positives and negatives of today at Wolves.

[gavlin]

If I start with the positives today, the main one was the performance of Josh Brownhill who I thought was a waste of space but today playing in central midfield he was a revelation and would have been my man of match. Other positives was for once Tomlin playing off the shoulder of Tammy they worked well together and produce the equaliser, for once we didn't Tomlin dropping to deep to get the ball. After the poor start Fielding produce three show stopping saves to keep City in the game. Joe Bryan played well and is starting to make a left back. Maggers played well again and why they don't use his long throw more I don't understand. Finally the team never gave up and how the linesman near flagged it as a goal I don't know. May be we need more Russian linesman in our game!!!

Onto the negatives and its starts with the same old problem and that is right back. Matthews was terrible and was torn apart in the first half by there winger and the second goal was totally his fault. Just before that he got beaten to a ball and instead of chasing back his body language came across as I leave it to you lot to stop him. The first goal was just as though they were still in the dressing room. Frankie has to take a lot of the blame his reactions were poor. To many times this season City first half performance makes you wonder what has been said to the team in the pre game team talk because it certainly not motivating them. 

[Shuffle]

Would agree with most of this and Tomlin literally played closer to Tammy in 2nd half and linked up well.  Brownhill outstanding and thought Bryan was decent for first time in a while.  Matthews was isolated and was struggling against an £8m winger and not once did we double up against him ! 

Another day we could bring  back points that but negative is times I said under Cotts that we played well and lost and this run is shocking and LJ still doesn't know best 11!

[KingLear]

I am going to add this in as a purely neutral point of view from a friend who was in the crowd at Wolves today with no affiliation to either club.

 

[Fiale]

6 minutes ago, KingLear said:

I am going to add this in as a purely neutral point of view from a friend who was in the crowd at Wolves today with no affiliation to either club.

 

 

Reid got nothing but flak in the match day thread - strange how people see the game

[cityloyal473]

Positives: we scored two

Negatives: we conceded three

[Strawberry2157.]

Thought we needed Reids pace and wouldn't have taken him off.  

[allyolly]

Frankies reactions poor? Nothing he could do about the 1st goal and kept us in it with some great saves. Close to being our best player today I would say. 

[JoeAman08]

I thought Bobby Reid done well today for not being a winger but played on the right. Matthews had a good game I thought as well along with Joe(I had a few gripes but solid from him). Their wingers helped Monaco get a champions league spot last year. They bought Cavaliero for 7.5m from Monaco and Costa is on loan from Benfica. Lots of pedigree there. Our full backs did quite well considering. As for their second goal, seemed more a good cross and good finish for me. Sometimes you get beat by quality. 

Individually I thought everyone did quite well with Tomlin being the biggest disappointment but that's because you know how good he can be. Even then he created our first with a lovely ball. Team wise we need to defend crosses and set pieces better. As said I think the cross and finish were good but maybe a bit more effort to stop the cross being so easily played. 

Youll get games like today in this league. Wolves had one moment of real quality for their second goal, apart from that they were similar to us. Comfortable on the balk but lack an end product. It was handball on Flint and you'll get unlucky from time to time. It's the goal from the corner early on that we need to cut out. Our set piece defending has been a problem since we've been promoted. Half them and we have 5-6 more points on the board IMO. 

 

[Shuffle]

23 minutes ago, Strawberry2157. said:

Thought we needed Reids pace and wouldn't have taken him off.  

Was sat in the wolves  end and their fans were relieved when Reid went off. I thought he was playing well and we looked better once Reid went on right hand side and Freeman played in his natural position.  

[italian dave]

Agree with most of the OPs take on today. Brown hill had his best game by far, very influential on the game. There were times Maggers was keeping us in the game single handed. Thought Matthews was very poor, and agree his body language sends out all the wrong messages. He can be good, but LJ can't rely on him and I won't be surprised to see a RB arrive in Jan. Good to see Tammy back to scoring form, tho he missed an easier chance second half. I still think the departure of Kodjia, with no plan B, was a massive blow this season, we still don't have his pace, mobility and running anywhere in sight,.

