Scoring is becoming a real problem
Oct 21, 2018 10:00:52 GMT
Russgas, gasstrictband, and 1 more like this
Post by stevek192 on Oct 21, 2018 10:00:52 GMT
When is DC going to name a side that actually gives us a distinct possibility of winning the game? Yet again today at the Mem we set up with all our width on the bench and a midfield that looked as if it was set up with the sole intention of not losing the game and finds himself having to make two substitutions at half time to correct two of what his initial team selection had wrong with it. Our main problem at present under DC is that the rules do not allow us to make five or six substitutions but there again I am sure that would make our Manager even worse! I looked at our bench and I thought that it contained most of the creativity we have in the club .
I thought I would do a bit of searching and found that our last 14 Home games in League 1 reads P 14 W 2 D 6 L 6 . That is just 12 points out of 42! Our away record over the similar period is P 14 W 2 D 5 L 7 - A total of 11 points out of 42 which means that our last 28 games have yielded only 23 points out of 84. personally I would look on away games as a win or a draw being successful and at home only a win being a successful result which means out of 28 projects only 9 have been successful!! We have only scored 18 goals in those 28 games. I would suggest that any other team in the Country based on these results would have changed their Manager so perhaps our owners who we have heavily criticised do have something going for them! My only thought at the present time is that if DC continues with his stubborn Team Selections and changes then we WILL be relegated this season. I just can't see any other outcome at the moment because whilst his projects used to go heavily in his favour the truth is that it has been a long time since that was the case and the only way I see him changing our situation is to change his whole approach to his failing tactics.
He can throw all he likes at me about how players are doing more running in training and being proven by stats and GPS but I am sorry Darrell but the only stats I am interested in take place in the 90 minutes and are POINTS on the board. I could also say that far too many times this season I have watched long periods of games both home and away where we haven't managed a shot on target and the first half yesterday was another of those! The big problem with Darrell is that he just does not give players the chance to build up their game and for too many players it is a case of play well and then left out next game or don't play well and out anyway. There is no consistency whatsoever in the side this season and his projects just aren't working anymore as proven above. He has finally been found out and is struggling more than ever to find answers and I am sure that if we actually had any leadership at our club then his position would be in great danger.
Even yesterday where we improved greatly in the second half I would query his tactics as we went from two up front to only one and whilst we brought on width surely we needed Payne on up top far earlier and I would also look at the physique of our team and we had Nichols, Matthews, Bennett and Sinclair all on the pitch at the same time together with a defensive line that Partington apart are hardly the most physical players. I will say now that we are watching an away performance from our team every week and I am sure if you looked at possession based on where it was you would find that the huge majority of possession is in our own half. Yesterday we again wasted 45 minutes of a game against lower placed opposition where we didn't look like scoring and could easily have been 2 down at the break. I must say that winning and losing games is a very fine measure but I look at things really based on how I feel at games and for a large amount of this season I have actually been bored with the way we play. it is certainly not entertaining at the moment!
Bonham 7 Good as always but not IMO Man of the match. Made a few important saves but mainly ones you would expect a decent keeper to make, our trouble is that we had become used to mediocre keepers.
Partington 7 Thought he had a very decent game both defensively and going forward with little getting pass him. His crossing could have been better at times but nearly managed to fluke one which hit the bar.
Lockyer 6.5 Defensively I thought he had a very good game but his passing does border on the woeful at times and I would like to see a lot less of the ball being played at the back.
Craig 7 looked solid throughout. saw little wrong on the booking but perhaps he was caught out as he does make his presence felt throughout the game
Kelly 7 Same as Partington and definitely worth persevering with.
Sinclair 4 A wide player Sincs is not and not for the first time this season proved that he is only worth playing in the centre of midfield and is totally non existent out wide when it comes to moving forward. He does put his body on the line but creates nothing.
Upson 7.5 MOM it wasn't a faultless performance but it was the best in midfield by some distance as he was always available and always wanted the ball and tried throughout to get attacking moves going and was the man behind the second half improvement when he actually had creative players he could pass the ball to..
Sercombe 5.5 Is nowhere near the player he was before his injury but did improve after the break.
