So Bentley has a rush of blood and gets sent off.........disaster. BUT........why didn't Sheridan bring on some fresh legs for the last twenty minutes ??? So 57 minutes plus two lots of injury time played meant that ten men had no help from the manager to get something out of this game....what the hell was he thinking of.....tiring legs can bring injuries when over worked for literally two thirds of the game. Sheridan has been critized in the past regarding tactics.....how will he explain his thinking in flogging his team to death without using any of his three subs.....serious question,can't wait for his views.
You may well ask plym as this was a question being asked all around where I sit. I was not surprised nobody came on before the half time break. Argyle were in front and Oxford were doing nothing to change that at all. However, once they had equalised then a change just to shore it up would have been good. Don't know what others think but I have to say I thought that Oxford were about the worst side I've seen down here this season. Even after the sending off they were quite woeful. How come they won then I here people cry. Simple answer is because Argyle gave them the points rather than Oxford being worth them. The Ref was terrible but he wasn;t to blame for the loss no matter how bad he was. The straight red was absolutely nailed on and only Bentley knows why he chose to do what he did. Madness. Their first goal was a joke. Not sure how it managed to reach over the line it was that soft. It must have bounced several times and nobody in a green shirt even tried to hoof it out. They all stood and watched it go in. The second was Argyle losing the ball when most of the players had ventured forward. The Oxford player took it well and that was it game over. Oxford did not deserve the points and that isn't sour grapes either. Sheridan changed nothing. Make no mistake this was a shocking loss.
It's true many in the crowd wanted subs. The question is, who? Before the sending off, Argyle were beginning to exert the same death-grip which nearly drove Dagenham to madness. Surrender space, draw the opposition on into the Green infested swamp that is a 9 man defence and then sucker punch with swift passing moves that leave their defence out-numbered and out of position. Once Bentley was sent off, and let's be clear, he fully deserved it for a wild lunge, Sheridan had no choice of going from a back 3 to a back 4. Wilth Kellett and Mellor sterlised as full backs instead of wing backs, that crushing defensive press Argyle can put on teams was gone as were the out-balls to the flanks that make the attacks so effective. Short of Banton at centre-back, he had little option. It's not as if anyone played badly but the shape and the tactics were gone. We need Nelson & Hartley back tout de suite. I do have one criticism. Reuben Reid needs to stop reading his own PR. Even he cannot beat 4 defenders at once and he needs to get back to playing the simple pass when it's needed.
He could have put Purrington on who is an out and out defender and sacrificed one of the two up front. On today's showing that would have been Reid for me. Could then have retained the back 3 set up and Kellett and Mellor could have stayed as wing backs rather than full backs. Reid has been quite poor for several games for me. Might have scored but he is becoming a bit lazy at times and gives the chase up far too easily. When he doesn't score he looks bad.
I did think about Purrington, but, being the only defender on the bench, he's a full back not a centre-back and doesn't have a lot of experience. I think I'd rather have tried Blizzard for Bobby Reid and played Blizzard in a back 3. I still say we need Nelson and Hartley back!
Don't disagree with the Hartley/Nelson point notdistant but my argument is with Sheridan's lack of doing anything at all with what he had available. Says a lot about what he thinks of his squad depth if he would rather carry on with 10 knackered players than trust one of his subs. Playing Purrington in the middle at the back is better in my opinion than changing the whole set up or not doing anything at all. Blizzard should have been on for possibly Bobby Reid and perhaps even Morgan for Alessandra just to give it fresh legs if nothing else. To play no subs is just stupid. Incidentally, the people who stood and applauded Bentley off the pitch after his kamakazee tackle should be banned from any football ground for life. What on earth could they see that was anything less than a terrible tackle and letting the whole club and supporters down? I don't care how young he is he is a pro footballer and knows you cannot put in a challenge like that. Anyone who thinks that is worthy of applause is a moron.
How do you justify not bringing on your subs later on, when you have played since the 33rd minute with ten men ? What confidence does that install into your subs, when it seems you consider that all of your knackered players on the pitch can still do a better job than three pairs of fresh legs ? How can Sheridans attitude build squad moral, when his action of not trusting any of his subs to bring anything to the game......even when they go 2-1 down ? I haven't heard Sheridans views on this as yet.....that's assuming he spoke afterwards.........I need to check GoS to see if he did or not.......just so puzzling to not try to protect the teams lead or even one point.....and eventually try to salvage a point when 2-1 down.........if Brent was a football man.....wouldn't he have had him in his Office to hear why he didn't change things aroud.......everyone needs to know in my opinion.
