In defence of Steve

I know that I am probably going to get slaughtered for this but here goes.

Now I am not going to suggest that Steve MacLaren has not made mistakes because he has, zonal marking, picking players who are obviously short of confidence and/or form and not having a plan b to fall back on when things have been going wrong - as I say he's not been perfect.

However I don't think he has been able to play the type of football that he has wanted to play simply because he has not had the right type of players. He as always said that he wanted to play with wingers and the fact that he has tried to sign at least four whilst he has been here: Verhoek, Routledge, Dyer and Keightley (I think) plus had Barnes, Riga and Cook on trial shows the kind of team he wanted to build, add that to the injuries to Anderson and McCleary his hands have been forced to play a totally different way to how he hoped to.

Having to play a narrow midfield makes it easier for teams to defend against. Derby was a prime example, with 10 men it is much easier to defend against a team trying to go through you than around you. Wingers stretch the opposing defence and can leave more room for the midfielders to push on. Another problem with having to play a narrow midfield means that opponents with decent wide men, supported by the fullbacks, have basically a six man attack when going forward this means the central midfield are pulled out wide leaving gaps and allowing the opposition central midfielders space to also attack the penalty box. Pacy wingers (and Paul Anderson is a prime example of this), keep the opposition fullbacks quiet and let our own fullbacks with just wingers to deal with and as a result there are less crosses into the box, and therefore less danger.
Wingers are also a good outlet when under pressure where they will only usually get one player to go up against instead of clearances into the middle of the park which are much more likely to come straight back at you.
All of this plus the chance to get dangerous balls into the opposition box.

There is no coincidence that during our great runs in the last two seasons Billy (especially at home) always tried to play with wingers and during that time our defence was one of the best in the division.

I also think that Steve's frustrations in not being able to land (and have injuries to) decent wingers probably also manifested it's self to the players and this cannot have helped.