower mid to mid table presently (outside of the relegation zone). However, I have several gripes and here are my criticisms so far: *Bear in mind, I do think the buck stops with the manager here. Most, if not all, of our players seem relatively up for it. Yes, they've all had some bad habits that need coaching out of them, but ultimately, it's the manager, his gameplans and tactics and his man management that will produce results (or not!). Also, we do not have the worst squad in the league by a long shot. We have a better squad than at least 5 other teams. He seems to have opted for a total counter attack style of playing football only. This is not diverse enough and doesn't always work against every team. But this choice of tact, at least to me, seems to be an admission we're not good enough to control games, or a resignation to not trying to. I think a) we need to be more flexible than this and b) we do actually have players capable of playing a passing game in midfield and beyond. Keeping the above in mind, we seem as though we only want to progress down the pitch via the flanks. I have seen many a time recently when there are gaps and open passes through the middle, but our players seem to be turning down those opportunities consistently, which tells me they're under orders as such. Again, this is not diverse enough and will not work against each team, especially those with strong full-backs. Keeping both the above points in mind, we need to be trying to dictate play, do or die. In this season, I would rather see us really go for it and die trying than fizzle out and die a whimpering death. Imo, he needs to be braver now. Against teams around and above us, we just need to try and stamp a quality footballing style onto the game and specifically stamp it on the midfield. We need to be asking the midfielders (with support from defence and attack) to play a strong, passing style in midfield, along with being strong in other areas. I've heard some fans saying we don't have the quality to do this, but a) I disagree and we have half decent players and b) we need to put trust in the players that they can step up and grow into that style of play. You need to be strong in the middle, whilst also using the counter attack or progressing down the flanks as well. You need to have a total game, rather than a one dimensional game. There are tactics that simply don't make sense. Case in point: there will be large periods of the game where the keeper will play it out to his back line, and we will pass amongst the back line and the dropping midfielders. Because we are refusing to play down the middle, even when there are gaps, we are getting stuck because our wingers are getting marked out of the game, because teams have figured us out within the first 15 mins. And then!! after we've been arsing around with it at the back for 5 mins, we end up launching it long anyway! So, if we are constantly trying to play out of the back and it's not working, why don't we go for that long ball to start with, rather than wasting all that time. Better yet, why don't we keep all options opem: going long, playing out and down the flanks, playing out and down the middle. Poor decisions on the field (should have been coached out of them by now), especially with set pieces. Example: against Cardiff, we got a free kick in opposition half, near the touch line, a few metres past the halfway line. A player stood over it (Cannon) with time to think. He turns around and passes it to the back line, to ass around again. Although it was a way out, many of our players should have been able to use it like a corner, to get bodies in the box and send it in the mix. I'd call it a half decent opportunity. Then!! I noticed we actually employed this method, but only when we were panicking and needing to get back level with a few minutes to go. If it was a good idea at that point, why wasn't it a good idea earlier? Surely would have been better than giving it to the back line again. We're not playing to players' strengths. Several of our players have specific skills and we don't seem to be doing that. Example: Lyndon Dykes (who is a good striker, no matter what anyone says) is very good at getting up for a kick from the goalie or back line and flicking it on. But we're not employing another striker, or someone to play a second striker role, or a close attacking midfielder to overlap. It seems utterly stupid watching him go up, flicking it on successfully with no one there to receive. Strange substitutions. Example: last night, Smyth began having a cracker of a game near the beginning of the first half. Suddenly we were having multiple chances and Cardiff had picked up 2 yellow cards in the process. We were clearly shaking Cardiff up. What does Cifuentes do next? He brings on Adomah, puts Adomah into the position that Smyth has just been excelling in and moves Smyth elsewhere. The game goes dead. Strange team selections. There have been a number of times when I've looked at the starting lineups for our games and I've thought, 'that seems like a decent lineup.' However, why are we changing lineup so much every week? Of course, there are a few injuries here and there but a lot of these changes are not forced. We had a good but short honeymoon period with Cifuentes to begin with, but that seems to have gone out of the window now and maybe the unforced changes have played a big part of that. Here's what I think Marti needs to do, in my not-a-qualified-coach point of view!: To get out of this relegation scrap, we cannot be polite and safe about things. We need to be aggressive, we need to play to our players' strengths, and we need to dictate play and stamp our modus operandi on the games. It is better to die trying to do this than whimper on to relegation. We need to have confidence that we can control midfield. This would likely require a change in formation or player positioning and it would also require the players to try and step up. So be it! We need to stick with a consistent starting lineup, picking our best one, apart from when an obvious change is needed. We need to trust in players and let them play to their strengths, rather than trying to fit round pegs in square holes, or whatever the expression is. We need to diversify our game, so that we have more than one method of progressing down the pitch in a game, instead of trying one style for 85 mins and then panicking to try and find something. Any thoughts from anyone who bothered to read this?!
