Post by stevek192 on Feb 24, 2019 10:58:01 GMT
This won't be a particularly long report because there was not a lot football wise that went on in a display that was pretty clueless from the first minute until the last. I will go as far as to say that the value provided by a season ticket this season has been the worst for many years with very few good performances at home and probably without checking any records (because I can't be bothered!!) our worst home record I can remember- 9 defeats with six still to go is truly shocking and what makes it even worst is the fact that a lot of those games we have lost in a whimper and yesterday was one of those.
After a good performance midweek there was a strong case for keeping the same side irrespective of the opposition and this I make because of the Managers early calls where he said that a shirt was a players to lose and gave the impression that gone would be the ease with which certain players got back in the side without a fight. the problem he has with saying something like this is that it is not going to take long before players who buy into this lose faith with the Manager and the constant use of "I was let down" in his after match comments is soon going to be lost where possibly players are not that impressed with the tactics or selection employed.
If I had to describe the tactics yesterday it was Kick and rush without the set up to perfect it. our big problem is that we are giving the opposition so much time on the ball because we don't have the players pressurising the opposition at the top end of the pitch. With all the midfield dropping deep we are leaving Clarke-Harris and the physically weak Reilly with a mammoth task that they have little chance of winning. it is not helped when your most creative player is out wide and ollie Clarke is supposed to be the "creative" player in the middle and he is so inconsistent and I would say when he is poor it is very poor-there are no half way he is either good or pretty well incapable of either getting involved or similar to the most of our defence-incapable of finding one of his own players even with a straightforward short pass.
Bonham 5.5 Distribution was very poor for most of the game and his early performances seem a long way away now although on saying that he had very little to do again yesterday and perhaps he is a keeper who needs a lot to do to impress. Certainly there are big question marks against the wall set up on the free kick as brilliant though it was I think he was the only one in the Mem who didn't know where the ball was going to go in a feeble or no effort to get it.
J. Clarke 5 A very ordinary game where his decision making was questionable at times and I find it very strange that he got his place back from Partington after possibly Partington's best performance this season and made even stranger by the fact that James Clarke lost his right full back place after one of his best performances.
Lockyer 7 Another strong performance from the skipper but his distribution continues to let him down but in truth that applied to the entire back four other than Holmes-Dennis. made will grigg look anything but a 4 million pound player.
Craig 6 Just a reasonable game ruined by a lack of concentration and a silly corner given away for the opening goal. When you know that neither centre half can do anything other than hoof a ball then what is the use of just setting up to protect your half? You may as wewll push players up in numbers to challenge for those balls.
Holmes-Dennis 8 MOM made some mistakes but at least he tries to always play good football and is capable of keeping possession and also bringing other players into the game and attacking as well as defending. Would have loved to have seen him with Bennett in front of him but that was never given a chance.
Rodman 5.5 Transfer dealings have left us with Alex as the only winger but the inability of either the midfield to give him a decent ball or the full back to do likewise makes it a difficult task. Won most in the air and looked dangerous early on.
Ogogo 6 Battled away in the centre of the pitch without much help but a battler is what he is-plain and simple and the trouble is that whilst he won a lot of balls in the air the best he could do was to keep it in the air and until Upson arrived far too late there was no one in the middle to actually bring the ball down and retain possession.
O. Clarke 2 Cannot be relied on to be the main creative central midfielder because he just goes missing too often. yesterday very little went right and the only surprising thing was that it took Coughlan so long to take him off! it could easily have been a substation made after half hour.
Sercombe 3 His worst game of quite a few poor performances this season but in truth he is lost in the left midfield position and only improved when he came inside. Gave away the second goal with a stupid handball in such a dangerous situation.
Reilly 2 Not much I can say about him. Service to him was pretty poor but didn't make much of what possession he did have because he is physically weak.
Clarke-Harris 7 battled a lonely battle all game and visibly tired before the end. hit the bar with a towering header and won most of the balls in the air but what use is that when most players are playing so deep.
