I'm not a big fan of the comment for a few reasons:
1) He has signed eight experienced players: Vickers hasn't beaten out the Wildsmith, Elder hasn't beaten out Forsyth, Nelson and Bradley have both shown deficiencies with the latter losing his place to a youngster who was already here at the club in Rooney, Washington and Waghorn finally got their chance but were placed behind Collins originally. Ward and Wilson have got injured early on.
He has all summer been adamant on how important the recruitment strategy is and how he's got to be their best mate before they get a chance to play for the club. He's now essentially saying the players he (and Thomas) have picked for the club aren't good enough.
2) Not a top 3 team, ok... but it's a top 3 budget we're playing with and a significant commercial advantage that dwarfs 95% of the teams in the league. Bolton are the only side even close to being within the ball park. He is essentially outing himself, Thomas... whoever that they're not being efficient with the money they've had to spend.
Ultimately, you have to get the most out of what you are given. We've spent our money on a bunch of experience senior pros, with little resale value, essentially banking on promotion this season. Now we look way short of that standard, it's easy to highlight the short-comings. The plan can't be to recycle through free agency every summer, well it can, but ultimately it's such a poor way to build and develop a football team. I think for Warne, in particular, his philosophy and recruitment couldn't be further apart.
I said he strikes me as someone who knows exactly what he wants, but not really sure how to get there - perhaps a few too many compromises with the recruitment staff (I'm not sure). Three at the back, with the way he plays it, needs athletes and we don't have any. Every team we have come up against has had no problem separating our centre halves and creating huge gaps around and within the box - it's fundamental that those three either have good athleticism or are disciplined and organised to the point where those gaps aren't there anymore. Same in midfield. We just don't have the personnel and we haven't even tried to bring it in.
I'd say with the players we have we really need a back four to reduce gaps between the players and the requirement for athleticism: Rooney, Nelson, Bradley, Cashin, Elder, Forsyth can all play in this fashion. The midfield just don't really have the legs, so really you need to reduce the space between them. I feel something like a 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 formation is our best chance of getting something out of these players in this team.
Based on what we have, on what I've seen so far this season the next game I would go with: Wildsmith; Rooney, Nelson, Cashin, Forsyth; Thompson, Hourihane; NML, Sibley, Washington; Waghorn.
A flat back four, nothing stupid and nothing cheap - no easy outballs down the wing for the opposition. Thompson and Hourihane. Not too comfortable about that, but Thompson offers energy and drive. Hourihane can provide an end product. The front four have a little bit of pace, a little bit of purpose. a little bit of drive. Waghorn is technically our best striker at holding the ball up and bringing others into play - he has to start at the pivot. The important thing is just to reduce that space between our defenders - everyone will be a little more comfortable. I'd also like to see us play a lot closer together - we have technically good players in midfield at this level - why do we insist on stretching them so far apart, making their life difficult and (again) creating these huge gaps for teams to hurt us on the counter.
It's been my biggest frustration with Warne's system - it's a little chaotic, it's a little bit spread out which leads to small errors becoming a critical ones.
So the Mods let this thread degenerate into a punfest - pages and pages of tripe which those seeking updates and info have to plough through.
Start a new section or better still a new forum for the clowns.
