I thought that that was the best I've seen us play for a long time. We were moving the ball around and running off the ball, there were cross field passes switching play, everyone looked up for it. We had 18 attempts - which is good against any CCC side. My only slight moan, and I'm interested if you lot think the same, was that on numerous occaisions when we had a slight break on, we seemed to put on the brakes and pass backwards rather than charging forward to attack. This often culminated in a backpass to Stockdale. Whilst I'm a great believer in attacks building from the back I just think we spurned to many chances to really hit Coventry on the break last night. It may be playing four central mids and having to wait for Edwards and Cresswell to catch up or it may just be their age ( probably - definately in last 10 mins ). The midfield seemed happy to take the heat out of the game even when it was our chance to 'bomb on'. All said, possesion is often the key and we still created more chances than for a while so I should be grateful. BTW Cresswells good ain't he.....
Cheddy thats the first game we have had on live down here since the Peterborough game, we seem to have come a long way since that to be honest, a lot more composure on the ball amongst other things. My main concern last night was some of the inept marking in the area, on occasions non existent. Long way to go yet but I was quietly surprised and happy with what I saw. Yes and Cresswell is a great prospect.
After going 2 - 0 up we definately did not go for the kill. Having said that if Chopra had his shooting boots on we could have score 6 or 7 but also as we did take our feet of the gas they should have scored 3 or 4, especially in the second half. I think the forward play on our left was very impressive but for some reason we just couldnt get going on the right. Moves just seemed to come to a holt and we lacked fluency. We showed signs of promise but we need to move up a stage or 2 really. Oh and NO Cresswell isnt good, hes Fanbloodytasticly brilliantly immense. What a player. At present, not only does he control the whole left hand side of the pitch but his crossing is good and hes a better shot stopper than half our keepers!
Second half the midfielders seemed to stop drifting out wide and the strikers weren't making runs, Edwards came forward but often had no one to pass to and attacks broke down. Shame about Sonko's injury, hopefully him or Ingi are fit for Boro, not confident with Delaney in defence, although Collins was excellent and will make up for some of Delaney's mistakes. Scotland was my man of the match, held up the ball well and looked dangerous throughout. I feel it's only a matter of games before we witness a Cresswell wonder strike from 30 yards, if Bullard let's him have the ball that is!
That performance was better than any performance I ever saw in the Keane era. The passing and moving was superb. Even though Bullard and Chopra were not the stand out players last night I think that they make a huge difference to the team even if they have a poor game purely because of their positional sense. Bullard always wants the ball so there is generally always an option to pass to someone, the past couple of years we haven't had that. I remember Leadbitter picking the ball up on numerous occasions over the past couple of years and not having a player within 15 yards because noone wanted the ball and you would just see Norris turning his back and running up toward the penalty box. And Chopra makes a difference because of his movement and he likes running on the shoulder of the last defender. Having these 2 in the team just gives us extra outlets. I would agree, especially in the 2nd half we were pretty slow on the break, I think this was due to a number of reasons, 1 we don't have any pace from midfield especially playing 4 CM's(although it did work last night), no wingers so the fullbacks have to do the running into wide positions and also a few of the players looked like they were struggling at the end. If Bullard went on a sprint it took him 5 minutes to actually get back into position(he currently does not look half as fit as he did last season). But at the same time I thought 1st half when we were 2-0 up on occasion we were being to rushed to find the defence splitting pass and "bombing on" when we just needed to keep the ball a little better and show a bit more patience, which we did more in the 2nd half. I'm slightly concerned by Cresswells performances, if he carries on like this he won't be here come January!!! Oztown I would agree the marking wasn't great in the area but I think the main problem was because we didn't play wingers we were not closing down the player quick enough to stop the cross coming in. I thought we also looked a lot more assured before Delaney came on, although he did make one great last ditch tackle but just his positional sence seems to make the whole defence seem disjointed and whoever the CB playing along side him has to cover him so much. I also thought Leadbitter looked great in a more attacking role. I could never understand Keane or Jewell playing him in a more defensive role.
Yep, we kept the ball well a few times but whenever we keep possession the crowd tends to get frustrated that we're not bombing forward. Annoys the hell out of me when some idiot shouts 'we're shooting this way' just because we've not hoofed it forward at the first opportunity. Have a bit of patience whoever you are!
Keeping possession is vital. It takes the sting out of the other team, frustrates them as they run around chasing shadows and tires them out. When you are two or three goals in front do you really need to bust a gut to get the ball forward at the earliest possible chance? I thought we looked very good and doing a 'professional' job of seeing the game out as well as taking the time to work an opening in their defence without leaving us too exposed at the back.
Sandiego 'When you are two or three goals in front do you really need to bust a gut to get the ball forward at the earliest possible chance' When you have a large goal diff to make up i would say YES!!! Had we not conceded 12 goals in 2 games then what you are saying would be correct!!
Goal Difference Smoal Difference your spot on on SanDiego no need to go gungho with a 3 goal cushion.
Yep, there as usual Pioneer, SBR Stand lower - Row L. (in case any of you guys are in and around that area!). (There are always more reports on the game after it has been on Sky of course so my brief review is probably of little value mate. However.....) For the first 15-20 minutes, our play and passing was as sharp and swift as I can remember for a long time. We seemed to know who was going to be where and often passed 'blind' if you know what I mean. We injected some real pace into our game - not because of a super quick midfield, but through better and quicker decision making and use of the ball. To 30 minutes we still looked the better side though the pace started to slow a little from there. Stockdale's distribution was very poor with two good chances provided to the opposition with 5 minutes. This may have affected his confidence somewhat as he then insisted on pumping the ball forwards (usually to Scotland) on every occassion when there were outlet options via Cresswell and Edwards. Once Sonko went off and Delaney came on, there seemed to be a slight sea change in the team. Delaney looked incredibly nervous when he took his place on the left side of centre (he was right in front of me so pretty easy to see facial expressions too!). He lost the first challenge in the air, tripped over the ball on his second effort and headed the third backwards. That said, come second half he did play better and with more confidence - though not a Sonko. Scotland looked sharp again and his work rate is much greater now - working hard off the ball and finding space (and I will be very disappointed if he does go to Boro now as reported in today's paper) and Chopra could / should have had 2 or 3 goals himself. The second half was a little disappointing. We seemed to take our foot off the pedal a little. When we had the chance to break at pace (obviously throuigh the likes of Edwards) we were inclined to get to halfway, put a foot on the ball and pass it back inside to Bullard. Certainly less adventurous and this resulted in Coventry coming back into the game and creating chances. Poor in defence in terms of marking in the second half but I never felt we were going to lose it. Rating (out of 10) Stockdale - 6 (didn't do much wrong but distribution was poor) Edwards - 7 Sonko - 7 (Delaney 5) Collins - 7 (never looked uncomfortable until he lost Sonko as a partner) Cresswell - 9 (defends, attacks, crosses - best performance to date) Leadbitter - 6 (played better and more effort but still inclined to trot back rather than make any real effort to get back quickly) Bullard - 6 (still a little off the pace but carried out defensive duties well too) Andrews - 8 (works hard and very vocal - would like to see him as captain) Bowyer - 6 (got stuck in a bit more but in an Owen Hargreaves kind of way, niggling away) Scotland - 7 (worked hard, looks fitter every week and a good finish) Chopra - 5 (had chances but didn't take them)
