LJ'S potential downfall.

After the defeat at Doncaster LJ seemed to change his approach to how he wanted his team to play.I know some fans didn't like his so called "1 up front" but we were dominating teams creating more chances but lacking the finishing touches.The team seemed comfortable with the system and i'm sure if he had kept on with his football principals the goals and results would have come.From being a couple of points from the play offs and potentially something to build on we now look at times like a team of strangers starting out again.In my opinion Lee should have stayed strong and continued letting his team develop in the style of his football principals.

 

The problem is that Sam doesn't have the physicality or the ability to play that system. He's a traditional "feed me" striker. Supply him, and he'll get goals. In this system, we starve him.

 

Is that a dig at supporters expressing their opinions, or a dig at the manager for not having the strength of character to stick with his own conviction?

 

The trouble is yes massively overrated by many on here

 

That would suggest that he has allowed our warblings on here to force his mind into changing his tactics. Which in my opinion makes him a worse manager than I first feared.

 

There is nothing wrong in playing 1 up front, as long as we get the midfielders up to help quickly, which is where LJ`s version differs from anybody elses. The system LJ uses does not get people forward quickly enough, we are slow to build anything up which is why we end up with poor shots, that very rarely put any pressure on the opponents keeper.

 

No its not a dig at the supporters,sorry if it came over that way.Its my own opinion that we were developing nicely under the way we were playing.

 

Exactly. Our midfield simply doesn't attack. If Pearson gets the ball then scowens first reaction is to move backwards to cover the defence, if Scowen gets the ball then Pearson's first reaction is to do the same and if a full back or wide player gets the ball then both scowen AND Pearson move back in front of the defence.

And the worrying thing is that it must be Johnson's instructions for them to do that as when digby came in he did exactly the same, when hourihane played there so did he. It wouldn't be so bad if it was stopping us conceding but it isn't. The amount of times that the opposition has found themselves with players unmarked in front of our back four is ridiculous

 

A number of the teams we've played this season have played one up front, notably Walsall, but the way they play it is that they have one up front when they are defending and then quickly change to getting another three or four right up with him when they have the ball (and their full backs bomb on too). Not sure if I've got the names right but for Walsall, Lalkovic and Evans were right up with Bradshaw whenever Walsall had the ball and Sawyers was never more than about five yards behind him pulling the strings.

LJ's formation is like 9-0-1 when we have the ball and inevitably results in slow square balls or punts to a non-target man. Sam's been off-form recently but Didier Drogba in his pomp would struggle to look good as the lone striker in LJ-ball.