The Tinkerman (1 Viewer)

[stupot07]

Right, firstly this isn't mean as negative and not knee jerking after today's performance, but builds on Ruperts thread about picking the right team. It is something that has been discussed another of times but thought I'd post it for debate. This isn't having a go at Mowbray either, but he does seem to change his front 3 midfielders every game:

Here's the midfield 3 for the last 9 games since the Gillingham win when we went too:

Burton - Lamieres, Maddison, Murphy (2 changes)
Walsall - job, Cole, Murphy (2 changes)
Crewe - Murphy, Cole, Maddison (2 changes)
Chesterfield - job, Maddison, Kent (3 changes)
Port Vale - Murphy, Cole, Lamieres (2 changes)
Oldham - Kent, Cole, O'brien (3 changes)
Sheffield Utd - Murphy, JOB, Lamieres (1 change)
Doncaster - Murphy, JOB, Kent (2 changes)
Bradford - Lamieres, Murphy, Armstrong (fortune started up from) (2 changes from gills game)

In this period we have W2 D5 L2 so 11 points from 9 games.

Now I know there are benefits - squad rotation, keeping players fresh, keeping players happy, etc, but surely there are also negatives - players play well then get dropped (eg Lamieres MOTM vs Sheffield United), knocks confidence, means you can't play yourself into form/keep form, must impact on the pattern of play and the team gelling together and getting an understanding of each other's runs etc if you are playing with different people week in week out. It must also impact on Armstrong too, knowing what runs to make, where people will play the ball into him.

My feeling is sooner or later, Mowbray's going have to pick his best team and give them a run of 4-5 games in order for us to push on.

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[Otis]

Right, firstly this isn't mean as negative and not knee jerking after today's performance, but builds on Ruperts thread about picking the right team. It is something that has been discussed another of times but thought I'd post it for debate. This isn't having a go at Mowbray either, but he does seem to change his front 3 midfielders every game:

Here's the midfield 3 for the last 9 games since the Gillingham win when we went too:

Burton - Lamieres, Maddison, Murphy (2 changes)
Walsall - job, Cole, Murphy (2 changes)
Crewe - Murphy, Cole, Maddison (2 changes)
Chesterfield - job, Maddison, Kent (3 changes)
Port Vale - Murphy, Cole, Lamieres (2 changes)
Oldham - Kent, Cole, O'brien (3 changes)
Sheffield Utd - Murphy, JOB, Lamieres (1 change)
Doncaster - Murphy, JOB, Kent (2 changes)
Bradford - Lamieres, Murphy, Armstrong (fortune started up from) (2 changes from gills game)

In this period we have W2 D5 L2 so 11 points from 9 games.

Now I know there are benefits - squad rotation, keeping players fresh, keeping players happy, etc, but surely there are also negatives - players play well then get dropped (eg Lamieres MOTM vs Sheffield United), knocks confidence, means you can't play yourself into form/keep form, must impact on the pattern of play and the team gelling together and getting an understanding of each other's runs etc if you are playing with different people week in week out. It must also impact on Armstrong too, knowing what runs to make, where people will play the ball into him.


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Think one problem we have straight away is that Joe Cole can't play every game and seemingly, so too JOB.

Certainly doesn't help when we have to keep putting them in and then taking them out.

Lameiras today was a mistake. Could see that from the off. He would have probably been better for the Walsall game and left out of today's encounter.

 

[rupert_bear]

Tinkering with teams is a modern trend, I suppose I'm a bit old fashioned but for me you have a best team and play it unless there's an injury. You can vary things and tactics with clever substitutions.

 

[SBAndy]

Must agree. I understand rotation when we've had 2 games in a week, but a week-to-week change is plain daft. I'd be looking to go back to the JOB-Maddison-Lameiras combination that served us so well early on. Cole, Murphy and Hunt to be brought on as the game requires their different attributes.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

I think you may be right but we may not see the benefits of squad rotation until the latter part of the season, say we go and win 9 of our last 10 games this season which secures promotion, Murphy, JOB, Cole, Maddison all play blinding matches because they haven't been burnt out over the season. Then Mowbray will have been vindicated with his rotation policy.

