I don't agree with the criticism of Hamer. Does he look like he's sulking? Yeah I think so, at least a bit (as do a couple of others). Is his discipline (in terms of dissent etc) poor? Yes, as always. But does he look like his conditioning is poor and is he "waddling" around? Not for me. He's played 90 minutes in every league game so far and must be up there in terms of sprints and distance covered. I think 'fat, lazy Hamer who always comes off after an hour' became a thing last season even though the facts showed it wasn't true.
In the first weekend of the season, the excellent Fotmob app had physical data for all Premier League matches so you could see how far each player had run and how quickly. I would love to see that data for United games so we'd know once and for all if Gus just waddles around. I might well be mis-remembering when it was in the game but Hamer was still sprinting after a Cooper long throw long into the 2nd half. I also thought he was the catalyst for the more encouraging last 20-25 minutes and showed some character to drag us forward.
When Wilder was sacked, my main problem was the timing. In our last year of parachute payments, I thought short-term thinking was essential and we needed to go with the safest option. I did have a problem with the attacking fluidity Wilder managed to achieve and I was hopeful we'd tweak something behind the scenes to address this - whether that was the coaching staff or our approach to this element of the game. I wasn't thrilled to see us linked with the likes of Mepham but I was hopeful that we'd add some of the on-pitch nous that was so badly lacking in the last 20 minutes v Sunderland to complement what we had.
As I've reflected more, and obviously this is with the benefit of hindsight to some degree, I also now think we're a step behind in terms of what we think is the modern approach and the best way to do things. I think we're going to see more and more teams playing 4-4-2, more teams going direct at times to beat the press and we're already seeing the big number 9 coming back into fashion. I'm not saying we'd headed down that path last season because Chris Wilder is a forward thinking, football genius but I do think he'd seen a way of beating what a lot of teams (notably Bristol City) were doing and I thought there was a lot of promise in how we looked in that set up (particularly given our front two)
I also think that the vast majority of United fans would be shocked if they had an insight into the level and quality of some of the work that has been done behind the scenes at United. I think we, as a fanbase, look at two local lads in Heckingbottom and Wilder and just think it's all about passion and the United way but that's totally wrong. There were some incredibly modern thinking and approaches being used and there was an incredible depth of work in terms of player development and preparation. I read some of the stuff posted on here and on social media and the simplicity of thinking is just incredible really. A corner doesn't beat the first man so we must not work on set pieces. A striker misses a chance so the coaching is poor. I can think of one goal in particular that was the result of something the team had studied and worked on but I can pretty much guarantee that no-one (including me at the time) thought "wow, that's come from great preparation". I hope Wilder looks back with some regret on what happened after the Wednesday games and the Plymouth game because it's this sort of thing that stops him being taking as seriously as he deserves to be.
I know this sort of thing is being talked about on the highest level UEFA coaching courses and I do worry that we've jumped on a trend just as it's been found out and football is heading off in a different direction (as it always does). Of course, Selles might be thinking this and might be looking to change our style once he can get the players in - maybe he has it in him to become a modern, tactical manager who is also pragmatic like Thomas Frank. Yesterday's formation and side wasn't encouraging in that regard though.
I'd love to hear Selles explain (and maybe has somewhere, not caught up with any interviews yet) why he played Cannon on the right. I just can't see any logic or explanation as to why that might work. I wasn't pleased when we signed Cannon. Personally, I like strikers to have at least one stand-out physical attribute whether that's speed or strength or height and Cannon has none. I also struggled a bit with Billy Sharp for the same reason but he proved me wrong time and time again. Regardless of that, playing him on the right wing is just throwing him under the bus - what can he do from that position?
Our squad now looks full of holes, is lacking in both depth and quality and is horribly unbalanced. Not much that we've done has worked. When we looked to shore things up a bit at Swansea, we had no attacking threat and although yesterday we looked more balanced than we did v Bristol City, there were long spells when we were horribly poor.
I'm also struggling with the strategy of the club as a whole. If we're looking to bring in young players with potential and then sell them on for a profit, then why all the loans?
I would be against sacking Selles at this point. He's not been dealt a great hand by the board to say the least and it's early days. I also think we have had a couple of short spells in the two home games when we've looked good. I'd like him to bring in a more experienced, ex-player assistant manager but appreciate that would have to be someone he's comfortable working with and that might be difficult. I think if we end the window without a centre-back, a right winger, an athletic central midfielder and a striker coming in, we're going to continue to struggle.
I'd love the club to come out and explain the strategy but I don't think there's any obligation for them to do that - I'd just like to be reassured that there's a plan.
Very hard to think of a side which looks balanced and has the right people in the right places at the moment but I would like us to get someone up front with Campbell who looked totally isolated yesterday. 3-5-2 is completely out of fashion now although I think it would probably help a few of our players.
At this moment, it feels easier to envisage a downwards spiral than a serious promotion challenge. Some important days ahead.
