We played really well against Posh, the bookies for once are backing us to win, the media are not describing us as lowly or struggling, these are all very worrying signs. I would like to see the team unchanged but fear that PT will want to dabble, every one of the players who started on Tuesday deserve the right to go again.
After the lord mayors show. It just didn't seem to go for us today, players not getting forward, misplaced passes, all very different from Tuesday. Cody and Norris had little room to move as they were getting surrounded by defenders, only in the last 20 minutes when other players started getting forward and drawing players out did Cody and German(as it was by then) have spaces to run in to. The positives taken from this game are another clean sheet, another point, unbeaten home run intact, I think we now need to get our first win away from home before it starts to become a hoodoo.
I only listened to the game,but i`m glad I was at the Peterborough game and not the Walsall game yesterday.It did sound like a boring game with very little chances.I am still pleased with our week though as I wanted us to get 4-6 points from the two games and stay unbeaten at home and we have.We have a few away games coming up now in all Competitions,and hopefully we can nick a win or two from them.
It was another really strong performance on Saturday. Gills were well organised all round, well motivated, rock solid at the back, energetic if a bit predictable in midfield but toothless up front. The difference from the Peterborough game was that Posh came to win and left a huge hole in front of Jack Payne which Loft ran riot in. Walsall made no such error, they came for a point making this their third 0_0 of the season and they squeezed the life out of midfield. Who could blame them, it was actually an absorbing game despite the apparent lack of excitement. The loss of Kedwell is a bit of a disaster. We know he is not prolific personally but Kedwell teams score goals and his work rate is phenomenal. The problem is that it takes a lot of effort to drag his frame around the pitch and two ops this year may be sending a message which may be being missed. Most things are going well with a squad young enough to improve for several years. How patient can we be to see if Norris, German, Dickerson or any of the other wannabee forwards start to look capable of five goals between them this season? At present I doubt if they will score one. This is spoiling a potential success story.
The way I see it without Kedwell we are not getting the best out of the other strikers in the squad. For example you look at Cody, in good form recently but requires a terget man to feed off, no Keds means no target man means we aren't getting the best out of Cody. Alternatives are Cody up front on his own, I think we have seen that this isn't the best solution. Ohter alterantives are Cody and Norris, whilst this provides more fire power than Cody on his tod, Norris is't the archetype target man so doesn't bring out the best in Cody, and being asked to be the target man doesn't bring out the bst in him either. Other alernative that haven't been tried yet are Cody and German or Norris and German (yes they have had a few mintures on the pitch but the games wee eithe rwon or lost at that time so I don't feel they have had a fair crack of the whip)
Cody is targeted by defenders as our danger man and will have at least 2 and often 3 defenders marking him, the only way to beat that is midfield getting forward quicker to draw defenders away from him. Most of our attacks from open play will have 1 or 2 players getting into the area which isn't enough to trouble most defences, swapping Norris for Kedwell won't address this problem, getting more bodies into the area should.
Kedwell provides the link between Cody and the midfield, he holds the ball up longer giving the midfielders time to get into the box, so I feel Keds is key the way the team is setup under Taylor. You are right though about how often Cody is isolated, I don't think Dack is quick enough getting forward, but I don't think a midfield three of Dack, Hess and Morris has enough experience and with Loft coming back we should be more organised and therefore go forward at the right time
