By Neil Ravenscroft
October 7 2003

There has been a lot of criticism flying around lateley which seem to revolve around tactics and Merson. Most of it, I'm afraid, doesn't make any sense to me. The "let's complain about the Manager" brigade have been out in force following the Burnley game, but I can't make head or tale of some of their arguments.

As I've said in this column before, the way to beat us at the moment is the way that Burnley played the game in the second half (and the way Cardiff did at home). You push up into our half and stop us passing through midfield. We are then left with the only option of playing it long and haven't got the personnel to do it (Gillingham excepted, as they had four Hobbits at the back).

Lee's comments in the Dingle and Star yesterday summed that up:-

"We were forced back, we didn't sit back and we didn't change anything," he said.
"Stan Ternent (Burnley manager) never changed anything personnel-wise, he just pushed right onto us and kept us boxed in and forced us to knock the long balls.
"At half-time, we said exactly the same because we felt if we could get at their back four we had a good chance of winning it.
"They got at our back four and we couldn't get at theirs.
"We didn't change anything at half-time because we were determined to take the game forward but we were forced back by a Burnley team who did it better than us in the second half."

That's why he's been after a big centre forward, because he knows the weakness. Some people think Birch should be given the opportunity, but that's a different debate.

The other complaint is that we are too defensive, in playing only one striker. The problem here is Merson. He can't play in a 4 4 2, as he can't defend, if in a central position and is a peripheral figure if out on the wing. The best formation to play him in is 3 4 1 2, but that does tend to require three fit centre backs. which we didn't have on Saturday! With the best will in the World, Aranalde plus Hay and Emblen is probabably the last combination you'd choose of the ones we have.

Criticism is all well and good, but so much of it is completely unconstructive and ends up with the "can't motivate" type comments, which cannot be substantiated. If you want to discuss tactics, let's at least do it logically.

The realisation that sometimes the players are to blame would be nice, too!