By Order of The Peaky Blinders. Away to Brum Tues Oct 22nd 19-45.

[The_Gun]

I genuinely don't understand why we haven't seen Evatt switch up the formation. We know he's not, historically, been averse to it; just in his time here, he's switched from a back three to a back four and back again, usually with a great deal of immediate success.

So in this, perhaps the trickiest spell of his management career so far, why hasn't he seen whether the trick works again? Collins and McAtee can both work as wide attackers, as can Vic, as could Williams. Yes, it means one of Toal, Rico or Johnston needs to get used to sitting on the bench more often, but that's surely a small price to pay.

Maybe that's the final Hail Mary play in his playbook. Quite how long until he feels forced to use it is anyone's guess...

I’m wouldn’t be one for suggesting that all managers must subscribe to the prevailing tactical trends, but I will point out that back fives are nearing extinction in the top two divisions.

[Harry Genshaw]

It's a back 3 to me.

What's disappointed me as much as anything is I could see the thinking of an extra man in midfield but why were they first to every ball, better in the press and always had a man spare?
Sure, some of that will be ability but I suspect most was a mix of confusion, lack of effort and again, lack of bottle.

I expected nowt last night but that performance has left me particularly flat.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I’m wouldn’t be one for suggesting that all managers must subscribe to the prevailing tactical trends, but I will point out that back fives are nearing extinction in the top two divisions.

Interesting shout, this. Per the BBC/PA formation diagrams (not always the most reliable but they'll do for now), only 2 of the 20 Premier sides played a back three/five this last weekend... and they were Wolves and Palace. Hmm.

Champo, per Transfermarkt, last weekend: Sheff U, Cov, Luton, Watford, QPR, Sheff Wed. 6/24.

One question is whether we have the right players for it. (A fair riposte is whether we have the right players for this system, whatever it currently is.) Another is whether Evatt will change again - surely the time was summer, and he tweaked then tweaked back....

[Prufrock]

Quelle surprise.

Mental team to pick. Unsurprising defeat. Pointless season dragging out the ianevattable.

[TANGODANCER]

"Assuming" mentally, then that Brum are going to eliminate all opposition and walk this division, then we only have 22 others to worry about...?(taking into account games already played) then much of our future depends on concentrating on pure points acquisition and nothing else?

So..On the premise that we may actually beat them at our illustrious venue, that only leaves half-a-dozen others to prevent us following the Brummies into a higher level? After last night when we were totally "sent for a hot-dog" to quote another Whites saying, the question is all about recovery and moving on at pace. Cup games that might have seemed part of the interest factor, now have to be considered not only as detractions, but possible injury traps if the league is still our aim.

Is this a fair summation? Comments....?

[The_Gun]

I know the easiest place for fans to direct blame is at the manager, and I’m definitely no longer a huge fan of Evatt’s, but it’s pretty clear now that we fecked up our recruitment in the summer.

I say that not because individually any of the players we brought in look particularly bad, but rather that they largely don’t seem to be the types we needed, and we’ve now got the wrong squad mix.

Schön I think looks ok, but for what we paid for him I’d expect someone who was clearly too good for the level, which he’s definitely not. He’s got some quality on the ball, and seems like he’s got a decent attitude, but he’s not that quick and his decision making is frequently questionable.

McAtee has some good attributes, but he doesn’t seem like what we needed, and again cost shit loads of money. With Collins, Dion and Vic already in the building I would’ve gone for a younger, pacier forward.

Matete is very athletic and tenacious but holds onto the ball too long and doesn’t seem to have much passing range or shooting ability. I could see him working as a pure ball winner playing next to a distributor.

Arfield maybe would be ok as a back-up for the 6 position, but he’s no good any further up the pitch, and he shouldn’t be starting in any kind of important game.

Forino and Tutu both look fine but were known injury risks and the risks haven’t paid off.

Southwood fine as a back-up, but will never challenge Baxter for a starting berth.

Lolos suffered an unfortunate injury so probably not fair to judge. Maybe he could work as a Maghoma replacement.

Also I don’t understand why we’ve completely neglected to utilise the Prem loan market.