But we did OK, times when we were under pressure and giving it away to easily, times when we were on top, pretty even overall. And yet again, we concede to a set piece, albeit a good corner, and a really well worked goal the like of which they probably won't score again for weeks. Plus a pen, and then we fail to get the same break with the next big decision. That said, thought today's ref was very good. 

Shame about the Wolves fans who seem to still live in the eighties and their knuckle dragging past and think it's acceptable, even funny, to rain spit down on the away fans below them. Vile individuals. That was the biggest negative today for me. COYR.

[Olé]

Wanted to post some more general thoughts about today and this seems as appropriate a thread as any.

Yes we had some goals and some endeavour today (for anyone who saw my statistical contribution to the "what has changed" thread, today is the first time since the wins dried up that we scored more than one goal in a game with only one up front) and as I commented elsewhere we had a clear equaliser that was not given and justifiably had LJ and Pemberton chasing down the linesman... but as painful as that robbery was, it's a convenient excuse.

Yes we did have a real go in the second half and for that alone I desperately wanted LJ to have something to celebrate as I have no axe to grind with him, but for me we played into the hands of a poor Wolves side and routinely (the first 45 in particular) played no doubt at LJ's increasingly baffling behest, some of the most feeble tactical football a City team has played since O'Driscoll - players with ability reduced to half-hearted ideas and zero end product.

For the first half today, it was identikit Huddersfield (A) Brentford (H), Preston (H) football which tells me the manager has no Plan B and his Plan A involves shuffling the team randomly, but consistently suffocating them with the same anaemic tactics as before. I commented after Preston how painful it is to see players given so little scope to play while LJ tries to indoctrinate his failing formation, and today was as bad as any other, we were poor throughout.

Make no mistake, if you weren't there you won't know how comical it was to be in front at half time - we didn't look like we could string 3 passes together or get a couple of players into their half, but it just so happens we nicked two goals from pretty much the only time Lee Tomlin (who was largely poor - casual luxury) found Abraham in any space, plus Freeman winning a good corner where (without O'Neil) we worked out how to get it beyond the first man.

But for the most part I and everyone around me expected us to get tanked today after we went 1-0 down. It was one-sided and LJ's usual tactics (which seem to be the only non-negotiable part of City games now) had us looking powder-puff against an average Wolves team. Hoof it to Abraham or give up and pass it backwards - those were our only two outlets. Any belief our team showed second half was in spite of LJ's tactics, not because of them.

The blame is flying everywhere at the moment (reading OTIB makes that clear) but I have to say I watched for 90 minutes today as Flint and Magnusson headed and kicked anything that they could get on the end of - they were constantly under attack and battled throughout. The problem is not defending it is much much worse than that, we are so tactically poor going forward that 90% of the time we end up with them coming back at us very quickly.

No defence in the land can sustain that. At a rough guess our centre backs won 80 or 90% of what they were asked to win. That's a pretty good return, the problem is they were under assault about 30 times in the game. Worse than that, we're inviting this pressure by persisting with tactics that have now been shown up for weeks as flawed, and which produce nothing of attacking note while capitulating into almost predictably routine opposition counters.

I think the more insightful are already calling for a cull of our entire midfield and it's true that this is where it is all going spectacularly wrong, but I can't help but feel we are seeing midfielders who can and have produced much better, turned into total dross by tactics that provide them zero support and ask them to perform individual miracles as a matter of course, rather than provide shape and movement for any easy passing opportunities to build.

I lost count today of the number of times Reid, Freeman etc, crossed halfway, saw zero shape or structure to build upon (usually down to having only 1 or 2 of our players in the opposition half), and either gave up and looped a speculative long ball up to Tammy, or started the inevitable retreat: turn and pass backwards, pass again, pass again, and, eventually, as I pointed out after Preston, try to complete so many passes the percentages say you give it away.

