4 pts gone, and players gutted. They will know, barring a miracle, thats our season, much promise, huge improvement in every dept, but for scoring f....ng goals! Maybe the changing is an issue after all. But poor Bonne, he has many chances but no confidence.
I'm going to lay this result squarely at McKenna's feet. He wasted the first half by starting with Bonne and Norwood. For all our build up play and slick passing we try to be too fancy right at the end of a move instead of either shooting or dribbling into the box. We're too pass heavy, we don't earn many free kicks around the box and even less penalties because not enough players carry the ball forward to invite the challenge. Too many players guilty of trying to overdo things. Football can be a simple game, 5 minutes to go, you're drawing, get the ball in the bloody box. It frustrates me when we don't up the tempo at the right time. You'll have a Bonne or a Jackson standing right in front of the keeper when he's going to kick out and then complaining to the ref that the keeper is wasting time. Um, you're giving him that chance to waste time by being up in his face so back the hell off and let him get the ball back in play. Morsy was good today, although sometimes I wished he'd just shoot, Bakinson was ok. Thompson was gash and offers nothing in attack, also at fault for the Morecambe goal he was very tired by the end of the match and could barely get about the pitch. Celina was the best of the subs, I'd like to see him play Aluko as that's a combination we haven't seen much. I'm getting to the point where I think we could just play Aluko and Chaplin up front with Celina behind and forget the other 'strikers'. Anyway, frustrating result and performance again. McKenna needs to alter the balance of keeping possession towards finding a way to actually win games.
Bonne is a waste of space. His attitude is that he’s waiting for it to come to him instead of being sharp and making things happen. Norwood is not a left winger though. There’s still a bit of a lack of balance. We didn’t learn much new today that we didn’t already know about anyone.
Hmm, sounds like a carbon copy of the last game where we outplayed them first half but no end product. That for me is a fix for the summer. Key for me is we’re solid in defence which is hugely important. Bonne has to accept he’s playing a division lower than he’s qualified for and needs to do well. He must be top of the ‘big chances missed’ table. I’ll check…that’s not good and it’s been evident all season. I know ITFC hates the swapping but I’m ok with it. They don’t get excluded for 4 games then suddenly thrust back into action. They come on as subs and then find they start where they should have the attributes to best exploit the oppositions weaknesses. It’s the pragmatism I admire in a coach over Cooks ‘we’ll do the same thing week in week out’. But i can only lead a horse to water. If they were served up with decent chances they have to take them. That’s why they’re paid the big bucks and play up front. I blame the players not the coach. Once they cross the line this is their job to perform.
Bonne has missed 17 big chances this season. He’s second behind Ross Stewart, who is also the leading goal scorer in the division. I do have some sympathy in that we’ve not produced many clear chances all season and Bonne might say if he was given the service Stewart gets he’s score 2, maybe and miss one of the 3 chances he could expect per game. But feeding off scraps at ITFC is harder…but some of the misses are just plain bad finishing, and I go back to the view it’s your job, it’s what u train for, and not playing week in week out isn’t an excuse. Your fit, you play here and there even when I don’t start, and it’s all about seizing those chances when they present themselves.
I wouldn’t say it was a carbon copy of Tuesday. We didn’t fade at all, in fact we got more intense after their goal. I go with Bucky’s viewpoint rather than SD on this one - it shouldn’t be McKenna’s job to get some movement and finishing from Bonne - he can drill but he can’t coach reading the game, arriving at the right time or following in when the ‘keeper parries. I do take issue though with the idea that our forwards are feeding off scraps. They couldn’t have been better served today. And he really doesn’t have any striker deserving a start. Kayden Jackson is the best of a bad bunch at the moment. I’d be tempted to leave them all out and go with Aluko, Chaplin and Celina.
A disappointing result after so much promise, Championship calibre for 1st half. The picture of Bonne skulking off dejected and downcast spoke volumes. It hasnt happened for him. I think SD might be right. In absence of any striker showing form, it could be worth a try with Chaplin & Aluko up top with Celina behind. At the end of the day, currently we have not one player banging them in regularly. That said, I enjoyed the game for the most part. I look forward now to some Summer signings and an auto place next season.
It’s not time to give up yet. Yesterday was the best 90 minutes I’ve seen from us. People probably expected Morecambe to be a walkover but they raised their game. We are still on course for 2 points per game gets us to the target. The form was better in February (unbeaten) than January (2 defeats). But it does mean we have to take points in our tougher upcoming games against Oxford, Plymouth, Rotherham.
I never give up on Town Hampy, after 60 years an ardent supporter who has seen the highs and the real lows, most of the latter in last 5 years as we all know! Frustrating thing for all of us is that for most of the game we totally outplayed the Shrimps, in Championship style and proved that potentially we are in the wrong League! A word for our captain; Morsy was excellent again. Real captains performance. So energetic, getting the ball back and driving us forward. He has a rare abiity and body that helps him break out from tackles. I liked the way he tried to keep things going in the second half too when fans had had begun to lose their voice. So, with nowt to lose in last 11 games and after so many changes (itfcpc please log in to view this image ) lets try Chaplin and Aluko up front, with Celina behind. Aluko while not a forward as such, does have strong presence, keeps the ball and has a good strike in him. And after a shaky start, Bakinson improved as Morsy's sidekick, but too many stray giveaways. If we do strike gold and find the goal scoring touch then anything is possible. But I try not to raise my hopes too much and look forward to the next season with at least 2 new strong forwards. And a left wingback or 3!
Clearly strikers are out of form which happens to even the best of strikers but clearly it doesn't help chopping and changing all the time. There aren't many top teams who change their forward line every single game and have success, there might be a tweak due to tactics or injury/fatigue every once in a while but not wholesale changes pretty much every game. It can't be good for players confidence or to find any level of consistency if you don't know you're going to be in the team or not added to not being sure what position you're going to be asked to play each time, since Mckenna has come in I've seen Norwood be asked to play as a left sided forward, a lone striker and as part of a front 2 and he's only started 6 games under McKenna. On Saturday he played as a left forward and whilst I'm a fan of Norwood if he's not going to be played through the centre I'd rather someone like Celina played in that position. This is in stark contrast to the consistency of selection in defence, how must that feel seeing players picked game after game after game with not all of them showing good form (I'm thinking of Edmunson) it must feel like the manager doesn't trust you. The game on Saturday sounded remarkably similar to Man Uniteds, it's got to be more than just a coincidence that they have had similar problems to what we are having now for a couple of seasons and this is despite having arguably the greatest goalscorer of all time in their team plus some other world class players. In my view McKenna hasn't got alot wrong in his time at the club but the overthinking tactically of our forward line is the biggest by far, I don't think it's overly cost us so far because our form is very good but I just hope it doesn't come to bite us over the next few games. We've still got a great chance to get in the playoffs at the last hurdle and with momentum
I agree with much of what you say PTC, and most forwards have a goal drought and lose confidence. Trouble here is they all have, and he has tried every possible combo. Interesting remarks re Man U. Lets hope someone begins to bang them. I can always travel up to PR, and dribble a few passes and give easy target practice! One thing that really urks me is our wasted outside the area free kicks and corners. Incredibly high number are useless, and I wonder what the stats are for goals from corners? We must rank near the bottom.
Set pieces is something which has irked me like most things for pretty much the whole ME era except when we had Cresswell and Bullard, I thought it might be something which given the quality of player we have now would've changed but it hasn't. I've seen the odd decent delivery from Carroll and Fraser when they played but as for the rest not really which is a shame because we have players nearly all over the park you'd expect to have a decent chance of getting on the end of something
