It’s a couple of days since Town’s 1-1 draw with Coventry and it’s already a struggle to remember anything of great consequence from the game. Despite this season being exceptional for off the pitch reasons, we had to sit through another unexceptional Town performance where a point was a little bit fortunate.
All the usual problems reared their head during the game and it was only results elsewhere that guaranteed Town’s safety. In previous seasons beating the drop had been something to celebrate but this time it’s slightly embarrassing as it doesn’t feel like we deserve to survive after a woeful 2021.
Playing three or four different formations at once
Could you confidently say what the formation was for Town on Saturday? I was preoccupied by this question for long spells in the first half but still didn’t really work it out. Here’s what I think we were trying to do:
Rowe: Right wingback but actually more like a rightback and a right winger at the same time as he didn’t get much support from those around him.
Keogh: Centre back but would sometimes drift into midfield, in the same way elderly relatives shuffle into another room but can’t remember what they went in for.
Sarr: Mostly a left sided central defender but he also played a bit of leftback when Toffolo was AWOL.
Toffolo: Sometimes played as a leftback but was more like a centre back as he rarely ventured forward. But he also seemed to have a free role that saw him pop up in strange areas.
Hogg: Defensive midfield but also dropped into the middle of the back line sometimes too. Which meant we had four potential central defenders.
O’Brien: Box-to-box midfielder but also regularly filling in at left back and sometimes a winger.
Holmes: Who knows, maybe he was a number ten but he was too ineffective to really tell.
Bacuna: Swapped with Rowe and had a crack at wingback but mainly in midfield. But also sometimes would be better classed as a UN observer kind of role where he was sworn to not get involved unless he can’t avoid it.
Sanogo: Target man, but we struggled to actually ever hit the target in any meaningful way.
It felt like nearly every player on the pitch was in some odd hybrid position where they had multiple roles and the team looked disjointed and muddled. When this kind of approach works it can seem like a tactical masterclass but in this case it looked like wee overcomplicated things and confused the players.
Repeating the same mistakes (again)
It’s been done to death on this blog and elsewhere but all the reasons Town have been garbage this season were in evidence again in this match. I’ll just use bullet points to save us all a bit of time:
- Suicidal passing out from the back ✅
- Tepid passing in midfield ✅
- Failing to give decent service to the forwards ✅
- Poor set piece deliveries ✅
- Failing to complete basic passes ✅
- Carlos waiting too long before making changes ✅
There was so much wrong with the goal we conceded
As much as I love Harry Toffolo, he’s the first player to point the finger at for Coventry’s goal. For reasons only he will know, he decided to try dribble past the entire Coventry City team on his own. While in his head he most likely had visions of Ryan Giggs’ famous FA Cup goal, the reality was less spectacular as he stumbled into three opponents and gifted them possession while our defence was badly out of position.
Then when the ball broke for Coventry, Hogg didn’t have the legs to track his man or even get close enough for the kind of “take one for the team” tackles that could have stopped the attack.
Both central defenders could have dealt with the situation better too. Keogh is in the right position to step forward and put pressure on the ball carrier but instead just keeps back peddling and doesn’t get involved at all. Then Sarr’s positioning is even worse, as he gets sucked towards the ball and leaves the eventual goalscorer unmarked. Sarr doesn’t look over to the gaping hole in our defence that Toffolo left, so had no idea that he had left their winger unmarked in our box until he was too far away to make an effective challenge.
Apparently there’s a deflection on the shot from Naby Sarr’s last ditch attempt to block the shot which takes it away from Ryan Schofield but even accounting for that I think the keeper should have done better. Given shotstopping is the strength that cancels out Schofield’s weaknesses, it seemed a soft shot to concede. Given that he had made several quality saves earlier in the game, I suppose he can be given the benefit of the doubt.
But whichever way you slice it, five Town players got something fairly basic wrong in the build up to that goal. And there were four or five similar situations that we got away with where these kind of mistakes were also made.
