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Is Lowe evolving?

Is Lowe evolving?

Wouldn’t say it’s downhill

There’s obvious player quality. Just a matter of the correct coaching.
The biggest problem and always has been is RLs insistence to stick with his wing back formation even though we still do not have either a left or right wingback on our books.
I'm discounting the Liverpool guy, because not sure when he might ever be fit enough to be selected in the first team squad.
We now have some talented and skillful attacking players and in Millars case with some decent pace, we also have a young and hungry international centre forward,who we have paid our record transfer fee.
Unfortunately because we rigidly stick to this wingback formation,with two defensive midfielders ,one of which plays about a yard Infront of our central defenders.
We therefore shoe horn these players into the team and fail to get the best out of their abilities or utilise their attacking skills to our benefit.
We play in a slow predictable way, conceding space, possession and territorial advantage to the opposition,the better teams as we have found out simply bide their time and dismantle our system.
The teams like Millwall realise that we cause very little threat to them, stick and play to their game plan,realise we defend far too deep and that they will ultimately have chances to get back in the game.
Unless RL works out a formation , tactics and game plan that can utilise the players he has signed to our benefit.Playing at a far quicker tempo, moving the ball quicker, closing the opposition down ,putting them on the back foot and utilise the pace and skill we now have to get round the back of teams and create chances for the numerous forwards we have at our disposal.
Otherwise we will be in for more boring and dour performances ,with results that will reflect this.🤔
 
The biggest problem and always has been is RLs insistence to stick with his wing back formation even though we still do not have either a left or right wingback on our books.
I'm discounting the Liverpool guy, because not sure when he might ever be fit enough to be selected in the first team squad.
We now have some talented and skillful attacking players and in Millars case with some decent pace, we also have a young and hungry international centre forward,who we have paid our record transfer fee.
Unfortunately because we rigidly stick to this wingback formation,with two defensive midfielders ,one of which plays about a yard Infront of our central defenders.
We therefore shoe horn these players into the team and fail to get the best out of their abilities or utilise their attacking skills to our benefit.
We play in a slow predictable way, conceding space, possession and territorial advantage to the opposition,the better teams as we have found out simply bide their time and dismantle our system.
The teams like Millwall realise that we cause very little threat to them, stick and play to their game plan,realise we defend far too deep and that they will ultimately have chances to get back in the game.
Unless RL works out a formation , tactics and game plan that can utilise the players he has signed to our benefit.Playing at a far quicker tempo, moving the ball quicker, closing the opposition down ,putting them on the back foot and utilise the pace and skill we now have to get round the back of teams and create chances for the numerous forwards we have at our disposal.
Otherwise we will be in for more boring and dour performances ,with results that will reflect this.🤔
Thanks. You saved me a lot of typing
 
For me I'm starting to ask questions of Lowe, there's small underlining issues with his management that are starting to creep in regularly now that need to be addressed, issues that I thought signings would have changed. Poor dull performances, lack of tactical flexibility and insistence on playing certain players to name 3.

His persistence with players such as Ledson and Brady are starting to cost us football matches, a team playing with those two regularly do not have the control of a game or attacking impetus/flexibility needed to sustain a top 6 push and to improve us from last season. That left hand side today of Brady, Ledson and Cunningham looked slow, unimaginative, composure-less and at times painfully poor and meant we were purely 1 dimensional all game as it effects the balance of the rest of the time.

The thought of playing with a midfield today without Whiteman in actually sends shivers down my spine, thank god he is back, we look miles better in the middle with him there and we need to play Holmes next to him in there, any further inclusion of Ledson just starts to ring alarm bells about the managers competency.

We're also starting to see the repetitions in performances that happened last season because of our lack of specialist wing-backs, something that continues to make the re-signing of Brady look poorer and poorer with every one of his continued inclusions, but do you make the call and play the inexperienced Best?

Lowe has now been backed, but have performances improved? It's hard to say yes after the last 4 showings and some victories where in some cases we were passed and moved off the park. Teams like Plymouth, Birmingham and Sunderland made us look silly at times with not necessarily better players.

There's no better game for Lowe to show that he can get a big home performance and selection out of his team than Southampton, especially if the players and Lowe want to show that our early season form wasn't just a flash in the pan and we're heading for mid season mediocrity again, after actually spending money in a transfer window.

I and I'm sure others at the club are starting to think we deserve more for our money.

It's about time you came round
 
Lowe is not evolving at all. He just can't see this wing back system.is shite. When a manger won't change something, it shows how shit he is. Good managers can change a teams style when it needs to be done. Lowe seems insistent on this shite system because he picking up a salary. He's not a good manager, he's a blagger .
 
RL needs to go back to grassroots basics…pass out from the back and move the ball to the opposition half as fast as possible by psssing and moving…then when the other team have the ball put pressure on them and chase them down.. not drop back and soak up the pressure.
Exactly.
 
I suddenly find myself looking at the fixture list wondering where our next win is coming from.

Those early (most would say fortunate) points on the board don’t mean much when your picking up 1 point from 12

Can see a comfortable night for Southampton on Weds , we’ll hardly have any possession.

1 point from 15 ? Then Hull away.

Could be quite toxic by the Coventry home game

Huge week for Ryan , more of the same turgid shite won’t do.

