I just said in the Ten had thread, I think the defenders can as they have been a bright spot so far, but currently the midfield and attackers can't. Now I would like to believe the attackers can in the future, but I don't believe the midfield we currently see can - we didn't prioritise midfield in the summer.Of course. They are doing it together.
The question for me is whether this game model can work with the players we have. On paper it sounds great: high pressing, high defensive line, keep the ball well, attack with speed and numbers.
It sure isn‘t working right now, and the blame can‘t just be on Ten Hag because they are all working on it together.
There is something seriously wrong with how the tactics are performed on the pitch by the players.
Midfield overhaul is not complete, I agree. Fit upgrades on Eriksen and Casemiro are needed.I just said in the Ten had thread, I think the defenders can as they have been a bright spot so far, but currently the midfield and attackers can't. Now I would like to believe the attackers can in the future, but I don't believe the midfield we currently see can - we didn't prioritise midfield in the summer.
The main issue with the attackers is they seem very content to give up when it's not going their way and we have little depth to freshen it up. Midfield just has to be overhauled.
Well I think our intensity isn't there bar the defenders. Our midfield gets constantly run over and the attackers can't keep the ball, not sure how you solve that without changing personnel - that we don't have.Midfield overhaul is not complete, I agree. Fit upgrades on Eriksen and Casemiro are needed.
But I‘m not sure that that is the biggest issue. The way we collapse and fall apart points to other issues.
In the long term? Yes.I mean there's been all sorts of reports on how Wilcox is supposed to be influencing our game model, so he surely has to take some blame for how we set up?
The players certainly are one aspect, but the tactics and coaching have at least as big of an impact. There's plenty of teams with worse players than us holding the ball and playing better football than we are, using superior positioning, movement and patterns of play to move the ball around.Well I think our intensity isn't there bar the defenders. Our midfield gets constantly run over and the attackers can't keep the ball, not sure how you solve that without changing personnel - that we don't have.
Akin to saying that whilst we're still shit, we're not as shit.In the long term? Yes.
In the short term? No. He's not the one training the players. He's not the one naming the line-up. He's not holding ETH's hand on every decision on game-day, and going into the minute details. My understanding is that he will be going into more detail than Ashworth about the playstyle and tactics, but it's still going to be on the larger scale while it's up to the manager to implement it and handle the specifics. If the manager then proves unable to implement it, Wilcox will most likely be the main one deciding why it's failed (is it due to the manager, the coaching staff, the players, etc) and then reporting back to Ashworth and Berrada. Then the three of them will decide what to do from there.
While we aren't playing well, we aren't using the suicidal one-man midfield like we were last season, and we aren't as ridiculously open and easy to cut through (van de Ven notwithstanding). That very well may be due to Wilcox discussing it with ETH, and ETH then adjusting his tactics accordingly. But he's not going to be going into very specific details.
He's supposed to be doing that but I highly doubt he has as much input in how we play simply because Ten Hag seems very pig headed and probably wont even entertain it as he will see it as a challenge to his authority.I mean there's been all sorts of reports on how Wilcox is supposed to be influencing our game model, so he surely has to take some blame for how we set up?
I thought he was still technical director.Is he officially our new Sporting Director?
He gets spoken about like he is in recent articles. But I haven't seen any confirmation.
It would make sense I suppose, as he and Berrada have a previous working relationship at city where they seemed to do alright.
He's still technical director officially. From what I recall, articles mentioned we wouldn't get a direct Sporting Director replacement and that Wilcox and Berrada would take on extra responsibilities to make up for it.Is he officially our new Sporting Director?
He gets spoken about like he is in recent articles. But I haven't seen any confirmation.
It would make sense I suppose, as he and Berrada have a previous working relationship at city where they seemed to do alright.
We’re still missing out, because we still don’t have data analysis at United. All we’ve got is Jason’s eyes. And Jason, for me, is a guy at the coal face. He ran the academy at Manchester City. Txiki Begiristain, I know, thought Jason had the best eyes in the club.
He’s a warm character, he’s got a sense of humour, he knows what he’s talking about, he’s got a really good relationship with Ruben. So, you know, if you compare that with last season when we had Erik and John Murtough [as football director], it’s chalk and cheese. Jason knows what’s working, what’s not working in terms of how Ruben’s playing, his system, which players he’s picking, which players we are going to buy in the future. And Jason’s got views on all of those things. And when I listen to Jason speak, I get what he’s saying.
But what he can’t do is watch every match. And that’s what the computer does. The computer can watch every match that every player has played in every league for every year they’ve ever played football. So you have to marry the two pieces of data and then it tells you something. And that’s what Brighton and Brentford have done. And also it’s then much easier to spot the younger talent because the computer does that. Jason can tell you every good 21-year-old, but not every good 16-year-old.
He’s probably the only one at the club apart from Darren Fletcher and Johnny Evan’s that actually has a PL winners medal.Thought these were interesting quotes about Wilcox from SJR's interview today:
Wilcox is clearly a key figure at the club now, but that underlines that we're still more reliant on him than we ideally should be if other aspects of the club were modernised.
Didn't we just part with the last person who was supposed to revolutionise our data science?Thought these were interesting quotes about Wilcox from SJR's interview today:
Wilcox is clearly a key figure at the club now, but that underlines that we're still more reliant on him than we ideally should be if other aspects of the club were modernised.
Didn't we just part with the last person who was supposed to revolutionise our data science?
Reminds me of when Aegon III dismissed lord Torrhen Manderly because he was a choice of the last regime, not him.It's almost as if we're doing away with the decisions the previous failed regime put in place.
