With the football season back in full swing – a month early, if you ask me, trampling all over and in many instances ruining the end of the cricket season – I did not pay that much attention to yesterday’s results. Apart from Bristol Rovers’ defeat at Scunthorpe, that is. I have seen little by way of supporter reaction to the defeat, other than by way of twitter and Facebook, and it’s generally of the “we played well, the score flattered the home team” variety. Oh, and the formation was all wrong. The manager, who has presided over two stunningly successful seasons, clearly has no idea what he is doing, particularly with a back three when we should be playing with a back four.
Having seen none of the action, not even the goals, I found myself in my local last night with members of the village football and cricket teams, as well as sundry football fans to discuss the action. The conversation didn’t last long, to be honest, but I found myself persuaded by an argument made by a Stoke Gifford legend, John Black, manager of countless teams over many years and currently supremo at Almondsbury UWE in the first division of the Toolstation League. His view is simple. Formations don’t really matter. “It’s all about this!” he said, pointing to his heart. The gist of his argument was that heart, desire, hunger and the willingness to give it everything count for much more than mere formations. In general terms, I concur with that point of view.
Like most football non experts, I do have a view on formations. I too don’t like what one TV pundit once described as “a three man back four”. Actually, three at the back is really only three at the back when you’re on the attack because, if you play the system properly it’s five at the back when you’re defending. So when I say I prefer the old 4-4-2 system, I am saying it on the basis of nostalgia more than anything else because, certainly at the higher echelons of the game, no-one plays 4-4-2 these days. However, at the lower levels of the game, such as parks football, everyone does. It’s more convenient, it’s easier to understand but it’s more a matter of habit than a result of extensive tactical planning.
The interview I saw with Rovers boss Darrell Clarke did not dwell on the formation. In fact, Clarke didn’t even mention it. Generally, he was pleased with what he saw, other than the result. After one game where, it seems, the team played well, with passion and no small amount of skill, are we really suggesting mass panic already? “Clarke had better sort it out. We’ve only got 45 games left in order to try and avoid relegation. If it stays like that, we’d best sack him. What’s John Ward doing these days?” No, I don’t think anyone is saying that – I hope!!! – but there is an argument, on 7th August 2016, that we at least try to keep calm.
I’d like us, the terrace dwellers, to remain calm for the entire season, actually. Many of us, I know, tend to forget that football is a simple game that can get very complicated. We forget – and by we, I include me, because I have been as guilty as anyone else – that sooner or later a team goes into a bad run. It doesn’t mean that the manager has “lost the plot” or that somehow the players aren’t trying anymore. It just happens. Things can go wrong as quickly as they go right and then they can change again. Sometimes, for reasons that are unfathomable, it just sort of clicks.
Every manager, whose team is performing at an average level, knows that he is usually six games away from the sack. It does not mean that the manager can no longer cut it. Because of the way football is, in terms of finance, in terms of expectation from owners and fans, only today matters. This, until the arrival of Darrell Clarke, was how Bristol Rovers had operated for many years with inevitable consequences.
I too have a clear idea of how my team should line up, with a ball playing centre half alongside a stopper, a midfield destroyer alongside the playmaker, a big bloke up front along a slippery inside forward, but then I’ve had that idea since I was a small boy. Modern football is a little more varied than that.
A couple of wins and Clarke will resume his rightful position as a football genius who should be at least knighted, perhaps even beatified, for his performances. That “three man back four” was a masterstroke. Until we lose again, obviously.
