City v Spurs, Etihad Stadium, Friday 8th November, 7.30pm

[JRockBlues]

In my opinion, Fowler is an outstanding player IF she gets to play in her natural position, behind the striker. She can distribute and play through balls to the frontline and striker. She can connect the midfield with the attack. She can score goals. Also, when needed, she can help the midfield with defending. She already does this at the wing, yet she sometimes struggles because she is not well equipped to play peripherally. She does all these tasks more efficiently when she plays in her natural position for Australia, and she is only 21. I like Rico, but he can’t do any of this at any satisfactory levels, and maybe also because he is only 19 and will show his hidden skills when he finds his best position, but that is a different story. Back to Fowler, I don’t recall the coach has ever let her play in her natural position. Almost always at the wing, and rarely a striker when he takes Shaw out. This coach is such a genius who loves to make players play out of their natural positions. The first I recall was Rose Lavelle whom he kept playing mostly for a few minutes and out of her natural position. She struggled and was looking forward to leaving City and the genus. Among the current players, Hasegawa and Alexiandri play in different positions for their countries, and they just excel. But because they are exceptional talent and among the top 10 players worldwide now, they also excel wherever the genius chose for them to play. My guess, Fowler will eventually leave because of the coach to get her chances somewhere else. She won’t be the first or the last talent to leave because of the coach.

The biggest problem for Fowler is that we don't play with a traditional #10. All the clubs in CFG are primed to play in a similar pattern as dictated by the owners. They want it to be immediately apparant that whichever club you watch you can tell it belongs to the group. While there are tweaks available the basic structure is from a 4-3-3 and like the Barcelona academy it's set up across all age-ranges. So for Fowler to be moved centrally she will either have to play as a #9 (first choice Bunny Shaw) or in one of the attacking midfield slots (competing against Miedema, Roord & Park as well as the 2 Laura's). Her best chance of minutes at the moment is playing wide right or as the option when giving Bunny a rest. I've said before that I think Fowler has the highest potential ceiling of the younger players in the squad but because of these restrictions I'm not sure she'll reach it with us.

 

[born2bblu]

The biggest problem for Fowler is that we don't play with a traditional #10. All the clubs in CFG are primed to play in a similar pattern as dictated by the owners. They want it to be immediately apparant that whichever club you watch you can tell it belongs to the group. While there are tweaks available the basic structure is from a 4-3-3 and like the Barcelona academy it's set up across all age-ranges. So for Fowler to be moved centrally she will either have to play as a #9 (first choice Bunny Shaw) or in one of the attacking midfield slots (competing against Miedema, Roord & Park as well as the 2 Laura's). Her best chance of minutes at the moment is playing wide right or as the option when giving Bunny a rest. I've said before that I think Fowler has the highest potential ceiling of the younger players in the squad but because of these restrictions I'm not sure she'll reach it with us.

I agree that Fowler has the highest potential ceiling among the younger players, and I also think she will eventually leave. I also happened to disagree with the Club’s philosophy because it is hurting the women’s team for several years now. If what you wrote is true, the owners with all respect should not interfere with playing strategies. The norm is that each coach should play to the strength of the players, or alternatively the coach should be able to train the players to play a specific strategy, and neither is happening with the women’s team since this coach became in charge. It is not a secret that Gareth Taylor has persistent limitations and can’t improve, and therefore he failed to transform his players to fit the “unified” playing strategy, which is the one that Guardiola uses. That, despite having an excellent squad during most of his tenure. Gareth Taylor is not Guardiola and we are not Barcelona, as simple as that. To my understanding, he had similar issues when he was in charge of one of the boys teams, and also the boys didn’t like him. My guess, and I acknowledge it is just a guess, the Club keep him around because he is “a yes man” who agrees on everything he is asked to do. They don’t want a more capable coach with personality and guts who might give them hard time. What you wrote about the owners’ interference in how the teams should play, again if true, is concerning and further supports the idea of keeping a yes man. We don’t have to be Barcelona or any other club because we can be extremely successful by just being ourselves and do whatever is suitable for us. We should try to create our own legacy and not imitate/repeat Barcelona’s legacy or any other club. I wonder if it will be good when Fowler leaves to specifically join Barcelona at the end. I guess the Club wouldn’t care because the most important thing is that we should imitate Barcelona at all expenses, and have all our teams play a similar strategy.

 

[JRockBlues]

I agree that Fowler has the highest potential ceiling among the younger players, and I also think she will eventually leave. I also happened to disagree with the Club’s philosophy because it is hurting the women’s team for several years now. If what you wrote is true, the owners with all respect should not interfere with playing strategies. The norm is that each coach should play to the strength of the players, or alternatively the coach should be able to train the players to play a specific strategy, and neither is happening with the women’s team since this coach became in charge. It is not a secret that Gareth Taylor has persistent limitations and can’t improve, and therefore he failed to transform his players to fit the “unified” playing strategy, which is the one that Guardiola uses. That, despite having an excellent squad during most of his tenure. Gareth Taylor is not Guardiola and we are not Barcelona, as simple as that. To my understanding, he had similar issues when he was in charge of one of the boys teams, and also the boys didn’t like him. My guess, and I acknowledge it is just a guess, the Club keep him around because he is “a yes man” who agrees on everything he is asked to do. They don’t want a more capable coach with personality and guts who might give them hard time. What you wrote about the owners’ interference in how the teams should play, again if true, is concerning and further supports the idea of keeping a yes man. We don’t have to be Barcelona or any other club because we can be extremely successful by just being ourselves and do whatever is suitable for us. We should try to create our own legacy and not imitate/repeat Barcelona’s legacy or any other club. I wonder if it will be good when Fowler leaves to specifically join Barcelona at the end. I guess the Club wouldn’t care because the most important thing is that we should imitate Barcelona at all expenses, and have all our teams play a similar strategy.

It's possible I may have extrapolated a bit too much out of the comments that were made at the time. I think it was from one of Khaldoon's interviews when we started going down the multi-club route. He definitely said that the playing philosophy shold be instituted across all teams and age-groups but not necessarily the adherence to the 4-3-3 structure. I don't follow the other teams in the group so can't really confirm either way.

It fits the theory though with not utilising players from past squads in their more natural positions. Lavelle has been mentioned but more recently there was also Deyna Castellanos who we could never seem to fit in either.