Post by stevek192 on Oct 14, 2018 11:46:26 GMT
I am sorry to have to say this but following the team and writing a report afterwards is like a double dose of treatment at the moment as every week is like deja vu. There are no signs whatsoever of the Manager turning this around and his tinkering with the side is now one failure after another. With no real leadership from the owners we are like a team lost in stormy seas with no real signs of any calm waters and it really is a sad situation. In all honesty I could see no real need to change the defence from last Saturday and as regards anything in front of the defence the success last Tuesday should IMO have meant same again for the midfield and attack. That,however is not our Manager and not for the first time this season he swopped defenders and started with a very defensive looking team in front of them. I was glad to see Upson, Jacubiak and Rodman kept from Tuesday night but have never been convinced with an Ollie Clarke/Upson partnership or with Sinclair playing out wide.
Unfortunately this was to be a complete repeat of last week with us rarely looking likely to score and our best hope being a 0-0.which unfortunately was also taken from us again in injury time.
Bonham 7 Can' be faulted at all. Made an excellent save and a good one too and came for most crosses and got them.
Partington 5 Doesn't mark his player tightly enough and reacts to situations after they have happened rather than before they happen. This could be said for most of our players as whatever the opposition they seem to have a lot of time and room.
Lockyer 5 A Captain who doesn't lead. Didn't look 100% fit and strange that he played for us when not fit for International duty. In all honesty we are so set up as a defensive unit that there are not too many problems with us defensively but it is at the cost of any attacking threat. For me James Clarke should have retained his place from last week in what is his best position and Tom Lockyer should ; like others; wait for his chance. This is a big fault with DC and it comes to light because we do have quite a few new players who must feel a bit poorly treated.
Craig 7 Did little wrong and a leader who should be captain. Trouble is he knows his limitations and his decision making is generally right and he hoofs the ball away but we just don't have the forwards or even the number of players up the pitch to hold the ball up and so it just comes back or goes into touch. Such is a DC team that has no balance whatsoever and too many short players or should I say not enough strong,physical players to compete.
J. Clarke 6 Played to the best of his ability but he is not a left back so for me this was another case of square peg in a round hole when we have two left backs available. My comment on his performance in his last game "to be fair although in my mind he is another Average player he gave 100% with few errors and certainly no worse than Lockyer has been and in many ways was better." was particularly true yesterday as Lockyer was put straight back in and another unnecessary change was made.
Sinclair 4 Can't fault his effort or commitment but completely headless when it comes to creativity and IMO totally wasted in a wide position and another case of just being fitted in the team. We could have done with his pressurising players up top more than out wide as we allowed the opposition far too much time and possession.
O. Clarke 5 The trouble with playing Ollie Clarke is that he reacts to situations rather than stopping the situation occurring and he spends far too much of his time in space rather than closing the space down and marking the opposition. This may well be how he is asked to play but at best he is a defensive midfield player and yesterday this showed as Upson is a much better footballer but was also playing quite deep and with Sercombe off form and Sinclair also lacking creativity then against a "not much better than us Burton" we pretty well gave them a Christmas present and as with many games this season we only created a handful of chances and not for the first time this season I can't recall a shot on target or in fact many shots at all in the first half!
Upson 7.5 MOM The only player in the midfield who seems to actually know what he is doing when it comes to positioning and confidence on the ball. Rarely gave a ball away and got stuck in and won possession well but the problem is that he, like Lines when he plays is given too deep a role and too often he had the ball and the actual options in front of him were very limited and that is down to the Managers selections and tactics.
Sercombe 4 Just not at the races yesterday and a pale imitation of last seasons player. Last season he had pretty well a free role but this season that has not been the case and he looks like a player who has been restrained and like all our attacking players the importance of their defensive role set out to them. Result- no creativity, no numbers in attacking positions and no goals.
Rodman 5 faded out of the game after a reasonable start but without Kelly behind him he did not really form a partnership- with James Clarke and so another attacking option was marked out of the game.
Jakubiak 6 Lots of strong running but IMO he is not a player who can LEAD the attack and fighting a lone battle suits a certain type of player. Should have put us ahead close to the end when free just outside the penalty area but took too big a touch in trying to go around the keeper who was in no mans land and the chance was lost and I said at the time "and that is the difference between taking three points and taking none" and unfortunately a couple of minutes later it was 1-0 and we were gone for a burton again.
Matthews 6.5 Came on too late and didn't really improve things at all.
Kelly 5 What a strange substitution! Unless of course Partington was injured. Possibly caught out of position on the late goal but from the opposite end of the pitch it was hard to tell.
Reilly NOLE Did little in the short time he was on but did put one good cross in from which we should have scored.
Crowd 5 The poor performances on the pitch are now becoming visible on the terraces with most supporters having the feel of
Ref 3 Absolutely woeful and we struggled to get any decisions from him at all in the first half and he wasn't much better in the second half.
DC 2 Have to say that after the game I feel it is time for a change but after the journey back and time to get over the disappointment I see little sense in changing things especially with having to wait to January to get any new players in. can our manager turn things around? I am not convinced he can as he has now gone full circle from a very attacking Manager to a very negative Manager who makes changes for the sake of it and to use his quote I wouldn't want him leading me in the trenches!
Burton 6 Yet another poor side to beat us! They probably just deserved to win the game but following Rovers at the moment is becoming a tough task.
So we move on to the next games and to be honest if there are no improvements in these two home games then at this time I think Barnsley (for which I have a ticket ) will be my last away game for a while. I can tell you it is no fun watching a side who are set up so defensively both home and away.
My team for next week would be
Bonham
Leadbitter J Clarke Craig Kelly
Bennett Lines Upson Rodman
Payne Jacubiak
Subs Smith Lockyer Sercombe Partington Nichols Reilly Matthews
UTG
