Where Did It All Go Wrong? What Needs To Change?

What was Bobby P - a winger - doing that season then?!

 

NOT playing as a traditional wide man; that was why Gracia's system had initial success because it effectively condensed the centre midfield areas allowing us to pick off a lot of slightly misplaced passes, using the FBs to offer attacking width with the relevant member of the 'middle row of 2' covering their run. Even Bobby P did that adequately until oppo coaches had sussed it, where the flaws in the set-up started to be exploited.

I agree that Gracia should have looked to devise another system during the 2nd half of the 2018-9 season, and maybe Sarr would have fitted such a system. But he didn't & he didn't. At any rate, even at the time, many stated the fee we paid rendered it a vanity purchase.

 

Only GP will ever know the answer to that.... Thing is, we all totally get eg a few million for JP as a talented youngster, then say Asprilia, but to chuck (£28m?) on a young Sarr was ludicrous... What's he worth now £8m??
The most crazy WFC transfer ever.!

 

You're splitting hairs with whatever name you wish to give the role. If Bobby P could do it well on one side, then Sarr with his better defensive ability could do as well if not better on the other.

It was actually Hughes, a more conventional centre mid, who struggled the most in that system under Javi because he did often find himself trying to win the ball or make something happen one-vs-one near the touch line, but he lacked the pace and strength to do thaf. He was the player who most needed upgrading that summer (along with Deeney) and that is What Sarr was brought in to do.

 

I really am not, but you are completely entitled to stick to your belief that Sarr was bought to fit into a system the incumbent HC never attempted to implement.

 

When you have to start completely making stuff up, it’s probably just time to admit you were wrong and stop digging?

 

So you're expecting me to accept what I'm saying is wrong on the basis of random comments made by other posters who had as much perception of Gracia's actual system as you seem to have?

And learn what disingenuous means ffs.

 

Also in the interest of balance, Rousey boy could also go back and find the many and varied posts from multiple people concerned/annoyed about us spending all summer going after Sarr at the expense of other positions, the concerns over the supposed fee etc, of which there are many, many posts, but of course that wouldn’t prop his argument up, and nobody else has the time or inclination to do it.

 

They are not "random comments" - the vast majority of the posters in that thread - including supposed resident forum expert reids - at the actual time leading up to us buying Sarr, said we could do with buying a player of Sarr's profile.

It makes much more sense to believe those posters who were basing their views on watching us actually play under Gracia at the time, than whoever the heck you are posting 4 years later trying to find another excuse to throw your toys out the pram.

 

Us potentially spending too much money or too much time on Sarr does not contradict the fundamental point which I was pointing out - which was that the general consensus at the time still was that we should sign a player in Sarr's position.

A belief that we should have signed a player in Sarr's position but costing say £10mil instead of £25mil+, so we could use more money on a striker for example, still means that we should have signed a player in Sarr's position.

 

But to try and make your argument valid you’ve had to resort to saying Sarr would’ve been a good fit in the system due to him being good defensively, which is absolutely laughable.

 

In the comments I quoted - a number of the posters at the actual time of watching us play under Gracia's system said that we could do with a "pacey" winger, and a "real wide-player as opposed to more workmanlike wide players (Hughes, Amrabat)". So for a couple of posters 4 years later to pretend that idea made no sense is a nonsense (as well as pretending that Hughes wasn't playing wide even though posters at the time said he was).

The point is that he was better, or at least no worse, defensively than Pereyra - who was performing the same role under Gracia on the opposite side. If Pereyra could do whatever the role was on one side, there's no reason why Sarr couldn't do it on the other side.

The fact that Sarr couldn't give a toss lately doesn't change that he was decent at tracking back for a while.

 

@domthehornet @SkylaRose - why did my post just quoting what posters in 2019 said they wanted us to sign in that summer, get deleted without notification?!

 

Posts quotes from people saying we should sign a pacy winger, then says he would’ve been good defensively in system that doesn’t use them. Lol.

 

Yes I'm sure - you can still see it quoted in post 42 from Since63.

 

We clearly used a system where a pacey winger would have been useful - otherwise lots of posters at the time wouldn't have said we should sign one (some even said we should sign 2).

Lol.

PS Being a pacey winger and being good defensively are not mutually exclusive.

 

Been thinking about what actually went wrong....
We ve all got loads of theories but my take is that it ALL comes down to a "total lack of patience and a total expectation of immediate success by GP".
Everything else flows from that.

A club needs a settled core of players to build on and a decent manager that you ensure you can trust to run things well.

GP just chops and changes so much that we lost touch with reality and then an appalling approach to new player acquisitions ment there's no way back.
I'm assuming GPs actions in recent years shows that he's treating it as "failing financially" and our club is in so much debt that every next move has been a throw of the dice.
(sorry to others who have already said similar, but I've got it off my chest now.)