Quote Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman View Post
I'm not so sure about that. I never really detected a lack of effort from the players (apart from Kanga perhaps, but he still looks hopeless under Riza). The problem was that under Bulut the tactics were so defensive, the formation was so rigid and the team selections were so negative.

There's no doubt that several players are going to be feeling a lot better about their games now (such as Robinson, Colwill, Tanner, Robertson and Turnbull). Riza is putting his trust in them and they are responding. They are also playing in their natural positions.

The midfield in particular looks much improved now. Robertson has settled and is being given a licence to play his game. Turnbull has been brought back into the fold (he is one who clearly had issues with Bulut's way of playing). Colwill's in his proper position and is thriving. Add to that we now have Robinson starting games as opposed to Kanga, and everything looks more positive going forward.

Bulut insisted of fielding Ralls and Siopis whenever possible. With the best will in the world, they're not going to create much, no matter how hard everyone is working.
I agree totally, even if a new manager had the players running through walls for him, if he was trying the same tactics that Bulut was, with the same personnel then I don't think our results would ultimately be much different to it was under Bulut.

We now play a way which suits our players, and you can at least see on paper how it is going to allow us to create chances to score - that is far more the source of our improvement than the players liking Riza more than Bulut.