Regarding the pattern of play thing, it's obvious to me that SCP wants to play 4-4-2 – he ended with it last season and started with it this season – but he can't realistically do it with the personnel (or lack of it) available. Hopper was brought in to be Cox's partner, as was Humphrys, and two further targets fell through.
In the opening weeks of the season we played high-tempo, attacking football with crisp passing and movement and each player knew their job. It was fantastic to watch. Unfortunately as the horrendous injuries totted up our style of football gradually deteriorated both offensively and defensively so SCP was forced to look at other solutions, most of which haven’t exactly been pretty.
People claim that he’s clueless tactically; he isn’t, you only have to look at the video where he demonstrates the game plan he used to beat Wigan last season; and from what I understand he is very thorough on the training ground with his preparation for games regarding areas of the pitch he wants players to be given different situations. But the problem here, of course, is are the players capable of carrying out those instructions if they aren’t regular first-teamers, and this is something Powell has struggled with.
But that isn’t unusual. Gerard Houllier initially played 3-5-2 at Liverpool because he didn’t think his defenders were good enough to switch to a back four, and it was the same with Arsene Wenger when he first joined Arsenal. Even Glenn Hoddle struggled to get his ideas across to the England team when he first became manager, according to Tony Adams, because he had expectations that were too high in terms of technique in certain situations.
Equally it is also not true that a manager should play the same way in every game. If you read one or both of Gary Nelson’s books, he criticised Alan Curbishley (I think?) for always playing 4-4-2 regardless of the opposition because it was too predictable. And Eddie Howe has continually changed his tactics this season at Bournemouth depending on the opposition – mostly 4-4-2 but sometimes 3-5-2 or 3-4-3. And of course recently SCP set us up to play 4-4-2 against Pompey and we got slaughtered until Humphrys had to go off, at which point we switched to 4-5-1 and it worked on that occasion but obviously it hasn’t worked in other games.
I’d be less sympathetic with SCP if the transfer window didn’t exist and he was able to bring in players to cover the absences throughout the season; and equally if the injuries were short-term niggles; but come on, when the injuries are long-term, you have a reserve team in defence, meaning the likes of Turner have to play more often than they should, and you have to rely on youngsters to fill gaps then it’s have no access to transfers you are unable to do this. I like the look of Klass, Hutchinson and Kelman and of course Bishop, less so Elvis, but they are raw and need to be introduced gradually. Although funnily enough with more game time than would have been expected that might bode better for the future.
Is Powell blameless? Of course not and like most people here I was disappointed with the line-up on Saturday. I expected a fresher team with Dru and Moore in particular back in the side and the likes of Klass and Hutchinson on the bench, not to mention keeping faith in Bishop. Having said that, it was always going to be a horrible game with those conditions, regardless of the result.
One of the worst experiences at full-time is hearing the opposition fans cheering and chanting and there’s been too much of that season.
I know that the whole injury thing can become tiresome but we’ve had unprecedented and ridiculously bad luck. Humphrys being poleaxed while actually scoring a goal and likely to be out for the season sums it all up.
Just one more thing, I applaud Ron’s decision to keep faith in SCP and explain why. But the cynical side of me wonders whether the extra life is also based on guilt over what happened on transfer deadline day…