It should be clear now that not only does Lee Johnson not know his best team, but he refuses to change these god awful tactics, which are amongst the worst employed by any City manager of the past 25 years, and consistently produce minimal attacking threat, whilst simultaneously creating countless opportunities for the opposition to come back at us. We are consistently poor now because our manager gives our players so little scope to perform.

We build with zero pace and an apparent desire to ponder our limited options while allowing the opposition to build their banks of players in front of us. It is bizarre how slow and cumbersome our scarce attacking resources are employed. It's hard at times to believe we're serious about competing. We rely too much on Tomlin producing some magic when in fact, today a case in point, he was far more likely to give it away cheaply trying to find such magic.

At the risk of repeating a comment from after the Preston game, I was defending the last 4 managers when they were dispensed with and want stability at all costs, so will defend the current manager.. BUT for me this is the hardest it has been since Pulis - honestly, I could actually find more sense in "Stupid Question" O'Driscoll, just because he had reasonable previous. LJ's tactics are horrific, we are staying in games in spite of him, not because of him.

The "missed" equaliser was cruel, but provides LJ with yet another excuse. He has setup a team once again that was unlikely to pose a poor opponent many problems, that was abysmal as an attacking force (unless Freeman, Tomlin etc can single handedly turn it on and beat players one-on-one which is not a high probability approach) and which laboured through almost everything it was asked to do, because it was setup so poorly to do any of it!

• Fielding 6 - Better than the rest of them, but did not hold onto several shots and only his own good reactions stopped us being punished
• Matthews 6 - Like Preston, an improvement but faded massively second half and could have done more on their equaliser
• Bryan 5 - An improvement but only by his own recent poor standards. A long way to go to recover his ability to dominate going forward
• Flint 6 - Kicked and headed everything he could, there was just far far too much to deal with
• Magnusson 6 - See Flint
• Pack 6 - Better than O'Neil has been recently, really tries to take his time to find the outlet ball, sadly we don't offer him any
• Brownhill 6 - Put a shift in, never gave up, would be a 7 if he produced anything, as it was, a workhorse for a midfield with few outlets
• Reid 5 - A few nice touches to take the ball away from opponents, before discovering he had no one to pass to. Did nothing to get forward.
• Freeman 6 - I don't think we had any 7's today but he almost scraped one for just going and going at them despite the horrific support. He's easy to blame for things but he's about our best player at the moment, which tells you how poor LJ's "attacking" approach has made us.
• Tomlin 4 - Very very poor by his standards and abilities. Too many touches or flicks that were over-thought and gave away possession where just starting with something simple could have kept us in possession. Yes he had a few nice runs, but can't disguise how wasteful he was.
• Abraham 6 - He is not a target man and does a crap impression of one. Did some nice stuff on the wings (yes, our one up top is now running channels in the hope someone joins him up front) but has to do more with his opportunities (Tomlin's roll across the edge of the box second half)

[Dynamite Red]

Best post of the day Olé, you should paste that into a new thread. Sums up exactly what I see most weeks but apparently to some we have an agenda against LJ. 99% want him to succeed but the simple truth is we are woeful to watch and tactically inept. The patience of many is starting to wear thin.

[stevep38]

1 hour ago, Olé said:

Wanted to post some more general thoughts about today and this seems as appropriate a thread as any.

Yes we had some goals and some endeavour today (for anyone who saw my statistical contribution to the "what has changed" thread, today is the first time since the wins dried up that we scored more than one goal in a game with only one up front) and as I commented elsewhere we had a clear equaliser that was not given and justifiably had LJ and Pemberton chasing down the linesman... but as painful as that robbery was, it's a convenient excuse.

