In his press conference today Kit confirmed that Scotty Parker is still not ‘quite right yet’. The good news is that Amorebieta and Hoogland will be getting a run out in tonight’s U21 game against West Ham. There was no specific news about how Sean Kavanagh’s getting on but get the impression that he’s available. For me, there are three big questions. Will Tunnicliffe play after his lacklustre performance against Sunderland (he hid a lot of the game and his passing was poor)? Will birthday boy Pat Roberts (he was 18 yesterday) play? Will McCormack play up front? To the first, inevitably with Parker doubtful and I guess he ordinarily gives a wee bit of steel to the midfield. To the second, unlikely although we’ll probably see him coming off the bench late on, again! To the third, a resounding, yes!! One or two other ponderables. Richards or Grimmer? Stafylidis and/or Kavanagh? Fofana and/or Kaca? Shame about Parker 'cos with him I had a pretty solid and attacking team in mind. Anyway, reckon we'll still be attack oriented and here’s how I think we’ll start: ………………..Bettinelli………….. ..Richards (A J)..Bodurov..Hutchinson….Stafylidis… ………………Tunnicliffe…. ……..LVC…………………….Fofana… …………………..Kaca.. ……………Hugo………McCormack……
Looks likely to me, unless he sticks with Woodrow/Hugo up front. Roberts won't start but I'd really like to see him getting 30 minutes. We need to see more of him now.
Spot on C58 regarding the selection and formation. Lucky to come out with 1 point. Birmingham were the better team for most of the game. Fofana the MOTM for me. Showed his inexperience a few times but he worked hard, took people on and only lacking on the final pass/shot. Good to see Roberts for a few minutes. Still lot of work for the team! COYW
Agreed Madness. I waited to read the “Manager‘s Reaction“ before posting. This time I do agree with Kit that we were “really, really good in the first 5 minutes“. And also when he says, “It’s almost a case of scoring too soon, maybe”. However when he adds, “.. we sat back a little bit then ...” ?? Nope, nope, nope. Unless that translates as “complacent and sloppy”. For the rest of the half (that is, 40 minutes) we were dreadful. And very lucky not to go in at the break 2 or 3 down. But it wasn’t just “complacency”. Outside of the back four none of our players seemed to know their position, we persisted in playing in little huddles and were so predictable. “Sloppy” passing didn’t help. At the start of the second we seemed to change the system, with Kaca now playing attacking central midfield. However that didn’t last long and we soon reverted to some sort of four across the midfield - make it five when McCormack or sometimes Hugo came back to “help”. I gave up trying to work out who was in what position; like most of the first half players were all over the place. Sorry for that rant, I could simply have said we had no system and no shape. So, a positive - Fofana. As Madness said our MOTM. I know, I know that he as often as not runs himself into trouble and invariably lacks a finish; pass or shot. I also know stats are suspect but his today stand head and shoulders above any of the others; 36 passes (most of any player) and 94% accuracy. Here’s his ‘heat map’ to back that up, although it doesn‘t illustrate fully his threatening runs: please log in to view this image
Another apology. I ought to have added how Fofana's runs take pressure off the defence and should enable them and the midfield to re-group. I say "should" because there's the rub - they didn't re-group. Not today anyway, but instead they continued to run all over the place or indeed just stand wherever they were. That's, in part at least, what I meant about no system or shape. Could be it's inexperience or .... (no, wont go there).
