Match Day Thread Derby v QPR

disappointing performance, I think that's a fair assessment of what I've just watched

 

4-3-4?
That's stretching it a bit, but worth a try I suppose

 

exactly those words.

 

It's Jekyll and Hyde. I was dubious about Holloway and absolutely against a signing like Smith, but I had been persuaded that I'd been proved wrong. Then tonight everything I'd feared came true. Just a blip hopefully.

 

There is one quote that has stuck in my mind for decades. It was from Arsene Wenger and back in the days when he was manager for AS Monaco. He had Mark Hateley in his squad/team, and everytime he played no matter what the gameplan where, if the back four or midfield where out of options for a pass they always looked for the big man and hit it long and high. It's only natural for players to take the easy option. He swore to never be in a position where he was reliant on a big man up front again, after that all his teams have been built on pace and movement.

In that respect it is Ollies fault for putting the team in a position where we have a big man up front. Away from home I don't see it as good solution, we should go for quick players with plenty of movement instead of a big target man.

 

Hard to see any improvement whatsoever last night. That was as bad as I have seen all season, though it seems we save most of our worst games for TV judging by reviews I read of other games.

I thought Hall played well, and apart from some mistakes from Ned, Hall, Ned and Perch proved hard for Derby to break down in ftont of goal. All credit to Perch for playing OK in the 4th different position I have now seen him this season.

But Smithies had a poor game, Fulong did save us a few times but got caught out of position a few others. Can't remember Bidwell passing to a colleague once. Pawel was a shadow of what he can do. Manning and Freeman lost the centre of midfield and we couldn't hold the ball. Washington was invisible. Surely even Mackie would have been an improvement. Smith was limited but OK.with scraps. Thought Sylla should have been brought on earlier.

 

One to forget. So many players were well below their best, especially Smithies, Ned, Pawel and Doctor Who.

 

Yet Smith was in the team for the Birmingham away game and it worked brilliantly there. It's about discipline, intelligence, drilling on the training ground and winning the midfield battle so you get behind the oppositions defence. You don't find many bigger target men than Zlatan yet I don't think any of the teams he played for recently simply lumped it up to him because he was there.

 

That was as bad as I have seen us play for ages but that post is a bit of an overreaction in my opinion Col. Even really good teams look poor in this league sometimes (Huddersfield the other week lost 4-0 to relegation threatened Bristol) Why should we base next seasons potential on one bad game rather than the seven previous good ones?

 

I think Hollow can be guilty of being a bit silly at times.
He stated at the beginning of the program that he tried to outplay (or outpass) Rowlett last time and lost so this time he would change his method/style. That told me it was going to be 'long ball'.

When Hollow joined us I was moaning that we would only see 'hoof ball' under him, I was wrong. in fact, I was pleasantly surprised he was trying to pass it around. However, he learned that we didn't have the players to do that. That's why we lost six on the bounce. Really he should have mixed it up a bit.
As soon as I saw Smith linked with us I again raised concerns that it would be long ball. Since then I have been proved right. Last night showed that Hollow has not learned by his mistakes. Now I am not saying that we could out pass Derby because we can't, however, a bit of mixing it around would have helped. We have become a team that relies on Smith because we don't have the brains to do anything else. That starts from the manager down.

Under Hollow we are and will be too inconsistent. Agree we have got some decent results against Reading/Fulham but then we lose to Blackburn and Burton at home a week later? In some ways, he has surprised me. I have moaned at substitutions but they have worked out. He has also won games that I thought we would lose but sadly under Hollow we never 'just lose" we are normally dreadful like last night.

Hollow is an honest bloke who says it how he see's it but admitting he "got it wrong" and "we move on to the next game" doesn't always sit well with me, especially when it's the same bloody mistakes he is making. Hollow needs to look at why things go wrong and address them otherwise next season will be the same in that we will beat a few teams and lose at home to the bottom ones.

 

I just think we were outplayed on the night particularly in midfield. The balance wasn't right and we looked a bit like one of JFH's teams that were disjointed and incapable of stringing three passes together. As others mentioned Manning and Freeman were outmuscled and we were putting ourselves under too much pressure. The full/wingbacks were constantly being pulled out of position and Ned was...well Ned. One to forget...

 

We are on the box again already next Friday night home to Brighton. This and the Villa game will show if yesterday''s dismal showing was a 1 off to forget, or not.

 

Difficult to argue with any of that, particularly the expectation of style of play when Smith is up front. Hoof ball is all well and good when you're 1-0 down with 10 minutes left, but I would hope Ollie wants more from his team than that. By all means whack it up to Smith, but have him hold it up, link with Washington and the attacking midfielders etc. Most teams nowadays can deal with 'hit and hope' football and it's comforting to face an opposition so bereft of anything more skilful or threatening.

It's interesting how much we miss Luongo, but also troubling that we don't have a Plan B replacement.

I'm still at a loss to understand why Wsolek was pulled last night, thus removing any potential threat on the deck and wing. I hope Goss comes good, but I've not seen anything yet to feel optimistic about, but we were made to wait for Washington and this kid deserves a run in the team to find his mojo.

 

I think he took Pawel off to add a third a central midfield player as we were being completely over run through the middle. We switched to 3-5-2 although it made no difference as Freeman and Manning were awful. It's the wing backs that were supposed to give the width and attacking threat down the sides, but ours, especially Bidwell aren't wing backs at all. I think Pawel would be better suited to a different formation so that he could be right out wide.

 

Yes, I suppose you're right, Col. I guess my philosophy is somewhat different to Ollie's in that I would prefer to take out and replace the component that isn't working, rather than try and shore it up by sacrificing an attacking threat.

I wouldn't take one of my few working rifles off the battlefield in favour of another sandbag.

 

I thought he took off Pawel because he was nakkered after being ill. He seemed to be getting through a lot of work but wasn't creating anything much, partly because he wasn't being fed from midfield and I thought partly because he wasn't 100% himself. Figured Ollie just wanted fresh legs on and hopefully someone who could direct a pass to a team mate. No one else was apart from Hall. Ollie mentioned him being sick after the game and seemed to suggest he wasnt at his best.

 

I take your point, but the component that wasn't working was having only 2 (lightweight and ineffective) central midfield players.

 

We don't actually play 3-5-2,though. With non-attacking wing-backs it's 5-3-2.

 

Not too much to add to the comments already here but I'm too annoyed to let it pass without a dig. This is a reset moment for Holloway when his poor tactics were badly exposed and all the togetherness and team spirit counted for nothing. To allow Manning and Freeman to conduct 90 minutes of such appalling nothingness in midfield without a change was unbelievable. With some decent performances recently I was all ready to renew my season ticket for next year with enthusiasm but now I'm back to wondering what else I might do with my Saturday afternoons. Crocheting might be more entertaining...

 

So he replaced an asset with a ****head to play alongside two ****heads.