Looking back on Wednesdays match

Yes it was drab and boring, but if it had finished 0-0 it would have been something. The first half particularly was dire as neither team made clear cut chances. At least Poya Ashbaghi tried to change things around but the team especially our midfield allowed themselves to be bossed and Swansea pressed more forward in numbers. We needed somebody to impose themselves as Palmer and Benson are too lightweight. However now Poya has seen what the problem is (are) nd will try to addess it after more time assessing the squad. Unfortunately time is not on our side but you never know.

 

I am not sure there are resources within the current squad to allow Poya to address this problem. It's fair to say he must be given more time before we judge him, but on the other hand there were hardly any glimmers of hope in that performance.

 

How Gomes can’t get in front of Palmer, Benson and Styles is beyond me.

The issue with going back to a flat back 4 is our squad has been built around 3 at the back.

Styles for me isn’t a central midfielder at this point and Brittain isn’t really a RB. But they are 2 of our better players imho.

Brittain didn’t overlap once on Wednesday and neither did Williams who’s a RB playing LB.

We really have made an absolute pigs ear of the squad and this season.

 

We certainly have. I think the summer was where we lost it. We needed more options with Dike's departure - and I mean options who were ready. But I think the failure to replace Mowatt with a similar player was possibly the biggest omission. None of this helped of course by the comparatively late arrival of the new CEO. It's sobering to think that without Derby's 19 point penalties (which don't have a lot to do with their team this season )we would now be 11 points adrift at the bottom.

 

He should have replaced Brittain with Sibbick. Brittain had kept that wing quiet all match but he was tiring as were all the back four. They brought on a fresh player to take on Brittain and that's where the cross came from for the first goal. A training ground move. We were chasing the game for the second, but again we have a majority of players who can't do 90 minutes. Nobody was on the scorer.
Our success last year was with largely mediocre players who were super fit. If they're not super fit they're not good enough for this division.
At this point I'm not impressed by the management appointment, but at least there are two of them. I'm living in hope.

 

The next:

 

Bizarrely, in just under 4 years, we've seen Conway be involved as acting CEO in a transfer window. And they've been the two worst ones in terms of immediate impact on the pitch... or not.

The players we lost have been significant. Chaplin would make a difference to a pressing front three. Though I didn't rate Sollbauer as highly as some, he clearly had bag fulls of experience, organisational skills and confidence to speak with the youngsters. Dike had power and dynamism and tonnes of unrelenting effort. Mowatt ran the show. all of those are big losses.

But the behind the scenes stuff is unbelievable. The CEO is supposed to oversee everything. To lose him how we did is beyond words. We either knew he was going and did absolutely nothing. Or, and I suspect this is more likely, the ownership had forgotten he had a 2 year fixed contract (which is not typical in exec circles) and were stunned he just walked when it lapsed.

Whichever one you choose, it's staggering incompetence on a level a business rarely sees. Without a hand on the tiller, a bad situation was made worse than anyone could have imagined.

Since the summer, we've been playing catch up and instead of things progressing, they've got worse and worse.

January should be something to look forward to in an attempt to rectify this mess. As things are, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it got even worse.

 

The first goal came from people switching off to whinge to the ref about his failure to give us a free kick. Rank unprofessionalism.
And the second goal came from heads dropping after the first - for the umpteenth time.

 

Daftest thing they could try and do is rectify it in January. Unless there is a drastic upturn to the tune 5 or 6 wins before then. They'll be p1ssing in the wind.

 

Didn't it come from our foul throw and being hit on the counter because we had everyone forward?

 

To be honest, the tactics employed on Wednesday were the sort of tactics that I thought Schopp should've been using weeks ago. Just try and get the shape right and be difficult to beat, and try and sort things like fitness out behind the scenes. The plan seemed to be to keep doing the same thing every match and hope things improve when Morris and Andersen are back in the team.

Now, I can't see any other option we have, but to put the likes of Oulare, Morris, Vic up front, lump it and have midfielder and have midfielders in there purely to win second balls / break up play. Would guess that would be Gomes, Hondermarck + 1, probably Styles, maybe even Brittain. Benson would drop to the bench. I'd be looking for offers for Palmer in January, and I'd be fining him a week's wages after his contribution to Swansea's first goal the other day.

 

To be fair, I'm not sure if Gomes was fully fit. Missed the Fulham game with injury, and from the videos released by the club about Poya's first day in training, he seemed to be missing from there. I was surprised he was on the bench. But he would be first midfielder I picked at the moment.

I was hoping we would be playing 3-5-2, especially given the lack of pressing high up the pitch, don't really see the point in having 3 up front. But at least he's picking a formation that he feels he can setup to, whereas Schopp seemed to want to play tactics that he'd used with a back 4 at previous clubs, but keep the 3-4-3 throughout. In the end he was just proving the definition of insanity. If we are to play 433, i'd put Brittain in the midfield 3 ahead of Benson and Palmer at the moment.

 

I wouldn't. The midfield needs to be Gomes, Hondermarck and Benson. I'd keep playing Styles at left back or look at Vita. People say Styles is too good to be out of the team but he's been crap this season. There's a few I'd drop to be honest rather than hoping they'll come good. It's a shame Halme is injured and Sibbick isn't trusted.

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if City recalled Gomes in jan,
A relegation fight might not what city had in mind for his development and Schopp and Pep were mates .

 

I'm not sure Benson is physically up to starting every game in the championship. Seems to be outmuscled off the ball too easily, and can't win any challenges himself. Styles hasn't been much better when playing Centre midfield either.

 

I'd be tempted to put Palmer alongside Hondermarck and Gomes. They looked good briefly v Middlesbrough away. What I like about Palmer and Hondermarck is they both like to get a foot in. I'd bring Benson on for Palmer in the second half.

 

In the Championship you need 9 players out of the 11 on form to even stand a look in of winning a game, we have been like this for years. You cannot be carrying 2 many passengers in the team.

At this moment in time we are lucky to have 2 players showing any kind of form and apart from Collins the other one could be a different player each game.

E.g. Williams at Fulham to Williams on Wednesday night, which Williams do we get on Saturday.

 

I've never known a CEO decide who to sign,its there job to get the deals over the line once identified.
I must agree though recruitment could have been a bit smarter.

 

I dont disagree with your post at all & interestingly when Mowatt would not sign a new contract he received quite a lot of stick with a special reference to the fact that we had a ready replacement in Styles & Mowatt wouldn"t be missed, I never bought that & argued until I was blue in the face that Mowatt was quality & we should try to keep him at all costs, Styles mean while performed as one of the best wing backs in the league , why on earth would the HC want to move him to another birth when he was so good at what he was doing , now he has been messed about & that has been reflected in his performances going down hill , put him back to the left side & get him firing again .

 

Call The Midfieldwife, starring Callum Styles.