Having seen nothing of yesterdays game can someone explain how Slater, in central midfield only attempted 7 passes in his hour on the pitch (only competing 6).
What questionable tactics? We seem to ply like most teams do these days havent noticed a prickly demeanour either
Whilst Pandur has done better in recent games, I’m hoping Rushworth will be better with his feet and positioning so that we come out from the back with more confidence. Too many times yesterday we lost the ball trying to get the ball out of our backline. We need a keeper who can get passes into our midfielders. McLaughlin has to be replaced. He’s too slow and he’s got no real vision of passing. Whether Hughes can do better is another question but we have to see him now. Zambrano looked better but there still appears to be a reluctance or an inability for our defenders to give him the ball when opposition players are close by. Giles and Millar have potential but too many times yesterday they did not appear to be on the same wavelength when trying to open up the opposition. Slater has to be on the bench. He just runs around for 60 minutes, hardly wins any tackles, it’s like playing with 10 men. Mehlem seemed to be great at pressing but not sure if he’s been played as a number 8 or a number 10. Bedia looked ok but I think he needs Burstow alongside him. It’s a nice problem to have but now Walter has to also work out how who his best 11 is now he’s also got Puerta, Belloumi, Kamara, Palmer and Dremeh pushing for a starting 11 place.
One thing I’ve noticed as a difference between Rosenior and Walter on the sidelines is that the players seem to be far more vocal back to Walter than they did with Rosenior. Not sure whether that was because Rosenior had a more authoritative stance and the players knew not to challenge back without consequences later but maybe that’s the difference at the moment (less discipline being instilled)
I may be mad but that's what I want to see from a manager, he is really p1ssed off about getting beat, yeh he is going to be spikey, but he is correct, in the crucial moments they had the quality we lacked, although we did give then a leg up. I like the bloke, yesterday for an hour we gave as good as we got, so I'm a little surprised about the reaction, whether we have enough in the squad with the new lads to properly implement what he wants remains to be seen, but when he talks about courage, I think he means on the ball, rather then passing backwards, we need work on our final ball for sure, and decision making needs to be fine tuned. I'd like to think that the new lads coming in will give us some of that quality we lack and in turn those around them will be more comfortable on the ball. From yesterday there were a number of promising signs, Zambrano showed glimpses of what he is about, Bedia while looking awkward at times is a handful up there, Mehlem was steady and Giles I thought was unlucky to be subbed, and Pandur is looking more assured. Let's give the bloke a chance and see where we are in a month's time eh before writing everything off, he is playing catch up at the minute.
Tbf, he's VERY good at commentating on what is actually going on on the pitch, which surely is the main part of the job. I like it when a commentator keeps up with play, naming who's passing to who, etc, rather than just staying quiet or conversely ottering on about other stuff. The only think missing for me is somehow a bit of emotion, but maybe he's told to keep it fairly neutral (maybe not, maybe it's just his style).
He gets 8/10 games from now for me. Those calling him for after 4 leagues games just look stupid. If after 8/10 games with a better/more settled squad, we see no improvement then fair enough, but after 4 league games and as olm said, not even seeing our more exciting signings....it's just stupid and shows people have set their stall out re Tim before even giving him a chance, all because a gaffer you liked got the push.
We seem to have stopped playing through the central midfield. Not sure why. Tactics? Defenders not confident enough to make those central passes (easier to go wide)? Defenders not confident enough in those in the middle? Now that the window is over, I think CM is going to continue to be our achilles heel. Looks like we're going to be relying on a 20 year old who's only appeared in 50 games in Columbia in his senior career. Then a kid who's only just turned 21 who's only played 41 senior games, 34 of which were in the Columbian 2nd division. Then a kid who's also just turned 21 who had played in 40 senior games, 37 of which were for Stevenage. Then there's Simons, another 21 year old kid, who's amassed a total of 28 senior appearances, as with the others including sub cameos, 12 of which were for Fleetwood. Then there's Slater. Or back to square pegs in round holes. Absolute madness. CM is absolutely critical. Most of the talk has understandably to a degree, been about missing out on a 3rd 'top quality' striker, but I fear where the club has really ****ed up with signings is in CM. Promise and potential yes, but, and I hope to hell I'm wrong, do we really see a combination of those players dominating the midfield in the Championship?
Yeah for me it's the next month that's make or break. We have two weeks now as a mini pre season with the players, so the excuse about players being strangers goes out the window and we should start to see a marked improvement and his intended Best XI.
I did wonder if it was the system but of the central midfielders in terms of attempted passes/completed passed you have; Zambrano 22/25 Mehlem 20/22 Slater 6/7 If he’s have stayed on he was on target to compete 9 passes in the whole game.
The style definitely contributes to it though. Last season away at Leeds our 2 central midfielders completed 103 passes. Less than half of that completed by 3 central midfielders yesterday.
The second one, in my view. We have had the same problem all the way through pre-season and into the early matches, our passing from defence is too slow and too unambitious. There's a reason Coyle does lung bursting runs across the field, because he's not confident enough to play a long accurate pass. It doesn't matter how much our defenders buy into the running around and changing position if when they get the ball they just play it sideways. Giles isn't perfect, but he does at least regularly get the ball forward to Millar. I think there's a good chance that by Christmas our defence will be Rushworth, Drameh, Burns, Hughes, Giles; and it will be to improve the passing.
We seem to rely on wingers and full backs to take the ball out, the central midfield is currently not being utilised which makes us predictable and easy to defend against. Our Plan A in attack is to cross to no one and our Plan B is to hope for some individual brilliance. We can’t defend counter attacks, our set pieces are over complicated and ineffective, and we insist on playing out from the back but don’t have the players capable of beating the press.
