Hoofball - Blackwell has to take the blame IMO. Whichever way you look at it, it's either his tactics (which I think most of us believe) but when he argues that he's telling players to get it down the wings, and players are ignoring him, that's still his fault. What kind of manager can't get his players to do what he asks?
His post-match comments pissed me off - mostly for the obvious, in saying that he thought we bossed the midfield - WTFingF???!? - but the bit that worried me is him saying "we played with two wide-men in Webber and Halford". No. We played a striker on the left and a right-back on the right. Whichever way you look at it, that's wrong.
Halford, for me, is an unnecessary distraction. He's a stable, dependable player. That's not what I want from a "winger". Wingers should be dynamic, fast, unpredictable and dangerous. Halford is none of these things. Webber can be but his instincts as a striker overrule his job as a winger. He cuts inside early and looks for the shot first, cross second.
Neither of these "wide-men" aim for the by-line. Natural wingers do. If Blackwell can't see that I think there's some serious holes in his knowledge of the game.
