The Professor Speaks

[Yankee_Jack]

Check out from 2:50 on. Simple and on point.

You have to find a way for your team. That is the manager's job

You have a specific quality available and with the way you play it has to fit to the players

I had to adapt a lot to the quality we have brought in in recent years

It's been known well before even I took my first coaching course: you play and organize to your players' strengths putting pegs into the holes made for the pegs. It's not a chicken or egg situation. The players come first, until they are not available, and the system follows from there. If you insist on playing a particular way then, optimally, you recruit the right players for the recipe, which is a long term proposition as it can take many transfer windows to get the right players and the right blend of players. If you want immediate results you have to take the best blend you have and play to their strengths; to hell with the philosophy of the coach.

 

[CroJack]

When Klopp took over at Liverpool, he FORCED his players to play high-intensity, counter-pressing football. It took him a couple of transfer windows to get rid of those who wouldn't (the lazy ones) or couldn't (the weak ones) play the style of football he wanted.

What he means by having to adapt to the quality of the players he has brought in is that he has tweaked his formations and play here and there, but he has never abandoned his identity - relentless pressing all over the pitch. If the players can't or won't run, or if they're not technically good, he won't change his style to suit them - you can be sure he'll get rid of them.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Klopp has been a 'Pool for 8 (?) years now. He's had 16 transfer windows to perfect his blend and he had consummate locker room pros in Miller and Henderson to crack the whip

 

[ivoralljack]

Exactly what I said on another thread: you cannot have a pre-conceived game plan then shoehorn players to fit it. You evaluate your squad then design a game plan to suit their strengths. If you have funds, which the top clubs do, you get rid of the deadwood and improve the squad as you go. It takes much longer if you DON'T have the funds, as in our case, but you still try to improve season by season with astute signings and making good use of the best academy players. Our recent managers fell into the trap of trying to change too much too soon.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Compared to the sequence of Martinez, Sousa, Rogers, and Laudrup where there was an incremental increase in quality and sophistication while preserving the same underlying organization and system and being tactically astute during matches, the most recent series of Potter, Cooper, Martin, Duff have been increasingly disjoint in all of the metrics in which the previous series excelled. The gaggle of managers in between were to say the least struggling to tread water.

 

[ivoralljack]

I see that Luke Williams of Notts County, where he did well, is high in the betting odds. If he returns maybe he'll bring their prize striker with him as he scores for fun in the lower leagues (can't recall his name). Williams left us because, as I understand it, he was dissatisfied being down the coaching pecking order under Russell Martin. I also believe he said he wanted a job closer to home. I'd still prefer CT but we'll see. I'm hearing rumours that he's too abrasive for our suits' taste.

 

[jackodiamonds]

I'm less sold on Williams than many others.

He's only coaching League Two, so that's a big step up. Also, he's not exactly tearing it up - 6th place. His team is joint 2nd for the division's most potent attack, which is good. However, his 4th-worst defence is what concerns me.

Notts County have the worst goal difference among the top 7 teams (that's the 3 auto-promotion spots pls 4 play-off teams). They have +3 GD, which isn't terrible, but the next "worst" of the top 7 have +11 GD (Wimbledon in 7th and Crewe in 5th). Stockport County, who are the real power in the division, have +28. Only 9 teams in the 24-team division even have a positive GD, so +3 really isn't great.

In other words, his defence is every bit as bad as his attack is good, and seems to undermine whatever he achieves at the top end of the pitch.

This means:

Either Notts County have weak defenders, or they have decent defenders but Williams's strategy is defensively weak.

If it's weak defenders, well Swansea also have weak defenders so that terrible defensive record will likely follow Williams to Wales.

If it's decent defenders but a weak strategy, well imagine how much worse it'll be with Swansea's defenders?

Also, I am not a Martin fan and the idea that Williams worked under Martin means he could share some of Martin's ideas.

All told, no experience at Championship or better level, evidently terrible defensive performance, and potential philosophical similarity to Martin are all significant red flags for me.

I'd honestly rather Sheehan over Williams. Against Boro, he got a squad of confidence-shy disillusioned coach-killers to actually play pretty well, and they can only get better.

Still hoping big for Thelin or Knusten though. Either one would be a first-class acquisition.

 

[ivoralljack]

Still hoping big for Thelin or Knusten though. Either one would be a first-class acquisition.

Agree with this. But I'm still shouting for young Tosh to get his chance.