It All Goes Wrong In Midfield.

By Sb7Jon. 

 

This is my first shot at a main article so stick with it. In order to not make this completely about the Blackpool game I’ll not be marking scores for players in that match or such like, that’s Knowl’s job.
So after two years Coleman finally has his squad. A generally a better, younger and so surely a fitter squad than ever - yet we’re left with a team with no direction, no leadership on and off the field and the same excuse of tiredness every week.

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I will come to the negativity of Coleman’s tactics and team selections in a minute but his general demeanour and after match comments cannot give any confidence to his players. He doesn’t speak positively, he never says, “we’re a better team” or “we’ve got the players to beat these teams”. It’s always a negative statement before and after the match, talking up the other teams and talking down our chances. We all know they’re not world-beaters, but would talking them up be so harmful? Surely sending a team out with a positive attitude is more constructive than talking them down and sending them out almost convinced a point is a good result.

Yes teams like Swansea and Blackpool are above us in the league. Yes they’re playing better consistent football than us at the minute. Is that because they set themselves up to not lose against every team? No they are coached to play their way, they all understand how their manager wants the team to play and therefore are sent out in a positive frame of mind to play that way. Further to this all good teams, not just in this league have a plan B and probably a few more after that. They have players that can switch to suit a change of tactics during a match or players on the bench to change games.

So what do we have?

We have one style of play, one set of tactics and only like for like players on the bench. A bank of four at the back, not so unconventional and most are agreed a decent enough back four for this division, they maybe sit too deep at times but overall we’re happy there and we move on to the midfield. I’m afraid this is where everything goes wrong for me. Sat right in front of our slightly too deep defence, is our non-existent midfield. We have the personal in the middle but no one capable of setting them up in the correct way:

Firstly – Clingan is the type of player we’ve wanted for years. A Carrick type player who will take the ball off our hoofers at the back and link up with the midfield and/or the striker(s) in order to get the team moving forward. Unfortunately we don’t have any players further up the pitch for him to play the ball too. For instance in the standard Coleman line up of, Bell – Clingan – Gunnarson – McIndoe with Morrison – Best upfront, his main outlet becomes Best who is usually well marked, and isolated. Coleman’s tactics dictate that when we don’t have the ball, Bell and McIndoe fall back and sit on top of the full backs, leaving nothing out wide for the counter attack. Gunnarson seems to have the same instruction and is usually found deeper than Clingan cutting out any forward movement through the middle. Then finally Morrison is usually 30/40 yards deeper than Best meaning if Best does win the ball he needs to hold it up whist we get support to him and crucially the opposition get back to defend.

Secondly – Gunnarson has been transformed in his 18months here from a free running, all-action (if a little sporadic) midfielder who had a big enough engine to run all day into a dull, lifeless Stephen Hughes style player who can barely run for an hour. His marauding forward runs of last season are gone and replaced with a defensive self doubt that has seen nothing more than a nose bleed in the opponents half this season. His attitude and style of play last season would compliment Clingan’s game perfectly but he’s been restricted and it’s ruining both Gunnar and Clingan.

Thirdly – Pace. There is none, so having players in more advanced positions is our only chance of playing on the counter. Added to that the fact that if we have two or three in advanced positions we restrict the opposition’s defence from joining the attack. Baker seems to have a bit of pace and skill, but one swallow doesn’t make a summer, so lets play smart if we can’t play fast!

Lastly – Leadership. It’s amazing how now with three captains in the back four we have less direction in the side than at any point in recent years. McPake seems more than capable of organising his fellow defenders and both he and Wood seem to be very vocal and very supportive on the pitch. Yet the man Coleman chooses to wear the armband, Wright. A man who after telling Deegan where to play the ball, an instruction he competently followed, Wright stopped running, watched the ball roll harmlessly out of play before turning and give Deegan an absolute bollocking! Shocking behaviour from the man who’s supposed to be leading the team.

Again during the game Clingan was in a hole in midfield with only Wright as an outlet, Wright accepted the pass, ran 5 yards over the half-way line and hacked a hopeless ball down the line to no-one before again turning on Clingan. On the pitch there were numerous occasions where players were arguing and pointing the finger and Wright was anonymous! As the captain he should be putting out these fires and gelling the team not ignoring the bickering and even joining in at times. Coleman needs to find a left back fast, get Wright out of the team and give McPake the job of leading the team before we get another Doyle vs Page scenario!

So onto the general tactics (not formations as understandably they change), that’s if there are any. Sitting too deep and inviting pressure is about all Coleman seems able to do. I agree away from home being more conservative isn’t a bad idea. Yet at home sitting back is an invitation to the opposition to attack at will. Momentum is key in this league and we don’t start either half at anywhere near the tempo required and we suffer because of it. We give teams coming to the Ricoh time to settle into the game and then we withdraw further and further onto the back foot. He has his squad, he is now being judged on all he has done here and I fear we all know what the judgement will be!

I mentioned in a thread a few days ago, CCFC has been rudderless for so long. Countless owners, chairmen, managers, coaches and players have all come and gone and yet the apathy and negativity on the pitch and in the stands still remains. Until a manager comes in and creates a team that’ll turn the draws into wins, turn the 1-nils into 3 or 4-nils and turn the negativity surrounding CCFC around we’ll continue to sink deeper and deeper into the mire. Is Coleman that manager? He’s the manager Ranson wanted that’ll work with him stabilizing the club and recycling lower league players through the club for profit. And stability is what we all want when we look over our shoulder and see clubs like Palace and co struggling to pay their way but I really think a more positive manager could perform that same job whilst moving the team up the table.

So for now, I fear we better get used to struggling to fifty something points a season and the pathetic after match interviews about tiredness and difficult opposition.

PUSB

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