thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
Great question.
(thinking strictly as myself and NOT accounting for AVB).
I'd have started with Ade, had Dembele in the hole, given Carroll a start alongside Sandro and played Bale wide left and Lennon wide right. JD on the bench, ditto Jake. We absolutely need someone who will show for the ball, who wants it, who is constantly moving into the pockets of space around the pitch a la Luka. Right now, due to a cacophonous fudge up on Levy's part it would appear (Moutinho debacle) the one player we have who fits that decription is Carroll (and he fits it pretty fudging well to be fair, the only thing he's lacking is experience).
As for the subs, I absolutely would not EVER try and sit on a one goal lead at home to Norwich with 10 mins to go. Either leave the team as it is OR make a change to inject pace (in this case Townshend was the option as he WOULD occupy the other side's defence)...finally, I would absolutely NOT change systems three times in a game. Twice is doable as a new manager, but three times is a bit much IMHO.
The thing is, AVB has certain ways and expectations. So what might seem obvious to us might not be to what he wants. I think it comes down to how much AVB wants to learn about coaching and management too. Sometimes you HAVE to be flexible in what you want in order to achieve a long-term objective. He NEEDS a few wins. Thus he NEEDS to play in a system which can get the squad back on track, and he needs to understand that his system CAN work, but it will take time. It's a little bit like when the wall came down; there needed to be GREATER transition between the two economic systems. I think that AVB "might" have to slow down the whole 'three systems per game' thing and fuse his doubtless faultless ideal with a bit more "organic-in-the-moment" thinking. I'm a great believer in picking up on the vibe in a ground. I've seen it/felt it too many times, and sometimes even the best laid plans ned to be ditched in order to take full advantage of the vibe of the moment. Yesterday was a classic example of throwing the book away for the last 15 minutes and letting the game play itself out. We had not, until we took Defoe off (and he did not have a great game IMHO) been under siege (though Norwich had played well)...
(thinking strictly as myself and NOT accounting for AVB).
I'd have started with Ade, had Dembele in the hole, given Carroll a start alongside Sandro and played Bale wide left and Lennon wide right. JD on the bench, ditto Jake. We absolutely need someone who will show for the ball, who wants it, who is constantly moving into the pockets of space around the pitch a la Luka. Right now, due to a cacophonous fudge up on Levy's part it would appear (Moutinho debacle) the one player we have who fits that decription is Carroll (and he fits it pretty fudging well to be fair, the only thing he's lacking is experience).
As for the subs, I absolutely would not EVER try and sit on a one goal lead at home to Norwich with 10 mins to go. Either leave the team as it is OR make a change to inject pace (in this case Townshend was the option as he WOULD occupy the other side's defence)...finally, I would absolutely NOT change systems three times in a game. Twice is doable as a new manager, but three times is a bit much IMHO.
The thing is, AVB has certain ways and expectations. So what might seem obvious to us might not be to what he wants. I think it comes down to how much AVB wants to learn about coaching and management too. Sometimes you HAVE to be flexible in what you want in order to achieve a long-term objective. He NEEDS a few wins. Thus he NEEDS to play in a system which can get the squad back on track, and he needs to understand that his system CAN work, but it will take time. It's a little bit like when the wall came down; there needed to be GREATER transition between the two economic systems. I think that AVB "might" have to slow down the whole 'three systems per game' thing and fuse his doubtless faultless ideal with a bit more "organic-in-the-moment" thinking. I'm a great believer in picking up on the vibe in a ground. I've seen it/felt it too many times, and sometimes even the best laid plans ned to be ditched in order to take full advantage of the vibe of the moment. Yesterday was a classic example of throwing the book away for the last 15 minutes and letting the game play itself out. We had not, until we took Defoe off (and he did not have a great game IMHO) been under siege (though Norwich had played well)...
