All at Swansea
Fortress Home Park gets breached twice in four days
Welcome to the latest One Team in Devon. Fortress Home Park was breached twice in a week, with a smash and grab by Millwall, followed by a murder in broad daylight by Swansea.
What’s happened to the impenetrable Fortress Home Park?
Read on for this week’s news.
All at Swansea
Much like the Millwall game, Argyle started brightly, but a combination of defensive lapses, and being found by Swansea, contributed to our downfall.
Yet again, it really comes down to moments. We were far from being played off the park, and there was little between Argyle and a big-spending Swansea side. But at key moments, Argyle came up short.
Swansea probed our backline, and a speculative chip to the back post ended with the Swans pulling level. Then a complete systemic breakdown left Oli Cooper in acres of space in the middle – and his lethal shot couldn’t have underlined how quickly you get punished in the Championship any better.
Finally, another ludicrous unpunished foul ended with a Swansea breakaway when Argyle were committed forward.
Argyle gave as good as they got in return: Mumba should have scored, and probably should have Edwards who seemed to time his header wrong. And crosses flashed across the Swansea six-yard line, but those moments went unpunished.
A microcosm of Argyle’s season in the Championship. And where improvements need to be made were clear for all to see.
Schuey roulette vs. Russian roulette
It was another system change for Argyle, with 3-4-2-1 favoured, after 4-3-3 against Milwall. That in itself was a change from Hull.
It’s up for debate whether we should switch systems for the team in front of us – or we should choose one that best fits our players, and stick with it.
It’s interesting to think about which successful teams, outside of the very elite, make such wholesale changes week in, and week out. Any FPL player knows about Pep Roulette – but where else do we see switches in personnel and system so regularly? Answers in the comments below if you can think of any examples.
Personally, I find the constant swapping and changing reminiscent of teams struggling to find form or rhythm.
It’s not just the starting formation. Against Millwall, we made three or four formation changes in the game. And against Swansea, there were three, after switching to a back four, and then ending up 4-4-2 with Bundu playing LM.
Schuey used his in-game tweaks to devastating effect last season, but this season they seem to be searching for solutions.
As we predicted in the post-Norwich episode, Schuey is using different systems against different types of teams. It worked so well against Norwich. But against the low-block of Millwall, the 4-3-3 was toothless even with the extra man, and against Swansea, the 3-4-3 was still too open at the back.
So the switching, at present, isn’t yielding the results that Schuey wants.
PAFC displays
On a brighter note from Saturday, the latest work from PAFC Displays was on show.
A set of new flags got an outing, which you can see above, with photos borrowed from excellent Argyle Twitter man @CarlBarnard and his lovely new iPhone 15 Pro.
And Jack Leslie’s honourary England cap was also given a lap of honour around Home Park.
Green and White podcast
Post Swansea, I made my first appearance on the Green and White podcast. I’m sure you’re already all over it, but if not, it’s usually a top listen.
I talked at all the wrong moments and was way more boring than the usual contributors Sam and Joe.
But make sure to subscribe via your usual podcasting service.
1) keep the faith, from top to bottom everyone is learning.
2) too many changes can certainly backfire at times on the day but the youngsters will improve a lot quicker than by sitting on the bench.
3) in a league in which 19 of the 24 have been in the premier league it’s not only a budget hurdle it’s a nous hurdle!
4) how many other championship managers are in their first job?
5) as Larrieu said after his comeback from a cruciate injury, patience is required. I would add belief to that- see point 1!