Yes we did have a real go in the second half and for that alone I desperately wanted LJ to have something to celebrate as I have no axe to grind with him, but for me we played into the hands of a poor Wolves side and routinely (the first 45 in particular) played no doubt at LJ's increasingly baffling behest, some of the most feeble tactical football a City team has played since O'Driscoll - players with ability reduced to half-hearted ideas and zero end product.

For the first half today, it was identikit Huddersfield (A) Brentford (H), Preston (H) football which tells me the manager has no Plan B and his Plan A involves shuffling the team randomly, but consistently suffocating them with the same anaemic tactics as before. I commented after Preston how painful it is to see players given so little scope to play while LJ tries to indoctrinate his failing formation, and today was as bad as any other, we were poor throughout.

Make no mistake, if you weren't there you won't know how comical it was to be in front at half time - we didn't look like we could string 3 passes together or get a couple of players into their half, but it just so happens we nicked two goals from pretty much the only time Lee Tomlin (who was largely poor - casual luxury) found Abraham in any space, plus Freeman winning a good corner where (without O'Neil) we worked out how to get it beyond the first man.

But for the most part I and everyone around me expected us to get tanked today after we went 1-0 down. It was one-sided and LJ's usual tactics (which seem to be the only non-negotiable part of City games now) had us looking powder-puff against an average Wolves team. Hoof it to Abraham or give up and pass it backwards - those were our only two outlets. Any belief our team showed second half was in spite of LJ's tactics, not because of them.

The blame is flying everywhere at the moment (reading OTIB makes that clear) but I have to say I watched for 90 minutes today as Flint and Magnusson headed and kicked anything that they could get on the end of - they were constantly under attack and battled throughout. The problem is not defending it is much much worse than that, we are so tactically poor going forward that 90% of the time we end up with them coming back at us very quickly.

No defence in the land can sustain that. At a rough guess our centre backs won 80 or 90% of what they were asked to win. That's a pretty good return, the problem is they were under assault about 30 times in the game. Worse than that, we're inviting this pressure by persisting with tactics that have now been shown up for weeks as flawed, and which produce nothing of attacking note while capitulating into almost predictably routine opposition counters.

I think the more insightful are already calling for a cull of our entire midfield and it's true that this is where it is all going spectacularly wrong, but I can't help but feel we are seeing midfielders who can and have produced much better, turned into total dross by tactics that provide them zero support and ask them to perform individual miracles as a matter of course, rather than provide shape and movement for any easy passing opportunities to build.

I lost count today of the number of times Reid, Freeman etc, crossed halfway, saw zero shape or structure to build upon (usually down to having only 1 or 2 of our players in the opposition half), and either gave up and looped a speculative long ball up to Tammy, or started the inevitable retreat: turn and pass backwards, pass again, pass again, and, eventually, as I pointed out after Preston, try to complete so many passes the percentages say you give it away.

It should be clear now that not only does Lee Johnson not know his best team, but he refuses to change these god awful tactics, which are amongst the worst employed by any City manager of the past 25 years, and consistently produce minimal attacking threat, whilst simultaneously creating countless opportunities for the opposition to come back at us. We are consistently poor now because our manager gives our players so little scope to perform.

We build with zero pace and an apparent desire to ponder our limited options while allowing the opposition to build their banks of players in front of us. It is bizarre how slow and cumbersome our scarce attacking resources are employed. It's hard at times to believe we're serious about competing. We rely too much on Tomlin producing some magic when in fact, today a case in point, he was far more likely to give it away cheaply trying to find such magic.

At the risk of repeating a comment from after the Preston game, I was defending the last 4 managers when they were dispensed with and want stability at all costs, so will defend the current manager.. BUT for me this is the hardest it has been since Pulis - honestly, I could actually find more sense in "Stupid Question" O'Driscoll, just because he had reasonable previous. LJ's tactics are horrific, we are staying in games in spite of him, not because of him.

