It’s been a couple of days since Town were rigorously and repeatedly violated by Norwich and it’s still a painful memory. While some fans have been left numb to Town’s struggles this season due to not being physically in the stadia, this result hurt as much as any whipping I’ve witnessed from the stands.
It’s popular to try and frame horrible experiences as opportunities for learning and growth. I’m thinking of that time Noriwch got hammered 7-1 by Colchester on the opening day of the season before going on to romp their way to League One promotion. While such a turnaround isn’t possible for Town after their humbling defeat, there are some lessons that Carlos can (and should) learn from Tuesday night.
Lewis O’Brien is not a leftback
On paper, O’Brien should be a decent makeshift leftback, he’s left sided, good at defending one-on-one and has the engine to get up and down the wing. Football isn’t played on paper though, and every experiment with playing him in this role has been a failure. We need to stop repeating this mistake and play him where he can be most effective for the team.
Leeds have managed to keep to a relatively small core group of first team players over the last few seasons under Bielsa because they have several players that can play a wide variety of positions and I think Carlos wants the same at Town. That’s fine, but O’Brien has proven he can do a job as a left winger, number ten, attacking midfielder and defensive midfielder. That’s enough. Let someone else fill in when Toffolo isn’t fit.
We shouldn’t play three slow centrebacks together
Everything was wrong about the way Town approached the first half against Norwich but the most costly error seemed to be that lack of pace we had at the back. While Stearman, Keogh and Sarr weren’t given the slightest bit of help from their wingback or midfield colleagues, that combination looked awfully slow and cumbersome.
I can see why Carlos chose to play our most experienced possible three at the back but their lack of pace was a consistent problem. While Rarmani Edmonds-Green is relatively inexperienced and is liable to make the odd mistake because of this, he’s quick enough to be able to often dig himself out of trouble and can cover for his less pacey defensive partners. He should be included if we persist with three at the back. If we go back to a four then it’s vital that the fullbacks track back as well as roam forward.
We should change the system as soon as it’s obvious it isn’t working
A heavy defeat looked likely from kickoff. Norwich were rampant and the way Town were trying to approach the game played straight into their opponent’s hands. This seemed clear from even before the first goal was scored, so why the first meaningful change to the team didn’t happen until half-time is beyond me. We were five-nil down at that stage and the game was over as a contest.
If we had made changes after the first or second goal went in then we may have been able to stem the tide a little bit, even if we were never likely to actually get something out of the game. Instead we persisted with a gameplan that was hopelessly exploited by Norwich and our goal difference has now gone from an asset to a liability as a result.
We should pick the strongest XI regardless of upcoming fixtures
David Wagner infuriated my dad in our final league game of the promotion campaign by playing a dramatically weakened side in order to rest the first teamers for the upcoming playoff semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday. We were convincingly beaten that day by Birmingham but ultimately triumphed in the playoffs so it made sense, even if my dad is still grumbling about it to this day.
The Championship is famous for being the league where any team can beat any other team, so it seems crazy that we’ve twice effectively thrown in the towel against teams at the top end (Bournemouth and Norwich away). I acknowledge that this season’s schedule is particularly punishing but rotating the team against Norwich to rest players for the game against Rotherham seems weak to me.
I hope that we put an end to this practice and only rest players when they genuinely aren’t fit enough to play and the fresher backup player is a better option. There’s nothing wrong with managing players’ fitness when they’re close to burnout but we’ve only just come off an international break, so there’s no reason we couldn’t have played a full strength side on Tuesday.
Sorba Thomas looks ready to play in the Championship
I wanted to finish on a relatively positive note, so my final lesson we can learn from the Norwich game is that Sorba Thomas came on in difficult circumstances and did a decent job. His encouraging cameo was the only slight plus from an otherwise dreadful match.
Whether it’s youthful exuberance or just a cocky nature, Thomas played without fear and has a directness when he attacks that’s always great to see. As he’s making a huge step up to play at this level, it’s likely he’ll be a bit raw at times but he produced our best moment of the match on Tuesday when his shot was saved.
I believe Thomas has played quite a few games as a wingback at Boreham Wood this season, so he may be given a chance in this role. I’d rather see him played in his preferred position as an out-and-out winger though, as there’s less defensive responsibility and it gives him more opportunities to run at opposition defenders and to get into goal-scoring positions.
Sometimes you just have to accept Town were beaten by a hugely better team. What I can’t accept is we are supposed to be super fit, it was like watching teenagers playing their grandads. So off the pace it was shocking. O’Brien is being told he’s a prem player, I’ve not seen one as bad as that, his passing in tight situations was terrible, he seems to rush everything. Are they trying to get a good price for him in the summer? He’s a good championship player and that’s it, Vallejo is a much calmer and cultured player. If we stay in the div. l’m afraid there will be some ruthless changes in the summer, followed by another season of uncertainty. Same as …..
It’s looking more and more like Corberan is way down the pecking order in the club hierarchy. He has no say in transfers. He can’t decide who plays as the medical staff tell him who can play. Bromby gives him instructions during the match. There were some telling remarks made by Oumar Niasse in his interview. He talked about speaking to the manager who said all sorts of things about the club that would never have come from Corberan such as being a family club etc. These were more like remarks Bromby would make. In other words, Bromby is the manager and Corberan is just a coach who does what he’s told and takes the flack for the abysmal set of players that he has to work with.