Ricey

Just been listening to the JJ Watt episode of Stick to Football and it's interesting that he said Burnley have changed their style over the last few weeks. I haven't seen them, so can't say I've noticed. "We definitely held that mentality for quite a while (sticking with the way they played in the Championship) but then we learned that it wasn't going to be successful, so we did have to switch it. Vincent is a first time manager and he's going through the PL for the first time as well. The way that we played in the Championship last season was so successful and dominant, so you think you add players to that and tweak it a little bit and then you go up and try in the PL, but you are coming up against sometimes 1 - 2 billion pound rosters and sometimes you literally don't have the ability...so we did switch it." They have only lost one in 7 since going a bit more direct. Like Burnley we'll have to rebuild our squad next season, but unlike Burnley we haven't dominated the Championship like they did and we may have to sell a couple of our best players to appease PSR. We'd be absolutely crazy to go up and try and play the way we are now. It would be suicide, but there is no doubt in my mind that Enzo will do it. He's said as much in interviews.

Is that Luke Thomas two yards below the defensive line?

I was on a flight last season against West Ham on the final day, taking off just after kick off and flying over Leicester. With every metre climbed into the air I could feel the anxiety drift away. Total, utter, blissful ignorance. Highly recommend.

Not sure where those stats are from but my app has Boro with an xG of 1.13 and Leeds with 2.47. No way did Leeds register an xG as low as 1.05 last night.

A draw isn’t a very good outcome, but it’s ok. It guarantees that we go into the Preston game in the top 2, even if Leeds and Ipswich win, which at least relieves some pressure on that match. Lose tonight and things go against us in the other matches and we’ll be 3rd going into the Preston match and I’d have zero faith that we can deal with that pressure.

…because linesman don’t have the benefit of freeze frames?

Watching Boro defend, if you can call it that, is painful.

Hermansen Justin Vestergaard Coady Choudhury Winks Dewsbury-Hall Ricardo Mavididi Fatawu Daka Faes has to be dropped. Justin's pace will be required, as this will almost certainly be another basketball game. I don't like Hamza at RB, but his aggression may disrupt their technical players. Ndidi has looked way off it recently, so I'd swap him for Ricardo who did brilliantly in that role away at Leeds. It has to be Daka up front. It won't be popular, but Vardy can't start two games in a few days, whilst Iheanacho and Cannon don't press well enough. Southampton, like us, hate being pressed high. We got so much joy from that at their place earlier in the season, as did Hull. Daka is by far and away our best pressing forward, so he has to start and then we pray that he remembers how to kick a football.

Hamza was inverting even out of possession which was really weird, especially when West Brom have dangerous wingers.

He had a few great moments, but he isn’t trustworthy and he isn’t a right back. He gave the ball away too much and charged so high in the press that it meant Fatawu was playing RB most of the game. Some charges worked, but too many didn’t and that massively contributed to how open we looked. He is a player capable of a few moments that get the crowd going, but I don’t trust him one bit.

A match that does little to change any of my opinions on him. We got opened up regularly, predominantly because Choudhury was pressing so high up the pitch and for some reason so was Vestergaard. It was chaos defensively. Choudhury had some vital moments, but on the whole he was very nervy and often out of position. And then there is the substitution situation. Yet again, far too late. He seems to wait until players are so tired that they can't press or make forward runs...and then keep them on for another 10 minutes. The subs he made were logical, just far too late again.

Faes needed to come out, regardless of what position he’s been moved into. Madness not to have Albrighton and Iheanacho on the bench to offer something a bit different.

It’s to do with World Semicolon Day, a mental health initiative.

I don't think the formation is the problem. It's hard to find another shape that doesn't have negatives that outweigh the positives. For me it's about the current personnel within the system and the overall mentality. We can play with this way and yet still... Go at teams early on. Keep the same attacking intent even after going ahead, to capitalise on the momentum and kill them off. Be quicker on the ball. Less touches, more assertiveness with the passes. More off the ball movement. Take the shot if an opportunity arises. Understand the situation we are in and leave everything out on the pitch. Make changes in-game to freshen it up if it's not working. We aren't doing enough of these things at the minute, but there is no reason why we can't do them all and still stick within Enzo's 'idea'. They aren't mutually exclusive. Against Norwich it felt like we were doing these things, perhaps because the crowd were demanding it.

If Coady comes in, Justin has to start. We already get killed on the counter, taking Faes and Justin out for Coady and Doyle will only make that worse.

I keep hearing this about Puel, but managers don't make transfers anymore. The signings we made during his reign would have happened anyway, with the exception of Diabate.

He has to start acting like a manager, not a coach or U23 manager. When you are a coach your job is to coach a philosophy and primary system on the training pitch. When you are an U23 manager it’s similar. You don’t change system or game plans before or during matches, as the aim is to develop the players within that chosen philosophy. He has to snap out of that. He’s a manager of a club that needs to get back into the Premier League. It’s good to have a strong belief in a way of playing, but any manager worth his salt will be flexible. They will use their squad, they will adapt to the strengths of that squad, they will adapt to the opposition and they will react during matches to what is going on. Anything to get the result. He’s not doing any of that.

9 points guarantees it.

We’ll out bottle them all. We are experience pros in that field.

I’ll add to this “…if the fans don’t like it they can go and watch Liverpool or Tottenham”. He’s even more arrogant and stubborn than Rodgers and I didn’t think that was humanly possible.

If this was the relegation zone we were slipping towards he would have been sacked, but it’s no different really. We have to go up. We have the players to go up, but the manager is holding us back with his stubbornness and inexperience (or sheer incompetence). Can we afford to sack him? Can we afford not to? There is not a chance in hell we get promoted without changes…and those changes are not coming from the manager. Its’s staring us in the face, but unfortunately our board can’t see things in front of their face, what with it being buried deep in sand and all.

Just take every corner quickly and short. Don’t even bother putting the defenders up.

I thought Millwall was one of the worst managerial performances I’d ever witnessed but this was another level. - Total lack of rotation. Again. - Out of form players starting. Again. - Knackered players starting. Again. - 2 subs used, despite 3 games in 6 days and despite the fact it wasn’t working. - No Iheanacho and Albrighton on the bench, the only players who offer something genuinely different. - Zero tactical changes to try and make a breakthrough. Two up top? Swap the wingers? Overlap the full backs? Nothing. - A limp performance that looks like a team who have already been relegated. Again. To lose to a team with Plymouth’s home record is sackable offence on its own. They started quite poorly and were giving KDH acres of space, but we overthought every attack and then gifted them a goal. After that I might as well have turned off. I’ve never seen a manager neglect his duties and act with as much stubbornness as this. Get him gone and release the needless shackles that he’s placing on us. The future of the club depends on it. Last season was the most avoidable relegation in history and this is the most avoidable collapse in history.

Genuinely, take every corner short and quick and don’t bother putting the centre backs up. Pointless.

To be fair we started with good intent but our decision making around the box is terrible. Trying to score the perfect goal rather than take a chance. From that point it’s been awful. Faes at fault, again, and no real threat on goal.