These last two home games feel like we’re back at last October/November
 
Lowe is not evolving at all. He just can't see this wing back system.is shite. When a manger won't change something, it shows how shit he is. Good managers can change a teams style when it needs to be done. Lowe seems insistent on this shite system because he picking up a salary. He's not a good manager, he's a blagger .
As I mentioned in another post it seems to have gone awry big style since Rob Kellly's influence has been been missing
 
We have been poor the past few games but to be honest I haven't been surprised by the results. The scorelines have been poor but it doesn't surprise me to see us lose to the teams we have and draw to the teams we have. The problem is Lowe seems to be quite streaky with the results he gets. He needs to improve at curtailing bad runs of form
 
I suddenly find myself looking at the fixture list wondering where our next win is coming from.

Those early (most would say fortunate) points on the board don’t mean much when your picking up 1 point from 12

Can see a comfortable night for Southampton on Weds , we’ll hardly have any possession.

1 point from 15 ? Then Hull away.

Could be quite toxic by the Coventry home game

Huge week for Ryan , more of the same turgid shite won’t do.

These last two home games feel like we’re back at last October/November
I'm actually not that fearful of Southampton as I would be Leicester or Leeds, i'm expecting lots of sideways passing to nowhere and us to just sit in and deny space.

This game will be absolutely awful to watch and we will barely have a touch of the ball (sub-30% possession maybe), but i'm going to stick my neck out and say bore draw.
 
I'm actually not that fearful of Southampton as I would be Leicester or Leeds, i'm expecting lots of sideways passing to nowhere and us to just sit in and deny space.

This game will be absolutely awful to watch and we will barely have a touch of the ball (sub-30% possession maybe), but i'm going to stick my neck out and say bore draw.
Pretty sure Ryan would be delighted by that

Great couple of matches for sky to pick eh 😆
 
I'm actually not that fearful of Southampton as I would be Leicester or Leeds, i'm expecting lots of sideways passing to nowhere and us to just sit in and deny space.

This game will be absolutely awful to watch and we will barely have a touch of the ball (sub-30% possession maybe), but i'm going to stick my neck out and say bore draw.
It's a shithousing game where it wouldn't surprise me if we won to be honest.
 
These last two home games feel like we’re back at last October/November

Got to agree with that. It's as if Lowe couldn't wait to get Whiteman back, so he could sit him deep, slow things down (even more) and just pass the ball around between Whiteman and the back 3. How many times last season did we see Whiteman pass it to Storey or Lyndsay, only for them to pass it him back again, or even 3 times. It's happening again now.

Can no-one else pass the ball except Whiteman? If his passing is so great, then he's completely wasted in that deep lying role with the back 3 formation (or back 5 for everyone else except the manager).

There needs to be an improvement in performances to keep faith with Lowe. No-one expects us to win every game, but if the performances start to get into a rut like last season then it will be difficult to stand by Lowe, given the investment in the squad and promising youth players that have come through.
 
The biggest problem and always has been is RLs insistence to stick with his wing back formation even though we still do not have either a left or right wingback on our books.

Potts does the defensive side of the right wing-back role very well and he is becoming a bit more decisive on the attacking side. But really there is no-one else though maybe Holmes could play the role. On the left both Best and Cunningham could play the role though Best is young and inexperienced (but how do you become experienced except by gaining experience) and Cunningham is getting on a bit. If we had a young mobile left-sided defender for the back three we could try Hughes there though the only place for him really is in defence. Brady is a player I have now completely lost patience with.

But what is the alternative - presumably a 4.3.3 for which the problem is we don't have any fullbacks so again it would be Potts on the right and either Best or Cunningham on the left - the only place for Hughes in a back four is in the centre of it. So it would be a case of the more things change the more they stay the same.
 
Potts does the defensive side of the right wing-back role very well and he is becoming a bit more decisive on the attacking side. But really there is no-one else though maybe Holmes could play the role. On the left both Best and Cunningham could play the role though Best is young and inexperienced (but how do you become experienced except by gaining experience) and Cunningham is getting on a bit. If we had a young mobile left-sided defender for the back three we could try Hughes there though the only place for him really is in defence. Brady is a player I have now completely lost patience with.

But what is the alternative - presumably a 4.3.3 for which the problem is we don't have any fullbacks so again it would be Potts on the right and either Best or Cunningham on the left - the only place for Hughes in a back four is in the centre of it. So it would be a case of the more things change the more they stay the same.
Ernest you have hit the nail on the head, all the players you name are neither RWB or LWB we still do not possess one and haven't since RL arrived and took charge,yet he still persists with this formation.
Cunningham arrived as a left full back as did Hughes originally,they do now both lack pace,but should be able to use their vast experience to play at left back ?
The right back position would be more of an issue, but if we played that formation then it would possibly suit more of the players we have signed and possibly mean we get better use of their creativity.
In all probability though Ernest I think any change in the usually rigid wingback formation is unlikely.🤔
 
6 leagues wins in a row for Boro now 😀.
TBF - i think they where always going to get there act together after the blues of the end of last Season.
Despite losing strikers they still have top Players for the Division.
Same with some other 'big Clubs' who needed to adjust and properly focus.

I'm just thankful we got plenty of early points on the board.
 
There is zero sign of any evolution from Ryan. Nor if the any sign that he's even willing to concede that maybe his plans aren't working. As many others have said, we're seeing a return to the slow sideways stuff and it didn't help that we seem to have lost any ability to do the basic stuff.

This is now, indisputably, his squad. He has no hiding place.
 
There is zero sign of any evolution from Ryan. Nor if the any sign that he's even willing to concede that maybe his plans aren't working. As many others have said, we're seeing a return to the slow sideways stuff and it didn't help that we seem to have lost any ability to do the basic stuff.

This is now, indisputably, his squad. He has no hiding place.

Does that come down to having Cunningham and Brady as your only left sided options at the moment?

Plus Ledson as your other midfield option.

No LWB is slowly coming back to bite us.
 
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