I think rizas insistence on rotating, his tinkering with formation from game to game and his tinkering with formation within a game is costing us. For me he had credit in the bank. Two streaky runs of winning (not losing) with a poor spell in the middle looked to be pulling us clear. He has made a couple of good signings and brought through a few youngsters. Something 'better' managers have failed to do. I feel he is trying to be too clever. Some of the formational changes and not having players in their best positions is something for a much more refined squad than ours. I've said it before, the best sides have consistence of formation and square pegs in square holes. Where someone needs to 'fill in', they know their job because they see the squad play in a formation, even if individually they are out of position, the structure of the other 10 see them through it. I don't care the formation, though I'll repeat that 4231 would be my option. Then everyone playing in position. I still cant decide the formation yesterday, I've not seen the game yet. How Salech, Robinson, Colwill an Davies fit together I'm not sure. If you want a destructive 2, Mannsverk and Chambers. If you want all out attack, Colwill and Ramsey (is he fit?) as the two. Or maybe a bit more balance. Mix and match. We had Ashford (stop holding him back), Willock and Alves on the bench and an unbalanced front 4. The lack of balance for the second game in a row. Please Omer, a settled formation, no changing formation to defend a lead or point, and FFS, square pegs in square holes. The squad on paper looks as good as we've had in a while with the potential to develop further. It will all be for nothing if we're in league 1. I agree with you Sparkey. There is more than enough in the squad to keep us safe. It'll be the tinkering and reluctance to stretch the players workload that will risk that. Our future lies with Riza's decisions, not the playing staff. Its where we're crying out for an experienced football man to put an arm around Riza and nudge him in the right direction.
I agree. Tinkermen will win you very little as it only occasionally comes off - the rest of the time the players are trying to adapt. It's not the players that will cost us, it's the management of them that's suspect for me.
The concern is his inability to select the appropriate team and tactics for whoever are our opponents & his random substitutions. Against Burnley the team on 60 minutes had 4 changes from the starting line up which suggests he got the starting line up wrong. I wonder what his coaching staff say to him; do they have any input or do they meekly agree with him? Will he get it right for Luton?
Another thing that concerns me is the situation surrounding Ramsey. One worry is that Riza's relying on playing him every other game to be the answer. Even when Ramsey deems himself capable of starting a game, we know more than likely he can't finish it - is that good enough in the situation we're in? Are we labouring under that old misconception that "we're too good to go down"? Personally, I think many of us are, and the worrying thing is that that impression is endemic throughout the club not just the supporters. We need positive direction out of this, not experimental player/formation options - that should be confined to pre-season. Looks very much like Riza is trying to find that "magic bullet". We can't legislate for injuries but fitting replacement squad players into an established game plan should be the way to go rather than trying something competely different at this stage of the season hoping it'll come off.
Looking at the time of your post, is that a late night, an early morning, or waking up for a mid sleep pee?
I don't think many think we are too good to go down the squad is really weak , the coaching set up poor and inexperienced and the board / owner simply behond useless. It's a case of are there 3 worse team? If one of the bottom 3 have a run we are fecked. I don't see us getting 50 points and we are now such a mess even 46 may be behond us. We don't have a recognised back 4. That needs sorting for the last 10. It's not great but id go Ng Goutas Fish Bagan. The midfield 2 in front of them which Riza favours Chambers/Mannsverk is just not working. Steam liners turn quicker. Far too slow. We are getting dominated in midfield and I think both are sending offs waiting to action. We have some decent options up front. Colwill should also be told he's in for the last 10. The positives are if we can scrape enough points we have as talented group of young players that I can remember. That will be wasted on relegation and wasted again if we don't get in a decent managerial set up next season and lose some senior players out of and under contract.
It’s in our hands. Home games v Luton, Stoke & Oxford will be pivotal. On the road we’ve netted only 12 points all season.
I said last autumn I could see us going down. The emergence of good youngsters and some half decent signings in January has changed my view a little but we must win the 3 home games mentioned above.
Not sure where to put this so I'll just stick it here for discussion....................... https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/e...s-deboys-set-for-potential-derby-county-move/
You can only blame him for the last couple of windows - mind you if he was involved with Kanga then enough said. He was apparently responsible for bringing in Salech and Mannsverk - wait a minute though, Mannsverk is too slow......
Deboys was promoted to head of recruitment in 2023. He was the lead recruitment analyst or something like that before. He's been at the club 10 years and is part of the backroom that had put this 21st place squad in place. A time when promotion money and parachute payments have been blown. Good riddance
Remember 10 years ago Tan appointed a painter and decorator to be head of recruitment https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/man-who-used-paint-stadium-hired-club-used-be-cardiff
