Re: Bowyer - constructive criticism
BluestainesGet down that wing WigleyBefore I start I am not for one minute suggesting LB isn't doing a decent job....however I think he has some limitations and they are starting to affect us.
Firstly he doesn't really seem to have a set philosophy / formation. Over his career he's varied between 3 at the back and 4 with a diamond. It's a personal thing but I like a boss who says "right, this is how I set up, this is how we play" - that seems to be what the best coaches do. Now we've played half a season with 3 at the back he's on about changing it to 4 and a diamond despite us having no CMs. On top of that using 442 in pre-season was ridiculous - surely you bed in whatever system you're gonna use. In short he doesn't know how best to set up and that's not good.
Secondly he too frequently lets our 3 at the back become a 5 with 3 CBs marking 1 CF and our wing backs marking the opposition wide forwards. This invites the opposition FBs to overload us which in turn pulls our CMs wide and deep creating further holes for opposition to exploit in the middle. See all 90 mins at Cov and first half today. In fairness he addressed it at half time and I know Bela and Graham aren't specialist WBs but it has to stop happening, it puts us on the back foot and partly explains why when we do get it back we give it away again - everyone is too deep and nowhere near the front 2.
Thirdly he is married to 2 up front which very few teams use these days. We are poor enough in transition as it is and having 2 players leading the line makes it even harder to retain possession and too easy to lump it long.
Fourth and final. Mark Roberts' long throws. Has to stop now.
Now I fully get that there are valid counterpoints to all the above (except number 4) - the main one being that with our hugely limited squad he's doing pretty well.
I just think we could be a lot better if he addressed some of these things.
A good post and some good points. However, regards how coaches set up. It’s easy for the likes of Guardiola and Klopp to stick to one formation when they have the players they do to make it work. When you don’t then you have to be more flexible. Look at what happened when Karanka tried to make a formation stick without the right players. I think we need to get less hung up on the formation. Bowyer is doing pretty good with the Iimited resources he has, which you acknowledge of course.
Completely fair points. I agree formation decision is a relatively small part of all the things that make a team successful....but
IMO it's fairly obvious that 3-4-3 suits our current squad best. Partly cos we can't defend if we go to a back 4, partly cos we've got decent 10s and strikers and finally cos it matches most teams up. LB obviously felt so strongly it was the way to go, he's had a right footed winger to play LWB for half a season and in all fairness it's worked.
Not sure what's changed to make him think there's a better way ????