Minority Report 2019-20 v Sheffield Wednesday

On my way to the ground I was musing upon what formation our coach would use today. It is clear that his favourite system is with the midfield 4 arranged as a diamond, but those who went to Charlton had remarked on the BBS upon the improvement after we changes to 5-3-2 with wing backs. Actually, there is very little change from one of those systems to the other. The player at the defensive point of the diamond drops into the back 3 and the two full backs play as the midfield wide players, giving midfield width with their absence covered by the nearest player from the back 3. All systems have their strengths, and all systems have their weaknesses too. There are after all, 10 outfield players on each team and if a team is arranged to be stronger in one area, it is weaker in another. The problem with the wing back system is that it is weak out wide on counter attacks.


When I got to the ground, and the team was announced, it looked like all of my pre-planning was wasted, because, at least on paper, it looked like 4-4-2. I was looking forward to seeing something different, but kick off revealed Mowatt in Halme’s place at the defensive point of the diamond, Thomas and Simoes the middle two and Woodrow once more at the attacking point of the diamond. Furthermore, Brown was very wide on the right, so there was no real opportunity for interplay between him and Chaplin. Once again, the reports of those who had seen Sollbauer were not great, but I was looking forward to making my own mind up.


Another question that I posed on my way to the game was, ‘what is the job of the coach?’ It is a question that has popped into my mind because of my inherent dissatisfaction about the way that Struber has approached the job, and this is but a summary of my thoughts. Under Stendel, the club played 4-3-3 or latterly 4-4-2, but Stendel’s big idea was the press. Nevertheless, the players at the club had all been signed in order to play to a different system. It has to be admitted that player for player, our players are not quite at the standard of established Championship clubs, but the coach will know that better than anyone, and the coach should take that into consideration and make allowance for it in what he asks the players to do and how he asks them to play, especially when they are also very young. What should not happen when a coach changes is that players should not be asked to do things that they are not comfortable with or to do things that are outside their comfort zones.


So, what did Struber do when he came to the club? He undoubtedly disliked the way that the club played its football, and he undoubtedly did not rate some of the players, but what is his best plan in such circumstances. I would suggest to you dear reader, that the best plan is not to scrap everything those players know, barely half-way through the season, get them to abandon their comfort zones, and in many cases convert to totally new positions. The diamond does not have wide midfield players, preferring instead to get its width from advanced full backs who are covered by one of the centre backs, who in turn is covered by the player at the defensive point of the diamond. As was only to be expected, the players struggled with the arrangements, and eventually, the diamond in its purest form was abandoned. Nevertheless, in spite of the obvious problems, the diamond has continued, albeit in a slightly different form. Players who suit different systems have been farmed out on loan, and new players, primarily those with whom the coach has worked before, have been brought in. These have been mainly Austrian/German, and not surprisingly, they have taken time to settle to the English game and conditions. It has been yet another set of players on a very steep learning curve.


Given the adverse conditions that I have listed above, it has been a very difficult path towards finding a team that will be capable of winning consistently in a very difficult and competitive league. You do not need to pile any more problems on top of those, before it becomes virtually impossible. I know that many of our fans did not rate Bambo Diaby. I was of a slightly different opinion. I thought that Diaby was potentially a very good player. He had pace, he had strength and he dominated in the air. His problem was that he made mistakes. That is where good coaching comes in, and with the right intensive coaching I felt that we had a very good player on our hands. Goodness knows when we will find out whether I am right or wrong, but one thing is for sure. We would be better off if he was available than we are without him. However, for me, all that lot pale into insignificance as compared to our lack of height in our forward line. This problem means that we are very predictable in our play, and because we are predictable, we are very easy to stop. I asked the question after the last home game whether the diamond had been rumbled, and once again today, during the first half, we saw the ball passed across the line of the back four because no player ahead of the passer could get into space. Thankfully, Wednesday were not as diligent in their pressing of our back four as Preston had been, otherwise, we would have seen similar effects. I’m sorry, but it does not wash with me when a coach talks about another bad goal, when he has asked players to do things they are not comfortable with, simply because the coach has a need to have his choice of system of play justified.