The "missed" equaliser was cruel, but provides LJ with yet another excuse. He has setup a team once again that was unlikely to pose a poor opponent many problems, that was abysmal as an attacking force (unless Freeman, Tomlin etc can single handedly turn it on and beat players one-on-one which is not a high probability approach) and which laboured through almost everything it was asked to do, because it was setup so poorly to do any of it!

• Fielding 6 - Better than the rest of them, but did not hold onto several shots and only his own good reactions stopped us being punished
• Matthews 6 - Like Preston, an improvement but faded massively second half and could have done more on their equaliser
• Bryan 5 - An improvement but only by his own recent poor standards. A long way to go to recover his ability to dominate going forward
• Flint 6 - Kicked and headed everything he could, there was just far far too much to deal with
• Magnusson 6 - See Flint
• Pack 6 - Better than O'Neil has been recently, really tries to take his time to find the outlet ball, sadly we don't offer him any
• Brownhill 6 - Put a shift in, never gave up, would be a 7 if he produced anything, as it was, a workhorse for a midfield with few outlets
• Reid 5 - A few nice touches to take the ball away from opponents, before discovering he had no one to pass to. Did nothing to get forward.
• Freeman 6 - I don't think we had any 7's today but he almost scraped one for just going and going at them despite the horrific support. He's easy to blame for things but he's about our best player at the moment, which tells you how poor LJ's "attacking" approach has made us.
• Tomlin 4 - Very very poor by his standards and abilities. Too many touches or flicks that were over-thought and gave away possession where just starting with something simple could have kept us in possession. Yes he had a few nice runs, but can't disguise how wasteful he was.
• Abraham 6 - He is not a target man and does a crap impression of one. Did some nice stuff on the wings (yes, our one up top is now running channels in the hope someone joins him up front) but has to do more with his opportunities (Tomlin's roll across the edge of the box second half)

This.

[italian dave]

Ole, good post and perhaps you should do something similar every week as a fitting close to Havanatopia's match day thread! I think you're being generous in the extreme to Matthews: for me yesterday was one of those days he decided not to turn up, and I think that tendency, once every few games, is a real problem for LJ. And Tomlin: while I share your frustration ( and there was one moment yesterday where he just stood and watched from no more than 5 yards away while a wolves player controlled the ball, stood on it, and then set off on a run) the fact is he set up one goal and if Tammy had finished an easier chance, would have set up another. 

Question though: what difference do you think it would have made to our season and end product if we had kept (a committed) Kodjia? For me he gave us pace and options that Tammy just doesn't. I always thought that from the moment he went, with no replacement, this season as going to be about staying up and no more.

[Olé]

19 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Question though: what difference do you think it would have made to our season and end product if we had kept (a committed) Kodjia? For me he gave us pace and options that Tammy just doesn't. I always thought that from the moment he went, with no replacement, this season as going to be about staying up and no more.

You're right. Kodjia would have made a huge difference (as evidenced in games such as Norwich Away when we played largely as we are now - but looked half decent) because he could single handedly hold up the ball and run with pace and power, creating space and time for teammates to break and support him.

I was never in the £15m hahaha camp, yes it was a good sum of money, but it was the right sum of money for a player with his individual abilities with the ball, since he occupied defenders sufficiently for others to push up. Unfortunately LJ continues to play as if he has a Kodjia type outlet, having bought anything but.

The whole futility of the way LJ plays is that we effectively have 5 midfielders and yet do not play quick short passes to create any space or movement out of midfield, that one would imagine any other team going light up front and heavy out of midfield would be doing. We play slowly looking for a target man run.

Asking Tomlin or Freeman or Reid or whoever else we've attached to our 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-2-1 Christmas Tree to do precisely the sort of stuff that made Kodjia worth £15m, is depending on truly low probability stuff. Tomlin can pull it off 1 or 2 times a game. None of them have the pace or power to overload defenders.

