And we finally play Roly closer to goal and look what happens!
Plus watching Smeltz we never really replaced him at all. Man he's a good player. The not-a-striker thing was a joke but actually it was completely bloody obvious in hindsight
Ernie's selections and tactics really weren't' right for this group of players and now we can defend. We have a bit of grit and mongrel plus what looks like a bit of game intelligence, a team transformed from the walking dead who played for the whole of last year
Just intrigued for the sake of good conversation..
Well we have made one important signing in SMeltz. I think we look a completely different team with Smeltz/Watson up top (although Watson is pretty limited so much better with Smeltz). Lia is having a good season and I think that playing Kosta wider where he looks much more comfortable and dropping/playing without Finkler has actually restored a bit of that balance.
Well, I believe Ernie signed 3 or 4 strikers depending on how you count Krishna.
He signed Griff, was important in Watson's development, signed Krishna and was important in his development and signed Smeltz I believe before he left.
But the charge of tactical inflexibility is one that has stuck. We've played two different formations in our last two wins. I'm not sure how many different formations Ernie played, but the style and message were fairly similar.
I'm fairly convinced that we would have beaten CCM and Jets with Ernie at the helm and got some momentum through these games with Mikey and Smeltzy coming on board. On the contra, it's unlikely he would have got such a strong return out of Roly and we might have shipped more goals with Parky, Doyle and Tratt playing further up the field.
Interesting though that both Griff (and Smeltz if you count him) came in part way through a season. Watson was signed as a back-up and is proving to be so...
Reality is though that he never went big on a striker, and never really favoured a game plan with a genuine back to goal option up front.