The players ... Bidwell, Fulton, Cullen, Whitaker ... were part and parcel of a squad that reached the play-off final. They each made greater / lesser contributions based on their role and opportunities given ... but they were in the mix and considered value for money in a squad that achieved more under Andy Pandy than Martin's selected squad have achieved under him.
We now find ourselves with Patterson in a sulk, and Martin has elected to use last season's lesser of the lesser players (Manning, Lati) in preference.
Now I wouldn't give a damn if Martin had us bobbing up and down in the top 6 ... but we're not. And Martin's results, to be honest, have been lack luster and demonstrated a degree of vulnerability defensively, despite a plethora of defenders and defensive midfield players on the field, than we had all of last season - even when Andy Pandy forsake his 3+2 that had given us the best defensive and GA numbers in the league. I hate having to use Andy Pandy as a comparative but it's the best one we have.
We now find ourselves in the silly position of having scattered players to lower leagues and to our competition that a season ago we would have thought quite highly of. Begs the question ... is this "system" worth it. I am not talking about technical excellence, high tempo, pass+move quality factors that were the hallmarks of prior vintages of Swanselona. I am talking about the organization and player utilization in a system where our "CBs" go walk about and all too often are hovering not far from the edge of the opposition penalty box and one of our defensive midfield players is holding deep to give Naughton some company. Where we struggle for width. Where our #9 who was scoring for fun earlier in the season has gone almost goal dry because service into the box is slim to nothing. Martin has coached our #9 and his supporting actors into a goal drought. And it has to be said that many of Piroe's goals were of his own making from outside the box ... no team is giving him that room anymore ... I guess they have coaching in those teams.
I'd like to see progress, but I'm seeing 3 steps forward and 3 steps back - and in some games 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. I see a persistence of square pegs in round holes. I see a setup where the players serve the system, not the system serve the players. The Forest shambles being the pinnacle of the problem. We are not beating teams, we are being contained too comfortably, and undone through sucker punches aided by our own deficiencies.
If our walk-about roving CBs were ... let's say Bobby Moore-esque with a flash of speed ... it would be a different story, but their quality is not all that and then some. The goal we conceded against Huddersfield is one that should not have happened ... we had plenty of defending players in our box ... just none of them did the proper jobs that quality players typically do by rote. The cross wasn't blocked and Christy wasn't exactly busting a gut to contain and block, and nobody paid any attention or made any attempt to get tight and goal side of the scorer who could have had a tea and biscuit before taping the ball into the net. And little needs to be said of Hamer failing to hold onto a poke at goal that really didn't have much sting on it and gifting the tap in.
I don't see a plan. I see arguably our best #10 (Oli N) not being the first name on the team sheet and not playing a full 90 minutes. I see a player of Fulton's quality sitting in the stands while others get ample time to produce limited results. I see a player of Benda's technical ability being loaned out to Peterborough where he might just make the difference ... surely, surely, in four months we could have coached some pragmatism into his embrace and expression of Martin's Madness ... but Martin clearly panicked and gave up on him.
www.swanseacity.com
For me, yet another puzzle from our manager.
