Minority Report v Sheffield United

The overall positioning has to be down to the coach having a plan that is either poor, or poorly executed. The 3 CBs interchanging isn't a new thing either, when Sibbick made the mistake against Birmingham (when the season went into nosedive), he was to the left of Helik.

Schopp spoke a lot about transitions earlier in the season, and how the players weren't quick enough. My suspicion is that he's been asking for too much, and not really appreciated the speed and physicality of the league. My biggest annoyance is that he seems to be trying the same thing time and time again and expecting different results. Their third goal last night could've been a carbon copy of the goal Stoke scored against us. The first was like the Reading goal. The second goal was just a mess.

 

I'd have to agree with Schopp that the transitioning isn't quick enough. And we can't have spells of saying he's overcoaching them, but in the next they are undercoached.

The players have to take responsibility as well. Many of their efforts aren't good enough. Jogging, walking, strolling... in a Yorkshire derby. That's on the players. They should at least be professional and put in whatever physicality they have.

 

I try to make Minority Report about systems, mainly because I want it to be different and everyone else focuses on players. However, yesterday I found myself focusing more on the players and on Styles in particular. He was not as deep as when he played in the same position for Ismael. Styles does not really have enough pace to play wing back, but that is especially true if he starts off too high. Since the match, I have wondered why that was. Perhaps the key is in the Sheffield United System, because it was not the usual. According to the BBC, they played 4-2-3-1 (OK that is 4-5-1 which is more usual), but that means that our back 3 has only 1 player to mark (Mousset) with 3 players playing off him and slightly deeper. I could see that Osborn was being taken by Brittain, but the organisation on Styles' side of the field remained a mystery for the whole 90 minutes as far as I was concerned. Sibbick gets picked because he is quick, because he has problems mis-judging the ball in the air at times, which he did again for their second goal. At you say, the system worked well last season with him covering out wide, but I am not not sure it is the advantage that you suggest, because Helik was badly isolated on his own at times last season. The difference, in my opinion is the press, or the lack of a press this season. The press was used not only to win the ball back high. It was used to spoil the accuracy of the pass forward. If the pass to the wide player is not accurate, it allows the wide centre back to intercept the ball, or make a tackle before the wide player has it under control, and can use his pace to beat the centre back. The back 3 are a shadow of the players who played there last season, but I believe the lack of a press is a big factor in that.

Ismael's system did not need a target man. His plan was to hit the ball long and wide into the space behind the opposition full backs. He did not even mind when it went out of play, because the plan was the forward press, and to a degree, that meant giving the ball away in the opposition half, and then trying to win the ball back there. That was the part of the plan that I did not like. I felt that it was anti-football to deliberately give the ball away. There was a big difference between the way that Ismael played the press, and the way his predecessors played it.

 

But if the transition is an overly complex one, then it will be difficult for the players to get back into their defensive shape, before the damage is done. At the moment, opponents can win the ball back, hit it long down the channel straight way and our shape means we're screwed from the outset, it's impossible to do the transition he wants, in the time available.

My issue isn't with whether they are over coached, or under coached, it's whether the game plan he wants the players to follow is one that they can follow and is working. And if it isn't, then he needs to come up with another plan. The failure to do anything to combat a simple ball over the top down the channels is all on Schopp.

Yes, effort does seem to be dwindling, but I think that is because of lost confidence. The issues with the side's organisation have existed all season, yet we continue to setup the same way.

 

If the players don't do as they are asked or just can't be bothered, as was clearly the case against the blunts, theres not a great deal Schopp can do. You can rightly say he's played a part in that, but the players choose if they want to play or not. On Sunday... too many didn't. And systems and formations wouldn't make a great deal of difference.

 

Agree with most of that but I don't think there was anything planned about the second half. I can't understand why Hondermarck didn't start instead of moon. He's a tall lad himself.

 

In a nutshell..

 

I think the players just feel like we do confused and apathetic. Confidence is gone. Structure is non existent. Personnel constantly changing. Play well get dropped be poor and retain your place. During games substitutes are always like for like. The plan if there is one is never changed.

In any business if your key personnel have no faith in the management your business will inevitably fail.

 

I don't think we can give the players too much stick now. It's a broken team. The players have now had nearly a third of a season, where they either don't know what to do, or they're having too much asked of them, with nothing changing when it was clear it needed to. They're going to be disillusioned.

Bottom line is, Schopp's position is untenable.

 

The players still have to take their fair share of responsibility. You can't play at half tilt in the championship and expect much. The basic requirement is effort. I don't care who is coach or what quality we have in the team, the simple basis for everything is effort.

 

But I don't think it's a conscious lack of effort. More a combination of a lack of confidence, a lack of plan and lack of communication between players.

