2 minutes ago, Bruce said:

I think you can give Carrick a fair amount of leeway for the beginning of the season. It is clear that he sticks to the same 11 day in, day out if he can, sometimes to the detriment of keeping a player fresh over a whole 46 game season. One of the silver linings of our injury crisis is that many of our players are actually at peak levels right now due to the limited number of games they've played.

The mistake he made that I am worried about was his thinking against Leeds. The way we set up to attack them was idiotic as was picking Dijksteel to go up against Summerville. For me, that looks like he's learned nothing about when his favoured tactics don't work. Even against Cardiff, we could almost as easily have lost that game 4:3 as won it. 

 

Do you think he would have made those decisions vs Leeds if we were still in the play off race? I don't. I think he plays how we played vs Leicester. I think the element of freedom of not having anything to play for made him go "let's see if we can play our preferred game plan against one of the big boys and see how we do" and see what it tells us about what we need to do for next season. 

I could be wrong of course but that's how I viewed that game. 

19 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

Do you think he would have made those decisions vs Leeds if we were still in the play off race?

Personally, yes. Before the match, the public statements he was making were that we had to win and needed to go for it. I think one of the players said something similar afterwards. I think he though this was the best way to win the match. As other teams have shown, it was exactly the wrong way to do it. We all know that Carrick ball doesn't work when we try it against teams who are stronger going forwards than us.

Leeds last 5 matches are won 1, drawn 1, lost 3. Goals scored 5 (4 of them against us). 

Leeds against us, less than 30% possession. Leeds against QPR, 61% possession.

It was the combination of setting up to attack Leeds combined with putting Dijksteel, who even at his best is rusty after timeout, against their best player.

Pretty much a cardboard copy of how we managed to get tonked by Chelsea and that worries me more than the start of the season. I feel that against Leeds, Carrick showed no signs of having improved as a manager. Maybe a one-off but still.

 

45 minutes ago, Bruce said:

I think you can give Carrick a fair amount of leeway for the beginning of the season. It is clear that he sticks to the same 11 day in, day out if he can, sometimes to the detriment of keeping a player fresh over a whole 46 game season. One of the silver linings of our injury crisis is that many of our players are actually at peak levels right now due to the limited number of games they've played.

The mistake he made that I am worried about was his thinking against Leeds. The way we set up to attack them was idiotic as was picking Dijksteel to go up against Summerville. For me, that looks like he's learned nothing about when his favoured tactics don't work. Even against Cardiff, we could almost as easily have lost that game 4:3 as won it. 

 

I understand (and like) the idea of sticking with the same starting lineup as much as possible, but think the coaching staff (and physios?) need to do a better job of monitoring the players and recognising when they need a break.

Some players will keep going until they break down - out of pride, worry about losing their place in the team, whatever - and sometimes they need to be rotated out for their own good.

Of course freak injuries can and do occur out of nowhere, but I do wonder how many of ours were down to fatigue or niggles where players should have been rested? Was really concerning to hear some lads were being given injections to get through matches.

 

As for tactics, I think we have to accept the club has chosen to go with an attacking philosophy. With a high quality squad like we had in Carrick's first season, we were able to run riot most of the time. I think that set the blueprint in the minds of Gibson and the rest of the management.

Even with a fairly modest squad we've managed to have a decent season overall, in spite of horrendous injury problems and an awful first few games. There will always be some teams where we come undone, if we don't adapt, but if we end up getting promoted that way, I don't think there will be too many complaints.

Edited April 29, 20241 yr by AnglianRed

2 hours ago, Bruce said:

The mistake he made that I am worried about was his thinking against Leeds. The way we set up to attack them was idiotic as was picking Dijksteel to go up against Summerville. For me, that looks like he's learned nothing about when his favoured tactics don't work. Even against Cardiff, we could almost as easily have lost that game 4:3 as won it. 

 

I understand the thinking behind the Dijksteel selection. He had three realistic options:

1. Play Dijksteel

2. Play Howson at right back.

3. Play a back three and drop Jones into a right wing back role.

 

Option 2 wasn't really an option. Matching Howson up against Summerville and losing him from midfield was unacceptable. Option 3 was feasible but it meant changing back to a system that Carrick clearly doesn't favour in order to accommodate one player. Dijksteel is naturally athletic so i suppose there was a thought that you match up some of Summervile's main attributes by selecting Dijksteel. In hindsight his rustiness was too big a factor. I certainly don't think it was idiotic as there's reasoning behind it. In reality we were actually a couple of better refereeing decisions away from getting a result.

4 hours ago, Neverbefore said:

Do you think he would have made those decisions vs Leeds if we were still in the play off race? I don't. I think he plays how we played vs Leicester. I think the element of freedom of not having anything to play for made him go "let's see if we can play our preferred game plan against one of the big boys and see how we do" and see what it tells us about what we need to do for next season. 

I could be wrong of course but that's how I viewed that game. 

Dont agree with this, he clearly still was pushing to stay in the play off race hence why Dieng was rushing up for set pieces before stoppage time had even started. It was idiotic defending (dijksteel and Clarke) plus an idiot linesman that cost us rather than tactics.