He’s incredibly lucky that we are what we are, at the moment, but he’s far from being even an ‘average’ PL level manager.
I’ve been in favour of sticking with him until the end of the season but, after tonight, I really don’t think we’d be any worse with Baines or Coleman running things.
Given the players that we have, is there a better way of playing that could get the best out of them?
Should we be trying to play possession football? Are the players capable?
Certainly Gomes (when fit) and Onana would rarely lose the ball in possession. Gomes can pick a pass long or short. Not sure about Onana passing long.
Neither of our first choice wingers are blessed with pace and both tend to cut inside.
Coleman does try to offer something in attack. So does Patterson but Godfrey doesn’t. A pity because he has the pace to beat a man on the outside but is a poor passer.
Mykelenko gets outside and occasionally puts in a good cross.
Doucoure is a good athlete but is not suited to possession football as passing can be very poor.
Garner has pace, is a good tackler and rarely gives the ball away but rarely plays a good through ball.
Gueye is all about tackling and intercepting and he is very good at it. Surprised he wasn’t playing tonight.
Beto tries hard but has poor control. Although I think he has improved quite a bit from when he started.
DCL has all the attributes of a good striker. Pace, good in the air good control and good with his back to goal but doesn’t seem to get into good scoring positions often enough. Beto does but hasn’t the control or composure to make it count. ( several chances tonight)
Tarkowski is a good rugged defender who is at his best normally when we are under the cosh. He blocks, tackles and heads with the best of them but doesn’t have great pace and not sure how he would play with a possession based team.
Branthwaite has all the capabilities. A big lad, composed, good anticipation, good passer. Could do well in a better team than ours but he has struggled against quick footed forwards. Eze of Palace and Palmer tonight nutmegged him. He was also bullied by Haaland.
We have a rag bag of a squad assembled by different managers over the years which Dyche has inherited.
On top of that, we have lost Richarlson, Gordon, Gray and Iwobi.
It is really hard to see what Dyche could do different with the players.
We have a serious lack of pace, particularly on the wings, which could make a difference.
We are relying on the players being committed to Dyche tactics for better or worse.
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