Square pegs and round holes

A lot has been said and discussed since yesterday's painful defeat against Wolves and the manager and team have both come under a fair amount of scrutiny and backlash from the fans.  Listening to 'pundits' and phone-ins and reading various posts on blogs and forums there are still some still refusing to lay any blame at Roy's door, simply stating that he 'inherited a poor side'.  This is now a very small minority and I suspect if performances don't drastically improve it will become smaller still.

Had this defeat come early in his tenure Roy Hodgson may have been forgiven for it and the result could have been put down to him not fully knowing the team he had inherited.  However, we're now 18 games into the premier league season and we've had numerous European games so this should've been enough time to give Roy an idea of what his best starting XI are and what formation to employ to get the best out of his team.



Of course everyone will have their own favoured line up but I think that the majority of supporters were left scratching their heads when they saw Miereles start out wide right and Kuyt wide left - so in one fell swoop two players' effectiveness was immediately negated.  I can completely understand the need to accommodate Gerrard in the side which is why Kuyt and Miereles were sent out to where they were, but in the process the team lacked any real shape and as a result we really suffered.  Maxi, who has been having some of his better games recently playing out on left, was overlooked and I have no idea why.

It seems that Roy Hodgson has a mindset that there are certain players you have to play even if they don't fit the system. This view that players are vital is dated - they're just cogs in a machine.  Have a weak cog and the whole thing breaks down, as was the case last night.   Employing a 4-4-1-1 formation would've allowed Miereles and Kuyt to function in their more familiar roles, getting the best out of them, and Gerrard could have supported Torres as he has done so successfully a number of times in the past.   When Gerrard was out injured, 4-4-2 was working because players were playing in more or less their natural positions, but in order to accommodate Gerrard yesterday, I feel Hodgson got things quite wrong.

When players play out of position, in roles they’re not familiar with or are uncomfortable with, then they as individuals aren’t going to perform at their best and subsequently drag the whole team down.  The same can be said about the under-performing Joe Cole – he himself has stated that his favoured position is between midfield and attacker, occupying the ‘hole’ – so why not him a chance there, instead of playing him out wide on the left as he has in past games.   

Finally, some have started to question the ability of Fernando Torres – one of the greatest strikers in world football.  He has been having a difficult time with injuries, more so early on in the season, but his poor performances lately have not been for a lack of trying.  He is frustrated, that’s obvious, but in my opinion he's frustrated by the kind of football being played under Hodgson, and by the service, or lack of, that he receives.  A player who relies on quick turn of pace, running into channels and onto balls played on the deck for him to run onto is going to do nothing when a football traveling 50-60 yards is aimed at his head and he’s expected to do something with it – he’s just not that type of player and I don’t know any modern Spanish player who is.  They rely on finesse, something that is currently lacking under Hodsgon.