O. Clarke 4 Another useless trick that DC had up his sleeve. Why oh why did he think that Clarke could play wide left. He looked totally lost out there and his substitution was every bit the right decision as other than a couple of decent moments he did nothing whatsoever..
Nichols 6.5 His best performance of the season but I cannot give higher than 6.5 because at the end of the day he is out there to score goals although he was a bit unlucky yesterday with a header that hit the bar and two saves by the keeper although I have to say that a confident striker would have won the battle with the keeper and put the ball in the net rather than give him the extra time to block it.
Jakubiak 4 Dreadful No impact on the game and his only positive involvement was a couple of runs down the wing. Perhaps he could be a winger rather than a striker?
Subs:
Matthews 5.5 Tried hard and has more ability on the ball than Sinclair and Ollie Clarke but does give possession away too easily and too often. That said he did liven the team up and our best period of the game was when he was on the pitch and he does look like he might score a goal..
Bennett 7 The player who made the biggest difference to the second half. Great willingness to run at players and brought the game to life and it certainly needed that.
Payne NOLE Couple of lovely touches when he came on and another who has suffered with lack of activity in the team. He is the only player we have other than the untried Dion Moore who can lead the attack.
Crowd 6 The fact that the majority still cheered the team at the end for their second half
Ref 3 Lost count of the number of wrong decisions and really tried and failed to run the game with the use of yellow cards.
Oxford 5 A poor side who look like they will be around us all season and that means a relegation battle.
DC 4- I have said all I want to about our Manager above.
Owners 0 - Who are they? Where are they? The silence is slowly but surely killing the team and the present is the worst I can ever remember in terms of information coming from the top and communication is just non existent and there is a gloom around the place that is so far from the before the match atmosphere that existed last season. The place was always buzzing after 1-30 pm on a Saturday home game but it now represents the state of the club all round.
So we dust ourselves down and go in to Tuesdays match against lowly Wimbledon knowing only a win will be acceptable and though I am going to name a team I also know that I have little chance of getting it right. I believe that Craig will be suspended so based on that and yesterdays performance I would go with the following
Bonham
Partington Lockyer J Clarke Kelly
Rodman or Matthews Lines or Sercombe Upson Bennett
Nichols Payne
Subs Smith, Matthews or Rodman, Leadbitter, Reilly, Sinclair, Sercombe or Lines, O Clarke.
UTG
I thought I would do a bit of searching and found that our last 14 Home games in League 1 reads P 14 W 2 D 6 L 6 . That is just 12 points out of 42! Our away record over the similar period is P 14 W 2 D 5 L 7 - A total of 11 points out of 42 which means that our last 28 games have yielded only 23 points out of 84. personally I would look on away games as a win or a draw being successful and at home only a win being a successful result which means out of 28 projects only 9 have been successful!! We have only scored 18 goals in those 28 games. I would suggest that any other team in the Country based on these results would have changed their Manager so perhaps our owners who we have heavily criticised do have something going for them! My only thought at the present time is that if DC continues with his stubborn Team Selections and changes then we WILL be relegated this season. I just can't see any other outcome at the moment because whilst his projects used to go heavily in his favour the truth is that it has been a long time since that was the case and the only way I see him changing our situation is to change his whole approach to his failing tactics.
He can throw all he likes at me about how players are doing more running in training and being proven by stats and GPS but I am sorry Darrell but the only stats I am interested in take place in the 90 minutes and are POINTS on the board. I could also say that far too many times this season I have watched long periods of games both home and away where we haven't managed a shot on target and the first half yesterday was another of those! The big problem with Darrell is that he just does not give players the chance to build up their game and for too many players it is a case of play well and then left out next game or don't play well and out anyway. There is no consistency whatsoever in the side this season and his projects just aren't working anymore as proven above. He has finally been found out and is struggling more than ever to find answers and I am sure that if we actually had any leadership at our club then his position would be in great danger.
