Neil Thompson on why he changed the tactics, formation and starting lineup

[torryowl]

I'm no tactician but whatever the plan was he needs to bin it coz that was fecking awful yesterday......

[yeadonowl]

So instead of having 3 centre half’s marking a single striker we have 2 centre half’s and 2 defensive full backs. So in essence 4 defenders marking 1 man

 

Could see after 30 mins the plans weren’t working and yet he didn’t change it

 

The dropping of our only recognised striker for someone who threw his toys out of the pram was weak management as well

[Deepcar_lights]

Thing with football. Hardly anyone feels safe enough to admit mistakes. 

 

 

[Jim]

The GF and GA Columns say it all for me.

 

21 goals scored in 30 games is horrendous.

 

32 goals conceded in 30 games particularly for a team in the bottom 3 for most of the season is pretty good TBH.

 

We’ve been set up to play negative football for all but one season under the Chansiri era.

 

For 2 or 3 of those seasons we got away with it because our attacking talent was above average for the level we were at.

 

Take away Forestieri, Hooper, Fletcher, Joao and even Nuhiu and you get a more accurate reflection of where we are.

 

To go from the calibre of attacking players that we had to the ones we have now is complete f**kwittery of the highest order.

 

In all fairness to go from one extreme style of play to another in a short space of time when the players have a safety first mentality ingrained into them is very difficult.

 

In summary the defence will give us a fighting chance of staying up but we have to find goals from somewhere so persevering with the likes of Paterson, Rhodes and Reach who have shown they can score is our only way out of this in the short term.

[S36 OWL]

Find a system that suits our players, don't change it for anyone and let the opposition worry about us. Football is not complicated. 

[Yorkowl.74]

26 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

I just don't know how we were planning to create chances.

 

We didn't really get down the flanks and put decent deliveries into the box, which is how we've scored most of our recent goals. But then we barely played a meaningful through-ball for the forwards to latch onto all game, either.

 

We mostly just lumped aimless long balls up in the general direction of Birmingham's defence and hoped for the best.

 

It's as if the fact we were blunted by Stoke's defence resulted in a complete change of approach, which wasn't necessary and clearly didn't work.

This is it. No point banging on about who/who isn’t starting as our strikers when we’re not getting down the width and delivering balls across that box!

[mogbad]

Another case of a manager over thinking it & worrying too much about the opposition. We were playing Birmingham FFS not Man City. Play your best team in the formation they’ve got used to in recent weeks & give at a go.

[nethertonowl]

49 minutes ago, Costello 77 said:

1st mistake is overthinking it.

2nd mistake is overthinking it in completely the wrong way.

 

 

Third mistake is not changing it at half time, go back to three at the back switch Harris who was being killed by their left back. , withdraw shaw, put reach and Rhodes on. 

[Costello 77]

Just now, nethertonowl said:

Third mistake is not changing it at half time, go back to three at the back switch Harris who was being killed by their left back. , withdraw shaw, put reach and Rhodes on. 

Yep. We were deep into Bassett territory yesterday.

 

[Guest wilyfox]

Rule no.1: put your best team out

Rule no.2: put your best team out

Rule no.3: put your best fućking team out

 

not rocket science is it, really..

[edwinowl]

He’s done us a job. 
We’ve been lucky in a few games and we haven’t really played that well. 
Time to get someone in. We can still Get out of this mess but times running out. 
 

[Owl ball 1980]

17 minutes ago, Jim said:

The GF and GA Columns say it all for me.

 

21 goals scored in 30 games is horrendous.

 

32 goals conceded in 30 games particularly for a team in the bottom 3 for most of the season is pretty good TBH.

 

We’ve been set up to play negative football for all but one season under the Chansiri era.

 

For 2 or 3 of those seasons we got away with it because our attacking talent was above average for the level we were at.

 

Take away Forestieri, Hooper, Fletcher, Joao and even Nuhiu and you get a more accurate reflection of where we are.

 

To go from the calibre of attacking players that we had to the ones we have now is complete f**kwittery of the highest order.

