SHA Small Heath Alliance

Sheep2

There's a few of us

We never played the high press under Eustace.

Our goal at Swansea came from a high press on the opening day.

We played Bielok and Sunjic as a midfield two last night with James in front of them
That was JE's preferred set up. It's the first time Rooney has done it (The 4-3-3 at Boro doesn't count)
That's where and why the comparisons are valid.

I thought the football wasn't vastly different from a good JE performance.
I don't think that is surprising as we have the same players and they have proven not to be massively adaptable.

We didn't play Bielik and Sunjic as a midfield two, Sunjic and James were either side of Bielik and getting forward. It was definitely a 4-3-3 so I don't think it's the same setup as JE used at all.
I thought we regularly pressed high (which we rarely did under JE apart from the forwards bombing around), with the full-backs often left one-on-one with their winger without cover and support from the wide players.

GBBlue

He didn’t play the Eustace way though? I don’t recall too many away wins in his time against teams in good form and in the higher reaches of the league

We pass the ball more productively and more frequently. Probably the reason why we commented on Beliks frequent misplaced passes were because he was trying to get the ball forward.

Also we didn’t stop trying for a 2nd. That was a massive step forward from numerous previous managers who shut up shop when we were defending a lead.

I hope Rooney realises now though that Sunjic & Belik need to be integral until the summer. Bacuna, Koji and Dembele all have their place but not starting all at once.

Agree.

A great win. We move on from Eustace. What ever style of football they play we must always support and encourage our team. I thought the passion and desire to win was outstanding, If we can play like that now to the end of the season then we will be fine, Then the rebuilding will start. What was good last night was the fact that the players were playing for Rooney. KRO.

Rags

Apart from the fact that having Rooney as manager brings in more revenue and "clicks than having JE as manager, Wagner and Cook dismissed JE because he realistically and very honestly said to them that moving to front-foot, possession football, where we play through the thirds and the goalkeeper is the deep defensive pivot ... "progressive football" ... wasn't possible at this stage with the players he had and they should embrace the fact that he was over-achieving (sixth) against the pre-season targets they set (about 10th - 12th)

So they sacked JE and got Rooney in to deliver the progressive style they wanted.

But Rooney couldn't deliver and has now gone back to transitional football - and lo and behold was instantly successful with it.... doing exactly what the overwhelming majority of fans have been telling him to do ..... "evolution not revolution"

So what are Wagner and Cook going to do now .... settle for a style of football that they said they didn't want ?


Please note : i was chuffed with the result and chuffed that we are now playing to the existing players' strengths

I think the problem over Rooney's style is he decided to run before he can learn how to walk. That lesson is learned the hard way, given how his first few games went. Everyone knows that the change of football style is gonna talk time to implemented (emphasis the big change for the summer transfer window) and changing the style of football that was (debatable) working at the time under JE.

I think personally it should be the mix of two styles, the solidity of JE's defensive aspect + the DM paring of Bielik and Sunjic, and the attacking intent of Rooney ball. If we slowly implement Rooney's style of attacking football game by game, while playing to the existing players strengths (from Bielik and Sunjic, to JJ under Rooney), then that would be an winning formula for this season IMO.

An Hybrid style of football, that I think the club should have done from the beginning.

The way forward is clear - new forwards.

We need to replace both Hogan and Juke as soon as we can.
If we have a couple of reasonably mobile forwards We will be able to press much better and keep teams under pressure at the back.
They don't necessarily have to be big scorers if they can pin the opposition back a bit and give us the chance to get forward more.

For next season I presume we'll have to replace Stansfield as well. So it would be 3 new forwards. Two bought and one on loan. If we can get this right it would make us a much better team.

Those at the club have known 3 forwards will be needed this summer for quite a long time now - the owners since they bought the club and Gardner for even longer than that. There is absolutely no excuse not to have a fully scouted and tapped up list of forwards ready to go.

Hopefully we'll make our moves early as those signings will determine how the next couple of years play out for us.