Everything about the Arnold/Murtough management seemed half hearted and an attempt to look like they were making changes without making changes.
Didn't we just part with the last person who was supposed to revolutionise our data science?
So our famous new structure has been scrapped?He's still technical director officially. From what I recall, articles mentioned we wouldn't get a direct Sporting Director replacement and that Wilcox and Berrada would take on extra responsibilities to make up for it.
This is a niche reference and I fecking love it.Reminds me of when Aegon III dismissed lord Torrhen Manderly because he was a choice of the last regime, not him.
I wouldn't say scrapped, more evolved. Wilcox still sounds like he has more power (and experience working in football) than anyone running the football side has ever had under the Glazers. There's also a seperate head of recruitment brought in too, which we didn't have before.So our famous new structure has been scrapped?
He's still technical director officially. From what I recall, articles mentioned we wouldn't get a direct Sporting Director replacement and that Wilcox and Berrada would take on extra responsibilities to make up for it.
The name 'Ashworth' sounds like a cost cutting measure in itself.I said at the time that giving Ashcroft the boot could be just another cost cutting measure.
As someone who has worked extensively in analytics (although not in sports), to make informed decisions based out of the data, it takes at least 2-4 years to setup proper practices for "usable" data collection if they're starting from ground up, assuming they have an army of individuals going through minutes of past matches and tagging events. I know someone will say "oh AI can automate this" but that's tosh as of today. Expecting something in 3-6 months is actually unreasonable.I recall in depth posts on here about the data science guys that were brought in and all the great work they were doing and their history of great work but now Ratcliffe says we still have nothing? What were these guys doing then? Surely Ratcliffe is exaggerating our lack of data science.
As someone who has worked extensively in analytics (although not in sports), to make informed decisions based out of the data, it takes at least 2-4 years to setup proper practices for "usable" data collection if they're starting from ground up, assuming they have an army of individuals going through minutes of past matches and tagging events. I know someone will say "oh AI can automate this" but that's tosh as of today. Expecting something in 3-6 months is actually unreasonable.
Arnold/Murtough uses feedback from Redcafe to make decisions.It's almost as if we're doing away with the decisions the previous failed regime put in place.
Everything about the Arnold/Murtough management seemed half hearted and an attempt to look like they were making changes without making changes.
There's no informational advantage in getting the same data that is also sold to a ton of other clubs. Techniques for data processing almost yield identical results, so that's often not the concern. It's the quality & nature of data that sets the analytics teams apart.Theres companies that sell the data needed, you dont need to start from scratch. They could start by buying and then build internally over time.
All I remember from the previous data “regime” was that it selected AWB as the best right back out of 800 others. Thats enough to tell me that it was worth sacking.
Interesting that ETH and Murtough clearly had a bad relationship as well. I swear no one has ever found out what Murtough actually did.Thought these were interesting quotes about Wilcox from SJR's interview today:
Wilcox is clearly a key figure at the club now, but that underlines that we're still more reliant on him than we ideally should be if other aspects of the club were modernised.
Everything about the Arnold/Murtough management seemed half hearted and an attempt to look like they were making changes without making changes.
If ratcliffe or Berrada weren’t seeing eye to eye with him then that’s the reason for the sack no? Why would they keep him around? It probably cost as much to sack him as it would have to keep him around another year.I said at the time that giving Ashcroft the boot could be just another cost cutting measure. If Ratcliffe and him (or Berrada and him) weren’t seeing eye to eye the club could save a load of money by sacking him and letting others take up the slack.
I thought recruitment was the purview of the ex Redbull guy.Based on absolutely nothing other than hearsay and a few quotes I like what Wilcox has done (if he has indeed done them). The simple fact of (trying) to correct ETH's suicidal 4-2-4 press last season, bringing in Heaven and going as far to say he's there to challenge for a first team place (even if it is lip service) are two effective and progressive things he done, which is more than what the previous board can say.
If as SJR says he has 'the eyes' and 'knows football', that's already a big plus in my book.
If ratcliffe or Berrada weren’t seeing eye to eye with him then that’s the reason for the sack no? Why would they keep him around? It probably cost as much to sack him as it would have to keep him around another year.
The difficult part is not the data, bit the processing and interpreatation. And that takes to build a systematic approachThere's no informational advantage in getting the same data that is also sold to a ton of other clubs. Techniques for data processing almost yield identical results, so that's often not the concern. It's the quality & nature of data that sets the analytics teams apart.
Not sure Vivell is as involved with youth targets from what we know.I thought recruitment was the purview of the ex Redbull guy.
*Informed DecisionsArnold/Murtough uses feedback from Redcafe to make decisions.
I think Vivell’s redbull betwork comes in handy there, albeit they are focused more towards Africa. I thought the Malian lad, Kone was Vivell’s work bearing fruit.Not sure Vivell is as involved with youth targets from what we know.
The likelihood is the best U18s or above are literally known by everyone, I doubt there are any uncovered gems among major European clubs academies. It's more like what we did with Garnacho or Heaven, basically being able to tempt them away/run down deals.
I think where data + Wilcox will come in when you look at what Brighton have done in raiding random leagues like Ecuador or Japan and finding player they then sell for £100m
I think it’s been well reported that he was let go due to his resistance to making staff cuts in the football department.My theory is that Ashworth was one of the voices internally who pushed to give both Rashford and ETH a chance under the new organizational structure, and when those decisions were looking like major errors early on, and in combination with reports we've seen about Ashworth being slow to pare down staff and potentially pushing for Southgate the replacement for ETH, Ratcliffe decided he'd seen enough.
