The question that I want to ask tonight is this, does Asbaghi get more from the players than the sum of their parts. I did not enjoy the football that we played last season. I described it as anti-football. It worked because the front 3 worked like Trojans, and we could change them all after an hour. I do not believe the same formula could have worked this season with just 3 substitutes. Nevertheless, viewed from a greater distance, Ismael’s way of playing had its strengths. He did not over-complicate things, he always had confidence that the players could win if they played his way, and he passed that confidence on to the players so that they too believed. Tonight, what I witnessed was the opposite. As far as I could see our starting formation was a back 3 + wing backs – a diamond in midfield – and 1 up front, pretty much cut off from the rest. It was built in that way because Asbaghi seemed to have no confidence in our ability to defend. Like most systems, it predicted the way the match would be played. If you build your team to defend, then sure as eggs, that is what the opposition will ask them to do. There was just 1 player (Bassi), who played at the attacking point of the diamond who was theoretically close enough to support Morris, but even he was not close enough. However the system was meant to work, it failed miserably. Stoke dominated the half because they dominated possession and territory and we were lucky to get to half-time at 0-0. At the start of the second half, we changed to the system we used against Middlesbrough (4-2-3-1), but the starting line-up had been picked to play a different way. Some of the players were not suited to the new system. In some cases, the players seemed to be matched to positions by pulling their names from a hat. I do not like Kitching at left back, but I accept that that is my opinion only. There is more argument against Callum Styles in a defensive midfield position, but a left footed Remy Vita on the right side of attacking midfield was one that I failed to come to terms with. We were little better, and the reason was we had square pegs in round holes. Oh, and Morris was still waging a lone battle up front. Against the odds, Quina scored. I had just finished telling my friend how lazy he is, and how he only works when he has the ball at his feet, when he got the ball at his feet. He worked his way along the Stoke 18 yard line from left to right, reluctant to shoot because he does not have a right foot. When he arrived at the far corner, he turned completely around to reverse his journey, but with his favoured foot now in prime position, and he leathered the ball into the far top corner. A lovely goal, aided and abetted by shodding defending by Stoke at the edge of their box with at least 5 players avoiding making a tackle. All we had to do now was hang on for 20 minutes. By hang on, I did not mean bring everyone back into 5-4-1 formation and hope to keep a clean sheet by kicking the ball as far down field as possible at every opportunity. Sacrificing possession is bound to bring pressure, especially when there is no high press because the players have dropped so deep, and our goal had to endure pressure constantly. In the end, it was lose play by Cole, who had been brought on to provide an outlet, but who had also been drawn deeper, and into less familiar territory because of that pressure. In another change drawn from the tombola, Morris had been told to play on the right of our midfield, replacing the substituted Bassi, where he was hopelessly exposed. As I say, Asbaghi displayed a total lack of confidence in his players. He thought that they would not be able to defend a lead, and he was proved correct. Whether he would have been proved correct if he had asked them to go and score a second, we will never know. Once again, I must refer to statistics in order to make my case. We scored just 18 points on the Entertainment Index compared to Stoke’s 86. We scored -54 on the performance Index. Those scores would not be great against Fulham on Saturday, but against a struggling Stoke City, they are woeful. Entertainment Index: Barnsley 18 Stoke City 86 Match 104 Performance Index: -54 PotM Claudio Gomes
We seem to have a system that allows us to push forward when we play 4231, and I would play that against Fulham, with Wolfe replacing either Vita or Kitching and Styles playing further forward. But Poya will play a back 9, who will just stand and watch Fulham beat them easily.