I think he's a decent guy and has a good future but he's learning his trade - at our expense - which is fine if we were mid table and can burn some points But we're never that lucky He needs to fix himself on a settled side and play to the players strengths/weaknesses We can't keep experimenting. Now I love Adomah but this last substitution I cannot fathom If we go down, it's highly unlikely he will still be our manager, so instead of being the next Barcelona, maybe time to cut our cloth to survival
I've heard a few people say that he has been playing certain players and making subs to prove to the club he has his hands tied and needs signings. For that to be true, he'd have to be willing to drop points to make that point. Which would be a little mad. Or could mean he doesn't mind staying with us if we get relegated?
Marti is certainly culpable to a degree but I have to say I lay the blame squarely at the players feet. I don't necessarily agree that these players look relatively up for it, and even if they did surely being 'relatively' up for it is way below even the minimum we should expect from them. These players have over multiple managers proved they lack the mental ability, the intelligence and the required levels of effort. They had a glorious chance to get us out of the bottom three and they pissed it all away because they didn't put the effort in. Would recommend reading Clive's report on the Cardiff game. He predicted exactly what sort of (non) performance they would put in and he was spot on. Marti may have made mistakes but he's shuffling a pack that just aren't good enough. I'm not even sure new signings in January can save us now.
I think that a big part of our problem is that we are trying to play football but we have non footballers in the team. Trying to play out from the back with Begovic and Dunne in the side is damn near suicidal. At the other end of the pitch we are totally reliant on one play maker and teams coming to play us know that their biggest concern is that one player, stop Chair creating and we are toothless. I might make half an exception for Smyth although at times he does look to me like a headless chicken.
A lot of good points awjm. The constant jiggling of teams is frustrating for us as fans. I feel he’s trying to find ways of knowing these players in a match. Too many times we’ve heard ‘he looks great in training’ and then half as good in a match. He has certainly made his share of mistakes but I think he’s trying to find a tune from a banjo full of cheap strings. No doubt his golden glow has wained. But so has many a manager with this squad. I think he’ll be here next season too. One bit I do disagree with is these guys are good enough. If they were we wouldn’t be where we are. Clive’s comments of our weak mental approach at each game is spot on. There’s a reason a young 18 year old stands out and only played 31 minutes. Too much looking at each other and thinking ‘it’s not me that’s ****’. Too much negativity. There a weak tender soft bunch for me. This has been coming at this club like a drip from the loft tank - and the ceiling is about to collapse. I have long thought we were too good a squad to go down. I’m not too sure, that uncertainty is awful and we look to tear the walls down. Play like they are capable and they could survive. But after the wins against Preston and Hull they deliver Plymouth, Shef. Weds, Southampton, Millwall and Cardiff. WTF. Still there’s always hope.
No team can succeed without an out and out goal scorer and that is what we are lacking, Dykes and Sinclair are support strikers at best. Hopefully Marti has some contacts in Scandinavia to bring in a striker that could bag say 15 goals that is under everyone else's radar, even if just on loan until the end of the season.
Not sure why so many have high regard for Armstrong, I have seen nothing of him apart from pace and enthusiasm, to suggest there’s a football player there
A good thread to read awjm. A lot of it easier said than done to be fair, especially with no time to train in-between a hectic schedule. Like stroller, I put my ten pence worth in another thread. Marti is exactly the coach I believe we would want and need. He wants to play the modern game in the correct way. Unfortunately I don't believe he has the players capable of doing this at the moment. We do posses some good talents but not enough to play a fluid passing game.
Having gone to the Southamton game, and watched most other games on QPR+/Steels+, what strikes me most is our lack of a decisive forward pass. So often the ball goes to the centre of midfield, and then backwards as there is no forward thinking midfielder in the centre of the pitch. If Dykes, Willock, Chair and co had a bit more support from the midfield we might start creating more opportunities.
A lot of that is down to fear. We're so desperate for points that no one wants to play that risky pass that opens us up when it goes wrong. It's exactly that type of pass through the lines that can open up the opposition when it comes off. Maybe it's time for a high risk/high reward policy.
That’s exactly what was happening first half on Monday, with the ball getting lodged with the players least comfortable with it and most scared of losing it - Dunne and Begovic. They weren’t helped by the reluctance/inability of the midfield to make themselves available, or turn with the ball so they were facing the right direction when they did get it, rather than passing it straight back where it came from. This was from minute 1, it felt bizarre.
That's what I was saying on another thread. It's down to the coach to encourage positivity and a bit of risk taking.
My lad plays centre midfield and has been coached from quite a young age that he simply has to be brave and show for the ball. If possible, be on the half turn so that the move can progress. Otherwise, play it backwards, but it's the pass after that that needs to be brave too. The midfielder has created some space by showing and then when he lays it off it's played forward. Movement and timing of pass. Teams like Brighton do this all game long.
Yes, but to be fair, we don't know whether Marti is telling them to do it, but they won't/can't/aren't brave enough. When he talks, it sounds like that's what he wants.
