Last time we scored from open play was styles. Were very defensive defending set plays we get everyone back, moving the ball forward its very pedestrian, were cautious at committing body's forward.
Alot of players who are currently not good enough playing but what you do have to blame the manager for is constantly sticking with 5 2 3 when we clearly don't have 3 good strikers, why not stick an extra midfielder in like gomes for a striker and give styles a bit of a free role behind 2 strikers, surely would work better
The manager would rather put a center half into midfield than play Gomes. If I was at Man City I'd be recalling him because of that.
Absolutely this. We're losing the midfield battle in all our games and we lack quality up front. You can't score fewer than zero, so sacrifice a misfiring striker and bolster the midfield. Val's system asked miracles of the wing backs and relied on wholesale changes up front to maintain the press intensity, which I appreciate is harder with only 3 subs. But if we can't use that system why are we persisiting with that formation? As for the barking mad substitutions, words fail. The only green shoots from todays performance are that Cole and Iseka looked like footballers. 3-5-2 with Morris and Woodrow, with Iseka and Cole on the bench might be adequate. That and a fair point Schopp did make pre-match that at least these games are minutes in the legs of some fringe players who won't play when everyone's fit but will surely be needed at the business end of the season, when further injuries and suspensions are inevitable.
