Very dissapointing, a performance that has me scratching my head to how we are unbeaten so far. It may have something to do with the decent battling in the second half but the first half was relegation football! Anyway, in my opinion... Hamer (6) Decent enough, needs to react a bit quicker to distribution oppertunitys Solly (6) Solid enough, only got done once Talyor (6) Coped well Morrison (6) Coped well and was composed on the ball as always Wiggins (8) MOTM for me, few poor crosses but kept trying, defended well and showed real composure Green (5) Poor, did not comtribute much of note, and seemed unable to make a break down the wing ala Waggy Hollands (4) Way to many mistakes Stephens (5) Pooooooor! Jackson (6) Good penalty and decent play at times Kermit (6) Kept trying BWP (6) Isolated and struggled, but had his moments as always Waggy (6) No real impact, no real mistakes. Heres to hoping it was just one of those games!
I just wish CP would give his half time team talk at the start of the match. From the commentaries of the last two away matches, the same patten. Poor 1st half but recovered well in the second. Assessment of the team matched mine, the midfield just did not work, Kermit needs to build an understanding with BWP, Hayes is not a goal scorer, but he sets up BWP, with his flick ons, BWP missed that service today. Much as I like Waggy thought Green starting was right, not so sure now. Waggy can't produce the crosses, Green can't get in the positions to get the crosses in. One moment, when Waggy would have had a shot, Green was looking for the pass. May be confidence, but good to have competition. We really missed Elliott s distribution from goal today. Hamer needs to be more alert & get the ball to outfielders quicker. Plus side, we are still top of the league, don't forget that.
I felt from the game that we actually missed Waggy's speed down the wings and Hayes' link up play. Everytime the ball went forward it seemed to come straight back as Kermit or BWP dont have the ability to track the ball and wait for backup (not when they've big buggers in Defence like Tranmere do) A lot of people have been calling for other players to be included where as I've been adamant that the same eleven should be starting until we lose and the two games where we have changed things from the start (Bury and today) we've been found extremely lacking...
Reading your posts as well Japan and Ted (about the distribution) I reckon Hamer cant throw it out quickly because teams are looking at that on the DVDs before the game so they're leaving players just far enough up so we cant get it straight to Solly or Wiggins
I noticed this too A4L, but there were often central midfielders avaliable, before tranmere took shape. Something to work on...
i thought after a while that hamer just liked to punt it. no distribution skills at all. he likes doing that slice kick that looks smart but never came off. kicking it up like he did made us loose posession time after time as a team like tranmere prefer the ball in the air. he also wasted solly's space making runs by not passing to him. looked like we missed waggy big time. he chases their goalkeeper down and plays well with solly. today, we didnt have that. hope he's back in the team next week. sometimes i think when we play teams who play 451 we should match them, stick evina or waggy on the left and push jackson in slightly so that we get more of the ball. i hate the way tranmere play, i remember them last year and they play anti-football. i think they'd have been happy with a trip to a big city let alone a point. we played badly too, but we're much better than that. i think we should work on set plays as we seem to have missed a few chances today from set plays. last but not least, think the ref should have been braver today. their goalie, again, wasted time from the first minute. its so frustrating!
Dreadful performance. Leaving Waggy out was a big mistake. Kermit's heading was abysmal for the most part. Wiggins and Stephens were our best players.
I have a question. If Wagstaff and Hayes weren't injured or knackered, why did CP choose this game, of all games, to make changes? We've had untold problems with Tranmere in our recent meetings, we can never control Enoch Showunmi, Parry has honed them into a highly efficient and methodical unit, they've survived the potentially disastrous loss of Dale Jennings with hardly a blink - so why weren't the changes delayed until an 'easier' game? Any ideas? Having said this, the BBC are reporting that this is our best start to a season since 1927 - congratulations to the players, the management and coaching team and to the board for their magnificent joint effort.
Danny Green is rubbish and lazy and rubbish, I know the women fancy him because of his hair and I like it too but im not gay lol, I thought of a song for him this morning to the bradley wright philips tune, "better than porn, better than porn, watching danny green in better than porn" and i was going to suggest to whoever arranges the singing in the covered end to get people to sing it, but not if he is going to play like he did today, he looked like he didn't care, i blame his rubbish haircut, get the club barber to sort it out chrissy powell, stephens hair is nearly as bad and he is getting worse each game too, it cant be coincidence.
