that penultimate line is the killer

Smith isn't selling us any vision.

I could totally buy that the style he is trying to build here is more effective in the Prem, with the types of players we could afford for the Prem, than what we had built under Farke. We know flipping styles on promotion isn't easy and we can't really afford the quality of player we needed for Farke to be able to shine. So I'm happy if we're building for the future.

And maybe that means that yes, we do have the wrong type of striker here atm and yes our fullbacks are a bit wasted. But long term maybe this is what we need to do so that we build the style and train the players to it then slot in upgrades as we go along / on promotion.

And maybe this will take more than this season but, y'know, this is just the journey we're on.

But we get none of that messaging or vision from Smith *or* Webber, so it's unclear if there is a grand strategy at play here or if Smith just isn't the manager we need with the squad we have.

If the players are too limited to fit the scheme the manager wants to play, and the manager is too limited to play a scheme the players can adapt to, we're in a bit of a pickle.

Posted By: CWC, Aug 16, 08:36:49