09 Nov 2021 11:01:24
So Ole has flown back to Norway for a weeks break, and the players not on international duty have been given time off.
What do people make of that?
Was it something that was planned weeks ago long before the current situation arose and the club are sticking to it.
If so, should we? Do the players/ staff just need a break or do they need to double down and train twice as hard and try and get back to basics. I guess we'll see after the international break.
Or is there more to this, have the club asked Ole to take a break while they work out what to do, that way maybe he can be home safe in Norway when the news breaks of his dismissal. Send the players away and let the club work for a week on an emergency plan, then they can hopefully come back next week with a new manager in situ to start afresh.
Oh to be a fly on the wall at Carrington this week.
1.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 11:18:21
I suspect it is nothing unusual that club staff plan their holidays around international breaks.
Whether they should be on the training ground trying to sort things out is another debate, but with pretty much every first-teamer unavailable it's not really feasible. Watford however will be plotting our demise right now.
2.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 11:26:06
Shappy, you're just spouting nonsense now, Sancho was bought to play right wing, not right wing back.
3.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 11:29:03
Spenno, there are plenty of first teamers not picked.
Notably AWB, Sancho, Greenwood, Telles, VDB, Matic, Lingard, Rashford.
4.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 11:43:53
It’s a logical move if you think about it.
Ole’s best performances came at the very start of his tenure before he had time to coach the players.
Send Ole away from the training ground.
Don’t do any training with the players.
Hope that they forget everything Ole and his team have ‘taught’ them.
It’s a radical new approach to coaching that might just work.
5.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 12:12:22
TRD, I was implying defensively, as that's what needs to be worked on.
6.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 13:02:37
GFM, I assume you've replied on the wrong thread?
Of course Sancho was signed to play RW, much as Moses was at Chelsea.
Yet the reality is if the side change tactics which eradicates a position that a certain player typically plays in then that player has 3 choices.
1. Sit on the bench and never play.
2. leave the club.
3. Reinvent himself and prove he can play a role in the new tactics by playing a different position.
Personally I'm not convinced Sancho has the ideal qualities to play as a wing back. While he's a good presser of the ball, and he obviously has the attacking qualities. You don't have to scratch too deeply to find his limitation, he isn't particularly imposing physically, while his defensive game is fairly poor. Then from an offensive point of view you tend to want wing backs to stay wide and cross the ball where as Sancho is better at coming inside and playing through balls or little give and goes.
Yet maybe there is something the coaches have seen in him that means he could adapt with good coaching. Or maybe its just a hail Mary move to try and fit an expensive signing into a new system.
Either way my point was more that if the 352 is a system we are going to persist with then there is no natural RW role for Sancho and he would have to find a new role, whatever that is.
Personally if a three at the back system is going to be a system we try and persist with then I think we need to play a back three with wing backs and two holding/ box to box midfielders. The front three though should be where we offer up some variation.
Either playing a 3412 type shape with a striker partnership and a No.10.
Or we could play 3421 with two creative players behind a central striker.
Or we could play 343 with No.10 but with wingers/ wide forwards.
Sancho could play as a No.10 in rotation with Bruno in the 3412. As one of the 2 behind the striker in a 3421. Or in one of the wide roles in the front three in a 343.
7.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 13:42:48
what about choice no 4? sit it out til Ole is gone and wait for a manager who knows how to play him in his preferred position.
8.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 13:52:38
The best solution would be to play with two central defenders, you know, the strategy the club spent all that money building toward before they got the bright idea that shoving an extra defender would compensate for the p. poor coaching.
9.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 14:21:24
Shappy,
The major flaw in your argument is this part .
"Yet maybe there is something the coaches have seen in him that means he could adapt with good coaching"
10.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 14:54:37
Bfbw, what if the new manager wants to play a 352 system? We apparently considered Conte before he joined Spurs.
Lots of managers currently play a three at the back system. Potter for example as another who has been linked to the job, Tuchel who is having great success with that formation at Chelsea.
Of course he could just wait for the next manager, but there is no guarantee that they will play a system that suits or even accommodates him.
Danny, I don't know what strategy the club are planning for, I'm not convinced the club even knows.
If we wanted to play with a 4 man defence, then surely we needed to sign a holding midfielder to upgrade McFred and enable us to build through the midfield?
Add to that the last minute decision to sign Ronaldo it's clear that our "strategy" seems to be fly by the seat of our pants.
Bilko, I don't genuinely believe that they have seen something. Just pointing out that working with him every day in training that they "might" have seen something.
But I wouldn't bank on our coaches to be able to spot things like that, let alone coach and retrain a player to play in a different position. If they can't coach AWB to put in a cross, or learn what position he needs to be in, then I doubt they can teach Sancho to play a very different position to what he has before.
As like I said in my post it could be a hail Mary last throw of the dice sort of attempt to crowbar all the players in. Personally I lean more towards it being that than astute coaching.
11.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 19:03:04
Shaps no point being after on the wall in Carrington this week. It's empty ?.
12.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 19:09:13
As an aside I don't see that Sancho was signed to play specifically RW. I think his versatility being able to play LW was a major factor, as it meant he could play on either flank whilst still being able to accommodate Greenwood on the right (as they have several times) .
13.) 09 Nov 2021
09 Nov 2021 21:29:22
Ole's leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know if he'll be back again
No way he wants to go
I'll get my coat.
14.) 10 Nov 2021
10 Nov 2021 10:31:28
I think that's a good point Spenno. In his last two years at Dortmund he played almost as many games in the No.10 role or on the left as he did on the right.
For me the problem isn't where he plays, just as long as he does play and plays well and makes a telling contribution to the team.