Keith wrote:I agree with what you are saying, but, in games like yesterday, where it really was a 'must win', to continue with a style that hasn't been working, and wasn't working yesterday, is 100% his stubborn fault. Every substitution was like for like. We ended the game with five defenders on the pitch and unable to create any clear chances. Derek's post match interview, in effect says we are where we should be and, basically, given up.
Obviously, we're not good enough for a top half of the table, but we're not competing with other relegation rivals. Derek said we dominated the game yesterday. Really? Because the game I saw, Milton Keynes could have [should have] scored three while we didn't create a single decent chance. He also said, something along the lines of, 'few teams would go to Milton Keynes, and dominate like we did', but MK had the joint worst points return from home games all season (along with FGR), so almost every team dominate there... except us.
His negative football, especially against other weak teams, is why we will be relegated.
I'll be a bit brutally honest here - there are a couple of key aspects to analysing a football match that you're completely missing here.
First is that the end product (not many chances created) is not necessarily a direct result of managerial instruction. At no consistent point in the second half of this season have I really felt that Derek's clearly told the players to sit back for the whole game and be negative (games away at big sides are weird to judge given how early we've conceded). It's true we've failed to create enough chances, and ultimately Derek should take a level of responsibility for why that might be, but to say it's because we didn't play positive tactics is shortsighted and quite simply false.
Second is getting too hung up on the 'whiteboard' formation and not thinking about personnel. Formations can wildly vary in attacking/defensive nature depending on who's in them. Last season when Derek played 352 he had Toums and Fane sitting in midfield. This season we've had Shaw and Weir. It's far more offensive this season. That horrible run we went on last season under Derek was due to overly negative tactics. This one isn't at all. In fact, I'd argue it's the opposite - we lack solidity in midfield.
Leading on from that, attacking isn't about putting as many attacking players on the pitch as feasible and saying 'go on lads, have a go'. It's about creating a system with balance that let's the attacking players operate in a way that's constructive and creates chances.
Last season, we managed to achieve that in the end with Fane destroying in midfield, then Wildig and Phillips (something which worked before under Derek in L2) having a bit of freedom to play. The issue is this season we've lacked a solid/consistent defensive player/structure in midfield to allow our talented players to have the freedom to create.
That ultimately boils down to recruitment, and for the reasons I've explained in my previous post I don't think it's at all fair to blame Derek for any shortcomings in that area. I think he's down a great job in converting Gibson to try and find a solution, but ultimately it's his first season in the role and he will have shortcomings there (eg, he looked way out his depth vs Ipswich away), and a lot of the time he's been needed at LB due to Melbourne's injuries.
The one main hesitancy I have is not giving Stockton and Mellon a bit more of a go in that 352. That said, we've since seen that Mellon was overall nowhere near the level of Kieran Phillips, and there were a few weird factors that went into that 5-1 win against BR (their kamikaze defence, and Crowley having one of the best individual performances many of us have witnessed in a Morecambe shirt).
Honestly, I think Derek has tried to give the talented players we have a bit of freedom to play, but hasn't really found a way to coach them to get the best out of them all. We've been starting with midfields of Shaw, Weir and Crowley - that's incredibly attacking! But unfortunately it lacks balance, and that's due to personnel.
Derek's not been perfect, but if you want to label him as the main factor for our position then I'm afraid to say that you're quite simply massively wrong.