Just listened to Sheridan talking about his magnificant players who couldn't have done anymore to win this match. No one wouldn't have said that his players didn't do well......but I feel Sheridans judgement on not using his subs is definately flawed......he said he has done it that way in the past when going down to ten men........sorry John you got it very wrong this time.
Well, I'm only an armchair expert but I didn't see anyone who looked tired: they kept on pushing right to the end and in a different world could well have got (and would have just about deserved) a point. Tiredness didn't look the issue: it was the inabilty to get that densely packed formation that works so well with 3:5:2. 4:3:2 didn't work half as well and I think that given he'd have had to take players off who were individually doing well in order to put others on who were then out of position, I'm not clear what benefit there would have been . We'll never know now..... Just on Sesible's point, I was one who gave Bentley a half hearted clap when he trudged off. The poor bu&&er looked heartbroken. So he should be but he is young and only in his 3rd (?) full game. The stupid thing was that Oxford player was pinned on the touchline on the halfway line so there was no need to pile in and Bentley must have had 10 seconds to think about it as he thundered into the tackle from a distance: it wasn't as if it was a split second error of judgement. Hopefully he's learned that there are times when you have to put your foot in and others when it's best to stay on your feet. What I wasn't though was one of the ones who boo-ed the Oxford player. He might have jumped out of the way but only in the same way as you would if you were about to be run over by a train. The the only saving grace is that he wasn't seriously injured: he could easily have been in traction this morning. It was a truly awful tackle that you could see coming for seconds before it happened: no excuse. PS While the red card definitely lost Argyle the game and the second Oxford goal was a peach, the first was poor even if you only had 9 on the pitch. McCormick isn't the most voluble of players,but you could fairly clearly him make a remark along the lines of "You f***ing useless lot of *******" from 50 yards away. Stupid freekick, very badly defended. We need Nelson & Hartley back.
I don't care how young he is notdistant he has played in enough games in his time at several levels to know you do not do what he did. Breaking into tears is just pathetic. Try not to be a mamoth pratt in the first place would be good. Clapping him off after that is.........as previously described. The ones who boo'd the Oxford player as if it was his fault Bentley was an idiot were as bad if not worse. Have to say that if you didn't think some of the players looked knackered, ok not all of them, then you must have been watching something else. Cox looked out on his feet and Reid always looks knackered in the last 20 minutes anyway. The other Reid wasn't much better than Cox. They did keep going and they did try hard even then but they were fighting a losing battle. Not blaming them for effort but am blaming Sheridan for not seeing it. Plenty of other people seemed to notice but not the one who is paid to.
Football today is a game played with fourteen players..........and that's with eleven on the pitch........so it surely means that playing with ten players for two thirds of a match means that you must play all of your thirteen players at sometime......must make sense surely.
Well my first look at the team this season ended in disappointment. On the whole I thought we did alright and as others have said, would almost certainly have won without young Bentleys rush of blood to the head and consequent red card which put the brakes on our growing dominance and forced a change of formation which negated the threat of our wingbacks, our most impressive threat from what I witnessed. Still we had a couple of chances to score a second but it wasn't to be and a soft equalizer followed by an impressive late winner meant the visitors left with an undeserved three points and sent the bumper crowd home cold and miserable. Barring the result though I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to Home Park for some time, in particular the pre and post match food and drink, a great way to keep warm and drown your sorrows! COYG
If you mean the Fan fest thingy then I've never been to one Essex but there seems to be people who enjoy. I read a thing from Kellett today regarding Bentley and his "unfortunate" red. Poor old Bentley was distraught in the dressing room apparently but, the whole team was behind him (so they should have been and it wouldn't be to pat him on the back) and according to Kellett he should not blame himself for the loss and he should move on as it wasn't his fault. In the next sentence he then states that there was no doubt being down to 10 men cost them. Erm.........so who is to blame then Mr Kellett? Footballers really should stick to kicking the ball rather than talking to the press or whoever.
Not the fanfest, a couple old barbican haunts followed by some ansum fish and chips, taxi to the match, steered well clear of the overpriced, poor quality refreshments on offer at the ground and then a taxi back to the Royal William Yard for after match goodies, all in all a great day, except the result!
