Very good to see you yesterday, next time bring a coat. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
I do think we struggled first half with no one playing further forward left side, which meant that Vinagre either had no option to play it down the line when he was in our half, except when Connolly came across but then we had nobody in the middle; or just kept running down blind alleys when he was further forward. I’m presuming Slater was told to play narrow. I know we didn’t have much choice in terms of potential starters on the bench but we did look very unbalanced and lopsided first half going forward.
Yeah there were plenty of times Vinagre had the ball in decent positions but no one gave him an option so it looked like he was running down a blind alley. Needed more players to give him an option in attack
Thing is, that Vinagre Slater combo worked smashigly (is that a word!?) well against Stoke. Think sometimes we don't give what the oppo do enough credit.
Yes, I agree but we were away from home and that’s where I think we have to set up a little differently at home from the start to give ourselves a better chance of getting ahead and not always chasing the game second half at home. This isn’t meant as a criticism, more of an observation. I just really want us to find a way of turning these draws at home into wins and turning our season into a truly memorable one.
Didn’t see the Stoke game as I was away. If that’s the case then clearly they were told to do different things yesterday. What I was referring to was nothing to do with what the opposition did, it was down to our players not moving into positions for Vinagre in first half. Not a disaster, but it was noticeable
Think what was noticeable also that plymouth were a lot more solidly organised than Sjoke. But then they were the home team on that occasion and expected to make the play, not the other way around.
When we don't win you can point at things like that and say that's the problem and it sounds right. You can say lop-sided and it sounds like we did something crazy, but actually it's very common. We do it with Christie on the right quite often, and he tends to do well playing with that wing to himself, and then nobody talks about it being lop-sided. Vinagre didn't produce often enough, although he did put a good ball in for Traore which was headed over. If Traore scored that as he probably should've, or if Vinagre had put a few more good balls in from the opportunities we opened up for him to do so, no one would be complaining about a lop-sided left flank. And again, we created loads throughout the game playing with that shape, we just didn't finish enough, or put enough good quality final balls in.
I know stats do prove everything, but this one goes a long way to proving what Liam is saying. Yes, playing out from the back has risks, but it's creating more penalty box entries, we just need player to be more clinical, I personally think it's will come. Trust the process.
Very interesting, as it seems to counter my feeling that we don't get into the opposition's penalty area enough. I assume the stats you quoted were just for this last weekend?
I've just managed to watch the whole game, and in some ways can see why the players maybe feel a negativity, as the atmosphere did sound flat in the first half particularly after their goal. Generally the away following is much more vocal, as I guess like-minded people are in one place rather than spread about the stadium. On the game I thought we started okay, and just had a dip after they scored, but fortunately getting the goal just before HT helped lift the mood. Second half it really was one way traffic, and how we didn't score really goes down to their keeper to some degree. Philogene, Morton and Seri were excellent, and the more they play together will only get better. You have to feel we are not at our best yet, but are still not being out played by anyone yet other than Norwich so far. Vinagre is rather frustrating, I wish he would make some runs in behind, but he seems to always hold back when a one/two pass could get past defenders. Nevertheless, 8 unbeaten and still in a play off spot, a start most would have been very happy with.
Yes much as many are not impressed with Slater and I have to say I am a fringe player there you can’t argue that he does not contribute in the department that counts the most-goals!
Rosie needs to be careful. He said that 99% of fans were Ok. Well if thats the case, it was a very vocal 1% who were shouting in anger when Plymouth hit the post in the first half and nearly went two up after more risky passing nearly cost us. I get the argument that it opens up spaces further ahead, but those spaces are useless when you have defenders like Mcloughlin who struggle to make accurate passes into those spaces, so he ends up giving the ball to the opposition or passing back to a defender who isn't in enough space to take the ball comfortably.