[BWFC_Insane]

^^Ive been saying for a while that our recruitment seems pretty poor to me. Now maybe it’s just the manager not getting the best out of them. But to my eyes where we’ve invested significant money on players it’s been pretty hopeless or the wrong sort of player.

Vic - bit part player. Thats ridiculous for the fee we spent. He should be one of top three or four in the league for that fee.

Dan - we all know.

Schon - doesn’t fit the criteria we need. Doesn’t look like a wing back.

McAtee - did say in the summer I didn’t know what he’d add. Still don’t. Yes he’s a decent enough player but has he improved us? No. He is similar in role and position to Collins and we are getting the best out of neither.

Forrester - Another cash signing that I’m not sure what they bring or add. I think he’s a very decent prospect but needs to be playing week in week out. Again if you spend money and they are bit part…..

And that’s before we get into the string of injury prone players we’ve recruited.

In Evatt’s time we’ve lost Dapo and not come close to the sort of quality of player he represented. We had Fossey and couldn’t keep him but again he showed us the sort of quick, dynamic and strong wing back that this system demands. We haven’t come close to anything like that since. We had Kieran Lee…who was absolute quality in midfield…again not come close to a replacement and I think if we are honest he was the key to making that midfield tick and without him I think we’ve never come close to being able to control the midfield.

[officer_dibble]

I think about what I would do if I was next manager through the door. I would look to revamp the formation and to do that we need a genuine left back and a new leader at centre half or centre mid (or both). Given the squad we have and where we are with contracts the two that stick out to me are Sheehan and Santos. Santos is quite likely off in the summer anyway. Sheehans stock was never higher than this summer - could we sell one or both to revamp the team in January?

[BWFC_Insane]

I think about what I would do if I was next manager through the door. I would look to revamp the formation and to do that we need a genuine left back and a new leader at centre half or centre mid (or both). Given the squad we have and where we are with contracts the two that stick out to me are Sheehan and Santos. Santos is quite likely off in the summer anyway. Sheehans stock was never higher than this summer - could we sell one or both to revamp the team in January?

I just can’t see them sacking Evatt. I wish that to be wrong.

But at this stage the reality for me is anyone coming in the target has to be promotion next season. It needs a review of the squad. Binning off the likes of Santos and Sheehan and maybe raising some cash through sales of Baxter and Charles to be able to rebuild.

We need a more experienced squad that is better balanced with width and pace higher up the pitch and a midfield. God do we need a midfield.

[Mar]

I know the easiest place for fans to direct blame is at the manager, and I’m definitely no longer a huge fan of Evatt’s, but it’s pretty clear now that we fecked up our recruitment in the summer.

I say that not because individually any of the players we brought in look particularly bad, but rather that they largely don’t seem to be the types we needed, and we’ve now got the wrong squad mix.

I'm thinking the same thing.

We've very much got a set of players that seem to fulfil roles of a system that we're no longer playing. Compounding the problem is the fact that the players that we have brought in only seem to be able to fulfil the forward positions rather than the positions we're needing support in.

We've brought in square pegs for a square hole puzzle, only to realise the puzzle was actually full of round holes.

I can only surmise that we've missed out on a number of players in the transfer market (a midfielder) and are trying to change it after the fact. No wonder the assistant manager and data analyst got the boost. If those decisions were driving our signings then we've clearly messed up. Still, where's the accountability for Evatt.

I suspect Evatt wants out. Playing Arfield yesterday signalled as much.

[officer_dibble]

Baxter’s off in the summer as well I’m afraid. Next seasons number 1 is already signed I think!

[Worthy4England]

I think there are elements of retcon in some of this and an inherent assumption that teams carry a squad of 21/23 (whatever) "ready now" first team players - which I doubt holds true. We'd also need to understand the targets we may have had, which didn't transpire due to better offers elsewhere and the like (be that money or just preference)

Our bit part Vic, still bagged double figures last season vs Dion's 14 (of which 3 were pengies). The top 2 without pengies - Alfie May and Colby Bishop got 17 and 13 respectively without penalties. So last season he was somewhat more than "bit part" for me, without necessarily setting the world on fire.

