The difference between us and Luton? A Director of Football

I think Barry Cotter is a case in point. Plenty of potential as an attacking player but lacking in defensive qualities so would suit a 4-4-2 formation but we haven't played with that formation for an age. Instead we play with wingbacks, a role he appears unsuited for. Do those signing our players have the right expertise in signing players that fit in with the squad we currently have?

 

Ultimately depends who the DOF would be.

A number of coaches don’t like working under one, and it restricts their input even further. Can sometimes undermine them.

It’s not a guaranteed success either. See Dennis Wise etc for examples where it hasn’t.

 

It makes no sense to hire head coaches and not have a director (or equivalent) of football, what we have then is people like Conman making decisions on signing players when he's got zero knowledge about the game. It's whats got us in this mess, you either need the manager-as-dictator model or the head coach/director of football model, if you try and mix the two all you get is a mess. I had some faith when the American guy who went to Forest was here as he had some idea about footy, but this lot? Khalid? Wouldn't trust him to pick Thornes Juniors U11s.

 

Who decided wingbacks was the future? Ah yes that's right people with a non football back ground, let's play and recruit to a model we decide is right.
Not having a pop at you BTW just highlighting we have been force fed a style that someone who'd never played the game before, decided it was the best thing since sliced bread.
A Wing back role is very specialist, quality WB's are quite hard to come by hence we've got one that can't do the defensive side in Cotter.
I just hate the way we've become so 1 dimensional at times, you can see teams set up to completey nullify us and we can't respond or change, because we've recruited a certain way.

 

You won't find me picking a fight with you on this one. I agree totally on the wingback role - you either end up with a winger who can tackle a bit or a defender who can get forward a bit unless you're one of the top clubs who can afford a quality wing back or you're fortunate enough to unearth one as a junior.

 

Who ever decided we would be a club who employ the press by default decided we need wingbacks as you can’t employ a high press with a back 4.