If there were 3 players marking Clarke then it MUST have left space somewhere else. This often happens yet I can’t recall us finding this space. It must also be very tiring treble marking Clarke so again, how can we use that in the last 20 minutes or so. This has been said on here many times yet I don’t see anything being done about it on the field. *Vinkel, just seen your post as I was putting mine up…..great minds…..
I do criticise the team, look back through the thread. What I don't like is being lectured especially within seconds of a demoralising defeat. We can all see what went wrong yesterday and we know the history of events at the club. What irritates me and, let's be honest, other posters is having people come on who think we need to have things explained to us by people who know best. As Bob Paisley once said, 'Speak softly and people will listen.'
Sadly we all know we can play much better. If they'd given everything and fought for every ball we could accept it more easily. I was particularly disappointed with Ekwah who always seems to bottle challenges against teams like this. And I've no idea why Clarke tried tge same move every time when it clearly wasn't working. Any other player would've been subbed imo.
Disappointed with last night. It looks to me as though some of the players are dithering,uncertain of what to do,which comes across as lethargy,and often results in them making the wrong decision or playing the ball poorly. It could be that they are taking some time to adjust to the ideas MB is trying to introduce,and are a little unsure. I'd like to see them reintroduce the freedom they had last year,not worrying about failure or the consequences of getting it wrong,something which seems to have been lost.
Clarke was woeful, yet we persisted with the same tactic, give him the ball and keep our fingers crossed. I said to my son switch him to the right and see if he has any joy against that fullback then make the decision to take him off. The kids going to have an off day but we done him no favours last night. We seemed to move everyone else around the pitch bar Clarke to try and wake them up, you are right about Ekwah though, he is a brick ****house and should be bullying people, huge contrast but look what Haaland done to that centre half on Sunday, he just threw him around like a rag doll, Ekwah is too timid and probably why we have him.
One thing I've noticed slipping into our game is that when we pass the ball usually it's either directly to, or slightly behind a player meaning that they have to wait for the ball to arrive. It's safe but this allows a defender to get there as well. Can we not play a ball where our player moves onto it, in a forward direction? Just a simple observation
We’ve obviously had a disaster because we’ve lost Paddy for the last ten minutes and that meant we had to play with ten men," Beale said. yeah and we never used all our subs
To be fair we were saying it last week when we fought back against Boro and Plymouth ... ... unlike Boro and Plymouth under Mowbray. The rosy memories of the Mowbray era are becoming ridiculously exaggerated imo.
What has concerned me at times is a lack of looking up to see what's on (if you know what I mean) - good runs are not exploited - in the second half it was at one point I think Pembele in acres of space on the right - no one looks up we play it tight on the left and lose the ball. That may well be experience or we just haven't quite got that ability - either way we miss these opportunities to quicken up the game and exploit gaps. We have on the whole become very pedestrian - was Amad that massive a difference - great that he was or is this a tactical switch that has made us far more predictable this year and certainly a significant less threat away from home
To cheer myself up I've decided to put last night into a 'learning experience for the team and the manager'. They must know, as well as any of us, that it was a shambles. It's just difficult to work out if the plan was the biggest problem or the individual performances. No tactic will ever work if half the team have a poor game. I expressed doubts about Hjelde, against Plymouth, and last night didn't quell my concerns tbh.
Mentioned this numerous times to the people I sit next to at the SOL it’s elementary and as a schoolboy you were always encouraged to pass the ball in front of the receiving player , Jobe in particular nearly always turns backward towards his own goal when he receives this type of pass and loses the ball too frequently as a consequence - very irritating that coaching staff do not pick up on it .
I genuinely don't think the team is as good as some people expect. We over achieved last season for me and we are a mid table team who on our day can match top teams but are far too inconsistent, naive to consistently mount a challenge. We have Hume, o9, ballard, Neil and Clarke who are very good players at this level and also Roberts who can be but is sadly injured. Same for.cirkin.If you honestly think the likes of Ba, rusyn, ekwah, anouche, pembele etc are going to do it week in and week out against hardened and experienced championship players then we are all ****ing deluded. Seelt looks like someone who can step up but is up against our two of our best players. I don't know what is said at meetings between kld, speakman and beale but they can't honestly be banking on promotion this season.
What do we do on Saturday to improve ? Mowbray is obviously welll aware of our strengths and weaknesses so should be well prepared for us. I would sacrifice either Jobe or Ekwah and go with Hemir and Rusyn up top, get Mundel on the right and tell him to run at the fullback, tell him and Clarke to get early crosses in and start attacking the 6 yard box. There is still time to make a late surge into the play offs but we must try something else
That was a hard watch last night, that's the worst we've played in a long, long time. Cannot believe that so many of them played so badly and for so long in the match. I kept telling my son that it'll come good soon. Then it was the 90th minute. It was also embarrassing the amount of time wasting they were doing. Onwards to Saturday, we have to be up for this!!!! As Uncle Tony will have them up for it.
Why sacrifice fluidity and put ba striker and rusyn on the right from the start of the match? Ba has many strengths but he's not very good at holding the ball up with his back up goal, often gets outmuscled. Rusyn was barely in the game on the right wing. I am concerned that the the ekwah/jobe/neil midfield might be too similar. Need one of them to drift forward into a pocket of space in between the lines and receive the ball, which none of them do. Without that we are reliant on a forward pass to our front 3. Truth is that ba and rusyn don't protect a ball to feet well enough to sustain attacks. No need to go overboard but lots to work on and very little training pitch time until Birmingham.
