Fantastic performance and a great win.
I’ll hold my hands up and say that my criticism of the lineup was completely wrong, but I think my criticism of the setup was bang on. Five at the back against this kind of team at home is completely the wrong thing to do. It has taken far too long for him to realise it, but credit where credit is due, it looks to have finally sunk in and he made the change to a noticeable back four after 25 mins. And guess what, our whole defence were playing in their natural positions, rather than just 40% of it. Unsurprisingly it made us stronger at the back, and gave us more of an attacking threat.
Have to say, I was quite shocked to see the change mid match considering we didn’t do it against the likes of Fulham and West Ham, but hopefully that is the end of it against this kind of opposition.
People wonder why I find this manager so frustrating, and tonight summarises it perfectly. I have found it very frustrating to see us persist with a formation that doesn’t suit our players, makes us play square pegs in round holes, and turns us into a boring team, when we have shown what we can do with four at the back during the 8 in a row last season.
Onwards and upwards.