| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:19 - Jan 20 with 605 views | BtreeBlueBlood |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 07:55 - Jan 20 by GaryCooper |
Where he deserves credit is the kid gloves ultra careful handling of Emyr Huws, if Huws can play in virtually every game between now and the end of the season we will go up automatically, it will then be a master stroke by PL, Huws is premier league quality. |
Agreed with Huws!
PR needs to a Fortress and unwelcoming from now on, with half decent officials! |  | |  |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:21 - Jan 20 with 604 views | Keaneish |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 07:31 - Jan 20 by Herbivore |
I can't believe you still think this was all part of some Lambert masterplan where he felt a run of 10 points in11 games was alright as we were playing the long game. It's nonsense. If his players, led by Chambers, and his boss hadn't made it plain to him that the rotation was killing us I doubt we'd have seen the change we've seen in the past few weeks. The fact it took a quarter of a season of relegation form and others pointing out the obvious isn't ideal as we're now in a proper scrap to go up when we could have been fairly comfortably clear, but at least we look to be turning a corner. |
There’s no doubt that the form dipped during rotation to our detriment. Between our win at Rochdale and the New Year we took 4 points from 21. The upside is that we should have a fully fit, fresh and competitive squad who can now play and rotate in a bunch of systems with several tactical plans to execute. This to me feels like it was intentional, not necessarily successful but intentional. The success of this is still yet to be determined so I’m reserving judgement.
We predominantly played a 442 to go on our 11 game unbeaten run, occasionally playing the 532. After the defeat to Accrington we began adopting many different systems and players such as Huws, Keane, Nolan etc all started to come back and get up to speed. The rotation was clearly a strategy but whether it would have continued had there not been some frank conversation, who knows?
The positives in my view are that this squad can now switch to a 442, 532 and 433/451 at will if needed and I think the unbeaten run early season, the cohesion in the system now and evidence of the 433/451 against Coventry show we have the flexibility. Every other side in this league play the same way week-in-week-out and so should we now. If we need to change as we will do at some point between now and May, we should be well equipped to do so without faltering. As previously mentioned, I don’t see us losing more than two games now. Whether this will be down to a long term strategy (which is always put in place at the start of the season) or whether we’ve had to deviate I don’t know. Most sides have had a bad run in this division - whether ours could have been avoided or not we’ll never know and we won’t see the strengths of that rocky period, if any, until the games to come. |  |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:30 - Jan 20 with 584 views | Herbivore |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:21 - Jan 20 by Keaneish |
There’s no doubt that the form dipped during rotation to our detriment. Between our win at Rochdale and the New Year we took 4 points from 21. The upside is that we should have a fully fit, fresh and competitive squad who can now play and rotate in a bunch of systems with several tactical plans to execute. This to me feels like it was intentional, not necessarily successful but intentional. The success of this is still yet to be determined so I’m reserving judgement.
We predominantly played a 442 to go on our 11 game unbeaten run, occasionally playing the 532. After the defeat to Accrington we began adopting many different systems and players such as Huws, Keane, Nolan etc all started to come back and get up to speed. The rotation was clearly a strategy but whether it would have continued had there not been some frank conversation, who knows?
The positives in my view are that this squad can now switch to a 442, 532 and 433/451 at will if needed and I think the unbeaten run early season, the cohesion in the system now and evidence of the 433/451 against Coventry show we have the flexibility. Every other side in this league play the same way week-in-week-out and so should we now. If we need to change as we will do at some point between now and May, we should be well equipped to do so without faltering. As previously mentioned, I don’t see us losing more than two games now. Whether this will be down to a long term strategy (which is always put in place at the start of the season) or whether we’ve had to deviate I don’t know. Most sides have had a bad run in this division - whether ours could have been avoided or not we’ll never know and we won’t see the strengths of that rocky period, if any, until the games to come. |
The rotation was intentional, I don't think the changes made in recent weeks away from rotation were part of some plan by Lambert though. They represent a ditching of his plan at the urging of others.
I'm less convinced than you that we can now seamlessly switch to different formations, given how poor our results were when we were doing just that. For me the rotation was pure madness, not rotation itself but the extent of it every week. We went 30+ games fielding 30+ unique line ups. That's totally unnecessary. We basically surrendered a quarter of the season.
We may still go up, and we should do given our quality. Tht said even if we go up it doesn't justify what Lambert was doing in that poor run. We were walking the league without even playing well in our first 11 games. Had we consolidated that with solid midtable form even we'd still be comfortably clear at the top right now. He jeopardised our season. |  |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:30 - Jan 20 with 591 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
Maybe I am being stupid.
