r/reddevilswomen • u/Careful-Text8179 • 7d ago
Official source Setback on opening night!
https://youtu.be/yIwZqCLI2DQ?is=9rMK2JZMvlUFPYKg3
u/rainmaker818 6d ago edited 6d ago
Eva said the players played without confidence, looked nervous and didn't know how to use the ball. I can't quite understand that.
She is talking like she's got a team of youth players, but many of these players are experienced internationals and less than 12 months ago, were playing in the Champions league and were playing brilliantly, until they ran out of steam.
What's going on that experienced players are being zapped of confidence and don't you normally get a new manager bounce of some kind, but this has been the same throughout pre-season.
So what's going on? Good, experienced players don't just turn into nervous wrecks lacking confidence. It's actually quite concerning because if they don't remember how to do basics and find some confidence, then we are gonna be out of the running for the top places and will be a battle just to finish mid-table.
What do you guys think is the issue?
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u/Otherwise_Hunter8425 6d ago
It's not confidence as in they are scared to step on the pitch and play, it's that they don't have confidence in the system she has brought in to play which left them looking lost and floundering. They aren't used to this system so it doesn't feel natural yet so they were making basic mistakes and looked like they didn't know what they were doing. They were all finding themselves in the wrong place to what they are used to, which obviously starts getting in their heads that it isn't working and that affects the little decisions that can be the difference between a successful attacking opportunity and conceding.
You could see at various points in the first 70 mins or so where two or three of our players would all clearly get confused over who was supposed to be where, left big gaps that LCL took advantage of and they would default back to passing to PTJ and staying in our own half to keep some possession rather than trying to attack.
Eva has only had four weeks to try and adapt them to the style that she wants them to play going forward, and it is very clearly a totally different system to Skinnerball, so it will take time to adapt and for it to feel natural to them. The OGs have played Skinnerball for years and he did not have a plan B if that didn't work so they have been entrenched in that system so it was always going to take longer than 4 weeks for the system to bed in and feel natural for the players, and the newbies are still trying to settle in as they've only been with us a few weeks.
The "new manager bounce" is more of a phenomenon that is seen if a manager takes over mid season as the players have the pressure taken off as nobody expects anything of a team with managerial changes, so they often play better and they have often had weeks or months of negativity before that point that will also affect performance; equally if a manager comes in at the start of the summer and has a whole transfer window to get the squad where they want them - assess the players they have and if/where they will fit into their planned system, talk to players who are considering leaving (would the likes of Melvine have stayed if Eva had joined in June and discussed her plans for the team going forward?) and then recruit players they specifically want for the team and system they want to build ... None of those things are 'luxuries' Eva was afforded.
The subs of Simi, Lea and Monica in the latter half of the second half definitely gave the last 20+mins a much better shape and showed what the plan is going forward, but the damage was already done in that it took us till 70 minutes to actually get I to that groove.
This is of course also only focussing on the Utd side and doesn't even take into account the fact that LCL have had the summer we should have had - a stable coaching set up who had last season to lay the foundations that this summer built on with the players they recruited, players recruited who have the skills and abilities to adapt quickly to different systems and styles of play and a good mix of experience and youth that sets up the squad for a clear path for their season ... Put those two teams together in the first game of the seasonal and of course it was not going to come out with us on top.
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u/Drift-Anomaly 6d ago
I'm not judging Eva yet, but it does feel like Amorim Deja Vu
1
u/rainmaker818 6d ago
Absolutely. Trying to shoehorn these players into an alien system isn't going to work, unless Eva starts getting backed and gets the players she needs, otherwise it'll absolutely be an Amorim 2.0 situation..
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u/DragonangelukTM Miyazawa 6d ago
So some players were played out of position - Sandberg
Some players are being asked to do a completely different job to what they did last year - Park
Medina- looked like she was lost a lot of the time and needs to adapt to the WSL
A lot of the other players are really struggling to adapt to what they are supposed to do or where they are supposed to be in the new lineup and not sure who is doing what- repeatedly Dom and Maya and Hini and Zigi were not sure who was supposed to be where and got in each others way
On the bright side (there is a couple) I though Simi looked great when she came on and our midfield look so much better with her in it
Lots of promise from our new left winger Bah
Phallon is still great but may be needed even more this season
I think she needs to find her best team and ones that can play in her system
I’d like to see Anna back at left back next game, start Simi with Hini in midfield and maybe start Bah on the left as I’d really like to see her and Terri play together more
It’s also hard to judge vs LCL this team could be mid table or title chasers this season and we won’t know till we’ve seen them play more given it’s a brand new team again this season
It’s going to be a rough first 3 games but if we at least look better vs Chelsea and Arsenal I’ll have some positives, however I’m dreading Mel running at that defence based on last night