The Paweł Wszolek situation is a good "case study" and one that I have been following with obvious interest.
Paweł is a "winger". When we first loaned him he impressed us and got great reviews as he worked hard, took players on (including on the outside), was able to get to goal-line and to make a fairly reasonable crosses. All good stuff, but not really rocket-science for a "winger". I could only personally criticise him for not scoring enough goals, as for me he tended to made one pass to many when I thought he could have gone for goal himself. Perhaps this was team orders and tactics, perhaps self-confdence. But anyway, we had a good right winger at last, and we bought him.
So where are we now? I believe that we are in a situation where a strategic decison has been made that we do not need natural wingers as we do not play 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. Our prefered formation is a variant of 3-5-2 , which requires "wing-backs". Paweł is very fit, is able to continually run up and down the wing, and as a result Paweł has been coached in an "Ollie style" to be a "wing-back". In the Ollie style, I mean that I believe he has has it drumbed into him that he must very quickly come back to defend when we lose the ball, i.e. defence first and attack when there is the opportunity. With this philosophy, it is not really a surprise that when there is an risky opportunity to beat a player on the outside, you go for the safer option of a pass in-field. With such an approach, it may have even led to a situation of loss of confidence to actually take platers on.
So where are we now. Probably as we see with our own eyes.
We have a remarkably strong mid-field trio which pick themselves, and to use all of them correctly we prefer the 3-5-2 formation. Thus Paweł this season has been played as a wing back. For a natural "winger" playing as "wing-back", I actually think that he is doing a good job. Certainly better than a "box-to box-midfielder" playing as "wing-back" (ie Cousins). But I believe that as a "wing-back", Paweł is individually worse than in the full back role than a natural "full-back", plus he is not able to play to his full potential as a "winger". We could say that he is compromised for the good of the team, but I fear that there is a confidence issue and we see this when he i8s now asked to play as a winger, but he is too conservative.
Let's look at Paweł in his international role for Poland. To date he had made 11 apearance as a "winger" with 2 goals scored (18%). Not a bad record compared to 3 goals in 47 apprearances (6%) for the R's. Poland are very lucky to have a great natural right full back / wing-back in Łukąsz Piszczek (Borrusia Dortmund) and a now aging right winger of Jakub Blaszczykowski (ex. Borrusia). Paweł was the natural back-up and future right winger for Poland. So when he joinedQPR and was playing regular football as a good winger, it was really a matter of time when he as a younger player will be the regular winger for Poland.
But where are we now? During the last international break, and with outright qualificaton for the Russia WC, Poland made 7 changes for the home match in Gdansk agianst Mexico. The objective was to trial the fringe players in the squad, plus to play without Robert Lewandwoski. With Lewandowski they play 4-2-3-1 and the objective was to play with two forwards and crowd the midfield (sound’s familiar?). The defence passed with flying colours, but the rest of the players blew their big moment. Poland lost 0:1 against a fluke goal. Paweł Wszołek played the full second half. Despite a great shot almost immediately, he then phased out and got a rating of a 2 (out of 6) which is poor. This was assessment and rating:
“Paweł Wszołek - 2. He entered the field at the beginning of the second half and set to play on the right side of the Polish national team to add more offensive power, however he focused mainly on his defensive tasks.”
Seems like Deja-Vu. Ollie seems to have enforced a defensive mind set in Paweł which has killed his confidence to attack. He seems to think he is more a left back than a winger! This is a big pity for the Paweł, as he may not get a call up for the WC squad based on this performance. If I were him. I would seriously consider a transfer to another club to play as a winger.
So my conclusion to this ramble. Play players in their natural positions! Keep iti simple!
For example, if we developed Furlong to be more attacking as a full back, he may be a good wingback, and probalby better than Paweł. Play and develop Paweł as a winger. This way they both could very good in their natural posions and we could have a decent full back, wing-back and a winger for the formations of 4-4-2. 4-2-3-1 and 3-5-2.
Keep it simple!
