[Official Site] ALEX MOWATT ON DEFEAT AT READING

John Peachy · Sep 21, 2020

Whether Mowatt stays or goes we need someone who can hit a free kick / corner. Ritz looked a better option than Mowatt on Saturday. Odour is the only decent one, but seems to be injured a lot & to my mind is a wing back, but not a full back (not strong enough). If we persist with the smaller strikers the 3 CB's need to work on bagging more goals / assists at corners & set pieces too. Without improving this area of our game offensively & defensively, we'll always be a struggling team.

Nardiello · Sep 21, 2020

Mowatt had a great game on Saturday. Losing him would do a lot of damage to our chances this year. Hope he signs a new deal

Geddiswasguud · Sep 21, 2020

troff said: ↑

There is an ongoing observation that our ‘best’ players are falling way out of form under Struber; that they are being played in a system and positions not ideally suited to them.

In the cases of Mowatt and Woodrow, that is clearly true. They are both statistically much less effective.

We of course look more solid, harder to beat and more organised under Struber. We don’t look like rabbits in the headlights anymore. We also look much less likely to score - though arguably better equipped to get results in this league.

But to change things around as much as we have needs a lot of changes in personnel, to get players more suited to the system employed. For the first time in a while we haven’t sold a lot of players (yet) - but if we are backing the manager, it could be argued that perhaps we ought to speculate to accumulate, sell both those players and bring others in.

I don’t think Woodrow will ever pull trees up in a Struber team, and you have to back the manager over a single player no matter how good we think he is (I think his quality is sometimes overstated on here to be honest but I do rate Cauley).

Mowatt I think gets a bit of a bad press. His given role appears to be more of a pivot and go-between than a goal getter and assister - and he does ok. He doesn’t often give the ball away (unlike Ritzmaier - who I thought had his best game for us on Saturday). Solid and unspectacular is being used as a criticism yet it appears to be exactly what he’s being asked to do.

I’ve called Nudger out on his criticism of Mowatt before, but not maybe being clear why. There is some truth in what is being said, his end product is often poor and his set pieces are more often than not woeful. But he really isn’t as bad as is being made out - he is restricted by the role his manager is asking him to play or at least the priorities he is given.

What Nudger wants is better - nothing wrong with that - but we probably won’t sign better on our budget. We sign players like Ritzmaier and Frieser. Good honest pro’s, never stop running and working, but not exactly blessed with fantastic ability. This manager is never going to be interested in a Gorre or a McCourt, maverick type. The club isn’t going to sign a 34/35 year old on his way down from the top either, like a Parker or a Molby. So someone to dictate the middle of the park, or to be more creative from that position, is highly desirable but an almost impossibility under the current management and his priorities.

Comparing Mowatt to a player with several multimillion pound transfers, champions league experience, numerous England caps, who’s played alongside world class players and under world class managers, who happened to drop into the championship with his team for a couple or three seasons at the end of his career in his mid thirties - let’s just be realistic.

I really rate Struber, he’s come into the club and reorganised things after we had got into a big mess. But his system needs a special player or two to create something from not a lot, we get hold of the ball in high areas and have a lot of possession but generally with the opposition in front of us still. The next stage is turning the nice play into goals, points and wins and the current squad as it stands doesn’t look like it can do that, but can we realistically bring someone in to alter things?

The next week or so will tell us.
Click to expand...

Very good analysis imho.

[Official Site] ALEX MOWATT ON DEFEAT AT READING

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[Official Site] ALEX MOWATT ON DEFEAT AT READING

John Peachy Well-Known Member

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