I'm not particularly concerned by the results or the number of points we've got, that's all irrelevant at this stage. That said, the way we are playing is a cause for concern.
I don't buy all the posters who are saying we lack talent, we don't. We've got a decent spine with Forster, VVD, Hojberg and Long. The formation is the problem, pure and simple. On a purely theoretical level I can understand why the diamond is an attractive formation for managers and was in favour of Hodgson trying it with England prior to the Euros. However, in practice, I don't really see any advantages to it. By playing two up top you sacrifice a midfielder and therefore some stability in the middle of the park but we seem to be weaker defensively and weaker going forward. There were times in the second half where we couldn't really get the ball off Sunderland and were completely overrun in midfield, slightly concerning against a team that really aren't great, although one that does seem to have developed a spine under Moyes.
I could see the diamond working well for a team like Liverpool where you have a transient front three that all have pace and strength (Coutinho, Mane and Firmino) but we just don't have the players for it. Tadic's best moment, for me, was when he beat a man on the left wing (like he used to) and whipped a decent cross over, playing in the centre he just isn't as effective. A few decent touches and through balls but he is, in my opinion, much better on the left.
Austin doesn't look right in this formation, he hasn't got the pace to close players down as the strikers are asked to do in this formation and frequently receives the ball much too deep and hasn't got the place, strength or dribbling ability to move forward with it effectively.
As others have said, Redmond isn't good enough as a striker at the moment but did look much better as a number 10 running forward from deep. The only striker who looks as if he might fit the system at the moment is Long, he must start every game from now on for me. I also think that JRod would be perfect for this system if he was fit. He looked decent in his cameo but I hope we don't change our decision on bringing someone better or more reliable in because he scored a scuffed shot that should have been saved. I applaud him for taking a shot on goal but, realistically, it should have been easily prevented. If he's fit and firing we must keep him, but we shouldn't change our decision on him for the sake of that goal.
My other concern is that we move the ball much too slowly and there's too much focus on keeping possession and almost 'overplaying'. By playing more and more short passes we only increased the number of opportunities for players to make individual errors and miscontrols. Even our best players, like Hojberg, miscontrolled and gave the ball away in midfield as a result of us playing so many passes and playing such a slow build up game. It seems counterintuitive to me to be implementing a system that's based on slow, possession football when last season we saw Leicester win the league by playing counter attacking football and having very little possession. I read that Claude had said we were focusing on a possession game to try and conserve energy when we have to contend with two games in a week. To me that's a lame reason, Spurs, for example, will have to play two games a week but you don't see Potch compromising his high press, all action style to save energy. I appreciate they've got a larger, higher quality squad but I think its a shame to compromise our weekly playing style just to manage our playing schedule.
It's clear the St Marys crowd are incredibly frustrated and edgy and, whilst I think it ridiculous, the booing of the Tadic substitution was worrying. The atmosphere around the club seems quite negative at the moment, many around me who are usually pretty upbeat are frustrated with our board's willingness to sell our best players and our sluggishness in the transfer market. The signing of Boufal seems imminent but I'm not sure he'll do much to turn the tide in the short term if he's injured. Once he comes back he will take a couple of weeks at least to get into it so it could be almost Christmas before he makes the impact we are hoping for. I hope I'm wrong but the pressure could really be on by December if we carry on playing like this.
As FF says, I do really hope that we don't have another Sturrock situation on our hands as the players do seem frustrated and to dislike the system. I've noticed a few arguments amongst the players in both the Man U and the Sunderland game so hope that doesn't come to a head. When our best player (VVD) comes out with quotes like he has after a game then the alarm bells do start sounding for me.
Puel needs time but he also needs to recognise when something isn't working and change it. I hope that he is prepared to revert to 4-3-2-1, at least in the interim, as I do think we are better suited to that system. We played the wrong system in the early games under RK last year and got murdered by Everton but we changed things and results did turn. Here's hoping CP can do the same.
There has, no doubt, been some overreaction on here but the fact is we finished 6th last year and had a chance to push on and make a real statement but that just hasn't materialised both in terms of the managerial appointment and our transfer activity and I think this underlying frustration amongst the wider fanbase is exacerbated by a slow start and a couple of pretty poor performance.
Shame that it's Arsenal away next as we'll do well to get any change out of them. Oh well, on to the next!