Subs: Jakubiak 6 Should have started for his superior physical strength and another substitution that was far too late.
Upson 6 At least when he came on he started bringing the ball down and keeping it on the ground but the truth is you cannot play two defensive midfielders together and the absence of lines on the bench was surprising as yesterday he was just what we needed to bring on.
Nichols 5 not on very long and IMO should be played out wide as we are so short of width in the side
Crowd 6 Reasonable turn out at just over 10000 but had little to cheer about and the performance soon drained the effort out of the crowd. Graham I am sorry but you have to provide entertainment and so far at the Mem you have given little of that. no objection to kick and rush but at least push the players up to compete for it. it is no good whatsoever to say you will take the blame and then dish up complete rubbish
Ref 6 Didn't give us a lot and together with his linesmen some mysterious decisions but overall he was ok.
Sunderland 7 A side that in all honesty were not that good but made to look good which could be said about most of our opponents at the mem this season. We paid them too much respect but the sad thing is that they were streets ahead of us although they created very little. They didn't need to and will probably do the same again Tuesday week.
GC I really don't know if he is a good manager or no . he seems to have got it pretty well right away from home but the style of football or lack of it at home is worrying as there seems to be no Plan B. My worry when disposing of DC was always what we would get in his place as my confidence in the Owners has long since been getting less and less - a bit like we as supporters have been getting. I would say his dealings in the transfer windows has left us with less width than we had and also any creativity we did have has gone too. He has one hell of a task to keep us up as I just cant see now where the 19 or 20 points are going to come from because at the moment we look capable of getting a few points away but very little at home and what also worries me is that I am not convinced we are up to either beating top sides at home or beating the lower teams away.
Next week we have Blackpool - a team we beat well away but who are playing reasonably well. As we are in the relegation zone again we MUST win this one to have any chance of getting out because at the moment we seem to be the most incapable team in the division of actually winning a game!
The vital games could well be the Wimbledon, Plymouth, Rochdale, Bradford City and Gillingham games because I don't honestly see us getting much from the games against Barnsley, Luton or Doncaster.
The 50 point safety looks a very tough ask unfortunately. UTG
After a good performance midweek there was a strong case for keeping the same side irrespective of the opposition and this I make because of the Managers early calls where he said that a shirt was a players to lose and gave the impression that gone would be the ease with which certain players got back in the side without a fight. the problem he has with saying something like this is that it is not going to take long before players who buy into this lose faith with the Manager and the constant use of "I was let down" in his after match comments is soon going to be lost where possibly players are not that impressed with the tactics or selection employed.
If I had to describe the tactics yesterday it was Kick and rush without the set up to perfect it. our big problem is that we are giving the opposition so much time on the ball because we don't have the players pressurising the opposition at the top end of the pitch. With all the midfield dropping deep we are leaving Clarke-Harris and the physically weak Reilly with a mammoth task that they have little chance of winning. it is not helped when your most creative player is out wide and ollie Clarke is supposed to be the "creative" player in the middle and he is so inconsistent and I would say when he is poor it is very poor-there are no half way he is either good or pretty well incapable of either getting involved or similar to the most of our defence-incapable of finding one of his own players even with a straightforward short pass.
Bonham 5.5 Distribution was very poor for most of the game and his early performances seem a long way away now although on saying that he had very little to do again yesterday and perhaps he is a keeper who needs a lot to do to impress. Certainly there are big question marks against the wall set up on the free kick as brilliant though it was I think he was the only one in the Mem who didn't know where the ball was going to go in a feeble or no effort to get it.
J. Clarke 5 A very ordinary game where his decision making was questionable at times and I find it very strange that he got his place back from Partington after possibly Partington's best performance this season and made even stranger by the fact that James Clarke lost his right full back place after one of his best performances.