 

In all fairness to go from one extreme style of play to another in a short space of time when the players have a safety first mentality ingrained into them is very difficult.

 

In summary the defence will give us a fighting chance of staying up but we have to find goals from somewhere so persevering with the likes of Paterson, Rhodes and Reach who have shown they can score is our only way out of this in the short term.

Spot on there lad. Best form of defence is attack. We hav a good defence we need to get our midfield and forwards all guns blazing.  First 2 seasons with carlos was a lovely football to watch and very unlucky to not get promoted. Very unlucky. When we were in league 1 we were leaking in goals but scoring and winning games. Automatic promotion we went 18 games undefeated most of them games we won. We were well down the league just before xmas that year. They year through the playoffs we were losing but still won 4-2. Attack name of the game. Puils and monk where wild men using defence as a form of attack. Uto. 

[Owls Loyal]

I agree with so many of these posts.

 

NT's decision on formation and tactics yesterday was as bizarre as his decision to take Dunkley off for the last 20 minutes against Stoke when we knew an aerial bombardment was coming.  That is exactly how they got their goal.

 

Yesterday NT was precisely like Coaching Badge Irvine by worrying about the opposition far too much.

 

And we all know that despite being given money to spend Irvine relegated us into League One and had he not been fired by MM we were sliding towards League Two.

[CircleSeven]

Well. At least he explained it I suppose. If Shaw hadn’t got sent off and we had held for a draw or nicked it then that would have papered over the cracks really and might have cemented the kind of wrong thinking that drove yesterday’s dire performance. 
Rule 1- don’t change a winning formula

Rule 2- repeat rule 1

 

Ah well. Hope we learn from it. 

[Costello 77]

2 minutes ago, wilyfox said:

Rule no.1: put your best team out

Rule no.2: put your best team out

Rule no.3: put your best fućking team out

 

not rocket science is it, really..

Indeed!

They've all bought into the rotation theory.

The clever manager will note this as an issue and take advantage of the large playing contingent allowed and the relatively large amount of substitutions to manage the problem as the game is being played.

[Guest Kagoshimaowl]

51 minutes ago, Emilianenko said:

Weak minded to drop Rhodes cos Windass been moaning. 

Just out of interest, how do you know Windass has been moaning?

[Owls Loyal]

So so true Wilyfox

 

The Coaching Badge Irviine approach was to worry so much about the opposition that the players lose what ability they do have and become fearful.

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

28 minutes ago, S36 OWL said:

Find a system that suits our players, don't change it for anyone and let the opposition worry about us. Football is not complicated. 

 

I know what you mean, but I don't entirely agree.

 

We're not playing particularly well this season no matter who starts, so to just stick with the same setup regardless of the opposition will probably see us fail to maximise our points haul. We don't have a squad which was built with one system or style in mind, so we tend to blow hot and cold regardless of how we line up.

 

We've had comparative success recently getting the ball out wide and sticking early crosses into the box, but some teams will easily nullify that threat, as we saw against Stoke. 

 

These are the kind of games where having a plan of attack other than 'lump it long and hope for the best' would come in handy.

 

You'd hope such a change would be made to get the best out of our players within a particular game though, rather than to counteract the opposition's approach.

[Costello 77]

1 minute ago, Owls Loyal said:

So so true Wilyfox

 

The Coaching Badge Irviine approach was to worry so much about the opposition that the players lose what ability they do have and become fearful.

This leads us neatly onto one of my favourite clichés.

What ever the state of play..win your own battle..if everyone does that you're in with a good chance.

There's too many of our lot who are using the baffling coaching decisions/tactics as cover to dispense with their in-game responsibility.

[wellbeaten-the-owl]

1 hour ago, McRightSide said:

Three centre-backs has worked for us in a lot of games but I didn't think it was the right way to go today.
 

LOL

 

This has worked really well so thought I’d get rid and try something else

Don't remember Wycombe exactly playing very attacking against us but 3 -5-2 worked well then.  If you are on a decent run (5 straight home wins) you don't change your system unless you have to.  Whatever way you put it it's a terrible decision.