From trying to work out what Sherwood is working towards all I can workout is he wants a 442, but only 1-2 players are good enough to make it really work. If he was to pursue this long term then we would need a massive cash injection to get the right players in, something that we can't afford. We have the players for a 433, so if Sherwood refuses to try to work to his squads stengths then we have an issue. Part of me therefore understands the club looking at Pochettino and De Boer, because their preferred systems would use the squad we have.
For those that keep harping on that Eriksen is in his best position as a left winger/left inside forward, you need to check the games. Even Tim has said that he is best playing in the middle (press release last week) and if you watch our games he is still playing in a number 10 position. The difference for me is that under AVB there was little interchanging of positions between Eriksen at #10 and the two players in the double pivot, he was always in the same area and got marked out of games. Under Sherwood we still play without the interchanging of the #6/#8 and the #10 and instead have two strikers with Eriksen sitting at the point of a weird diamond.
--------Kane---Ade---------
----------Eriksen-----Lennon
-------Paulinho-Chadli-------
Our defensive shape is still aweful and teams still get decent efforts in against us as we leave pockets of space all over the place. Look at how teams like Real and Chelsea have been defending (less so Chelsea because vs Liverpool that was an extreme), when they defend they form two tight banks of players, no space for the David Silva's or Coutinho's of this world to operate in. We are very loose and I'm still suprised that this hasn't been sorted. I don't hold much stock in the "Tim doesn't believe in DM's" theory because he did use them even at U21 level, but even so his refusal to at least try to shore up the midfield is suprising. I do think we are blinded by the fact that the teams we have got in the last 6 games are utter dross and are man for man worse off than us.
As I said I don't think his setup is without merits but our squad isn't made for a 442 and would require an overhaul. As a supporter of this club I'd prefer to see us appoint someone who would be able to get the most from the players we have with 1-2 key buys. Sherwood for me isn't that manager or at least won't be for a few years, but I'm not happy to see us regress just for him to learn his trade and find out that he needs to rethink a few things. Sorry but the club can't afford right now to take this risk.
PS: I have always been open minded towards Sherwood and this here is primarily about his suitability as our coach for the immediate future. I'm not talking about commercial viability of a club with him at the helm, nor his thirst for a fight with someone every week, I'm talking about the evolution of our football and where I think he will take us.
