My 9 gut reactions

[Matt10]

Sorry. I don't buy that we need new this, new that, Slav is who needs to STOP changing things so early. LeMarchand was one of the best players in the squad. We sacrificed him, and his intelligent play. Cairney is badly needed, yes, but the wrong sub was made. It should have been Cairney for Kamara, straight swap. We were in a 4-2-3-1, and if we really needed the attack, we could have gone to a 4-3-2-1 easily. Instead, our coach wants 3-4-3, with very wide 3, so we can dominate their side of the pitch. We did that, but we didn't dominate the play. We let them bunker in, and our counter attacks became null and void. Our strength was the counters before the change, and all that was lost when a creative player like LeMarchand was out of the fray.

We are consistently overcomplicating things. Not just the coach, but us here on the forums as well. We're saying scapegoat here, scapegoat there, but the reality is the decisions made during the match are what is hurting us this season. Kamara was forced into the lineup and thus played out of position. Slav and his team of groupthinks should have seen this early on, but for some reason he stuck with him in that position. Maybe it's a morale booster for Kamara to have start, maybe not. Regardless, everyone on the team is in contention to be scapegoat of the week. The unnecessary change of formation to try to get full momentum made it incredibly easy for Bournemouth to park the bus, and unleash counterattacks, which is exactly what they did, what Arsenal did, what Everton did, and what Cardiff did.

We want to keep saying we have no attack, no defense and no good players - that's a load of rubbish. We have an overcomplicated system that is being forced down the players throats, and then when it's proven that they are not the right squad for that system, they are then forced to try another MID-GAME, just to see what happens, or they are dropped for the next match. I'm all for being a coach who has a set system in place, one that will follow him wherever he goes, but now is the time to let go of that. These are not the players for the system Slav wants to incorporate. We need to accept this, and so does he. The more he tries to force it, the more players will get frustrated, start pointing fingers, start with the animosity in the dressing room because results are poor, and it will filter itself into message boards like these. He needs to put trust into what he has set out, and stick to it. Make like-for-like subs and make very little change to the defensive backline in losing scenarios.

Thank you for this.

The constant change of tactics is what has annoyed and frustrated me mostly this year. I want to think that the loss of Cairney played a big role in all these "experiments" and his return will see us go back to the 4-3-3 of the last two seasons. People will start talking about Plan A and B and C and D again, but there are not a lot of teams that can play in a lot different ways. This needs time, time and more time when you have so many new players.

Well said, and I agree with you. I think what we are wanting is that Slav football of high possession and high passing of last year. The thing is, that style took about 2 years to be cemented into our players. The year before last we were just getting to that point. Last year, we were able to get it going...finally.

To expect the same, now? With all our new players? It's no wonder we are seeing players of last year get more starts. It's because they are familiar with the style and system.

I say stick with the 4-2-3-1 (which is really a staggered 4-3-3) and keep the personnel change to the midfield only.