Oulare on the bench at Middlesbrough

He was playing players out of position before the Morris injury.

 

Yeah your right I remember him having a knock at the end of season as he missed the Norwich game and was a doubt for the 1st leg of the play offs at one bit. Sol used to come on regular for the last 20 but hardly ever started sibbick was preffered. People only notice injurys when your losing id be suprised if schopp turns this losing streak around his words pre boro are worrying and the dressing room looks lost

 

Was something like that or a injury as he missed the Norwich game and was a doubt for the play offs people only notice injurys when your losing.

 

That’s not right, we played 3-4-3 last season and won plenty of games. The issue this year has been the available players not matching the system. Compounded by what’s looked like odd selections. When all the players are back 3-4-3 **might** suit us again. Why we have remained wedded to it through thin and thinner I don’t understand.

 

I don’t think the issue with 3-4-3 is so much players, more like the defensive shape. The back 3 covered the full width of the pitch last season, covering the wing backs. They don’t this season

 

Yep defensively but what about the other end of the pitch? Have we had 3 to play effectively up top?

 

We have played 12 league games and in 9 of them we have conceded 1 or less goals. To me that says our problem is with scoring. It does not matter what shape you play. If you have not got the right players or the right combination up front, you will not score. To play as a central forward, the player needs to be either lightening quick, or he must be tall and strong. We have no-one at the club who is lightening quick and that type of player would be beyond our budget, so we need someone who is tall/strong. Both Oulare and Morris who fit that description have been injured, and no-one else can do it. That is why I am so encouraged by the imminent return to fitness of Oulare.

 

I never mentioned Schopp, I was simply responding to the point about Mowatt’s red card, but picked up the point about general fitness / injury levels with a wider view than Ishmael being ‘lucky’.

 

I know nowt about tactics, but wast the 343 to suit Val’s style, and isn’t Schopps style completely different? So even if the personnel were identical, sticking to Val’s shape is a nonsense.

 

There are problems both sides of the pitch. The stat about goals conceded owes a lot to the fact that Collins is our player of the season so far, and comfortably so.

The fact that nothing seems to have been done about such an obvious vulnerability in defence is the biggest mark against the coach in my opinion. He cannot setup a team to play this formation.

 

Worse formation I've ever seen.. leave you suspect at the back, vulnerable defending the flanks. Over run in mid field. And top two worthless wide forwards. And a isolated centre forward.. doggy turd..

 

I have very little in depth knowledge, but I enjoy talking about the game, and for me that means I like to learn about the tactical side of the game.

Before Schopp joined us, it was said that he plays 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1. Those systems are very similar and have 4 at the back in common. So why has he gone with 3 at the back?

Well, that is the system he has inherited, and it is hard to change players thinking when they are used to something else. Now you might say that teams go from 4 at the back to 3 at the back all the time, but when they do so, the rest of the team stays roughly the same. In other words, the players know how it works. The other thing that Schopp's favoured system have it is 1 up front. Now it is one thing going from 3 at the back to 4 at the back when you have a striker who can play as the lone forward, but it is another thing when there is no-one at the club who can perform that role. The change to his favoured system would be doomed to fail, so he continues with what the players know until such time as he has the players to give the change a chance of working. In my opinion, when either Oulare or Morris are fit, we are at a point that the change has a chance of being successful, but until then, it has little chance of success.

 

Have some of our players been signed on appearance related deals?

 

4-2-3-1:

Collins

Brittain, Helik, Kitching, Vita

Hondermarck, Gomes

Freiser, Styles, Iseka

Woodrow.

4-1-4-1

Collins

Brittain, Helik, Kitching, Vita

Gomes,

Freiser, Benson, Styles, Iseka

Woodrow.

 

The formation would have had problems whoever was in charge. It worked under Ismael because of the intensity of the press. Not only is the press designed to win the ball back high, it is designed to give the opposition less time to pass the ball. Less time equals greater inaccuracy. There always was space out wide when Ismael was in charge, and I said so at the time. It was covered by the wider central defenders in the back 3. Pace was therefore a key requirement for those positions, and Sibbick and Andersen were key players in our defensive system under Ismael, along with the press. This season, a number of things have changed. We cannot change all 3 of the pressing team after 60 minutes, so the press has become less intense, and therefore, less effective. Mads Andersen has not played and he has been a big miss, with his ability to cover the wing back. Toby Sibbick has been less trustworthy on challenges for high crosses, and therefore, although he still has pace, Schopp has not trusted him as Ismael did.

That is how I read it anyway. I believe Schopp does know his stuff, but he has been caught by the departure of several key individuals and injury to others. For the last match, I picked my own team in 3-4-3 assuming everyone was fit. There were 6 of those players injured, and no manager can pick a team when 6 of his team are injured. If his results are no better when we have a fit squad, then you will have a point, but we are not at that stage, or anywhere near it.

 

Would the remaining five have got in a five a side team?

 

In order to play as a lone forward, a player must be very quick, or he must be tall/strong. Woodrow is none of those things. He is reasonably good at sniffing out chances and putting them away, but that is not the main requirement for that position. He is better playing off such a player.

 

Morris would have been my selection had he been fit. I can't really find a place for Woodrow. Was just hoping he'd come good again.

 

I hear you: on paper he’s what we need.

Problem though.

Our light at the end of the tunnel is a forward who’s nearly 26 and yet made less than 100 first team league appearances, and less than fifty over the last four and a half years, who seems to love an injury - and has in fact been injured for months since signing, with a recurring back condition which won’t magically disappear overnight.

I hope he’s great but i think it’s futile resting all hope on his shoulders - he won’t get through the season without another absence you’d doubt, and even if he does he’s unlikely to be fit to start every game. I doubt he’s fit for much more than twenty minutes at the moment.

Sincerely hope I’m proved wrong, and I’ve been known to be, but I can’t see Obbi Oulare turning our fortunes completely. We need more change than a big centre forward being available.

 

You have made a valid point, and I cannot really argue against it. However, my other hope for this position is even further away from fitness. I am grasping at straws, because I see it as a key position if we are to rescue our season. I mean ideally, we would have signed a player who had all the right attributes, but was younger and he would have grown into the position. However, his transfer fee and his wages would have put him beyond our budgets, especially after Covid, the Hull compo and the removal of £750k by our owners.