Is it because our players aren’t good enough or is the system to blame? I genuinely don’t know. Neither does anyone at the club but they’ll most likely tell you that all will be fixed by the end of the next transfer window. And they might be right. But if they’re wrong then we’ll be building a team around an idea that is fundamentally flawed.
Surviving with a whimper not a roar
It’s interesting to see how Coventry fans assess their season compared to Town fans. Despite having a broadly similar points tally, they are far happier with their progress and will feel optimistic about next season. In contrast, Town fans are mostly despondent about our current position and fully expecting another flirtation with relegation next season.
I am pleased that Town have survived and I think the Championship is the right level for us. But I’m struggling to find much optimism at the moment. I’ve talked before each of Town’s recent games about wanting to see something on the pitch that would offer a glimmer of hope. That’s not materialised and if anything the recent games have been as bad as any of the other 2021 games.
It seems likely that next season’s Championship will be a lot stronger than this one. The promoted teams are likely to be tougher to beat than this year’s crop and at least one but maybe two of the division’s basket case clubs will go down this year. What I’m getting at is that Town need to sort it out next season as it’s unlikely we’ll be lucky enough to have four teams worse than our dismal team next time around.
Now the hard work starts
While Town technically have one game left, their season is now effectively over and the work to get ready for next season can be ramped up a gear (though should have been in the works for many months already).
The retained list will be the first priority and surely the majority of the decent earners will be going, including club legend Christopher Schindler. While some of those players we’ll be sad to see go, it’s necessary to free up the budget for the players we desperately need. I can’t be bothered listing the players I think will get new deals here but mostly the youth players that will be on relatively low wages but even a few of them may be released.
Then there’s the recruitment side of things. One of the things that really helped in the 16/17 preseason was how early we did the bulk of our business and how long Wagner had to work with the squad before the season started. Harry Toffolo said before last weekend’s game that part of Town’s recent trouble has been adapting our recent signings to our way of playing, so doing our business early would really help.
I can’t say I’m optimistic about us doing our deals early though, as recently all of our transfer business has involved protracted negotiations and then last-minute scrambles as the deadline approaches. There always seems to be some element of messing about with transfers under the current regime, so we’ll need to see an improvement in how we conduct ourselves to avoid repeating the mistakes we’ve made in the last few years.
As well as bringing players in there may be some leaving if the right bids come in. We have to accept that most seasons are likely to see one of two of our best players sold as that seems to be a part of the business model the club is following. I’d guess Toffolo and O’Brien are most likely to generate interest with Pipa and Koroma also possibilities. If we are letting players leave then I only hope we don’t do the usual thing of selling them late in the window and then not adequately replacing them.
We need a complete clear out and a talented scout to bring in Youngblood who are hungry tough and adaptable.We need these type of players in now I mean this week and for Corberan to work out just exactly how we are going to play and what formations to adopt.There needs to be no excuses this time and if results don’t happen we need a plan B and to get rid of Coberan earlier rather than later.This all comes down to the chairman and how quickly he will react and not sit on his hands like he has done this season.
I’ve said this many times before but sadly the current business model being followed by our chairman simply is not financially feasible for the club.
Yes, the remaining big earners are likely to leave, and that must surely help the budget, but any spare money that the club is likely to generate, will be drip fed back to Dean Hoyle until his loan to the club is fully extinguished.
If good offers come in for our ‘better’ players, and you named several, then I think the club will have no alternative but to let them go. Firstly because the club needs the money, secondly the players will want to play with better players and thirdly they in turn will earn more.
Unless Hodgkinson is prepared to support the club financially from his own wealth (as Hoyle did), then the chances of town paying the type of money we did to bring the lines of Schindler to the club is zero. However, has Hodgkinson got the wealth to do what Hoyle did ? I suspect not (I mean look at Pure Groups Balance Sheet for a hint). Is Hodgkinson as shrewd a business man as Hoyle ? Not in the same league. Has Hodgkinson got around him the calibre of people Hoyle had by the time we were challenging to get promoted to the premier league. In a word ‘no’.