But did anyone actually say this? I cant say I have seen it anywhere. |  |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:32 - Jan 20 with 582 views | Garv |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:30 - Jan 20 by Herbivore |
The rotation was intentional, I don't think the changes made in recent weeks away from rotation were part of some plan by Lambert though. They represent a ditching of his plan at the urging of others.
I'm less convinced than you that we can now seamlessly switch to different formations, given how poor our results were when we were doing just that. For me the rotation was pure madness, not rotation itself but the extent of it every week. We went 30+ games fielding 30+ unique line ups. That's totally unnecessary. We basically surrendered a quarter of the season.
We may still go up, and we should do given our quality. Tht said even if we go up it doesn't justify what Lambert was doing in that poor run. We were walking the league without even playing well in our first 11 games. Had we consolidated that with solid midtable form even we'd still be comfortably clear at the top right now. He jeopardised our season. |
 We were never going to walk the league. |  |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:34 - Jan 20 with 573 views | Herbivore |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:32 - Jan 20 by Garv |
We were never going to walk the league. |
We'd be walking it now if our manager hadn't spent a quarter of the season going full Hurst. | |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:41 - Jan 20 with 569 views | Darth_Koont |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:21 - Jan 20 by Keaneish |
There’s no doubt that the form dipped during rotation to our detriment. Between our win at Rochdale and the New Year we took 4 points from 21. The upside is that we should have a fully fit, fresh and competitive squad who can now play and rotate in a bunch of systems with several tactical plans to execute. This to me feels like it was intentional, not necessarily successful but intentional. The success of this is still yet to be determined so I’m reserving judgement.
We predominantly played a 442 to go on our 11 game unbeaten run, occasionally playing the 532. After the defeat to Accrington we began adopting many different systems and players such as Huws, Keane, Nolan etc all started to come back and get up to speed. The rotation was clearly a strategy but whether it would have continued had there not been some frank conversation, who knows?
The positives in my view are that this squad can now switch to a 442, 532 and 433/451 at will if needed and I think the unbeaten run early season, the cohesion in the system now and evidence of the 433/451 against Coventry show we have the flexibility. Every other side in this league play the same way week-in-week-out and so should we now. If we need to change as we will do at some point between now and May, we should be well equipped to do so without faltering. As previously mentioned, I don’t see us losing more than two games now. Whether this will be down to a long term strategy (which is always put in place at the start of the season) or whether we’ve had to deviate I don’t know. Most sides have had a bad run in this division - whether ours could have been avoided or not we’ll never know and we won’t see the strengths of that rocky period, if any, until the games to come. |
Agree with the theory, but in practice that isn't or hasn't been the case.
For starters, from what I've seen, our most important performers like Woolfenden, Chambers, Garbutt, Downes and Jackson haven't been rotated except for injury and suspension. So if it's about keeping players fresh then I hope they can soldier on through the business part of the season as they're currently indispensable.
Also, I'd like to think that we can accommodate any system or that we're effective in a 442 but that's not really happened. Maybe Huws coming back to fitness and form means a two-man CM can fare a lot better. But the issue for me is that Judge and Edwards don't work as wide midfielders very well, pushing Garbutt to LB neutralises him as an important attacking option, and certainly without KVY we then have a backline which isn't going to contribute a whole lot further up the pitch.
When KVY is back, Sears is fit and we make more use of youngsters like Dobra and El Mizouni then maybe other formations will come into play. The first half against Coventry away was a bit of a false dawn in our poor run but the 433 looked surprising good as it just seemed to suit the players available for once.
But all in all, let's just stick to getting the basics right of putting players in positions that suit them and helping them build up some familiarity and form. It strikes me that it's then a lot easier for other players to come in and know their role and how the team plays. |  |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:55 - Jan 20 with 553 views | Keaneish |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:41 - Jan 20 by Darth_Koont |
Agree with the theory, but in practice that isn't or hasn't been the case.
For starters, from what I've seen, our most important performers like Woolfenden, Chambers, Garbutt, Downes and Jackson haven't been rotated except for injury and suspension. So if it's about keeping players fresh then I hope they can soldier on through the business part of the season as they're currently indispensable.
Also, I'd like to think that we can accommodate any system or that we're effective in a 442 but that's not really happened. Maybe Huws coming back to fitness and form means a two-man CM can fare a lot better. But the issue for me is that Judge and Edwards don't work as wide midfielders very well, pushing Garbutt to LB neutralises him as an important attacking option, and certainly without KVY we then have a backline which isn't going to contribute a whole lot further up the pitch.
When KVY is back, Sears is fit and we make more use of youngsters like Dobra and El Mizouni then maybe other formations will come into play. The first half against Coventry away was a bit of a false dawn in our poor run but the 433 looked surprising good as it just seemed to suit the players available for once.
