THE WAY I SEE IT
THE common explanation when managers make so many changes to a starting XI these days is that they have all the medical, fitness, nutrition and sports science staff they could want and it is flagged up when players are tired.
My response, I’m afraid, is that football clubs have all the medical, fitness, nutrition and sports science staff that they could want – so players should be able to get through three matches in eight days – particularly when they have a free week to follow and especially, underlined and in bold, when they are just coming off a win after four straight defeats, especially when their position is so precarious at the bottom of the division at this stage of the season on a perfect, manicured pitch at Stoke City.
Stoke had shown in a new 3-4-2-1 formation that they could dig in to get a crucial result against Queens Park Rangers.
We denied chances and ground out a win. All the build up to that game and the understanding you then took from how it panned out are so important as players. You could see a fighting spirit from your team-mates, a togetherness that was an important first step after a really horrible month.
Three points were not only much needed but must have felt hard earned for that team. A job well done.
To then go into another home game against Coventry and make six changes has me scratching my head a week later. My dear lady wife must think I’ve got a nit problem!
There were two enforced changes because of injuries to Daniel Iversen and Luke Mcnally.
Ok, that happens. It is important to note that those two players are not in wide positions but in the backbone of a compact formation, absolutely crucial as goalkeeper and centre-back. To then make four additional changes because players were tired had me flummoxed.
In that system, Wouter Burger is a big part of the backbone – and he had scored the winner against QPR, Bae Junho is a big part of the backbone because he played in behind Niall Ennis with a free role. Ennis is a big part of the backbone because he is the main striker and the one player we have with experience and hunger to get behind defences with movement.
So you are asking your squad to run out again with that new system without five players from the spine. Good luck.
Part of the reasoning was that Junho and Burger had played a lot of minutes recently and that Ennis and Junior Tchamadeu, who also dropped to the bench from right wing-back, had not.
But Josh Laurent, who came in, hasn’t been playing, Ben Pearson hasn’t been playing, Nathan Lowe hasn’t been playing. You were asking them all to come in the cold and click. It was such a big ask for Lowe against two grizzled
centre-backs. At this moment in his career, he hasn’t got that knowledge of movement, runs and timing to unlock a defence like that, albeit with the willingness he had.
You have to have a good understanding of how to direct play and there is so much work that goes on in your brain to combine with running around, athleticism and hard work. Ennis looks like he wants to work, like he enjoys breaking that back line.
Laurent ended up being dragged out wide left because of the system that Coventry played when he needed to stay central and support Lowe and Luke Cundle. Lewis Baker couldn’t fill the hole he left behind and a new player coming into that key area had confused the whole dynamic, which was understandable and predictable.
Callum O’hare was excellent as Coventry’s number 10 in a free role and they had two wide with one up, meaning that Stoke kept five players back and had three centre-backs marking one central striker. We were dragged about and they could overload us in the build-up between mid and attacking thirds.
It was not a game full of chances but it was no surprise that Coventry eventually got in front. When Steven Schumacher then made changes and threw on the four who had started against QPR, going to a back four, it changed the flow of the game. Junho supported from the left and was dangerous cutting in onto his right foot, Million Manhoef could do the same on the opposite side and Cundle and Baker got into advanced positions.
It started to cause Coventry problems and we were playing more like a team. Fans always respond to that and they reacted positively. But it was too late.
One other thing that did annoy me at full-time was to see one Stoke player with his arm around a Coventry coach, laughing as they walked past the away end and down the tunnel. I’m not saying that players should live like monks in penance after a defeat but a loss like that should hurt to the bone and at the whistle at least you should feel it in your guts and respect the misery and anxiety the rest of us have as we file out of the stadium.
If you look at Schumacher’s stats since the turn of the year, he’s won two and lost five from eight matches, scoring five and conceding 14. We see that three of the next four games are away from home. Winning doesn’t hurt… does it?