…….. Bournemouth were ready for the start of the season.
Barnsley weren’t ….. and still arn’t.
Bournemouth have changed their manager but haven’t changed their style of play.
There’s a continuity there.
The genius of Ismael is that he makes things SIMPLE.
How many times did you hear him say something on the lines of …….. ‘my guys know exactly what to do’.
Ismael saw what he’d got and moulded the side into an effective unit.
That’s no detriment to Barnsley players because he’s done exactly the same at West Brom with players that have just come out of the Premier.
Marcus has been appointed and a couple of important things have happened at the beginning of the season that’s upset the team.
1) The transfer window has brought in a few players to make the team stronger - but those players have yet to feature.
Only Benson has played regularly but was dropped because Marcus says he hasn’t trained.
When asked - no reason was given why he hadn’t trained.
2) The style of football that was DRILLED into the players last season to make it a SUCCESSFUL season has been abandoned.
There are two parts to this.
Firstly the style of play cannot be attempted this season because the pivotal point of the attack is no longer there - that is to say we can’t hit the strikers early because Dike and Morris are not in the team.
And neither is Obbi - who I assume was Dikes replacement.
The club has made a massive mistake not filling that position when they knew Morris would be out and it was likely to take Obbi time to get up to speed.
Secondly - keeping in mind that we haven’t a target striker available - but why has the general style of play been altered???
Listening to Marcus last Thursday in his Radio Sheffield interview he again repeated that the players have to change to a more passing style.
Why is this?
Although vertical football is not every supporters cup of tea - it was highly successful.
So why change the general style of play?
I’m guessing here - but I wouldn’t be surprised if that instruction to change hasn’t come from the directors.
It’s important that these young talented players are able to show off their skills - because when they do then they become more valuable when time comes to sell them.
The future of the club is built on moving players on and investing back into the club.
Vertical football restricts those players showing what they can do.
So at the moment things are up in the air at Barnsley.
And I think things will get worse before they get better - but they will get better if Marcus is able to mould them into a team - because on paper this squad is stronger than last season.
But in the meantime - no surprise that we lost 3-0 to a side that has maintained a modicum of continuity.