Dan, I agree, is a poor investment in terms of what he added. This season he's on the same number of goals, currently as Vic and Collins.

Overall in the forwards line, it feels like there's been a clear steer to bag a good few and maybe that's connected to resale values as Ghost has previously mentioned - but it feels like there might have been more emphasis on that bit and not enough on how they fit into our team and its formation. Either way, like defending isn't just for defenders, scoring isn't just for strikers and overall last season we bagged 86 in the league - the second highest tally. It's difficult to argue last season that overall our attacking didn't work, albeit I think some of that is glossed over between games where we scored an excess of goals vs those tighter ones when we needed 1 or 2 and couldn't get them - games like Wigan and Derby towards the end of the season spring to mind. I genuinely don't think I've seen a structure that incorporates our current contingent in a coherent manner.

Midfield - I think is a real problem when we need to defend. Whilst I would agree, Sheehan has put himself about a bit more, he's not a natural defensive player and still fcuks up like last night. Which if you support a team where he's had time and space and bossed it with his passing range - you would be forgiven for giving him a big up on his skillz. We haven't on current evidence replaced Maghoma nor recruited "the bossman" figure that was felt to be needed, even when we had Maghoma. I doubt Lolos is the answer to the latter and he's gonna have to be pretty good to replace the former. We're light and haven't recruited well nor do we seem capable of coaching the defensive elements of midfield - it's a mess.

WB's - Agree Schon isn't, albeit I'd have him in the "reasonable player" bucket, in comparison with our other WB's. The ones we have are capable but you wouldn't say, for a team highly reliant on them that they were going to make us promotion certs.

CM's - I think we were so busy collecting random forwards, that we spared our budget for CM's, with a Toal/Santos/Johnston set of "first picks" but with injuries we end up playing. When combined with the poor defending in MF, this then becomes a larger problem (when it was already a problem last season) 18 goals conceded in 11 games now. That would knock last seasons 51 conceded into the "What a great year that was" category, because we'd end up leaking 76 over a full season.

Keepers - Baxter is fine, not sure I could badge much on Southwood directly albeit there's been a few hairy moments.

Loans (Prem or otherwise) - depends on who you can get - wouldn't want the versions of Beck, Shortire, M'bete etc. So I'm ambivalent

Free Agents - remember when we were getting some/one? Clearly not.

I think it's difficult to understand how much this is Evatt and how much of this is recruitment. Either way we're currently not seeing any evidence we got it remotely right. Where I have a problem with the "modern football" structure, is the buck used to stop with the manager, now they can both sit there and point at each other - like so many things in modern day life with no one being accountable for anything.

[BWFC_Insane]

https://x.com/marciles/status/184907756 ... jLPnui--KQ


Lord above. He’s Phil Neal to the absolute tiniest detail.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

https://x.com/marciles/status/184907756 ... jLPnui--KQ


Lord above. He’s Phil Neal to the absolute tiniest detail.

It's definitely got that feel. Except that from that point in 1991 we went on a six-match unbeaten run, including beating a local rival at home in a derby, so there's that.

Seriously though, aye, it's like that season again. Sometimes managers run out of steam. It was sad then and it's sad now. I recall people in the Paddock taking along home-made "11" signs to signify we should sub Julian Darby, such was the managerial instransigence. Mind, three years later similar treatment was being dished out to Mixu Paatelainen.

It's complicated and it's sad. i can't see a way out of it beyond an absolutely barnstorming run of not just good results but stirring performances.

[BWFC_Insane]

https://x.com/marciles/status/184907756 ... jLPnui--KQ


Lord above. He’s Phil Neal to the absolute tiniest detail.

It's definitely got that feel. Except that from that point in 1991 we went on a six-match unbeaten run, including beating a local rival at home in a derby, so there's that.

Seriously though, aye, it's like that season again. Sometimes managers run out of steam. It was sad then and it's sad now. I recall people in the Paddock taking along home-made "11" signs to signify we should sub Julian Darby, such was the managerial instransigence. Mind, three years later similar treatment was being dished out to Mixu Paatelainen.

It's complicated and it's sad. i can't see a way out of it beyond an absolutely barnstorming run of not just good results but stirring performances.

