I said a while ago, the problem i think Moore has is we are aiming for a short term goal.
I dont know but had he gone in to his interview in the summer and said he wanted to build and develop a team using the young players at the club (which he has experience of working with) and that it may take time, i think the board may of thought you have no experience of doing that, yet we are also interviewing Dean Smith, a bloke who has done that same job with two other clubs, we will give him the job.
Instead they probably said we want the bloke who can get us promoted, we arent interested in 3 or 5 year plans, we brought this club for £150m and so we want to get back there by hook or by crook ASAP and start getting our money back and earning something from our investment.
On paper we have a number of very good players for this level - Johnstone, Dawson, Hegazi, Gibbs, Phillips, Livermore, Brunt, Gayle, JRod, Sako, Barnes, those players should ensure you are near the top part of the league (which we are)
We also have some good backup players too, the problem we have is that our squad is quite lopsided and after 15 games we still havent found the right system and tactics to accomodate the above players, yet we are still 5th in the league.
The issue seems to be that teams have now worked out how to play against us and we dont really seem to have an alternative way of playing, i like the footballing approach and i want us to continue with that regardless, i dont think we need to completely overhaul how we play, we just need to tweak things a bit.
Some obvious things, playing players in their correct and proven positions, even if that means switching formation for a bit, if we have visions of 3-5-2 then thats fine, but lets wait until we have players who can play that way.
I think it does seem to be Jones who is pushing the 3-5-2, again thats fine but if things dont work out, Big Dave will be the one who takes the fall and has a sacking in his CV, Jones will go and get an assistant managers job elsewhere, its not as easy to get the main job, i think i heard the other day, 50% of managers who get sacked in their first job dont get another job in the same role.
There was a bloke who is seems quite spot on with the Albion stuff who said the current setup is similar to the RDM days, RDM was the public face but it was Eddie Newton who did all the planning, tactics, etc and apparently its the same now with Big Dave the Public face and Jones the 'brains'. However, Mooro has to standup to Jones IF he is the one insisting on the 3-5-2, its easy to get starry eyed by Jones CV and he is obviously a very good coach but its quite apprarent that the 3-5-2 isnt for us at the moment, when we win, we win well but teams were always going to wise up against us and that time has now come.
There may be some truth to that because we played 4-4-2 all preseason and signed defensive players to suit in Bartley and Johnstone, it dont take a genius to see the way we play now doesnt suit Bartley, and Johnstone said himself in a interview in the week that he has never played this way before, which begs the question, if we were always going to go to 3-5-2, why didnt we sign players in the summer who could play it?!
We have gone for short term fixes, likes of Sako and Hoolahan who will come in and do a job and it may be enough to get us over line come May, If we had come out and said we are starting again, youth will come in i think the fans would of brought into that and there would of been patience, however because on paper we have still a very strong group of players, rightly or wrongly there is an expectation now and i think crowd reactions show that, yesterday after 25 minutes fans were booing and jeering Johnstone.
It was frustration because i do think after 8 years in the premier league there is a undercurrent of entitlement that we should blitz everyone, but also there is frustration because thousands of people can see the way we are currently playing from the back is not quite right and if they can see it, why cant the coaches. There is a nervous atmosphere which goes from players to fans and vice versa.
Its new territory, under RDM there were some hostile games, i think that season both Olsson and Carson had a few run ins with fans, but we still yoyoing at the time. Even under Mowbray, as great as that season of promotion was, we still took some hidings, Leicester and Coventry at home, losing to Colchester away spring to mind so it wastn all roses, but again we were in the yoyo years, now after been an established premier league club, there is a generation of fans who have got used to that, i probably do it myself at times without realising.
One final thing is based on yesterday, Mowbray seems to of learnt that you cant always just play ideal football, he had players missing, he dealt with and his game management was spot on, sadly for him it took a couple of sackings at Celtic and Middlesboro to probably realise that ideal football doesnt always win, i hope for Big Daves sake that he realises that now rather than when he is too late because i have a feeling if come the new year we were around the halfway mark, the board will get rid and spunk a load of money on a promotion specialist, ie - Allardyce or Warnock type and i really dont want that as we would go back to square one in terms of football.
I like what Big Dave wants to do and think he is doing decent, i just hope now he is facing the first dip in his managerial career, he learns whats wrong and deals with it rather than carrying on with something that isnt right.
