A really disappointing, pedestrian performance. Had the extra man for most the match and couldn’t make it pay off. Why didn’t we put more crosses in? Far too complacent in our play. Poor games in particular for the defence, Morsy, Clarke, and Delap. Subs made no impact at all, yet again. Ultimately, the gulf in class was too wide. But I’m gutted we weren’t able to take the initiative properly in that second half. Yes, we scored twice. But they were two gifts we’re unlikely to get again this season.
That'll be belief well and truly snapped. Early goal and against 10 men of a side equally low on form and structure. And still we look miles off. Championship bound I feel.
Out of character that was and its a mountain to climb. We made an ordinary team, low on confidence look much stronger, with more fight than we showed. Hate to say it after 2 glorious seasons but Capt Morsy was ineffective and costly.
Possibly a little bit controversial, but McKenna and the coaching team need to take some element of the criticism here. What was our game plan that second half? Why have we conceded three goals from set pieces - did we not have a solution to Fernandes’ renowned ability at set pieces? Our attacking patterns looked far too predictable and easy to defend against.
I don’t think anybody deserves criticism. The players are chasing shadows for most of the minutes on the pitch and mentally I think they are spent.
If we’re serious about staying up this season - we absolutely need to take something from a game where we’re 2-2 at half time against a ten-man side in poor form. Tonight really feels like a missed opportunity. And I take the point their squad is bigger, better, and more expensively assembled than ours. But that was our best chance of breaking the poor form and getting points on the board. Particularly with the Wolves defeat the night before.
That's probably the most disappointed I've been with our performance all season. Set pieces defending awful which has actually been a strength of ours this season. Off the ball apart from the set pieces I didn't think we were too bad although again we looked pretty open down the flanks, we look weaker defensively without a Burns on the right or Szmodics on the left. Both Clarke and Philogene looking too lightweight. But for me the biggest thing tonight was on the ball, we look like we've regressed in that department since last season and even this some of our heroes from last season look far better in their decision making and passing and movement than the new signings. I don't think Greaves and O'Shea had too bad a games tonight but for me performance wise Burgess has performed better than Greaves and has looked better on the ball. Woolfenden looks far and away our best defender on the ball and is far better at linking with the midfield and forward players. I think midfield is an area we should have done better recruitment wise but also tactically this season, it feels that however good a players you put in there in this formation it's very hard to get control of the ball. I thought Morsy has looked slow since the turn of the year and had a fairly poor first half (although not much he could do about the goal), for me the shame of it was at the time he came off he'd just started to take some control of the game. In terms of the forward players, just not good enough collectively, there is talent there but we look to weak on the wings and we have too many players who want to drop deep and carry the ball. A real lack of movement up there, too many players coming deep to get the ball and running into trouble. Delap is no Hirst as he makes runs from deep and if we're playing him we need more players around him who are prepared to break the lines, without that its far to congested and easy for defenders. Too many players who hold onto the ball for to long and don't make the right decisions. Hutchinson simply isn't good enough currently to play the 10, decision making and short passing not good enough. McKenna needed to bring on Szmodics and Hirst a lot earlier today, so we had more movement uptop. The balance just doesn't look right up there and is somewhat reminiscent of our performance before we signed Hirst and Broadhead, where we'd spend the majority of the match passing back and sideways because we didn't have the balance and movement upfront to make space and provide more options on the ball. I thought despite the goals Philogene was again poor, although he wasn't helped by the lack of overlapping from Tuanzebe, again something we've been so good at the past couple of seasons just isn't there with these players, the passing and movement and realising that you can majorly impact the game without the ball. Saying all this despite us being poor in many areas, things couldve been different, the ref was awful, not sure it should've been a freekick for the 1st goal and we should've had a penalty before their 2nd. Also so many other poor decisions. Only player who came out of tonight with real credit for me was the GK again, really looks like that was money well spent and a clear upgrade on what we've already got. It's hard to say that in many of the other positions we've recruited and that's the a disappointing thing, our recruitment was superb previously buying some great players for the money we paid, we've now bought in new players who cost us in the majority of cases at least 10 times more than those previously here and yet they don't look anywhere near 10 times better.
I agree Hampy, apart from periods in the 1st half when we dominated, zipped the ball about and kept our formation, mentally we looked shot and lacked vision, creativity and energy. Unless Wolves implode, we can all look forward to playing in the championship, even winning the odd game!
The writings on the wall unless there is a dramatic upturn in results, Man Utd were there for the taking in the first half especially in the soulless rain lashed Old Trafford arena, at 2 all we all thought we could win it especially with the man advantage in the second half but within se onds we were behind to Maguires unmarked free header from a corner, he's not exactly unknown at club and international level for scoring from corners, We were camped outside their box but no on target shots came until near the end and no crosses either just bad old days tippy tappy sideways going nowhere football where we should have been shooting from all angles in the wet conditions. We trooped off home pissed off, wet, and completely mystified as to why we didn't take the game by the throat and get at least a point, it's not looking good chaps.
