Exeter City v Blackpool Official Matchday Thread 12.08.23

Danny Ocean said:
Since Lyons got moved to left wing-back at the end of last season and with Critch this season it has taken away his goal threat.

Dougall had the pass of the game with his first-time ball to Virtue with his left foot, he also won the 50-50 that lead to Virtue's effort at the end.

For all Norburns effort, he is totally right footed, he needs someone near him that can use his left foot.

As for big Marv, the two players next to him need to gamble and do something with the ball instead of just keep giving it back to Marv,
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Lyons on the left is a joke. People will say he played there for some Irish non league team and that means he is good enough there forever more. Our wing backs today offered nothing and were blatantly out of position
 
Whilst still early days I’ve seen nothing from Virtue or Dale to suggest they should be around the squad on match days.

Still players to come in and hopefully transfers in both directions happen prior to the end of the window.
 
Sven said:
Solid performance away from home against a team that have started well. I can see a few struggling against them, they looked decent.

Would have been three points if it wasn't for an excellent save. Fair play to the keeper, he was out quickly and Virtue didn't do too much wrong with the finish.
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decent reaction form the shayne header as well, although not the best header. on other days a couple of the chances might have gone in.
 
Bit of a tedious game if we’re being honest. Having said that its a good point away from home. Really not much to add in terms of analysis. It felt like Critch was happy for a point and he got it. Whether thats the right approach or not is hard to tell at this stage but not losing certainly breeds confidence.
 
Old_Laytonian said:
Sorry negative was the wrong word
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It's called realistic, we were 2nd best for much of that and that's how we are meant to be playing with the ball. We had to abandon it and go long, Exeter didn't.

We were happy showing a million pass move vs Derby on the end of the preview show. But today that possession and quality on the ball went missing for much of the game, although we had some moments.

I was expecting a bit more dominance, not to steamroller teams, but to show some class.

We were defensively solid and had some good moves, but not enough for me and Critchley clearly seemed unhappy making so many subs. Beesley and Lavery were very quiet and we didn't create much for them.

If we want to be going straight back up we'll have to show a lot more quality on the ball and going forward than that. 2 out of 16 successful crosses...

As I said much to improve, take the point considering how the game went, but I'm not alone in wanting to see a bit more.
 
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Lyon’s should be in as a specialist right back and CJ should be an impact sub higher up the field…it would appear NC doesn’t trust Thompson so we need a new left back.. Beesley was pretty poor and we still need two more forwards. Beesley can be an option for the bench…the bench today showed just how short we still are in key positions. We still need three more in and they need to be decent quality
 
Frustrating for those of us who made the long journey. High balls to Lavery are a waste of time. And stop passing it around at the back to Marv - he cannot pass the ball
 
Exeter shaded it today. Two teams who cancelled each other out to a degree. Exeter look a good side but they didn’t trouble our goal. Grimshaw didn’t have a single save to make. Defensively, I thought we were solid. All in all, a good point at this stage of the season.
 
Clearly, we were nowhere near our best today. Decent enough away point though, but let’s not also forget, that this is the second away game we’ve played in the past 4 days - whilst Exeter have had the luxury of remaining at home. Just saying.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
Let's look around and pass the ball about for a while. Yes, this is nice, slowly does it.

F***ing shite! This is not Champions League. We should be high pressing and putting these to the sword.
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Let’s be patient. Remember the last promotion season - we had to endure several early comical defensive performances and a fair few extremely lacklustre performances throughout and even near the end of the season.
A solid defensive away performance at this stage of the season isn’t a reason to get exasperated.
 
philmus said:
Frustrating for those of us who made the long journey. High balls to Lavery are a waste of time. And stop passing it around at the back to Marv - he cannot pass the ball
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They obviously aren't the plan, but we resorted to it rather than being intentionally coached that way.

One issue is Ekpiteta is very poor on the ball, once he had one of those blunders we're a bit reluctant to play it around as much and being central, he's the one it usually falls to. In Exeter you saw no real weak links so they carried on passing, whereas they marked our options more often, knowing Ekpiteta won't really do much with the ball.

Passing the ball is a basic element of the game and defenders in passing sides, which we want to be, have to be able to build from the back.

He's great at defending, but his passing is absolutely shocking.
 
We have two proper wing backs in Lyons and Gabriel who are both RWB. We have thompson on the left Who is marginal at best. Solution? buy more wing backs for the 5-3-2 bollox. That was two points dropped and it will become clear it was poor team selection that did it.
 
L’étranger said:
Let’s be patient. Remember the last promotion season - we had to endure several early comical defensive performances and a fair few extremely lacklustre performances throughout and even near the end of the season.
A solid defensive away performance at this stage of the season isn’t a reason to get exasperated.
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I know that. But the unwritten law says that within 3 hours of a game I'm allowed to spit and curse.
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
Lyons on the left is a joke. People will say he played there for some Irish non league team and that means he is good enough there forever more. Our wing backs today offered nothing and were blatantly out of position
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Maybe Critchley wanted defensive cover against highly rated Chelsea loanee Dion Rankine who the Exeter boss described as the quickest player he's seen.
 