Phil Neal was quite likeable though…..I guess in fairness he maybe wouldn’t have been had he been manager through the social media and podcast era.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Phil Neal was quite likeable though…..I guess in fairness he maybe wouldn’t have been had he been manager through the social media and podcast era.

I get that you don't like Evatt (and that's your prerogative) but as much as he might frustrate me I genuinely don't think he's more unlovable than Neal, a man of huge ego (I've known many journalists describe him as a terrible interviewee) and ingrained stubbornness whose "water off a duck's back" comment about fan criticism was pure Megsonism avant la lettre.

I think a lot of olden-day managers would struggle today. Social media - everyone's got a platform to say what they like, without comeback, frequently offensively, often performatively to court attention. Gen Z players, many brought up through cosseting academies who tell them they're precious (and then more often than not discard them). Increased workloads on players. No chance of a good old piss-up for squad bonding, not with everyone filming on their phones.

It's a very very different world - which is why it feels so weird to get these echoes.

[Worthy4England]

Phil Neal was quite likeable though…..I guess in fairness he maybe wouldn’t have been had he been manager through the social media and podcast era.

I get that you don't like Evatt (and that's your prerogative) but as much as he might frustrate me I genuinely don't think he's more unlovable than Neal, a man of huge ego (I've known many journalists describe him as a terrible interviewee) and ingrained stubbornness whose "water off a duck's back" comment about fan criticism was pure Megsonism avant la lettre.

I think a lot of olden-day managers would struggle today. Social media - everyone's got a platform to say what they like, without comeback, frequently offensively, often performatively to court attention. Gen Z players, many brought up through cosseting academies who tell them they're precious (and then more often than not discard them). Increased workloads on players. No chance of a good old piss-up for squad bonding, not with everyone filming on their phones.

It's a very very different world - which is why it feels so weird to get these echoes.

I genuinely struggle with the notion that people like/hate people they don't actually know. I can understand they can form a judgement on their performance, but there probably isn't a Bolton manager in my lifetime, that wouldn't be a decent listen over a beer in a small group - (not talking about articulate after dinner speaking)....

[TANGODANCER]

What if we wait till we play Posh and see if the mindset of the players changes? I hope they don't read the fan forums which are enough to depress a Blackpool laughing clown,( I'm sure Santos must have) and think, right, we'll show you! Posh are no Brum and we've been kicked in the coconuts right royally by the money men, so just maybe a tonic is in the offing. Give it a go, hope springs eternal and I'm a hoper, even without the glory. Come next month.....

[BWFC_Insane]

Phil Neal was quite likeable though…..I guess in fairness he maybe wouldn’t have been had he been manager through the social media and podcast era.

I get that you don't like Evatt (and that's your prerogative) but as much as he might frustrate me I genuinely don't think he's more unlovable than Neal, a man of huge ego (I've known many journalists describe him as a terrible interviewee) and ingrained stubbornness whose "water off a duck's back" comment about fan criticism was pure Megsonism avant la lettre.

I think a lot of olden-day managers would struggle today. Social media - everyone's got a platform to say what they like, without comeback, frequently offensively, often performatively to court attention. Gen Z players, many brought up through cosseting academies who tell them they're precious (and then more often than not discard them). Increased workloads on players. No chance of a good old piss-up for squad bonding, not with everyone filming on their phones.

It's a very very different world - which is why it feels so weird to get these echoes.

Well I think that’s partly it. I mean nowadays you hear a lot more of them. We all know Allardyce’s views on most subjects mostly objectionable in my view. And Phil Neal would probably be equally as objectionable had I been exposed. I’ve heard similar on Neal but also people who knew him who say he was a top bloke.

We are all deeply flawed. And it’s ultimately true that I really don’t mind much if a manager can get results what they are like beyond that. I will say though if you’ve openly expressed your admiration of Margaret Thatcher like Evatt, you’d best be ready for promotion after promotion…..

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Ha. Yeah Evatt says so much so often that it's like infinite monkeys on typewriters. Journalist's dream, but quotes come back to bite you.

Maybe the next bloke will be as taciturn as Parky and we'll only have two quotes a week to ponder. As you say, it matters little if the job gets done.