Same old same old, looked decent going forward at times, but frail defensively again. Yet again we take a lead into half time and seem to just coast through the second half, which we lost to 10men! No killer instinct from this team, they think they have the game won and take their foot off the gas and it’s very hard to get going again
Happy for the win and a decent send off for Lungi, Sorensen and Gunn. The latter was not helped by his defence at all today, no fault lies with him for either goal
Possibly 2 keepers with Long again not making the squad, hopefully we can shift him to somewhere in League 1 or 2
In fairness, they did have the game won as Cardiff never got to within 2 goals at any time. Yes, they did allow Cardiff too many chances on the break in the second half after an excellent first half, but it was the last game of the season with nothing at stake. It was also a massive contrast to that 2-5 horror show against Portsmouth in the previous home game.
I’d suggest we were fortunate that we had Gunn in goal today instead of Reyes/Long otherwise they would almost certainly have scored more. The defence showed more desire to get in front of things today as well, but my point is more that the tactical set up was similar to that under JHT and had the same defensive failings, they just showed a bit more will to get in front of shots today than they did at Portsmouth
I would agree with that, but their first goal was well worked with a good finish. The penalty was down to two individual errors: Wright's misjudgement as he tried to steal the ball rather than defend the box and Doyle being caught out of position and giving away the pen while trying to get back. Neither will be with us next year unless we can manage to sign Wright on loan or a permanent move. He looks to have a lot of potential and if Wilshere stays he could be the perfect one to coach his development. On a side note, I wonder whether we could be interested in signing Salech if Sargent leaves. Cardiff paid €4m for him in January and he has 10 goals in 15 starts and 6 sub appearances. At 6'5" he's still very mobile and pacy and could be quite a handful at a reasonable price.
I believe there is an option in place to sign Wright as part of his loan deal, a fee around £2m if I remember correctly. Hopefully one we activate. Salech looked decent, certainly caused our defence problems all by himself and took his chances
So what exactly are these "tactical failings" Suffolk? Isn't the real point that if players "lack the will" to do what is required whatever the defensive setup, you are going to concede goals? As Thorup pointed out in the press conference prior to the West Brom game at Carrow Road, our overall stats showed a big discrepancy between chances conceded and goals against; as he put it, we were, at worst, average when it came to chances conceded, but close to bottom of the league when it came to GA. Why? And if we can take 4 points from 6 from two games in which the tactics have been much the same as before but players "just showed a bit more will" to do the defensive basics like "getting in front of shots", how many more points might we have taken from the six preceding games?
That last sentence is exactly my point, besides the McConville and Stacey selections in the last 2 games, the set up has been very similar if not the same as JHT, the difference being the players attitudes. Now had JHT done something to cause these players to turn on him, as they seem to be performing now under different management but similar tactics. We were still caught in transition and counter attacked against far too easily, as was the problem with JHTs set up. A team that have already been relegated and were down to 10men for 75mins still managed 19 shots against us and drew 4 saves from Gunn (the same amount that their keeper made) - that concerns me. If sacking JHT was the correct call, JW has been more of the same with the application that we saw from the players from the first half of the season, then is this just going to repeat itself after JW gets 20games in. If it is JW I will absolutely back him, I loved him as a player and I think it was a coup to bring him here but I think the players have got JHT sacked and those same players may still be here next season.
That doesn't mean the defensive structure is flawed though Suffolk. Apart from games when there has been a deliberate tactical shift, e.g. Portsmouth (A), we have played with a rest defence of five players, either a back line of 3 + 2 covering defensive midfielders, or a back line of 2 + 3 covering ahead of them. I didn't see the game today, but from the player positions on WhoScored it looks likely to have been Doyle, Duffy and McConville, with McLean and Wright ahead of them, i.e. the first of those two setups. That, IMO, is as sound a tactical setup for coping with opposition turnovers and resulting counters as you could want. I don't see any way of avoiding the conclusion that it's the implementation of the tactics by a number of the players involved that has been the main problem. That's clearly what JHT thought -- hence his saying, when questioned about how the defence was to be improved, that part of the answer lay in the upcoming transfer window (N.B. his enthusiastic endorsement of Wright). One obvious lack has been pace, Cordoba being the exception in that regard, but the crucial element is positioning and anticipation. Wright's arrival has highlighted the shortcomings of those around him in this respect.
I agree Robbie, perhaps it wasn’t clear in my previous posts, I put the failings on the players ability/application rather than the tactical set up. My point was that if JW is going to set up the same as JHT then why did we need to sack the latter. The real problem is several of the players in that defensive unit for differing reasons - Doyle is too slow, not great positionally, not great in the air but he can pass the ball better than the rest of the squad. Duffy on his day is a good defender but is again slow and was one of those most guilty of dropping off in the last month, I don’t think his attitude is right - he’s a moaner not a leader, but I don’t see him every day. McConville is young and inexperienced but I think we should have given him more game time, look how Wright started out and how much he has improved in a matter of less than 10 games. Cordoba is Bassong 2.0 - good pace, strong and physical, able with the ball at his feet but also rash, switches off at times and can get himself into trouble, but he is young and can learn. We missed having a natural left back for the last month and I think that ultimately affected us as the team became too conservative, McLean provided decent cover in this area though. We will never have perfect defenders at this level but there have been significant deficiencies in most of them this year and other teams defences have looked obviously better than ours the majority of the season.
Agree with all that, Suffolk. Apologies if I misread your earlier posts. The more I think about it, the crazier JHT's sacking IMO.
