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Football will always be about the pay-off, and not the build-up.
Nobody remembers the quality of football at Italia 90 was rubbish, just that Gazza cried, Roger Milla danced, and Germany won.
Few remember the grumbles around Burnden Park at the end of the 1994/95 season as Bruce Rioch’s side won one out of their last seven to drop off the automatic promotion chase. Of course, it didn’t matter, because better times were ahead in the play-offs.
That mass amnesia applied on Boxing Day when Wanderers were engaged in a dreadful game against Rotherham United but finally came out the right side of a result.
The final whistle blew, relief all around. The less said about the other stuff, the better.
Results are, and forever will be, king. Formations, selections and even performances all provide an entertaining topic of debate for supporters – and maybe some incentive to part with their hard-earned cash – but they are just threads in the tapestry.
There won’t be a person in the stadium for today’s game against Stoke City who wouldn’t gladly swap a scrappy 1-0 win for a thrilling 3-2 defeat. Or at least I’d hope not. But many supporters have voiced frustration that Phil Parkinson’s side is not demonstrative enough in pursuit of victory.
The word ‘intent’ has been thrown around social media for most of the season but how much of this comes directly from the manager and the team he picks, and how much responsibility falls upon those making decisions out on the pitch?
Parkinson used a version of 4-4-2 to beat Rotherham, a formation which has fallen out of favour in modern football because the two wide men – in this case Gary O’Neil and Sammy Ameobi – can potentially be isolated from the game, and the midfield over-run.
That the Bolton boss named two recognised strikers was seen by most as a sign of ‘intent’ even though two of his most attack-minded players, Erhun Oztumer and Yanic Wildschut, were nowhere to be seen.
The decision was taken because Parkinson knew it was going to be a fist fight of a game. Wanderers were less likely to get opened up, which is one of the manager’s regular concerns against other opponents in this division, and so he matched up his opponents for shape and decided to go toe-to-toe. O’Neil and Ameobi did not play as touchline-hugging wingers, often tucking infield, to add some stability, when needed. Likewise, the two main strikers, Christian Doidge and Clayton Donaldson, did the vast majority of their work outside the box.
In the second half, once O’Neil and Ameobi had claimed those all-important goals, the same defensive resolve which had frustrated fans was being cheered from the rafters, as finally such a policy made sense. Attitude won the day, formations were forgotten.
The clamour is now for Parkinson to stick to the same shape against Stoke. The reality is, however, that with a better class of opponent it would represent a much greater risk.
According to stats website Whoscored.com more than half of the Championship have used one up front as their main formation this season – among them, Leeds and Norwich, the current top two. Others – Sheffield United and West Brom, for example – prefer two up top, more often than not.
According to the same website, Wanderers have used a lone frontman in 17 of their 24 games. Those games have yielded three wins and two draws.
With two up front, or a
4-3-3, Wanderers have won two and drawn two of seven but have not kept a clean sheet. That is the balance facing Parkinson when he names his team today. And so far this season, the signals have too often been defensive from the start.
But whether he reverts back to 4-2-3-1, or goes all out against the Potters, it will boil down to the attitude of those wearing the shirt. If it mirrors that of the second-half against Rotherham, there will be few complaints. And if the result is right, absolutely no-one will be searching through the minutiae looking for something to blame. For years, Sam Allardyce got that trade-off just right. He wasn’t spared complaints about the style of football, far from it, but he could always point to the table with a smile and say: ‘It’s working, isn’t it?’
Neil Warnock’s Cardiff earned promotion from the Championship last season exactly the same way.
Wanderers still need to improve in 2019 if they are to stay in this division. And to do that, there must be a collective responsibility from top to bottom.
Source
Nobody remembers the quality of football at Italia 90 was rubbish, just that Gazza cried, Roger Milla danced, and Germany won.
Few remember the grumbles around Burnden Park at the end of the 1994/95 season as Bruce Rioch’s side won one out of their last seven to drop off the automatic promotion chase. Of course, it didn’t matter, because better times were ahead in the play-offs.
That mass amnesia applied on Boxing Day when Wanderers were engaged in a dreadful game against Rotherham United but finally came out the right side of a result.
The final whistle blew, relief all around. The less said about the other stuff, the better.
Results are, and forever will be, king. Formations, selections and even performances all provide an entertaining topic of debate for supporters – and maybe some incentive to part with their hard-earned cash – but they are just threads in the tapestry.
There won’t be a person in the stadium for today’s game against Stoke City who wouldn’t gladly swap a scrappy 1-0 win for a thrilling 3-2 defeat. Or at least I’d hope not. But many supporters have voiced frustration that Phil Parkinson’s side is not demonstrative enough in pursuit of victory.
The word ‘intent’ has been thrown around social media for most of the season but how much of this comes directly from the manager and the team he picks, and how much responsibility falls upon those making decisions out on the pitch?
Parkinson used a version of 4-4-2 to beat Rotherham, a formation which has fallen out of favour in modern football because the two wide men – in this case Gary O’Neil and Sammy Ameobi – can potentially be isolated from the game, and the midfield over-run.
That the Bolton boss named two recognised strikers was seen by most as a sign of ‘intent’ even though two of his most attack-minded players, Erhun Oztumer and Yanic Wildschut, were nowhere to be seen.
The decision was taken because Parkinson knew it was going to be a fist fight of a game. Wanderers were less likely to get opened up, which is one of the manager’s regular concerns against other opponents in this division, and so he matched up his opponents for shape and decided to go toe-to-toe. O’Neil and Ameobi did not play as touchline-hugging wingers, often tucking infield, to add some stability, when needed. Likewise, the two main strikers, Christian Doidge and Clayton Donaldson, did the vast majority of their work outside the box.
In the second half, once O’Neil and Ameobi had claimed those all-important goals, the same defensive resolve which had frustrated fans was being cheered from the rafters, as finally such a policy made sense. Attitude won the day, formations were forgotten.
The clamour is now for Parkinson to stick to the same shape against Stoke. The reality is, however, that with a better class of opponent it would represent a much greater risk.
According to stats website Whoscored.com more than half of the Championship have used one up front as their main formation this season – among them, Leeds and Norwich, the current top two. Others – Sheffield United and West Brom, for example – prefer two up top, more often than not.
According to the same website, Wanderers have used a lone frontman in 17 of their 24 games. Those games have yielded three wins and two draws.
With two up front, or a
4-3-3, Wanderers have won two and drawn two of seven but have not kept a clean sheet. That is the balance facing Parkinson when he names his team today. And so far this season, the signals have too often been defensive from the start.
But whether he reverts back to 4-2-3-1, or goes all out against the Potters, it will boil down to the attitude of those wearing the shirt. If it mirrors that of the second-half against Rotherham, there will be few complaints. And if the result is right, absolutely no-one will be searching through the minutiae looking for something to blame. For years, Sam Allardyce got that trade-off just right. He wasn’t spared complaints about the style of football, far from it, but he could always point to the table with a smile and say: ‘It’s working, isn’t it?’
Neil Warnock’s Cardiff earned promotion from the Championship last season exactly the same way.
Wanderers still need to improve in 2019 if they are to stay in this division. And to do that, there must be a collective responsibility from top to bottom.
Source