Copying this over from the PSV post game thread because its more applicable here…
There obviously isn’t much visibility into the specific dynamic among the group involved in personnel decisions or who contributed what to which decisions, but i find some of the scenarios being suggested that paint Slot as someone let down by the process are just inconceivable to imagine with how we know this group has worked in the past.
- Everyone who has ever spoken on the record from the data team has been quick to share credit and spoken about the importance of the human element in the decision making, and the importance of everyone being aligned in ideas and priorities
- We know the data team don’t just look at players for positions, but profiles of players. We would not accidentally get a running FB if the manager wanted/needed a progressive passer. And we wouldn’t get someone who cannot invert if that is what the manager wanted to do.
Given this it seems inconceivable to me that Slot was dictated to or that players were bought for different profiles than he needed. Unlike in 2014 I don’t think there is even a good case to be made for us just buying players who weren’t good enough. Even the ones who are not yet performing were identified as quality outside of our interest in them and were not surprising when our interest in them surfaced.
The very uncomfortable question this leaves me with is how well did Slot play his role in the process. We are seeing a side who don’t look certain how to implement what he has been asking of them this season. If he has struggled to communicate it to the players, is it possible there was a similar disconnect with Hughes and his team in the planning stage?
The simplicity of his direction was credited for a lot of his success last year, and that is a textbook mark of good coaching…simplify the message to the one or two points that are most important for the coachee to implement. But that was achieved in the context of only making small tweaks to what he wanted to see. The attempted change this season has been bigger and has Slot just not developed the right story to help people understand what he’s looking for?