Jones is a fantastic signing for us at this level.....but he is marmite. Excitable characters are not easy to deal with.
Mitchell has been the main difference between last season's defence and this season's. NJ needs to clear the air or things could fall apart as they did at Stoke and Southampton.
Tactical reasons? Having watched the dire football under NJ I’m wondering what he knows about tactics. Hit and hope.
Most of the attention has been focused on the own goal of dropping Mitchell yesterday (something NJ has acknowledged), but it’s clear from CAFC Twitter that more and more fans are complaining about the style of the football. We identified on 606 after the Orient 1-0 that we were a tough watch this season, while other fans fixated on xG or xGa. The performance at Reading in front of 3.000 of our fans was equally horrible, yesterday wasn’t a one off. Again, on 606 we identified that the investment dried up too soon - roughly the first week in July after we signed Docherty. Only the Jamaican lad (who is a punt) and the two Luton free agents signed after that. It wasn’t good enough, or what we needed. A midfield delectation that comprises of Docherty, Coventry, Anderson, Berry and A. Campbell is going to win us nothing this season, particularly with average / out of form wing backs, and Ahadme up front. After 5 years of disappointment since Lee Boeyer, Nathan Jones isn’t fooling anyone here…
in a nutshell, the only redeeming characteristic of ugly football is seen (and then very briefly) when it wins a game. The 'feel-good' factor of the win has no afterglow whatsoever. It generates no leeway. No reserve of goodwill. We can win four straight games, but the first time we don't win, fans vent frustration. That isn't wrong. It illustrates perfectly the shortcomings of a 'win ugly' strategy. Nobody is really happy. Fans will tolerate it only immediately after 3 points are gained. Neutrals, commentators and football people have nothing good to say about it. If Charton win promotion this season playing this style, Will our fans be looking forward to seeing another season of it in the Championship? Of course not. We'll want Jones Out, and a manager brought in who wants the team to play football.
I don’t think it’s impossible (as some on CL make out) to both get promoted AND play attractive football. Lee Bowyer managed it in 2019. The difference is that we had far better footballers in L1 then - Cullen, Aribo and Lyle Taylor for starters. Compare that to Docherty, Berry and Ahadme. It all comes back to budget & recruitment, although Nathan Jones hasn’t aided his cause with his preferred style of football.
Winning ugly should be the last option, reserved for when a win isn't coming any other way. Doubtless Birmingham & Wrexham will resort to it sometimes. Winning ugly as a philosophy - a 'preferred' method of winning - isn't going to end well. Yes we won't go down. But I can't see us going up either. Or getting anywhere near Wembley come May 2025.
Winning ugly is a tactic to be used when others have better players and or a team is consolidating its position in a game (perhaps due to a sending off) or a new division. We’ve been here too long to be consolidating as a default tactic unless of course it’s recognised from within that the majority of our squad is not good enough
I can pick a team that would do better than yesterday’s dire watch. 4-3-3 Mannion, Ramsay,Mitchell, Jones, Edwards Anderson, Coventry, Berry T Campbell, Leaburn, Godden Subs AMB, Edun, Gillisphey, Watson, Docherty, Aneke, Ahadme
This strategy will always be good enough to roll over the minnows. We have Stevenage Borough next - our budget is millions of pounds bigger than theirs, and the likes of Cambridge, Lincoln …in fact more than half the league. Our issue is going to be finding a way to score against the handful of bigger boys. Forget Birmingham- they have gone into the sunset already. You don’t spend over £12,000,000 on three strikers in this pie league and finish 7th. Our big games are against Huddersfield, Wrex and Bolton - have we got the creativity to beat them ? No.
It does but there is no one else. Playing in the second half yesterday with a more attacking formation would work for us. The back four is solid and with three up top , Campbell wide, it would give us more options. Campbell did well picking up the ball and running at defenders.
I can’t decide if our midfield is so poor because the players can’t play or because we keep lumping long balls which bypass them. Does NJ actually tell them to play agricultural football, or does it happen despite his instructions? Yesterday the wing backs barely attacked, so we had a back 5, with Coventry playing deep too. We didn't have a single fluid attacking move in the whole 113 minutes. Blackpool had several, and would probably have won by more if they hadn't concentrated on time-wasting. At least NJhas admitted responsibility for tactical mistakes.
Thinking about it I think 4-2-3-1 would suit us better. Mannion Ramsay, Jones, Mitchell, Edwards Coventry, Docherty, T Campbell, Berry, Dixon Leaburn
I think it is a mixture of both. We need to get the ball down and play but we have very few outlets. Campbell came on and he was an outlet. Jones kick ball is not helping.
Just like when our outlet was CB-T, and our tactic was give him the ball and hope something would happen.
Depending on who you believe & where you read it, we have the 2nd - 4th largest budget in League One this season. Birmingham don’t count. It would be a monumental (under) achievement not to make the Play Offs this season.
