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Darije Kalezić: We hardly knew ye.

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Posted July 05, 2017 05:26 · last edited July 05, 2017 05:27

Bullion wrote:

ConanTroutman wrote:

Ernie seemed to have lost the dressing room, and had signed players to play a specific formation and tactic that, except for half a season with Burns on fire, simply didn't work. He basically put all his eggs in one basket and when the bottom fell out of that it was smashed eggs everywhere. I think you can totally blame him for a lot of that - there is no excuse for a recruitment strategy which left us with Lia, A-Rod, WeeMac, Finkler, and Roly - all central midfielders of some kind and all either highly paid or imports or both. That's 5 players trying to fit into at most 4 positions (and only if you play the hard-to-pull-off 4-4-2 diamond or box midfields and cede any attacking width). Meanwhile we had no quality traditional number 9 and no genuine backup for either fullback position.

WeeMac did play left wing/left side of midfield for just about his whole time at CCM - not that he was always utilised that way for the 'Nix.

True, allthough I would argue he's not quick enough for that really. But even if he is if you add Kosta and Krishna into the mix, and WeeMac plays on one wing then there's still no way to make a meaningful formation with all those imports/highly paid locals playing in roles they are comfortable in. That's 7 players, so to fit them all on you need a back 3, but none of those 7 are suited to playing wingback. Play a back 4 and at least one misses out, and you still don't have a genuine striker to get on the end of crosses or hold the ball up to bring others into play. It's either midfielders or forwards who are suited to running off a traditional striker.

It really isn't surprising that we never really looked like a cohesive team consistently in the last couple of seasons - quite simply, we weren't. We had talent on paper but no way of making it work together.

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Unknown editor edited July 05, 2017 05:27
Bullion wrote:
ConanTroutman wrote:

Ernie seemed to have lost the dressing room, and had signed players to play a specific formation and tactic that, except for half a season with Burns on fire, simply didn't work. He basically put all his eggs in one basket and when the bottom fell out of that it was smashed eggs everywhere. I think you can totally blame him for a lot of that - there is no excuse for a recruitment strategy which left us with Lia, A-Rod, WeeMac, Finkler, and Roly - all central midfielders of some kind and all either highly paid or imports or both. That's 5 players trying to fit into at most 4 positions (and only if you play the hard-to-pull-off 4-4-2 diamond or box midfields and cede any attacking width). Meanwhile we had no quality traditional number 9 and no genuine backup for either fullback position.

WeeMac did play left wing/left side of midfield for just about his whole time at CCM - not that he was always utilised that way for the 'Nix.
True, but if you add Kosta and Krishna into the mix, and WeeMac plays on one wing then there's still no way to make a meaningful formation with all those imports/highly paid locals playing in roles they are comfortable in. That's 7 players, so to fit them all on you need a back 3, but none of those 7 are suited to playing wingback. Play a back 4 and at least one misses out, and you still don't have a genuine striker to get on the end of crosses or hold the ball up to bring others into play. It's either midfielders or forwards who are suited to running off a traditional striker.

It really isn't surprising that we never really looked like a cohesive team consistently in the last couple of seasons - quite simply, we weren't. We had talent on paper but no way of making it work together.