Many blame our owners for everything that has gone wrong at Oakwell. They have not been able to fund the level of spending that other owners in the Championship have done, and there is little doubt about that. Nevertheless, I understand that reluctance better than I understand some of the thinking behind some of our coach’s choices. In my opinion, he has made it harder for the club to survive. The owners have supported him. They have given him most of what he has asked for, with the failure to attract players during the January transfer window being of only a limited surprise given our perilous league position, our limited chances of retaining our place in the division, and the known effect that will have upon player wages (including new player wages) next season.


I have said very little so far about the game. It was a very poor game, with a referee who was even worse. We had some luck for a change, which Cauley Woodrow took full advantage of. The big change came late in the game, when once again, the coach abandoned the diamond. He asked players to play in their favoured positions in a 4-4-2, and we played far better as a result. This has been a very long Minority Report, and I have made just one central point. That is that players are happier and better when they are allowed to play within their comfort zones, and that whilst any coach will eventually want the make changes, the wiser ones wait for pre-season, when the is more time and better chances of getting it right first time. In my opinion, our current coach has done nothing during his time with us to improve our chances of survival.

Rookie Watch

Michael Sollbauer had very poor pre-game publicity, but I felt that he had a very good game, and provided a very solid pillar beside Andersen

Elliot Simoes my friends all rated Simoes, but I felt he was a bit out of his depth at times, and I had tipped him to be our first substitution, rather than our third.

Minority Report Player of the Match

Oduor was the club MotM, but my choice is Mads Andersen. In fact, I thought it was his best game for the club.

 

I think the Octopus is Charlotte Church.

 

I enjoyed reading that and thought you spoke with a common sense rarely seen on here. Then you said Mads Andersen was man of the match.

Undoubtedly he got better as the game went on. However, he still made numerous mistakes in the first half & showed that right now (and in this system, granted) he can't be trusted with the ball. When he started kicking it long & out of play he looked ten times better but he's still miles out of his depth.

Jacob Brown was the better player on the pitch in my opinion. He affected the game with & without the ball more than any other.

 

Jacob Brown is one of those, and there are an awful lot, who is being asked to play outside his comfort zone. I have an awful lot of time for Jacob Brown, and he is without doubt the hardest working footballer at the club, and his assist stats are the best at the club. I am not going to pull him down by saying anything negative about his performance today, and I do think he was our best performer in the forwards and midfield.

 

Agreed with almost all of that, apart from the last line. Maybe you're not a minority after all.

Not slating Andersen either, overall he was ok, but the risk is always there that he'll do something very daft. Until he learns to cut that out he'll keep getting stick.

 

Agree with almost everything, except that our owners are in my opinion incompetent clowns, and also I really enjoyed the game despite the opposition also being incompetent clowns. Good read though.

 

There are no bigger clowns than Sheffield Wednesday. That club would be a circus if it wasn't such a sad-act outfit.

 

I have gotten through my report of yesterday's game without mentioning one of my major concerns about playing Mowatt at the defensive point of the diamond. At set-pieces, both defensive and attacking, a team likes to have at least 3 tall players to try to win the ball in the air. Yesterday, we had just 2 because Halme was on the bench. It is another facet of the problem when you do not have height in your forward line. You have to pick height elsewhere. We got away with it defensively, but we were no threat from set pieces in an attacking sense. I'm sorry, because many people enjoyed Mowatt at the defensive point of the diamond, but do not expect it to be permanent.

 

Jacob Brown was motm by a country mile, and I thought Sollbauer was a level above Andersen. Much more composed, and seemed to have a bit of nous about him. There were a number of times where he gave a forward a cheeky nudge in the back - enough to imbalance them but not enough to draw the ref's attention

 

There is no doubt that Sollbauer had the older and wiser head that many have called for, but I thought that Andersen drew strength from that old head, was much more positive and much more proactive as a result. I was only too happy to acknowledge the increased dominance that he showed, even though there is no doubt that he was also guilty of a few errors. The fact is though, that every player on the pitch made a few errors. It was that sort of day. It even spread to the officials. It is very very rare for me to turn on a ref, but I'm afraid I lost it in the second half. He was not biased - just incompetent.

 

Mowatt was played there to try and retain possession. Pure and simple and I thought he did okay in that role.

Im guessing the thinking behind this was out of respect for Sheffield Wednesdays midfield. Especially Bannan if you give him time on the ball

My only negative about his performance was that he didn’t want for the ball as much. Especially from goal kicks.

 

I agree about the ref, when is a blatant shove a coming together?

I also agree about Andersen - best game in a Barnsley shirt - hope he keeps it up.