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Just got back, not a great game our main problem was we didn’t press and too often looked sideways rather than moving forward. Yes we had chances to win it but fair result shame we were not a bit more positive.
 
any point away from home is a point earned. clean sheet to boot.

i'm sure we'll play worse and win. also reckon plenty of decent teams will come a cropper at exeter this season.

i'm a realist but some of the relentless negativity on the match threads is, quite frankly, absurd and an embarrassment to those responsible. don't bother replying to them personally.

every credit to you all that made it down there today - heard you loud and proud virtually non-stop, especially UB40! food for thought indeed.
 
tommytwojags said:
Maybe Critchley wanted defensive cover against highly rated Chelsea loanee Dion Rankine who the Exeter boss described as the quickest player he's seen.
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Rankine was quick and a decent player but what has that got to do with playing Lyons or CJ at left back.

It just looked awkward all match and I don’t know many teams who play a right footer at left back and a left footer at right back. They looked uncomfortable and their wingers had the better of it which resulted in limited options going forward.
 
Not long home too - hellish Journey back 30+ mins to get off M5/on M6 and then a whole section of the M6 closed near warrington after a really easy sub 5 hr journey there.
A few points on the game:
Exeter had us sussed and were bang up for it. Pressed us high for 90 mins and we had no time on the ball. Was completely different to Burton and Derby and we couldn't put our mark on the game or dictate the tempo with our passing.
We looked knackered. It was a proper battle today and another day we would have lost despite not giving away too many chances, shows we are more organised and defensively sound.
Their high press and our tiredness meant we ended up going long far too often to Lavery who really struggled today with little to no service. Even though Exeter controlled the game for large parts we could have nicked it with the Lavery header/Virtue chance at the end. Although a point was probably a fair result.
I'd be tempted to get Casey in for Marv, he releases the ball quicker and looks very comfortable at this level. Marv dawdles too much and ends up getting rushed and making a mistake too often.
Could drop Carey for Weir/Dale, too anonymous for me in a position where he should be on the ball more creating and making things happen.
Weirdly I think we missed Connolly today? I'm not sure Lyons at LWB and CJ at RWB is working. I'd like to see us sign a proper attacking wing back or give Thompson a chance.
Norburn is our best player by a country mile. If only we had 11 of him.
Support was excellent, 800 is a great effort and we didn't stop all game.
 
Best player on the pitch for me was Rankine, the Chelsea loan that Exeter have. He is better than this level and we did well to contain him as much as we did. He will rip other teams apart in this division. Exeter are a good side, I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the playoffs or higher. That was a good point and it's only our third game of the season, we are unbeaten and have not yet conceded a goal.
Yet some clowns are still moaning.
Under Critchley I would expect the team to improve as the season goes on. I thought the wing backs did well enough yesterday, they defended well and got up the pitch against a good, well organised team. We had chances to win the game whereas we restricted Exeter in the main. That was a good point imo, a win on Tuesday puts us near the top of the table.
 
Too many of our fans think it’s football manager - want to pick the strongest 11 individuals, chuck them together into a single formation for 46 games and win 3/4-0 every match.

In the real world, unless you do literally have 11 world class players - like Man City or Real Madrid - you have to play the opposition. Its horses for courses and Critchley is the master at that. 0-0 away at Exeter will be a valuable point. We were promoted from League 1 last time with the second best defensive record and a GK with the golden glove. We also started poorly yet still achieved the objective. This season we’ve started pretty well and we’re showing ourselves to be tough to beat and mean at the back. It’s THE formula that will work
 
Expetita worries me trying to carry the ball out ,he takes far too much time to decide when to pass it,then when he does it usually ends up a no ball (but agree our bench says it all ) but Dougall for me should start.
 
Good early season test for both teams albeit not particularly pleasing on the eye and a bit of a borefest really.

If Virtue scores it's game over.

For me we do need to maintain a Championship standard of intensity and carry that high tempo into this season.
This level is utter pants - 1 top striker and one ball playing midfielder and we could have this wrapped up early.

Nice to be so close to the action in standing only terracing.
The home fans were really quiet, particularly for a full house.
 
We did well to hang on because the team looked knackered at the end. Three games in a week after most of the players haven't had any 90 min pre season games maybe just too much? Marv keeps the ball too long but he does need someone to pass too.
 
thedevilsadvocate said:
Just back as well. I concentrated on watching Marv today and I don’t think that his passing is bad, it’s just that he waits until the very last second to play the ball, not wise if you are being highly pressed. Not a bad game and two teams that cancelled each other out. The two keepers had nothing to do and our support was excellent!
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Marv made one mistake all game, norburn was quick to get back for the first tackle and Marv was there with the second, I thought he was being pulled as he went to pass the ball back. He put in so many blocks, defensive headers, and interceptions yesterday I find it difficult to be critical. Exeter really pressed our midfield yesterday, particularly in the second half, so Marv had little opportunity to get the ball out short. If he was jarzinho and had 11 Peles in front of him then I'm sure he would have found a pass. But he /they isn't/aren't.

Thought Carey had a decent game, drove forward well when he had space, used the ball intelligently when he had it, was stuck out on the left a lot which made me think the team had very clear instructions to keep their shape reducing the movement going forward.
All in all a decent point against a team that was organised, had a very clear game plan, had a fair share of talent, and worked as hard as we did.
 
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