For all the criticisms (unfair in my view) levied at Jak and Prozzy amongst other players over the last few weeks, our achilles' heel has become more and more evident; we cannot break down any team that decides to lock up shop. It has been an ongoing problem for the last 5-6 years. Whilst he undoubtedly was a gobshite, it cannot be denied that when glass knees played for us, he demanded the ball and could unlock defences with pin point passes. It's a sad indictment that we don't seem to have anyone who can do that at present on a consistent basis. The top half teams who have a bit of quality about them are confident to attack us, which gives us a bit more space, hence we play better against these teams. The teams in the bottom half a la shelf wed, barnsley etc who are nothing special, know that if the come at us, they'll leave gaps which we'll exploit so they stay solid, sit deep and invite us onto them. We then either lump it in to the box - in which case their 6'4 brutes of centre halfs clear it all day lomg - or we piss about on the half way line, they get 11 men behind the ball and we end up either shooting from 30 yards or stuffing up a sho pass and get done on the counter. For all the bleating on about needing a new goalkeeper or striker (I personally rate Prozzy but I'd love us to go and get Mackail-Smith and then a poacher as well but know it isn't going to happen), what the last few games have shown is we desperately need a midfield maestro who can pick a pass and a CF coach who drills into our forwards the need to be smarter with their ovement in the box. I'm a bit gutted that we're out the cup but it's not, the endof the world. I'm more pissed that this long standing issue remains unresolved and recentbperformances suggest it's going to continue
Agreed with all of that. It might help if we played Koren in midfield, he isn't perfect but he's the best we've got for that job and he's useless up front. Still need a striker too.