Lockyer 7 Another strong performance from the skipper but his distribution continues to let him down but in truth that applied to the entire back four other than Holmes-Dennis. made will grigg look anything but a 4 million pound player.
Craig 6 Just a reasonable game ruined by a lack of concentration and a silly corner given away for the opening goal. When you know that neither centre half can do anything other than hoof a ball then what is the use of just setting up to protect your half? You may as wewll push players up in numbers to challenge for those balls.
Holmes-Dennis 8 MOM made some mistakes but at least he tries to always play good football and is capable of keeping possession and also bringing other players into the game and attacking as well as defending. Would have loved to have seen him with Bennett in front of him but that was never given a chance.
Rodman 5.5 Transfer dealings have left us with Alex as the only winger but the inability of either the midfield to give him a decent ball or the full back to do likewise makes it a difficult task. Won most in the air and looked dangerous early on.
Ogogo 6 Battled away in the centre of the pitch without much help but a battler is what he is-plain and simple and the trouble is that whilst he won a lot of balls in the air the best he could do was to keep it in the air and until Upson arrived far too late there was no one in the middle to actually bring the ball down and retain possession.
O. Clarke 2 Cannot be relied on to be the main creative central midfielder because he just goes missing too often. yesterday very little went right and the only surprising thing was that it took Coughlan so long to take him off! it could easily have been a substation made after half hour.
Sercombe 3 His worst game of quite a few poor performances this season but in truth he is lost in the left midfield position and only improved when he came inside. Gave away the second goal with a stupid handball in such a dangerous situation.
Reilly 2 Not much I can say about him. Service to him was pretty poor but didn't make much of what possession he did have because he is physically weak.
Clarke-Harris 7 battled a lonely battle all game and visibly tired before the end. hit the bar with a towering header and won most of the balls in the air but what use is that when most players are playing so deep.
Subs: Jakubiak 6 Should have started for his superior physical strength and another substitution that was far too late.
Upson 6 At least when he came on he started bringing the ball down and keeping it on the ground but the truth is you cannot play two defensive midfielders together and the absence of lines on the bench was surprising as yesterday he was just what we needed to bring on.
Nichols 5 not on very long and IMO should be played out wide as we are so short of width in the side
Crowd 6 Reasonable turn out at just over 10000 but had little to cheer about and the performance soon drained the effort out of the crowd. Graham I am sorry but you have to provide entertainment and so far at the Mem you have given little of that. no objection to kick and rush but at least push the players up to compete for it. it is no good whatsoever to say you will take the blame and then dish up complete rubbish
Ref 6 Didn't give us a lot and together with his linesmen some mysterious decisions but overall he was ok.
Sunderland 7 A side that in all honesty were not that good but made to look good which could be said about most of our opponents at the mem this season. We paid them too much respect but the sad thing is that they were streets ahead of us although they created very little. They didn't need to and will probably do the same again Tuesday week.
GC I really don't know if he is a good manager or no . he seems to have got it pretty well right away from home but the style of football or lack of it at home is worrying as there seems to be no Plan B. My worry when disposing of DC was always what we would get in his place as my confidence in the Owners has long since been getting less and less - a bit like we as supporters have been getting. I would say his dealings in the transfer windows has left us with less width than we had and also any creativity we did have has gone too. He has one hell of a task to keep us up as I just cant see now where the 19 or 20 points are going to come from because at the moment we look capable of getting a few points away but very little at home and what also worries me is that I am not convinced we are up to either beating top sides at home or beating the lower teams away.
Next week we have Blackpool - a team we beat well away but who are playing reasonably well. As we are in the relegation zone again we MUST win this one to have any chance of getting out because at the moment we seem to be the most incapable team in the division of actually winning a game!
The vital games could well be the Wimbledon, Plymouth, Rochdale, Bradford City and Gillingham games because I don't honestly see us getting much from the games against Barnsley, Luton or Doncaster.
The 50 point safety looks a very tough ask unfortunately. UTG
