Quote Originally Posted by blue lewj View Post
So, in your view can we not play with a better style with the current squad? Do players always have to look long than try to play a bit more?

Are you of the school of thought that none of our players can play a more attractive style and can play only Warnockball/route one style? I don't buy into that if I'm honest. I think a lot of the reason our players play a route one style is because that is what they are told to do and have been told to do by three managers in succession.
It is also a question of how we are to work out who can't play a more entertainning style going forward if we don't attempt to do so.
I keep on referring to Neil Harris admitting that City reverted to more of a Warnockball approach in November last year and won five out of six straight away, then proceeded to lose the next half a dozen. The apparent move to more of a passing approach was hard to identify and you would be forgiven for thinking that nothing had changed if there wasn't someone telling you that it had. Nevertheless, Neil Harris said he changed things back again and, for me, that means he had given up on trying to play more football because, for whatever reason, the team weren't managing to do what he wanted.

If I had to identify why this was, I'd go for us having too many players in the positions on which a passing approach is founded not being up to the task of "building from the back". If we accept Morrison, Flint and Nelson are our first choice back three, which one would you nominate as the one who plays out from defence in the manner Ryan Bennett was supposed to be doing for the jacks on Saturday? To me, although all three of them can pass the ball well at times, none of them convince me that they could be relied upon to do so to the standard required for such a role. McGuiness may be able to, but it's too early to tell yet and, anyway, I'd want two players in my back three who are more comfortable on the ball than our first choice trio are.

In midfield. Pack can give and take a pass, but has not totally convinced since he's been here, Vaulks is a strange one in that he can deliver "worldy" long balls every now and then, but is an unreliable shorter passer who presents the ball to the opposition too often. Much the same applies to Bacuna who, like Vaulks, has decent technique, but seems unable to apply it consistently when it comes to giving and receiving passes. Ralls is an all rounder for me, who does everything pretty well, but nothing outstandingly and I'm not convinced he's fully over the injury problems he's had for close to two years now. Again, no combination of players within those four convinces me that they could cope well enough with a complete change of approach.

It'd be very risky and it falls into the category of being easy to suggest and harder to achieve, but if the decision was to be made to change to being a passing team overnight, the two central midfielders who fill me with most confidence that they could cope are Bowen and Sang, but, realistically, I don't think any manager would make such a drastic change to both style and personnel now we're into competitive fixtures - the time to do it would be pre season and Sang barely featured in that this year.

In 19/20, there weren't many better number ten type players in the Championship than Tomlin and last season there weren't many better than Wilson, yet I'd watch the two of them in the first half of games they'd started in and they'd barely get a kick. It was in the second halves when oppositions started to tire and concentration began to slip that Tomlin and Wilson really came into their own. I bet Wilson doesn't have the same problem at Fulham this season, because they have defenders and midfielders comfortable enough on the ball to get him involved in dangerous areas in first halves - in my view, we haven't done in the past two years and I can't see us being able to provide the likes of Tomlin, Murphy, Colwill and Giles with enough good possession in first halves with the current first choices in central defence and central midfield..