We missed Hayes today, especially Stephens. Morrison was my MOM, had big Enoch in his pocket. We don't seem to cope well with ugly teams.
There were overtones of the Sheff Wednesday match in the way that Tranmere approached us and I guess Les Parry looked carefully at that video when planning his attack. We have to find a way to deal with that. I agree that the team missed Hayes because they haven't played 90 with Kermorgant but both Bradley and Stephens have to get used to playing with differnet people. Kermorgant certainly add quite a lot today for me.
We have benefitted from playing an almost unchanged side but there are also downsides. One we saw on Wednesday is that a quality gap starts to open up between "First XI" and "Reserves" (and more so if there is no reserve league) instead of having a homogenous squad. The other is that experienced opposing managers have had plenty of time and videos to work out our pattern of play and that is what happened today. Parry outwitted Powell with a team of inferior players today. Powell has brought in many good players on a tight budget and his desire to play a passing game on the ground will pay off in the longer run but he has a lot to learn about tactics while the game is in progress. (I have no doubt he will learn and go on to be a great manager). Tranmere looked very shaky the few times we attacked them, miskicking, goalie dropping the ball twice, giving away freekicks and corners and, eventually, a penalty. Their lumbering defenders were very vulnerable when run at, but we persisted in trying to pass round them. I would have brought on Evina at LM to run at them, with Jackson switching inside for tired triple-dad Hollands. We are playing another team of "bullies" next week. Let's see if we do things differently. While I am satisfied our penalty was technically justified, it might not have been given if we had been playing away so we cannot rely on that "get out of jail free card" next Saturday. Great win for Parky today with only 10 men. Watch Bradford soar up the table. They need to get promoted this season before England come calling for him next summer, eh Houndal?
I'm getting slightly fed up with this "No Reserve League" we're not the only team out of the 92 League Teams not to be in one. Chris Powell has repeated countless times that we're not competing in one because they're so badly ran We'd be dumped in a League with the likes of Grays, Lewes or Whitstable (and where's the difference between that and the Kent Senior Cup) OR we'd be put in a competion like the Premier Reserve League where West Ham Reserves had to travel up to Blackpool last season!!!
I'll give Green the benefit of the doubt because I want him to be good and he may still not be match fit BUT he was woeful yesterday. His positional sense didn't seem great - why won't our wingers ever hug the touchline? - and even if he wanted the ball, for me he wasn't in any real position to recieve it. His crossing was poor, his throws ridiculous. And more tan anything he seemed petulant and arrogant - when he had a little strop because no-one was ready for a quick throw he just threw the ball away - even though Solly was coming over to take it off him. I don't like the cut of his jib. As for Hamer I am coming round to him - Just wish he wouldn't punch it. On the whole that was unacceptable for a team with Championship ambitions - we've now drawn 3 home games against mid table teams... And I really do think that Enoch would do a job for us - we do lack a player of his style - a fact I think Ponders has alluded to...
JapanAddick: Were you watching the game from a bar in Tokyo? You give BWP a mark of '6' More like minus '9' in my view. He should do the decent thing and donate his salary to charity. Absolute buffoon, as were the rest of his team. They should be very embarrassed this morning. Usual mid table end of season finishing on the evidence of this performance. Promotion, you are having a laugh!!!
"I would have brought on Evina at LM to run at them, with Jackson switching inside for tired triple-dad Hollands." Good thinking eddie Hollands definitely looked as though he needed the sleep now the kids are out of hospital.
Well, sitting in Stockholm airport after a very 'jolly' weekend ! - and you all seem to have the hump. Just think, 12 games unbeaten, top of the league and you're all still moaning - well, i duno about you, but i would have taken that at beginning of season !
There will be times when we fail to beat the ugly teams- but it's all in the response (and managing a draw, rather than a loss). What happened after Wednesday and scunny at home?
rufus98, bore off you cretin, i actually hate you, never support the team, where you been all season!!!