 

When you're strolling into position, when you're choosing not to track a player with nobody else especially close, and when you're the wrong side of the ball and only jogging as your opponent is sprinting.... thats very much a conscious choice by a player and indefensible.

 

Cole alluded to the fact that at 3 goals down the lads took it upon themselves to stop listening to schopp and his tactics...they took it upon themselves to go long out for the back and chase just like big Val did...all tippy tappy stuff was played in United half ...which resulted in 2 goals

 

Sorry, but the way we are playing bears no resemblance to the way we played under Valerien. Last season we played with passion, intensity and had a system and formation that the players stuck to. We played with a high press, most of the time with 10 of our players in the opposition half.

This season there are no tactics, there is no system. Free kicks and corners are woeful and easily defended. That is if we can clear the first man. Players look half interested, this surely comes from the Head Coach.

Valerien had belief and passion and the players would run through brick walls for him. Schopp has little passion, can't decide what his team and is sticking rigidly to a formation that clearly isn't working.

I'd say that Ismael and Schopp are Chalk and Cheese. We will go down if this goes on much longer. It's time for people to wake up and smell the coffee, as we are sleep walking into league One as it stands

 

I am not sure why when people are analysing the problems at Oakwell, they begin with things that they do not understand fully and they ignore the obvious.

Time after time, people with no interest or understanding of tactics will call Markus Schopp tactically naive. They are criticising a coach who has played the game for 20 years under various managers, who has gone through his coaching apprenticeship and has obtain his qualifications, and he has managed in his home country for a number of seasons. Yet his critics, who have none of those things feel qualified to question his tactics. These are just buzz words that people have seen used on TV by those being paid to be controversial. They mean nothing without knowledge. Schopp is playing the same basic system as was used successfully by Ismael, albeit, without the aimless balls into the corners and the forward press that with only 3 substitutes, is no longer practical. You are assuming that Schopp has little passion because his results are poor, but you do not know it for a fact because you have not been in his changing room during a match.

So let us look at what we do know.

This was the side that Ismael picked most regularly in the second half of last season. His first choice eleven

Brad Collins

Toby Sibbick
Michal Helik
Mads Andersen *

Callum Brittain
Romal Palmer +
Alex Mowatt *
Callum Styles

Cauley Woodrow
Carlton Morris *
Daryl Dike *

What do you notice first about that team. Well the players with * by their names have not played this season for one reason or another. That is 4 very influential players out of a team of 11. Romal Palmer was also injured on Sunday. So what about their replacements. Well Mads Andersen was replaced by Liam Kitching on Sunday, but my view is that Ismael played him out of position on the left side of our defense, and that it is Sibbick who is his replacement. Better or worse? Alex Mowatt was the oldest member of our team last year and he was also our captain. His replacement is Josh Benson, who has barely played through COVID and then injury. On Sunday his replacement was the tiny Claudio Gomes. Better or Worse? Romal Palmer was also out on Sunday and controversially, the coach chose Jasper Moon as his replacement. He could have chosen Will Hondermarck, so it is Better or Worse Romal Palmer v Jasper Moon/Will Hondermarck? Carlton Morris has hardly played this season. His deputy is Obbi Oulare who has had even less playing time, so the player next in line is Victor Adeboyejo. Better or Worse? Finally, Daryl Dike went back to the USA and his replacement is Aaron Leya Iseka. Better or Worse?

In my opinion, you have ignored the obvious because you are angry, and when we are angry, logic goes out of the window. You have rejected the option of waiting patiently until the injured players are fit again, and judging the coach then. You want change and you want it now, even though that change would cost money with no guarantee that anything will improve until the injured players are fit. What is more, the club will have spent money allocated for the January transfer window, on getting rid of a coach and finding a replacement, and not on improving the playing squad. I am absolutely sure that you will not agree with my logic, but equally, I hope it is clear why I do not agree with your solution.

 

Even with the injuries , we look disjointed , disorganised. And no improvement from one game to next . There’s no entertainment as we hardly create a chance or a shot on goal .

 

Wow, talk about patronising.

 

It’s my opinion that your dislike of the tactics last season clouds your ability to be rational.

We have footballers who have also had decent footballing careers openly critiquing the managers tactics.

You try to justify your impaired judgment by wrapping it up in performance index because you cannot accept that Val was correct and you were wrong.

Again just my opinion and I am one of the people who enjoys the minority reports for what they are which is your opinion on the game no more or less.

 

I have simply pointed out the obvious, that our injuries this season have been appalling.

I have noted the performance indexes without comment, but frankly the Performance Index figures for Barnsley have been awful. I am not hiding behind them, but I could not do so anyway.

 

But what do you disagree with?

I do not know what you do for a living, but I am fairly sure that I would know nothing at all about it. How would it be if I stood over you and told you that you were doing it all wrong, and that you should use a different tool in that situation. Would you thank me for my input, or would you tell me to **** off.