it was mentioned by me before that our style of play has no real foundation. people argued but then which clubs do? but to me i look at managers who have been in their positions a while now, pulis, poch, mourinho, conte, klopp, hughes, hughton, wagner, benitez, howe, dyche….and you can see what it is they have built in terms of squad and style. all these managers set up basically the same way for all their games, only tweaking slightly if opposition is a worry. for example dyche will revert to 5 in mid, howe likes to put 5 at the back in big games. on the whole you can see what each manager wants to achieve on the pitch come match day. i was watching brighton v newcastle and it was clear as day that newcastle were the usual difficult to beat, solid set up and brighton were 4-4-2 with flying, energetic wide players. both managers had a plan, the players had been drilled in this setup not just for a week or so, but ever since the manager took over. the result is they look like they know what they are doing. players know where to find their teammates runs, where the striker will be for a cross, what the plan is in terms of trying to create chances etc etc. hughes sets his stoke side up with the emphasis on a well drilled defence, 3 sitting behind a striker……dyche drills his side to death making sure each player knows his role in the side, howe wants his side to pass it short and break with pace…..klopp wants his team to press and press up the field…each system has flaws but they know what they want to achieve…..and then i look at our side from game to game and i have no clue whatsoever as to what the setup is or the plan. its hard to believe that we have a manager who doesnt know after 3 seasons how he wants to play. evidence of this is the constant changing we've had back 3, back 4, back 5….3 up front, 1 up front, strikers playing wide, midfielders playing in defence….is it me or is this bewildering? I've hear of tweaking your line up but this is plain ridiculous now. we buy players each window without a clue of line up, only after we sign them do we start going through formations to see what works? what we've ended up with is a club that has a manager with no style, no basic managerial style. you appoint allardyce, you know whats coming, you know what sort of players he will need….we are a complete muddle. If only bilic had stuck to his counter attack style of season 1. he would then have been buying players to fit into that system and by now we'd have been established as a counter attacking, pacey side with a back 4. its like every two games we start over again with Bilic deciding something else will do. anyone else noticed?
