Absolutely agree with this. Also when Brum went down to ten, they loaded the right side so Gray was actually playing behind Roberts(?). Gave Drameh and Geldhart loads of space which they exploited very well. I suspect some saying Coyle had a poor first half comes from him when they scored, he appeared to be a spare man, while leaving their player out wide when they scored. Actually, Coyle’s man was Gray who had drifted inside. It was Akintolas man who was free because he hadn’t tracked back. The fact he was hooked at half time probably confirms that.
I thought that at the time Becasue it wasnt an attacking player who was left free Coyle was clearly focusing on gray
Coyle absolutely bust a gut to get there for the overlap. The very simple pass from Akintola wasn't actually that good imo as it sort of stopped his run, but it turned out well with Coyle delivering a superb, pin point pulled back cross for Slater to brilliantly head home. That cross aside, I thought Coyle was ok, nothing more nothing less. Akintola was arguably at fault for not picking up Paik, but he was actually marking another player at the time. Coyle should arguably have been aware and covered their man as there were plenty of ours in the box to pick up Grey. He followed Grey leaving acres in our RB position for their man Paik. Akintola and Coyle both guilty of lack of awareness, not passing on their man to others so they could cover the danger. And frustratingly looks to go backwards too much for me.
Interesting comment from Serj in his post match as to why he changed it at half time, words to the effect that someone wasn't doing their defensive duties well enough thus allowing a 2 on 1 situation, read between the lines but Akintola got hooked at half time !
Ryan Giles is rightly getting praise for his assists and crossing ability from the left but credit also has to go to our two right backs. Coyle now has two assists (Sheff U & Brum) Drameh has two (Wrexham & Watford) plus Coyles crosses led to two of the goals against Southampton.
akintola was running all over, almost chasing the ball which left so much space constantly on our right he wasnt being lazy, he was like a headless chicken
If he's watching, I can imagine Joao Pedro is wondering why the **** we didn't put the ball in the box last year! I was regularly critical of Coyle last year for turning back rather than delivering the ball, it's v obvious now that they were the instructions to the team as he's playing v differently in the final 3rd this year
Getting an assist doesn't automatically mean your defending was brilliant though does it? Coyle for me is guilty of constantly tucking too far central and also backing off his winger way too much. He used to put a foot in and be a great one on one defender, but he seems to have regressed for me.
Pedro was crap in the air and didn’t have the legs to make the sort of runs Joseph and McBurnie are making for Giles’ crosses.