It shouldn't matter that we don't have Kodjia though - we have a lot of decent enough players, many of which LJ and MA spent good money on last summer and paid plenty of lip service to their abilities. The problem is that LJ isn't employing tactics that they can succeed in (let along playing them half the time).

With respect to the formation, the top teams employ this setup only because when you are Real Madrid etc you have invested in some of the best "on the ball" forwards (not strikers) in the world and want to accommodate them all making runs out of midfield, knowing that they can produce individual brilliance.

We do not have Ronaldo/Bale/Rodrigues or Messi/Neymar/Suarez or Silva/Sterling/De Bruyne or any other overload of attacking talent that can play behind a number 9 and attack at pace. We have Tomlin/Freeman/Reid (or perm any other 3 from all these supposed fluid forward running players he has brought in). 

LJ seems to be in a minority of 1 that believes if you keep persisting with asking them to perform like the top teams he has seen on TV, we will become like the top teams on TV. The results and the performances for 3 months now have proved otherwise. We have neither the pace nor the ability to attack from midfield.

So what we now have is a lightweight "galactico" setup that cannot contribute effectively either as a midfield 3 or a forward 3, thus making us criminally light-weight as an attacking force, reduced to punting it in Tammy's direction, or pondering and eventually giving the ball away, capitulating into defensive mode.

If the solution to all this is to let LJ buy 2 or 3 players in January of the quality and individual ability of a Kodjia (having already spent the best part of £5+m on the likes of O'Dowda, Engvall, Paterson etc) simply to indulge his persistence with this tactical fantasy, then it makes LJ the most spoilt manager in the league.

[old_eastender]

I have been 'on the fence' as to whether we would be better sticking with LJ, or not. Ole's insightful posts in this thread makes me think not.

[samo II]

@Olé- Thank you for once again putting your well thought out opinions up for us who didn't manage to attend; interesting if slightly scary reading.

My hope since our dip in form has been that the side were at least growing into the tactics LJ has held on to over that time; to hear that this doesn't seem to be the case is worrying.

For me, the next couple of games present a significant 'tipping point' in my opinion on LJ - as pointed out elsewhere; we are roughly matching the results (in points taken, not score lines) of last season as it stands, which would see us take a single point from Ipswich away and Reading at home if that trend persists.

For me; that isn't good enough at this point.  That would I think see us become actively enagaged in a dogfight above the relegation zone, and my concern with this young side is that they may lack the experience to extract us from a tricky situation such as this.

Below is a snapshot of the table after we played our 25th game last year (last minute 1-0 away loss to Reading), and though we will have more points and be better placed than this after the same number of games this season regardless if we lose the next two, I believe it would make a huge difference even to just take two points before the same stage now.

Just hope something 'clicks' or at least Ipswich are utterly terribly, as as I think a win on Friday could be pivotal.

[italian dave]

1 hour ago, Olé said:

You're right. Kodjia would have made a huge difference (as evidenced in games such as Norwich Away when we played largely as we are now - but looked half decent) because he could single handedly hold up the ball and run with pace and power, creating space and time for teammates to break and support him.

I was never in the £15m hahaha camp, yes it was a good sum of money, but it was the right sum of money for a player with his individual abilities with the ball, since he occupied defenders sufficiently for others to push up. Unfortunately LJ continues to play as if he has a Kodjia type outlet, having bought anything but.

The whole futility of the way LJ plays is that we effectively have 5 midfielders and yet do not play quick short passes to create any space or movement out of midfield, that one would imagine any other team going light up front and heavy out of midfield would be doing. We play slowly looking for a target man run.

Asking Tomlin or Freeman or Reid or whoever else we've attached to our 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-2-1 Christmas Tree to do precisely the sort of stuff that made Kodjia worth £15m, is depending on truly low probability stuff. Tomlin can pull it off 1 or 2 times a game. None of them have the pace or power to overload defenders.

