General Chat • Devils Advocate
We all love Bielsa.
We all want him to stay.
We all hope whatever demands he has the club accept them.
And we all hope thay should that happen we will make a real tilt at Automatic.
Are we all wrong?
Marcelo Bielsa has been a godsend, he worked minor miracles with what imo was a midtable squad (i expected us to finish somewhere around 10th).
Ultimately imo, no matter how good the coach is their will be limits, coaching can only go so far and effort only will get you so far, in the end it may be that natural talent if lacking may decide the outcome.
Bielsa said as much in a round about way ( the players have fixed their limitations with effort) words to that effect.
So, MB is very fixed in his beliefs, he tweaks it marginally but really its the same style, attack and press etc.
The problem as we discovered and as you will see if you watch Man City, Barcelona, any side that takes inspiration from Bielsa, the problem is very quickly teams work out that they have to condense the space, stay narrow, rigid, tight, drop deep and try and frustrate and look for breaks.
This forces the side attacking to do one of few things. 1) Pass side to side, try and move the defence around and then speed it up and try quick passing moves to exploit any space. 2) Get it wide, try and get an overload in the wide areas and cross 3) Clever striking movement and eye of the needle passes.
The issue here is very apparent, we dont have Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne.
We dont have the players who are talented enough to break down packed defences with great movement and passes.
Dont get me wrong we do our best but the best a group of Championsip players can do isn't always enough.
The reason Jack Clarke made the impact he did originally is he was someone who could, he was different, he would look to beat the defender and get behind them, that really made a difference because that causes uncertainty and forces a chain of events that creates space.
But once teams work out how to trouble you you have to adapt or a change of player, something different.
Problem 1) Bielsa wont adapt, he will stick with his style and thats that.
Its also a fact that MB when he has stayed for a 2nd season he has largely done worse then the first.
Problem 2) We cant afford the top players the top teams have that make this style work at its best, furthermore we cant or wont even buy the top players in this league who would be able to help and maybe give us that bit of extra talent individually and that bit of an X-Factor that we lack offensively imo.
Problem 3) We are very proud of our u23s, but its a huge step up. It wasnt that long ago Paudie O'Connor, Tyler Denton, Oriol Rey, Alex Machuca and others were going to break in to the first team.and be stars, well that didnt happen and its become quite apparent that Championship football is probably well above them. No guarantees our u23s are good enough.
MB did brilliantly, but the element of surprise is gone, every side we play next season will know how we play and the best way to try and stop.it.
MB isn't infallible, he is very rigid and stubborn and history shows us that once teams work his team out he hasnt often been able to correct it (largely imo because he is playing an elite level style of football with sub standard players relatively speaking).
Its no coincidence that the sides that make BielsaBall work the best are the best sides with the best budgets who can get the pick of the player they want for any role rather then having to shoehorn a winger at right back for example.
This has turned into a very long thread, sorry
What I'm asking is as history does suggest.
1) Now sides have seen us under Bielsa and.given Bielsa isnt going to change isnt there a danger that we maybe building up for a fall? Expectations are sky high if MB stays but with that comes the very real possibility unless MB adapts then like at his previous clubs we may quickly discover that MB for all the good he does is actually pretty easy to defend against (individual talent in the playing squad plays a part here to) and results suffer 2nd season
2) If we dont get 2 or 3 players in (its vital imo, absolutely vital we get in 2 or 3 top class attacking players for this level in order to help us break down packed defences). But if we don't is there not a good chance of deja vu? Same old same same.old (assuming MB wont adapt).
We all want MB to stay, he worked wonders but i have a niggly doubt, the same doubt i had when he arrived having read about him, the doubt being that he is to inflexible and the style is to good for Championship players for it to be successful long term (as the season goes on and sides work you.out) and our results did indeed dip as the season went on.
So playing devils advocate, if MB stays is there not a very large chance we may go backwards?