Extended-Phenotype Hmm. Not sure what to make of it all really. Still feel that Hunt is within a grace window what with having to start essentially from scratch this season with a new roster of players, and want to afford the same grace to those players too - it’s rare to hit the ground running, and they will of course need time; this isn’t really something to blame Hunt for.
At the same time, Hunt does seem to be repeating a few questionable decisions that isn’t doing him any favours in terms of fan patience. While he is of course stuck with the players he has, and the time it takes for them to settle, he doesn’t always seem to play the right ones, or put them in the right positions.
I was saying to the missus last night though; if it’s obvious to us as armchair shitmunchers to start so-and-so, or play thingo wherever, it will be obvious to Hunt, so if he’s NOT doing that he is probably privy to more information we are not.
I really do think a decent striker will turn things around. Sometimes it just takes one little thing to fix a broken engine. The worry is whether we will indeed sign such a player! If we don’t, we could be in trouble.
In the midfield issue, there are basically two complaints and issues the fans consider obvious errors.
1) Wing playing as the quarterback rather than further forward.
2) Fraser playing in Knibb's position rather than Elliott/Doyle.
I try to put myself in the manager's place and ask myself why he's doing what so many people think is wrong. Whether I agree or not.
I think 1 should be pretty obvious. It's where Wing played successfully last season under both Selles and Hunt. It plays to many of Wing's strengths, he has [usually] great distribution, both long and short. He can retain possession, deal with a high press, slide tight balls forward into midfield and the wings, and play Hollywood 60 yards, usually with great accuracy turning defence into attack and getting us in behind. And he can ghost into space outside the box for those netbusters. Space he's less likely to get playing further forward in congestion. This one, I tend to agree is pretty valid.
2 is the real headscratcher. It's a departure from last season. It doesn’t seem to fit the system, or the players. My gut feeling is that because we've started badly, Hunt thinks we need to be conservative and play a more defensive game, because our midfield is being played through and overrun. So Elliott/Doyle will be too lightweight and make that worse.
I have some sympathy for that view, especially away and against the better teams. But if that’s Hunt's reasoning, I think he’s got it very wrong. Because it does far more damage to our ability to keep the ball, string passes together and create chances than it helps keep us solid. If you don’t carry a threat and the ability to retain the ball, the opposition has to put very little effort and focus into defending and can just dedicate themselves to attack.
It's this one that has to change for me, and Elliott (or Doyle) has to start in the midfield three. If he makes the change, we'll see if we're right and Hunt was wrong, or if Hunt saw something in training to show him it won’t work or they're not up to it, and we were wrong.