It shouldn't matter that we don't have Kodjia though - we have a lot of decent enough players, many of which LJ and MA spent good money on last summer and paid plenty of lip service to their abilities. The problem is that LJ isn't employing tactics that they can succeed in (let along playing them half the time).

With respect to the formation, the top teams employ this setup only because when you are Real Madrid etc you have invested in some of the best "on the ball" forwards (not strikers) in the world and want to accommodate them all making runs out of midfield, knowing that they can produce individual brilliance.

We do not have Ronaldo/Bale/Rodrigues or Messi/Neymar/Suarez or Silva/Sterling/De Bruyne or any other overload of attacking talent that can play behind a number 9 and attack at pace. We have Tomlin/Freeman/Reid (or perm any other 3 from all these supposed fluid forward running players he has brought in). 

LJ seems to be in a minority of 1 that believes if you keep persisting with asking them to perform like the top teams he has seen on TV, we will become like the top teams on TV. The results and the performances for 3 months now have proved otherwise. We have neither the pace nor the ability to attack from midfield.

So what we now have is a lightweight "galactico" setup that cannot contribute effectively either as a midfield 3 or a forward 3, thus making us criminally light-weight as an attacking force, reduced to punting it in Tammy's direction, or pondering and eventually giving the ball away, capitulating into defensive mode.

If the solution to all this is to let LJ buy 2 or 3 players in January of the quality and individual ability of a Kodjia (having already spent the best part of £5+m on the likes of O'Dowda, Engvall, Paterson etc) simply to indulge his persistence with this tactical fantasy, then it makes LJ the most spoilt manager in the league.

Yet, a few weeks back, with the same players and the same system, we're 6th in the league. 

I've seen all 7 of the defeats in our current run, and there was probably only one where I felt that, on another day, we wouldn't have got something from the game, the exception was Brighton, and even the we were on top against the best side in the league until ROD goes firwework watching and gets beaten from 60 yards. In every other game, we could quite easily have got at least a point: poor decisions (and I mean really poor, a la Reading), our striker missing chances he'd have scored with his eyes shut earlier in the season, downs league goalkeeping errors.

Dont get me wrong, I'm as frustrated as anyone by some of the long ball stuff, and our persistence in slowing the game down when we shouldn't, but I still feel that if we get the breaks and the rub of the green that we've not had recently, we could just as easily go on a good run in the next few weeks.

I agree though that goals from midfield has to be a priority if we're going to play this way. I think that might be the no 1 priority in Jan. Tomlin hasn't contributed enough, and the fact that Freeman, in his 3rd season, has just scored his first home goal says it all.

So I'm not despondent! LJ has said all along it will take 3 transfer windows and I'll believe that. Provided we don't get the same shocking luck the next couple of months we won't go down, and that's fine this season. LJ has said we'll start to see what Engvall can do in Jan. Again, I'll believe that and think that will help -he seems to have a bit more pace and mobility. And to be honest I think what's lacking now as much as any new player is a bit of self belief.

[BobBobSuperBob]

1 hour ago, Olé said:

You're right. Kodjia would have made a huge difference (as evidenced in games such as Norwich Away when we played largely as we are now - but looked half decent) because he could single handedly hold up the ball and run with pace and power, creating space and time for teammates to break and support him.

I was never in the £15m hahaha camp, yes it was a good sum of money, but it was the right sum of money for a player with his individual abilities with the ball, since he occupied defenders sufficiently for others to push up. Unfortunately LJ continues to play as if he has a Kodjia type outlet, having bought anything but.

The whole futility of the way LJ plays is that we effectively have 5 midfielders and yet do not play quick short passes to create any space or movement out of midfield, that one would imagine any other team going light up front and heavy out of midfield would be doing. We play slowly looking for a target man run.

Asking Tomlin or Freeman or Reid or whoever else we've attached to our 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-2-1 Christmas Tree to do precisely the sort of stuff that made Kodjia worth £15m, is depending on truly low probability stuff. Tomlin can pull it off 1 or 2 times a game. None of them have the pace or power to overload defenders.

