Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
Well, Whitts’ season at Blackburn rather proved that the decision to release him when we did was the right one. For me, he was at his peak around 2012, but for every year until 2016, when he thirty two, he was well worth a new contract in my opinion.
I accept that what players do when not in possession has become more important, but I don’t think Colwill just stands about doing nothing when we don’t have the ball, he tries to do what he is, no doubt, told to do constantly, but he isn’t the best at it.
This takes me on to the seven/four situation - that seemed the right balance to me during Toshack’s time and it still does now, despite the changes in approach you talk about. If you look at the teams Steve Morison tended to pick, I’d say the balance tended to be eight/three and, like so many managers he was preoccupied more with getting the three or four to help the seven or eight out rather than vice versa.
You could argue to some extent that players like Colwill have been less effective because the seven/eight were not doing their jobs well enough. It was noticeable over the three seasons following our relegation how often the Colwill equivalent players in our team (Tomlin and Wilson) were anonymous in the first half of matches in 19/20 and 20/21and, on the rare occasions he started under Morison in 21/22, Colwill was a spectator most of the time during the opening forty five minutes All of this points to long standing inability to pass the ball accurately enough - it was only in the second half, as opponents tired, that the players I mentioned came into their own.
As for Manchester United, I’d say they had too many players who should have been in the seven who thought they were one of the four - they were a team short of piano lifters in the same way we had too few piano players.
Finally, as for as get stuck in merchants are concerned, I agree that you need more than that these days even to be a piano lifter, but that message has taken longer to sink at Cardiffthan most other clubs. For me, this summer has given us a nucleus of hard working players with better ability on the ball- players of the type that should be equipped to give the Tomkins, Wilson’s and Colwill’s of this world the sort of service which would see them get more involved. It’s frustrating therefore that Morison seemed reluctant to commit fully to the seven/four divide, the most adventurous he tended to get was a seven and half, three and a half arrangement with Sawyers expected to do a bit of both.