Andy Dawson

Boro Prep - I guess as I post this, Andy is working on a very strong defensive formation with some fast outlet potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with. A point from this game seems unrealistic - but now I have hope...

 

We don’t have much pace in the team.

 

Well, we have a couple of days to find some pace somewhere, or its the big lump over the midfield then....

As long as we can create a solid, battling defence - making us hard to beat for the next couple of games, I can live with that.

 

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jones , Hughes and Macca all start.

 

Makes sense to me.

 

Is Burns fit and ready for a recall - to sit infront of the defence?

 

Thanks to Acun this lad will end up more interim time than our last manager Tim.

And btw, why do we always use Head Coach term instead of manager?

 

Because a head coach literally just coaches the team. A manager does the transfers, the contracts etc. Obviously not cut and dried like that but thats what the terms indicate.

 

Hughes in a back three with Jones and Macca next to him will be like when attractive women on dating apps post group pictures of their munter friends so they look even better by comparison.

 

Our CM's might as well have done that under Walter.

 

I wouldn't know about that old shag. Are you speaking from personal experience?

 

I think it will be 4-2-3-1 with a defensive focus. Slater and Simon's as double pivot, Palmer as.AM (press). Kamara and Longnan as wingers cutting inside.
Expect a lot of balls from the pivot, and full backs support for width (1 going at a time).

That said, I would like 5-3-2 with our current squad and lack of width opt

 

Not these days, Vernon.

 

I don't think we'll see a massively different starting 11, but we might actually make use of the midfield in this one.

 

I watched the Boro vs Blackburn game last night. Blackburn set up with a strong emphasis on their defence setup. Their attacking threat in their 2 / nil away win coming from fast breaks.

 

Best of luck to Andy, first job - ditch the zonal marking disaster. 2ndly, do the basics well, get the defenders back to their own game, defend well, not all singing & dancing multi tasking defender cum midfielder cum attacker! We are now in the **** zone and unfortunately if we’re to get out of it we need players buy in to start battling & winning ugly to get points onboard.

I like Daws, club legend, my only niggling doubt around him is that he’s been around long enough & part of Tim’s flawed style of play served up to us, is he also culpable, or does anyone in the know, know if he challenged any of the tactics/personnel changes?

 

If Daws has sense he'll have seen the writing on the wall long ago and kept his head down!

 

Add Shota, Rosenior, not sure if he was just with the U21's under McCann ....

 

I suspect he's gone in each time with an open mind, willing to listen to new ideas, and to support in his capacity of (one of the) assistant coaches.
One positive way of looking at it is that he's been very well placed to have picked up the best bits of what Slutz, McCann, Shota, Rosenior and Walter had to offer whilst also witnessing first hand what hasn't worked/ what to ditch? Both on and off the pitch.
Hopefully.
As someone said a short while ago, it can often be most telling what is not said rather than what is said (meaning during Daw's interview).

 

Hopefully he'll have more luck than Walter, although he'd be very hard pushed to have the same or less.


The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.