It shouldn't matter that we don't have Kodjia though - we have a lot of decent enough players, many of which LJ and MA spent good money on last summer and paid plenty of lip service to their abilities. The problem is that LJ isn't employing tactics that they can succeed in (let along playing them half the time).

With respect to the formation, the top teams employ this setup only because when you are Real Madrid etc you have invested in some of the best "on the ball" forwards (not strikers) in the world and want to accommodate them all making runs out of midfield, knowing that they can produce individual brilliance.

We do not have Ronaldo/Bale/Rodrigues or Messi/Neymar/Suarez or Silva/Sterling/De Bruyne or any other overload of attacking talent that can play behind a number 9 and attack at pace. We have Tomlin/Freeman/Reid (or perm any other 3 from all these supposed fluid forward running players he has brought in). 

LJ seems to be in a minority of 1 that believes if you keep persisting with asking them to perform like the top teams he has seen on TV, we will become like the top teams on TV. The results and the performances for 3 months now have proved otherwise. We have neither the pace nor the ability to attack from midfield.

So what we now have is a lightweight "galactico" setup that cannot contribute effectively either as a midfield 3 or a forward 3, thus making us criminally light-weight as an attacking force, reduced to punting it in Tammy's direction, or pondering and eventually giving the ball away, capitulating into defensive mode.

If the solution to all this is to let LJ buy 2 or 3 players in January of the quality and individual ability of a Kodjia (having already spent the best part of £5+m on the likes of O'Dowda, Engvall, Paterson etc) simply to indulge his persistence with this tactical fantasy, then it makes LJ the most spoilt manager in the league.

What a well written post 'Olly' and pretty damned good sypnosis

 

[Olé]

24 minutes ago, italian dave said:

In every other game, we could quite easily have got at least a point: poor decisions (and I mean really poor, a la Reading), our striker missing chances he'd have scored with his eyes shut earlier in the season, downs league goalkeeping errors.

24 minutes ago, italian dave said:

And to be honest I think what's lacking now as much as any new player is a bit of self belief.

I agree there are fine margins in the outcomes, but there are not fine margins in the ingredients. By and large we are not doing the things to put ourselves in with a good chance of winning. Yes we are running matches close at times, but in many cases closer than I've thought we deserved to be, yesterday another good example. Players are trying to keep us in games where we are well beaten tactically. Or like recent home games, where all our possession is superficial.

"Poor decisions" can easily be avoided if we give the players easier decisions to make. "Self belief" is a problem but one that has easier remedies. This has been going on for three months and LJ has not once changed the tactics and given the players easier decisions to make or scope to build some self belief. The players have little or no options, are neutered by tactics, and terrified of what to do next. This is not an expressive team anymore, it is not even a team.

Yes same players same system we were top 6, but to my eye we had someone playing more conventionally forward with Abraham approaching a front 2 even if it was Tomlin; our full backs role alongside defensive midfielders (i.e. getting forward to support with width) was far better defined, and we moved with more pace and confidence. Confidence is the only thing that LJ can't entirely control, everything else seems to have been sacrificed tactically or over complicated.

The implication in your positive thinking (which I admire and for the most part try to share) is we are the "rub of the green" from turning the corner. I would say I held exactly that view until Huddersfield. Since then it's just been consistently naive tactics and no effort to change the same "constants" in poor setup, only to tinker with the line up. The failure to address this has me more minded to @billywedlock's view above that we're close to getting smashed by someone.

We don't know our best XI, our tactics do not promote any meaningful end goal, they just slow the game and then regress backwards, ultimately turning over possession and giving our defence repeated problems to deal with. This is not entrenching a philosophy with known side effects, i.e. start by being tough to beat. It's not like we are drawing a bunch of games 0-0. We are losing losing losing. Our opponents profit far more than us from our 1 up top shape/tactics.