Evening all, just back from my weekend in Blackpool. Lets just say I'm happy I was there for a weekend and not just simply a day for the game!!! Anyway, moving onto the game. Stockdale - No chance with either goal made a good save not a lot to do otherwise. Cresswell - Not bad at LB at all. Got forwards quite well, good in the tackle. Edwards - Out most creative player yet at RB....... we really do need him back on the wing as he offers a hell of a lot going forwards. Collins - Won literally everything in the air, organised the defence well. Not helped by central midfield being miles off the pace. Sonko - Miles miles better than Smith and actually tries to play the ball on the deck. Makings of a very good defensive partnership here I think. Leadbitter - Shoved on the right wing, no idea why. That said, he didn't do too badly at all ( surprisingly enough ... ) Andrews - Off the pace I thought. Offered the Cb's zero protection, not great passing etc. Bowyer - Rather shoddy. Again off the pace ( and by off the pace I would say some way off ) We were a lot better when he was subbed. Bullard - AGAIN off the pace, however, that's to be expected. However, even at 60% he was our best central mid by a mile, very intelligent passer of the ball. Not helped by how static some players are, or the complete lack of pace in the side. D.Murphy - Absolutely horrific. How he wasn't substituted was beyond me. Completely useless!!!! ( play better next time please !!! ) Chopra- chased the ball well but really does need someone to play off him. Subs - Both Scotland + JET did alright to be fair ! Jewell - wrong tactics with how you lined the midfield up. It's ok aiming to be " hard to beat " however 4 central mids across a 5 man midfield, with a striker shoved left wing gave us such a horrific shape. My verdict - If we can beat Coventry, somehow or other we're out of jail from this poor start. It would be quite a good points return. Jewell, you really need to sort this team out a s a p or we will be bottom half. Playing players in their actual position would be nice. If we'd started with 4-4-2 Scotland with Chops, Carson on a wing and had a go I think we could have won.
Good summary Westlake. I have to say that, amongst the ones regularly voiced on here, would be Chopra starting to lose heart.
Nice summary Westlake but for all their individual pro's and con's it is still a team that didnt test the opposition goalkeeper and a team with a lot of experience at the highest level that dont seem to have any idea's or cohesion.
Bit suprised by the reaction to losing against Blackpool. I think they're a good shout for promotion, even winning this league and I expected a scoreline like 2-0 after our start to the season. I didn't go but I noticed you mentioned Leadbitter did ok yet I'm sure I saw on the highlights he let his man go for one of the goals and they scored from it? Some width, pace and creativity is desperately needed. In PJ's defence he is trying to find a blend that works and hopefully he realised Saturday 4 CMs and Murphy as winger/striker wasn't the answer. However, anyone could have told you that! I don't but this 'time to gel' carp. I think it's more a case of some of our players needing match fitness and PJ learning which players complement each other in different positions. I'd give it another three or four games before we see a team that looks like it could challenge for play offs, just hope the next few games we can manager to scrape out some results like we did against Leeds
Leadbitter was surprisingly alright generally. It's all well and good to state Blackpool are a good shout for promotion, however, look at our wage bill and what we've spent. We're going backwards rapidly. We BADLY BADLY need a balanced midfield. The addition of Bullard / Sonko / Collins are fantastic, however, we really need creativity apart from Bullard in midfield. What alarmed me, is how our supposedly " good " midfield got dominated so often. We're STILL not tracking back to help the CB's particularly, which means their going to have to play absolute blinders to keep clean sheets. Peters / O'Connor - GIVE THEM ANOTHER GO ! I hope to god Jewell has learned the lesson of trying to play the 4 cm's together in a team. Never, ever again please. Unless we have JET / Martin / Carson wide left, with Bowyer advancing right. Carson appears to be being rather immature off the pitch. Didn't impress Jewell with preseason fitness, now talks of contract demands..... get your head down and on it Carson, we really need you on the pitch performing mate....! With how everyone played, and how important the Coventry game now is, this is how I think we should line up...... Stockdale Same defence as at Blackpool, it played rather darn well....! JET ( should be properly fit ), Bullard, Andrews, Carson ( swallow pride Jewell + sort yourself out Josh ) Chopra / Scotland Chop's badly badly needs a partner. Him + a more mobile J Scotland of this season could do rather well together.
Blackpool are way ahead of us, they are a team. At the moment we are a bunch of decent players thrown together with not much balance.
Don't like the word gel but PJ will need a few games to see how certain players play together. I can excuse him for that but not when he picks 4 midfielders to start. Problem is out of our wingers carson has a big head, jet wants to play central, martin is inconsistent and wasteful, edwards is needed as right back, peters and oconnor aren't good enough and there's drury who pj seems to have lost faith in. The defence we have now is better than we have had for years and with a bit more match practice our midfield will be strong too but we lack a winger, unless carson and martin can step up
Yeah it will take a bit of time to be where we want to be. Like you say Svendust, I quite like this defence however the midfield at the minute is woeful. At least Bullard will start to make it tick, but he can't do it all on his own. HOPEFULLY Jewell puts Martin STRAIGHT back in after his sending off. Rather annoyed with Jewell about it all, slating Martin to the press. Against Peterborough to that point, Martin was playing rather well and actually bothered to track back and put in a fine tackle, winning the ball. Instead of us appealing against the laughable redcard, Jewell decides to shove Lee in the reserves and slate the guy. Shades of Keane.... Carson seems to have issues at the minute. The so called wage demands, the fitness, perhaps the attitude. PLEASE sort it asap Josh lad.... JET - Get fit !!! Seriously. You really don't look that mobile, hopefully you will become more so then...... 2 of the 3 really have to be playing. LIke Sven said, we lined up with 4 central mids. Murphy was an absolute donkey left mid. Not sure he's going to be that useful... !