Obviously that might not happen and we might have a poor end to the season but I'm saying we won't for sure no whether the rotation has been more positive or detrimental until the season has finished.

 

[SBAndy]

I think you may be right but we may not see the benefits of squad rotation until the latter part of the season, say we go and win 9 of our last 10 games this season which secures promotion, Murphy, JOB, Cole, Maddison all play blinding matches because they haven't been burnt out over the season. Then Mowbray will have been vindicated with his rotation policy.

Obviously that might not happen and we might have a poor end to the season but I'm saying we won't for sure no whether the rotation has been more positive or detrimental until the season has finished.

The flip side of course being that we could leave ourselves with too much to do in the run-in because we've dropped points in the mid-season spell. If it pans out as you suggest then hats off, but until then I'm just going to reserve judgement.

 

[clint van damme]

Think one problem we have straight away is that Joe Cole can't play every game and seemingly, so too JOB.

Certainly doesn't help when we have to keep putting them in and then taking them out.

Lameiras today was a mistake. Could see that from the off. He would have probably been better for the Walsall game and left out of today's encounter.

I think this applys to most of our midfielders unfortunately.

 

[wingy]

It would be useful to analyse how many players are utilised /rotated at the other two or three clubs besides those made for Injuries.

 

[covcity4life]

Lamieres was ok first half. Least his passes got to destination

Poor 2nd half because whole team could no longer be patient because Phillips is an idiot

 

[Johnnythespider]

I said this on another thread a few weeks ago, I think we should have a more settled side, I know it would piss me off if I'd had a blinder and got left out next week to keep someone else happy. Who'd be a manager eh !!

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[stevefloyd]

We have a young midfield in Maddison Lameiras and Murphy and i guess its good to protect them to a point but today i thought we needed to try and grind a result against the top team and we failed.. but i believe if you have the shirt irs up to you to keep it by playing well but when you know you will get every other game does it keep you sharp? I dont think so

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

There's one player in those 9 games who's almost consistently being picked there. I don't think it's any real conincidence that our form has depleted in that time.

 

[stevefloyd]

Presume you mean Murphy... i have never seen him play consistently well yet he's only a kid but certainly needs a rocket up his arse at the minute.. he looks as though his confidence is down atm.. what would have been brilliant for him today would singers corner belting his name out that would be fantastic and given a boost for the lad

 

[junglej13]

Couldnt agree more with this. The team has lost any consistency and its hardly surprising. We need to find our best team and stick with it.

 

[dongonzalos]

Right, firstly this isn't mean as negative and not knee jerking after today's performance, but builds on Ruperts thread about picking the right team. It is something that has been discussed another of times but thought I'd post it for debate. This isn't having a go at Mowbray either, but he does seem to change his front 3 midfielders every game:

Here's the midfield 3 for the last 9 games since the Gillingham win when we went too:

Burton - Lamieres, Maddison, Murphy (2 changes)
Walsall - job, Cole, Murphy (2 changes)
Crewe - Murphy, Cole, Maddison (2 changes)
Chesterfield - job, Maddison, Kent (3 changes)
Port Vale - Murphy, Cole, Lamieres (2 changes)
Oldham - Kent, Cole, O'brien (3 changes)
Sheffield Utd - Murphy, JOB, Lamieres (1 change)
Doncaster - Murphy, JOB, Kent (2 changes)
Bradford - Lamieres, Murphy, Armstrong (fortune started up from) (2 changes from gills game)

In this period we have W2 D5 L2 so 11 points from 9 games.

Now I know there are benefits - squad rotation, keeping players fresh, keeping players happy, etc, but surely there are also negatives - players play well then get dropped (eg Lamieres MOTM vs Sheffield United), knocks confidence, means you can't play yourself into form/keep form, must impact on the pattern of play and the team gelling together and getting an understanding of each other's runs etc if you are playing with different people week in week out. It must also impact on Armstrong too, knowing what runs to make, where people will play the ball into him.

