when will Townsend be

[redwhiteandermblue]

Bring back Sherwood. All is forgiven.

Without wanting to belabor the point, sacking both Sherwood and Harry do not look like the most blinding moments of inspiration ATM.

On topic, Townsend has at least partly changed my mind about him this year. He always gives it his best, which I’ve found more and more welcome as the year has gone by. He is not the most intelligent player by any means, but I think he’s done okay this year and may be improving. I prefer Lennon to him, but he’s the only other right sided midfielder who has been okay, and I don’t mind seeing him in there.

You are making a big assumption, admittedly shared by almost everyone on here other than me, that you are actually able to identify the weaknesses of the opposition, make some sort of a plan to overcome them, communicate that effectively to the team and then execute it. Personally I think you've got almost no chance of doing this and it is a much better plan to play in a set way that your players understand that gives the best chance of overall success and keep working on that until you can execute it perfectly. I would use different players against different opponents if they had clear weaknesses (eg Chadli and Lamela instead of Lennon and Townsend if the opponents were below average height and the latter pair if the opponents were slow). That's what I think Barcelona do: they have half the squad as home grown players, teach them one way to play and play exactly the same way whoever they are up against. It's much more likely that they have identified superior tactics and/or got the advantage from consistent implementation than they have a much better access to talent than everyone else. But everyone else worries about the lack of a plan B....why do you need one if plan A is right!

This is the great counterargument to the tactical, strategic, left-brain approach. I think both sides have their points, but they aren’t equal. If you ask me, spend the great majority of your time working on your one way to play, and a small but still considerable minority on alternatives/counterstrategies/situational tactics, etc.

To belabor the point above, the strength of the Harry-Sherwood system was that it wasn’t really a system at all, but more like an encouragement to "express yourself." Of course players will play better if they’re being asked to do what they know how to do as well as possible, rather than expected to fit themselves into a system--insofar as I understand playing, anyway.