But all in all, let's just stick to getting the basics right of putting players in positions that suit them and helping them build up some familiarity and form. It strikes me that it's then a lot easier for other players to come in and know their role and how the team plays. |
I think this it. The simple truth is that if we play a familiar, consistent system with our best 18 week in week out, we walk the league. Whether the rotation helped this longer term will always be a source of debate as there’s no way to gauge its credibility long term. The fact we have a fully fit Huws and Keane is great though so it’s had it’s benefits. The whole of our bench has had quality game time too and given its strength anyway, it’s another plus for rotation.
If we walk the league now and only pick up a few defeats I’d have to say that a balance of rotation and structure can work. However, to Herbs’ point, would we be in complete control at the top without it? | |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:56 - Jan 20 with 548 views | itfcjoe |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 17:26 - Jan 19 by Keaneish |
Wasn’t working on the pitch but off it we won’t know until May. Rotation has given us a fully fit squad with a multitude of drilled systems and real competition for places which can only be healthy. We lost our way which wasn’t part of the plan and have now reverted to a settled system again with the whole squad in a much better place.
This doesn’t have the feel of the belligerent Mick years. We know there’s been regular dialogue with the team so it would be more of a surprise if it was a single dressing room chat which triggered the change. PL said at the start of the season everyone would get their chance and that’s happened so it’s clear there was going to be a period of trial and error for some.
I’m on the fence really but he gets the benefit of the doubt if he maintains the approach we now have. |
I think it is a massive stretch to say we now have a 'multitude of fully drilled systems', we've looked poor in most of them and have now settled on one which works - we aren't suddenly going to mix it up and look fluid |  |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:59 - Jan 20 with 536 views | itfcjoe |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 07:55 - Jan 20 by GaryCooper |
Where he deserves credit is the kid gloves ultra careful handling of Emyr Huws, if Huws can play in virtually every game between now and the end of the season we will go up automatically, it will then be a master stroke by PL, Huws is premier league quality. |
I think him and his management team deserve credit for their load management and bringing players back to fitness - we seem to have barely suffered a muscle injury this season which is a really good thing and says a lot about the approach.
The issue was always the chopping and changing of shape, not the players coming in and out for me | |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 09:02 - Jan 20 with 532 views | Garv |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 08:34 - Jan 20 by Herbivore |
We'd be walking it now if our manager hadn't spent a quarter of the season going full Hurst. |
We could have easily spread that bad run across the season, and still be in the same position, and most would say we're in a positive position. The run at the start, 8 wins and 3 draws, was crazy really.
I don't understand the feeling or expectancy that we were ever going to walk the league, even after the start we had. | |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 09:04 - Jan 20 with 528 views | chicoazul |
Strong suspicion Lambert won't be here next season anyway regardless of what league we are in, and regardless of the contract too. So it won't much matter who it was down to anyway. |  |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 09:06 - Jan 20 with 522 views | chicoazul |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 17:26 - Jan 19 by Keaneish |
Wasn’t working on the pitch but off it we won’t know until May. Rotation has given us a fully fit squad with a multitude of drilled systems and real competition for places which can only be healthy. We lost our way which wasn’t part of the plan and have now reverted to a settled system again with the whole squad in a much better place.
This doesn’t have the feel of the belligerent Mick years. We know there’s been regular dialogue with the team so it would be more of a surprise if it was a single dressing room chat which triggered the change. PL said at the start of the season everyone would get their chance and that’s happened so it’s clear there was going to be a period of trial and error for some.
I’m on the fence really but he gets the benefit of the doubt if he maintains the approach we now have. |
"a multitude of drilled systems" ahahahahahaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha | |
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| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 09:13 - Jan 20 with 513 views | Herbivore |
| To those of you who say PL has only turned things round... on 09:02 - Jan 20 by Garv |
We could have easily spread that bad run across the season, and still be in the same position, and most would say we're in a positive position. The run at the start, 8 wins and 3 draws, was crazy really.
I don't understand the feeling or expectancy that we were ever going to walk the league, even after the start we had. |
By not 'spreading it over the season' we now need another pretty exceptional run to go up. We were averaging 2.5 points a game over the first quarter of the season which is indeed somewhat crazy form. That said, had we then just maintained bang average midtable form over the next quarter of the season we'd still be averaging around 2 points per game now, which is just big standard auto promotion form, and that would have us 5 points clear at the top. That we got 10 points from the next 11 games - a quarter of our season - because of Lambert pissing about with line up and formation every week is something that rightly warrants criticism. He's made our job of getting out of this league much tougher. It's no coincidence that simply settling on a formation and line up has led to us recapturing automatic promotion form. In our early good run we only occasionally and usually briefly deviated from 4-4-2 and we had a core of players starting every week. None of this is rocket science. | |
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