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Probably the biggest concern for me over the last two games....
at 22:29 17 Aug 2021

has been the complete change in approach from the positive signs we saw in the first game of the season.
Against Morecambe, there were lots of very evident examples of things that had evidently been worked on over the summer, the blueprint ideas that Cook was clearly looking to impose- i.e. fullbacks pushed up high, CBs playing the ball out to CMs and they in turn spreading the play left and right to those fullbacks. Then when the opposition broke, the two CMs covering back to help the CBs, with the fullbacks up the pitch.
On Saturday and, worryingly, even more today, a lot of our player stemmed from the CBs playing the ball between each other, out to the fullbacks and then down the line, or back inside to the CBs. And the entire back four sitting deep doing this. It is exactly what we saw with Lamberts team last year and offered so little penetration.
You could almost say that its about the players reverting to their old habits and needing to gain more confidence in the style of play, but these players dont have old habits, they werent here and any habits they do have are the exact ones we want- its why they have been specifically purchased, at expense, to make sure we can get the best ones for that.

So why has that happened? Has Cook seen something in the team that he doesnt like and has changed the approach, surely not at this point, given the players he has been able to bring in?
Is it simply a different strategy away from home? IF so, why line up with the same formation?

Its concerning as, for a manager who was so very clear about his approach, about the style he would play, and almost dogmatic about that, I wouldnt expect that to be happening at all.

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olimar

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