" In the cold light of the day "
Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:58 pm
Looking at what we have got at the moment.
We've used the same nucleus of players, same system without variation for too long. Players look frustrated and bored with it, opposition have sussed us (not exactly hard) and have a game plan to stop us. You cannot fault the endeavour, they never give up (unlike last years crop) and they play until the final whistle. But hard work alone doesn't win games.
Away from home 4-5-1 works. At home it hasn't of late so why not go 4-4-2 or 4-3-3? Today, a win would have taken us up to 4th, so why did we start with one up front ?
I think Joe Mason is a little gem of a player but it doesn't work with McNaughton behind him. You could drive 3 double decker buses in the gap between them. Kev goes forward, Mason doesn't know what to do. It's much tighter when Conway is on as he does track back. Mason is sublime going forward, he's not a defensive minded player.
Up front with 4-5-1. Miller is such a hard worker and has great touch. But the ball is given to him in the air, so if he does get it (and that's not often) he's quickly robbed as support is too slow to support. It's got to be quicker ball and to feet. Too many times our front players have their backs to goal waiting for it or have to come so deep to get the ball.
Midfield. This for me is where the main problem lies. We're looking physically and mentally knackered. Cowie is nowhere near as effective as he was. Gunnarson looks dead on his feet. Neither supports Whitts as they were doing earlier in the season, so he's closed down quicker and that stiffles our creativity. We have missed McPhail sitting just in front of the back four. He gets the ball back, plays the simple ball and off we go again. At the moment once the front player(s) loses possession the midfield are either trying to get forward but too late which leaves huge gaps just behind them adding pressure on the defence or they just don't get there so we lose the ball either way.
Defence - To be honest our back four are pretty strong,. However they struggle at times because the Midfield are too slow to get back and leave gap behind them. McNaughton gets caught out trying to plug this gap and he's caught between two stools too often. He's encouraged to get forward which isn't his natural game but nobody plugs the gap he leaves in doing so. The distribution from defence has eventually got to be the long ball. Even after playing across the back waiting for movement up front, because no one is finding any space to exploit, they just play the long ball.
We all know we should have a game plan for each individual side rather than one specific system to suit all but we've still no effective plan B. As an example, at Brighton Poyet had them playing it across the park. Then he brought on 3 subs, two were quick pacey players, they started to push it out wide and we did really well to cope but ultimately they forced the draw. I'm sure Malky knows all this and has players in mind but he can't get them at the moment for whatever reason.
You can talk all you want about the Board, finance etc. but we don't know what is going on behind the scenes. It would be refreshing if Malky said now that we are building for next year and take the pressure off now. All this hot air from players thru' the media about we can make the play offs, promotion is still on is making MM and them look silly. Most fans would accept this, they might not like it, but it's being honest and few could argue. Who knows it might even get everyone relaxed and start to play again.
We've used the same nucleus of players, same system without variation for too long. Players look frustrated and bored with it, opposition have sussed us (not exactly hard) and have a game plan to stop us. You cannot fault the endeavour, they never give up (unlike last years crop) and they play until the final whistle. But hard work alone doesn't win games.
Away from home 4-5-1 works. At home it hasn't of late so why not go 4-4-2 or 4-3-3? Today, a win would have taken us up to 4th, so why did we start with one up front ?
I think Joe Mason is a little gem of a player but it doesn't work with McNaughton behind him. You could drive 3 double decker buses in the gap between them. Kev goes forward, Mason doesn't know what to do. It's much tighter when Conway is on as he does track back. Mason is sublime going forward, he's not a defensive minded player.
Up front with 4-5-1. Miller is such a hard worker and has great touch. But the ball is given to him in the air, so if he does get it (and that's not often) he's quickly robbed as support is too slow to support. It's got to be quicker ball and to feet. Too many times our front players have their backs to goal waiting for it or have to come so deep to get the ball.
Midfield. This for me is where the main problem lies. We're looking physically and mentally knackered. Cowie is nowhere near as effective as he was. Gunnarson looks dead on his feet. Neither supports Whitts as they were doing earlier in the season, so he's closed down quicker and that stiffles our creativity. We have missed McPhail sitting just in front of the back four. He gets the ball back, plays the simple ball and off we go again. At the moment once the front player(s) loses possession the midfield are either trying to get forward but too late which leaves huge gaps just behind them adding pressure on the defence or they just don't get there so we lose the ball either way.
Defence - To be honest our back four are pretty strong,. However they struggle at times because the Midfield are too slow to get back and leave gap behind them. McNaughton gets caught out trying to plug this gap and he's caught between two stools too often. He's encouraged to get forward which isn't his natural game but nobody plugs the gap he leaves in doing so. The distribution from defence has eventually got to be the long ball. Even after playing across the back waiting for movement up front, because no one is finding any space to exploit, they just play the long ball.
We all know we should have a game plan for each individual side rather than one specific system to suit all but we've still no effective plan B. As an example, at Brighton Poyet had them playing it across the park. Then he brought on 3 subs, two were quick pacey players, they started to push it out wide and we did really well to cope but ultimately they forced the draw. I'm sure Malky knows all this and has players in mind but he can't get them at the moment for whatever reason.
You can talk all you want about the Board, finance etc. but we don't know what is going on behind the scenes. It would be refreshing if Malky said now that we are building for next year and take the pressure off now. All this hot air from players thru' the media about we can make the play offs, promotion is still on is making MM and them look silly. Most fans would accept this, they might not like it, but it's being honest and few could argue. Who knows it might even get everyone relaxed and start to play again.
Re: " In the cold light of the day "
Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:05 pm
i thought he might have made four or five changes today i was surprised he didnt
Re: " In the cold light of the day "
Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:06 pm
Spot on.
Re: " In the cold light of the day "
Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:06 pm
f*cking spot on.
I'd be grateful if they came out and said we're building for next season and to be honest with you, I didn't expect us to be fighting for play-offs, I expected us to be 10-12th.
I'd be grateful if they came out and said we're building for next season and to be honest with you, I didn't expect us to be fighting for play-offs, I expected us to be 10-12th.
Re: " In the cold light of the day "
Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:16 pm
To be honest people laughed at me at the start of the season when I said, having seen the first few games, that this side could be top 6 at the end of the season.
Nobody expected a Wembley final and we still could be top 6. I'm forever the optimist
Malky's first season appraisal to date for me A plus
Nobody expected a Wembley final and we still could be top 6. I'm forever the optimist
Malky's first season appraisal to date for me A plus
Re: " In the cold light of the day "
Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:46 pm
bopman wrote:To be honest people laughed at me at the start of the season when I said, having seen the first few games, that this side could be top 6 at the end of the season.
Nobody expected a Wembley final and we still could be top 6. I'm forever the optimist
Malky's first season appraisal to date for me A plus
B for Malky, but early season promise fading. Could even drop to a C+
Could be an interesting time during the summer, what's the most Malky has spent on a player ?
Re: " In the cold light of the day "
Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:52 pm
spot on with that analysis