Even yesterday where we improved greatly in the second half I would query his tactics as we went from two up front to only one and whilst we brought on width surely we needed Payne on up top far earlier and I would also look at the physique of our team and we had Nichols, Matthews, Bennett and Sinclair all on the pitch at the same time together with a defensive line that Partington apart are hardly the most physical players. I will say now that we are watching an away performance from our team every week and I am sure if you looked at possession based on where it was you would find that the huge majority of possession is in our own half. Yesterday we again wasted 45 minutes of a game against lower placed opposition where we didn't look like scoring and could easily have been 2 down at the break. I must say that winning and losing games is a very fine measure but I look at things really based on how I feel at games and for a large amount of this season I have actually been bored with the way we play. it is certainly not entertaining at the moment!
Bonham 7 Good as always but not IMO Man of the match. Made a few important saves but mainly ones you would expect a decent keeper to make, our trouble is that we had become used to mediocre keepers.
Partington 7 Thought he had a very decent game both defensively and going forward with little getting pass him. His crossing could have been better at times but nearly managed to fluke one which hit the bar.
Lockyer 6.5 Defensively I thought he had a very good game but his passing does border on the woeful at times and I would like to see a lot less of the ball being played at the back.
Craig 7 looked solid throughout. saw little wrong on the booking but perhaps he was caught out as he does make his presence felt throughout the game
Kelly 7 Same as Partington and definitely worth persevering with.
Sinclair 4 A wide player Sincs is not and not for the first time this season proved that he is only worth playing in the centre of midfield and is totally non existent out wide when it comes to moving forward. He does put his body on the line but creates nothing.
Upson 7.5 MOM it wasn't a faultless performance but it was the best in midfield by some distance as he was always available and always wanted the ball and tried throughout to get attacking moves going and was the man behind the second half improvement when he actually had creative players he could pass the ball to..
Sercombe 5.5 Is nowhere near the player he was before his injury but did improve after the break.
O. Clarke 4 Another useless trick that DC had up his sleeve. Why oh why did he think that Clarke could play wide left. He looked totally lost out there and his substitution was every bit the right decision as other than a couple of decent moments he did nothing whatsoever..
Nichols 6.5 His best performance of the season but I cannot give higher than 6.5 because at the end of the day he is out there to score goals although he was a bit unlucky yesterday with a header that hit the bar and two saves by the keeper although I have to say that a confident striker would have won the battle with the keeper and put the ball in the net rather than give him the extra time to block it.
Jakubiak 4 Dreadful No impact on the game and his only positive involvement was a couple of runs down the wing. Perhaps he could be a winger rather than a striker?
Subs:
Matthews 5.5 Tried hard and has more ability on the ball than Sinclair and Ollie Clarke but does give possession away too easily and too often. That said he did liven the team up and our best period of the game was when he was on the pitch and he does look like he might score a goal..
Bennett 7 The player who made the biggest difference to the second half. Great willingness to run at players and brought the game to life and it certainly needed that.
Payne NOLE Couple of lovely touches when he came on and another who has suffered with lack of activity in the team. He is the only player we have other than the untried Dion Moore who can lead the attack.
Crowd 6 The fact that the majority still cheered the team at the end for their second half
Ref 3 Lost count of the number of wrong decisions and really tried and failed to run the game with the use of yellow cards.
Oxford 5 A poor side who look like they will be around us all season and that means a relegation battle.
DC 4- I have said all I want to about our Manager above.
Owners 0 - Who are they? Where are they? The silence is slowly but surely killing the team and the present is the worst I can ever remember in terms of information coming from the top and communication is just non existent and there is a gloom around the place that is so far from the before the match atmosphere that existed last season. The place was always buzzing after 1-30 pm on a Saturday home game but it now represents the state of the club all round.
So we dust ourselves down and go in to Tuesdays match against lowly Wimbledon knowing only a win will be acceptable and though I am going to name a team I also know that I have little chance of getting it right. I believe that Craig will be suspended so based on that and yesterdays performance I would go with the following
Bonham
Partington Lockyer J Clarke Kelly
Rodman or Matthews Lines or Sercombe Upson Bennett
Nichols Payne
Subs Smith, Matthews or Rodman, Leadbitter, Reilly, Sinclair, Sercombe or Lines, O Clarke.
UTG