My feeling is sooner or later, Mowbray's going have to pick his best team and give them a run of 4-5 games in order for us to push on.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors

Something that hasn't hapoened for a Cov manager for a long long time :-

Spoilt for choice

Personally I believe lam isn't worthy of dropping other players for JOB should play more often than not.

Cole should be use for the last 30 minutes when we need to keep posesdion and kill off games.

Our main mids should be Fleck, Vince, Murphy, Mad , JOB

Cole Lam Bigi should just come in and out for the last 30 mins of games and when we have injuries.

Defence ATM should be

Ricketts Ramage Stokes Haynes

Stokes had been a revelation at CB and his statue and natural tendency to come inside leans towards that been his natural position.

Unless we sign a new CB until Martin returns out of the two young full backs Haynes has been the most consistent.

 

[Grendel]

Something that hasn't hapoened for a Cov manager for a long long time :-

Spoilt for choice

Personally I believe lam isn't worthy of dropping other players for JOB should play more often than not.

Cole should be use for the last 30 minutes when we need to keep posesdion and kill off games.

Our main mids should be Fleck, Vince, Murphy, Mad , JOB

Cole Lam Bigi should just come in and out for the last 30 mins of games and when we have injuries.

Defence ATM should be

Ricketts Ramage Stokes Haynes

Stokes had been a revelation at CB and his statue and natural tendency to come inside leans towards that been his natural position.

Unless we sign a new CB until Martin returns out of the two young full backs Haynes has been the most consistent.

Haynes has played 3 games - your obsession with a poor player like him is just getting a bit strange.

 

[letsallsingtogether]

Haynes has played 3 games - your obsession with a poor player like him is just getting a bit strange.

I bet you blame him for today's result, funny how we haven't lost while he was playing.

And yet you talk of obsession.

 

[JulianDarbyFTW]

Tinkering hasn't done us much harm so far. Plus he gets paid to put out a winning team, so he plays the people he thinks will achieve that. I'm all for it tbh. After all, the opposition can't plan on how to defend when they don't know who will be tearing down at them!

 

[Johnnythespider]

Tinkering hasn't done us much harm so far. Plus he gets paid to put out a winning team, so he plays the people he thinks will achieve that. I'm all for it tbh. After all, the opposition can't plan on how to defend when they don't know who will be tearing down at them!

Not really sure how you can say that. Do you remember when we were 4 points clear at the top, we are now 6 points adrift of the top spot to a team with 2 games in hand. We have become a drawing team more concerned with not losing than winning in order to maintain an unbeaten run.

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[SlowerThanPlatt]

Not really sure how you can say that. Do you remember when we were 4 points clear at the top, we are now 6 points adrift of the top spot to a team with 2 games in hand. We have become a drawing team more concerned with not losing than winning in order to maintain an unbeaten run.

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Exactly. A team could go the entire season unbeaten and get relegated. 2 wins and 1 loss is worth more than 1 win and 2 draws. The teams who win the most get automatically promoted, not the team who has the lowest amount of losses. MK Dons lost 9 games last year, Preston lost 7. However, MK Dons won 27 to Preston's 25.

 

[dongonzalos]

Haynes has played 3 games - your obsession with a poor player like him is just getting a bit strange.

Try and be truthful with yourself for once. who has been the more consistent Phillips or Haynes.

Which is least damaging

Ricketts at RB, Stokes at CB, Haynes at LB

Or

Ricketts at CB, Stokes at LB, Phillips at RB

 

[Gazolba]

There are many reasons why TM makes changes. He tailors the tactics to the opposition and thus chooses different people. Fitness (Cole) and suspensions (Fleck) and injuries (Madders, Martin)) come into it as well as new players coming in (Bigi and Ramage) and exiting (Kent). He also is trying to keep all his players match fit as at any time there could be an injury or suspension that forces a change. I'm not sure our poor run is due to making changes. More likely it's due to not making the right changes or using the right tactics on the day.