pmcla26

Stolarczyk Ricardo Okoli Nelson Aluko James Skipp S. Thomas Monga Fatawu Mavididi

He has to go now for me. The players are crap but he’s still picking the wrong ones.

Probably the best 11 we can name at the minute, just obvious weaknesses in it.

No, we faced a low block most of the time because teams knew that if they tried to press us high they would get ripped to shreds, as Southampton found out twice in 23/24. We also had the quality at the back to be able to play through a high press, so teams would sit off.

No, with Enzo his tactics were pretty much the most effective way to play. We faced a low block near enough every game and his set up allowed us to break it down by getting the full backs left 1 vs 1 with wingers due to the overloads we would create through the centre. It was pretty obvious we would have to adapt upon promotion when teams wouldn't show us as much respect.

It’s not so much about which style of play we use for me, it’s about having a squad that’s built with an idea to carry one out. Our team is neither here nor there, such a mismatch of players. Every team needs a striker, too.

What? Mourinho's teams are infamous for being the anti-tiki taka.

Honestly such is the nature of the Championship I can easily see us win our next 2 and then everyone talking about promotion again. A few good/bad results can quickly change everything in this league.

He’s 24 and played less than 50 professional games. He’ll only get better.

I don’t know if the games just easy using Leicester or whether I’ve accidentally broke it with my first tactic. Done a clean slate tactic messing around for my first one, high press, short passing/possession based system with high intensity. Out of possession it’s a 442, in possession it’s a 4141 (one number 10 jumps to striker the other moves back to CM). The in possession shape changes with roles to a 3241 (Thomas IFB and Ricardo IWB). Basically nearly gone the whole first half of the season winning every game, only drew a few.

What in and out of possession combinations have people used so far? And what’s been effective?

The lack of any presence up top and physicality in the back line is killing us

Really think Okoli needs to start for this reason

Think it’s just that he’s 3rd choice in the 10. Ramsey and Reid are just more senior pros that are ahead of him, no shame there.

They’ve also bought several players like Carmo, Bowler and Stamenic in recent years who they’ve then loaned to Olympiakos - I’m not sure how much impact these smaller transfer fees will have on them but surely it contributes further.

What’s the solution if we don’t invert them to create overloads? All of our goal scoring threat is coming from midfield, someone has to cover the space Ramsey and James vacate when they attack the box.

Kristiansen has to start if that's the case. He's the only full back with the athleticism to get on the outside at pace.

Stolarczyk Hamza Okoli Vestergaard Faes Winks James Fatawu Ramsey Mavididi Daka In possession Hamza steps alongside Winks, James steps forward alongside Ramsey. 3-2-4-1.

We need to create more overloads through the centre of the pitch to get the wingers left one v one. The problem is such a lack of presence up front and our full backs not having to be tracked (I'm struggling to work out where Cifuentes wants them to be on the pitch at times, not sure if this is intentional or they're just not carrying out his tactics properly) is meaning we are creating less space out wide.

Yeah would have been silly. If we get promoted this season he’s instantly surplus to requirements and another player we would be stuck with.

I don’t think we do badly hiring decent managers. There’s been more hits than misses in recent years. (Last season obviously a disaster, though) It’s the network behind them where we fail.

£2.5m Still at the time was a decent amount for a Championship club to be paying for a striker.

It wasn’t about Rodgers though, it was the fact that we were going into the season relying on Danny Ward, Daniel Amartey and a young Luke Thomas as 3 out of 5 of our back line.

If we had spent that summer I very much doubt we would have been in that position of panic buying Souttar and Kristiansen in January 2023.

Unfortunately promotion is worth a lot more than developing Ben Nelson. He will get minutes, there is lots of football left to be played. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Faes move in January as well - he will be pushing hard to try get back into Belgium’s squad for the summer, and I don’t think playing in the Championship will get him there. We also paid good money for Okoli, so I wonder if there is also a pressure from the higher ups to prioritise his development with our PSR struggles (i.e. don’t make a loss on him, anything for Nelson would be pure profit)