So I really do fear for our beloved football club. Ok we are unlikely to do a Bolton or a Portsmouth, but do we really think we are set up to compete at the top end of the championship ? That outcome is extremely unlikely unless something significant changes. Be that the ownership, the clubs management (both on and off the field), or how the club is financially structured.
I’m sorry to be so downhearted but this current set up has all the hallmarks of another Rubery era and several others before that one.
I totally agree with your analysis of the Coventry match. It was shambolic and just reflected what’s going on in CC’s head – total confusion.
Unless I missed it, you didn’t actually mention whether CC stays or not in your masterplan? He surely cannot survive. It would be a like a Tory Cabinet minister, or dare I say like the Prime Minister himself, not taking responsibility for his actions. There’s been nothing at all that says to me “let’s give it another go with a different squad of players”. And you don’t want to be signing up the crew until you’ve appointed your captain. CC should fall on his sword immediately after the Reading match, and if he doesn’t, then the Chairman should do the job next Sunday.
Loans – they will be the key to how we do next season. Every successful Championship club has one or two loan players from bigger clubs. This year we only had one and he was injured for a long period.
Some new experienced players, and good loan signings and we’ll be ok. People forget how exciting we were to watch before Christmas. I still think Carlos can do a job – not sure what sort of job but he could do one, definitely.
Great article TS, your analysis of particular players and their positions in whatever formation was in operation was particularly clever and three interesting comments already. So here goes….
No-one played well except Koroma, for a change Rowe had a poor game – easily forgiven given his recent performances and the frequency with which his playing position has changed, he and the much maligned Bacuna have suffered the same fate.
I did not enjoy watching at all as the game evolved into a succession of unpunished errors with Coventry creating opportunities and Town offering little to excite or convince that a positive outcome was possible.
Coventry took the lead and imagined the victory was complete only for Ward to control well and score confidently to eveyone’s relief especially his own, unsurprisingly Town did not create this opportunity it was handed to them. Other results allowed the closing stages to be enjoyed – no that’s the wrong word – endured is better, but still not quite right.
I wonder if I will pay a tenner next week to complete my full set of watched games, of greater wonder will be the future prospect of extending contracts of, or filling the team with yet more slow and lacklustre 30+ central defenders to help with CC’s philosophy of how to play this simple game.
Will next season be the same? Who hires these anti-footballers? Who re-hires these probable has-beens and possibly never weres? No doubt Rhodes will be added to that list, at least he isn’t a never was, but surely completely unsuitable for a CC team – ah ah eureka – sign Rhodes and that condemns CC he has to be sacked, please don’t sign Rhodes. I remember how much I enjoyed watching Town for a few months prior to Christmas, if he is to remain give him a squad that can cope.
Would it be more fun to watch Wednesday V County to feel the agonies endured by their supporters, these could/should so easily have been our agonies!
Corberan was only good for a short time. His style was soon sussed out by the opposition who cancelled out the likes of Toffolo and saw how easy it was to break through the “defence”…69 goals against!! He is a one trick pony with no Plan B. Hodgkinson thought he was buying a cheap Bielsa but all he was getting was an inexperienced coach who wasn’t good enough to operate without an experienced man behind him. He has to go as early as possible to give a new man time to get established with what will be a new team.
Sorry four great comments!!!
The stadium has been renamed a number of times and it’s ready for a new one. Home for the Bewildered. Nobody from the top to the bottom know what the hell they are doing. Just confusion. An American a number of years ago said that everyone ends up in a job where they are no good. This means when you are good you get promoted until you get to a level where you are rubbish at your job so you don’t get promoted anymore so you stay in the that position, doing a poor job. Hodgkinson is there as are Bromby, Corberan, his coaches and players.
