Saturday 20 September 2008

Tinker Man

My heart sunk when I heard today's team. Pards had been talking about going on a run, last time we won two games in a row was last december Cardiff, followed by Ipswich. Its not that I did not expect a change, the old man of the squad Matt Holland must have been puffing a bit, three games in a week. I expected Ambrose to be in with a shout for Central Midfield, but like the Charlton Life message board, I failed to predict the change that was made.

Last season our ultimate demise was in part due to Pards tinkering with the team, Varney finally started to play well and was relegated to the bench, what that did to his confidence only he knows. Today Gray, top scorer this season,a man in form, a scorer on Tuesday was put on to the bench. Why? Because he had had a hard couple of games. Instead of preparing to take him off midway through the game, if he tired we played a formation of various 1's and 4's and whilst reports claim we should have had a penalty and eventual sub Gray had a great header saved we remained fairly ineffective.

Pards tinkering last season disrupted the team, unnecessarily and just when we started to have a settled team now, he changes one position which is looking to form the head of the spine.

I am not too keen on these tactical formations that seem to be defensively orientated when we are playing the lower teams. Preston, even Watford you can understand a 4-5-1 formation, not quite sure about a 4-4-1-1, but against Doncaster or Notts Forest Both newly promoted, it feels like we are waving the white flag to promotion already. We have to be bold and assertive against the lower teams at their places, not live in fear of defeat.

I still beleive that Pards is the man to lead us, but his inconsistency and constant tinkering worry me, at least this season he does not have such a big squad to play with.

No comments: