You can coach skills until the cows come home. In fact I could argue there are too many Cruyff turns, rabonas etc.
None of this has any relevance if you don’t have a game plan. You could have players capable of hitting a 70 metre cross-field ball in the style of Beckham, Scholes, Gerrard et al, and a winger who can kill a ball dead first touch. But if you’ve been told not to do this their skills are wasted.
Our problem would seem to be that Cox, like Wilcox before him has put defence first. Nothing wrong with that of course, but often if you are trying not to give away possession by attempting such long range passes, the opposition can close you down quicker and force you into errors, which in the games I’ve watched is all to common.
Cox is no master tactician. That’s where his weaknesses lie.