I agree totally with John. I have tried to see any positives but cannot find any, other than a lot of deadwood is going. We must all accept that PH is unlikely to sell the club and therefore his ‘yes men’ board are likely to stay too. I would not go as far as to say that PH is a bad businessman, but because of COVID his type of business has stagnated because he is reliant on courts and they have largely been closed. He probably has significant assets but currently low on liquidity. A bit like owning your home but short of cash. I suspect that we will not see investment of the kind that we need. That is not my worry, however. I think that even if the recruitment team got it absolutely right, I still would have no confidence in CC. I have mentioned before that he may be a good coach who can get the best out of young players in particular but he demonstrates no signals that he is a motivator. My wishes for the next season;
Please do not buy Jordan Rhodes
Bring 2 or 3 quality loan signings
Sign two solid centre backs who are ambitious and dominant
Give CC no more than 10 matches to prove us all wrong
Give CC no more than 10 matches to prove
Dino
Excellent summary of the game,your articles have been a bright spot of the terrible second half of the season.
I really do not think CC is up to another long hard season in the Championship ,however I do not think Hodgkinson,will sack him due to money and his own ego.As for the recruitment ,do we trust the current team to replace such a large proportion of the team ,I think not, JR is certainly not the answer if true.
I have rarely gone into another close season with so much apathy and distrust of the people running our club.
Thank you for another excellent report with some lovely touches of humour. Like you, I have just given up on trying to understand what system Town play. At one point on Saturday I seriously doubted that my screen was working properly as I watched Coventry drive into huge open spaces down our left hand side without a blue and white shirt in sight.
The formation is simply baffling and it gets even worse as players are substituted and new ones come on and try to “fit in”.
I think Mark makes a hugely important point about loans. On the season we went up we have four really influential ones – Ward, Mooy, Palmer and Brown. It appears we are now suspicious of Premier League loans – in other words paying that sort of money – but I suspect a lot of other clubs are going to be in the same boat because of the pandemic so I suspect loan fees etc might well come down. We need quality loans – this year’s were simply not good enough. A goalkeeper who lets in 11 in two games, anyone?
I am not as despondent as some. I think players like Koroma, Thomas, Rowe and Aarons can give us some pace and energy going forward but we desperately need some muscle and athleticism both at the back and in midfield. We look feeble compared to many teams. But there will be a lot of decent players looking for clubs this summer – one just has to hope our recruitment team and the budget are up to the task.
Some good end of term comments. Could do better in a lot of cases ! I really hope they have learned their lesson in getting free transfers, they are free for a reason. Not really fair to criticize individual players as the system is very confusing. I hope if we manage to sell any players we invest that back in the team, although not many will be chased. I have watched Town since the 60’s, enjoying it as a kid, then getting more pessimistic as time went on. They have to learn from past mistakes, eg. not filling the team with youngsters who get knocked off the ball easily. Will they? I honestly don’t know.
Welcome to the Eeyore club, terrier. You join it just as I was feeling a bit more ‘tiggerish’ after our ‘striker’s’ first goal of the season.
A better outcome to the season than we had any right to expect from this very, very poor squad. Time to rejoice and look forward to the delights our recruitment team have in store for next year.
Thanks for the glowing comments re Schindler. Long overdue, but very welcome nevertheless. How on earth do we replace him?
Looking forward to your review of the season.
Another excellent report, I agree entirely.
I think enough is enough. It is time that the Chairman admitted that he made a big mistake in sacking the Cowleys and appointing Corberan. He took a risk and, in my opinion, it has failed. Corberan had a full pre-season, unlike the Cowleys, and has accumulated less points. The football played, particularly since January, has been worse.
We could end up in a Siewert situation next season and be back to square one.
Such a ‘nearly’ 2020 (W9D4L9) followed by an almost toltal capitulation in 2021.
Praying that we can start to build something over the the summer. Time will tell if CC can deliver anything like a top ten team…
At least this put a smile on my face:
Keogh: Centre back but would sometimes drift into midfield, in the same way elderly relatives shuffle into another room but can’t remember what they went in for.