Reflecting on this again...it seems to me that ETH has tried to change too much too soon.
In fairness to ANY footballer, it must be incredibly difficult to completely change the way you have played for years overnight. Johnny Evans actually alluded to this in his post-match interview following the Burnley game.
Last season, we looked, by and large, to be a fair/good football team. We looked compact, we kept plenty of clean sheets, we carried a goal threat. Most of all, we looked organised.
This season, we look an absolute mess. We've got huge, gaping holes all over the pitch and players popping up in all sorts of unorthodox positions that don't seem to suit them. We don't appear to be a possession team, or a long ball team, or a transition team...its not clear what we are.
I am 100% of the belief that our problems are tactical. I'm sick of hearing about the Glazers and Arnold and Murtough. I have made the point elsewhere, if we were talking about winning major trophies i.e. competing with the Oil Cheats, then yeah, I'd understand the argument that that's going to be extremely difficult without a world class management team.
However, they're not the reason we can't beat Palace, Galatasary or Brighton at home. The squad we have should be more than good enough to win those games and achieve a respectable league position.
For me, the problem is that we've changed too much too soon. OK, so I see the advantages of squeezing up the pitch, of moving full backs into midfield, of having CBs run forward to receive passes, of having a single pivot, of having four AMs occupying the half-spaces to overload the opposition, of having a ball-playing goalkeeper and of having a target-man style forward...but is it a good idea to implement all of those things at once?
What chance do the players actually have of learning that system in what accounts to a pre-season of about 6-8 weeks and then whatever time they get in between the 60-odd matches we play each season?
Would it not have been far, far better to implement these changes slowly, gradually working on one or two things at a time? It's like we're haunted by this spectre of Sir Alex Ferguson, our History and the Oil Cheats dominance of the modern era. We're rushing to do everything, as if we can fix this all in one season.
A full rebuild, which this is, should be considered a 5YR project. Gradually implementing the system we want and slowly buying the players we want, as the budget allows.
The big problem we have is, no manager ever gets to stay for 5YRs because we blow-up, we have a bit of relative success, achieve a decent league finish...and then we immediately rip-off the stabilisers and end-up going straight over the handlebars at 40mph.
We've got to get used to the idea that there's no quick fix to this. Many people say that, but I don't think they really understand the extent of it. For example, we talk about Spurs improvement under Ange, as an argument for the idea that change can happen fast...but all he's done is organise them and improve the spirit, with a few minor tactical tweaks. The baseline expectation is so much lower.
They might have a half-decent season, but they won't win the league...and if eventually IF that becomes the expectation, they'll almost certainly fail and blow-up like we do regularly.
So to summarise - we need to stop rushing! We need to stop having one decent season and then completely changing the way we want to play in search of the 90+ points we need to win the league. Change should be slow, careful and deliberate. There needs to be an acceptance that a period of boring stability is needed before we can really start hunting major trophies. Three of four consecutive seasons of Champions League finishes and small, steady tweaks on the pitch would frustrate the fans - but we've got to stop this cycle.
