No midfield = No result

Tangerine Trev

Tangerine Trev

Well-known member
Two points actually,

1. Poor goal to concede, perhaps if Gary Goals had not been subbed we might not have conceded that rubbish goal. He had been marshalling our defence of set pieces all night.

2. Our midfield was virtually non-existent. Kenny Dougall was there, but virtually alone . Wright and Carey seemed unable to tackle but also were poor at tracking back / getting back behind the ball. Come back soon Charlie Patino and Bridcutt please. No midfield = constant defending.
 
I actually thought Kenny was ** everywhere covering the lack of two other players playing. Carey looked done after 20 minutes. Poor night. Shit journey home. Evening to forget.

Ref your point one. I said the same thing before they scored. Madine must have cleared about 5 corners and even more free kicks.
 
Definitely lost it in midfield
Out of possession the three midfielders need to be more compact as a group
At times our midfield was anonymous
Had he been available I think M A would have brought Bridcutt on at half time
This team needs more leaders on the pitch
Unfortunately another season when we are building again
We will get there
Look out Luton
 
Yep midfield is an issue for us no doubt about that.
Annoyingly with everyone fit I think it would be a strength with Stewart, Bridcutt, Patino, Fiorini, Anderson all out last night we just looked really weak. Carey and Wright looked lost and were dominated all game and I don't think If we had other options they can both play together at the moment. I'm not a great Kenny fan either but he is ok with better players around him but playing with them two also highlighted his own weaknesses too.
Oh yeh and why in the fcuk is he anywhere near set pieces.
 
Hindsight is a great thing. I appreciate him sticking as close as possible to the winning side from Saturday, but he could have said I’ll play that side again on Saturday & gone for as many changes as he had player’s available to add some intensity. Who knows, but I felt they were there for the taking & had we gone 1 up their fans would have been on their backs. What I don’t understand is, when we were similarly flat against Hull we only had a couple of days rest before the Knobbers game & came out on top. Motivational issues perhaps 🤔
 
The backpassing from their half (possession in midfield) all the way to Maxwell was ridiculous.

Plus all the hoof balls to nowhere giving possession back to them 😳🙄

Critchley style.
 
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The issue is we can't play 2 Carey type players... and that's what we get with Carey and Wright both in midfield together. Neither are defensive enough. We can play one, with one meat (dougal/bridcutt) and then you've got the mixed play of patino who can do both, that gives us balance.

Carey and Wright can't defend for shit, which isn't a bad thing, but it does mean when they play together you've got 2 passengers in transition/defence instead of 1.

I rate both of them but trying to play them together is a shit idea.

We should play one AM out of - Carey, Wright, Fiorini - maybe keshi when fit as well?

Holder should be one of - Stewart, Connolly Bridcutt, Patino or Dougal

The mixed should be - Dougal, Connolly or Patino

Obviously injuries and whatever always fuck us over... but that's what I think our midfield should be
 
It was so easy for WB mo ing forward - they had acres of space everyone they attacked - was definitely missing some sort of shake last night
 
last night was one of those games where we needed a bridcutt or Connolly to play with dougal, most of broms good work started quite deep in a gap between our pressing of the back line and the midfield defensive line. Dougal further forward might have cut out some of their moves at the start. Easy to say in hindsight and Bridcutt is injured, and if connolly played in midfield then who would play right back.

We sat back too deep and let brom play, and they were constantly on the front foot when we had possession in defence. I thought we looked fairly organised defensively, which for me was a first this season, Brom had a lot of possession but they were constantly forced back to their own half.
 
The game was lost at 7.01

No midfield as said above.

Taking Madine off was a difficult one. I could see he wanted more tracking back and harrying from Lav, but obvs. the set play against was the downside of that.

Pick Wright AND Carey then you won't win many games through open play.
 
We couldn't handle West Brom's 5 across midfield. We've already heard from Charlie about Appleton's preference for attacking the channels with darting runs from a no. 8. But last night we couldn't make that penetration.
I actually thought Theo's ability to squeeze through their midfield was starting to pay dividends but it was too late to gain any real traction.
 
Almost all our problems stem from our midfield, mainly because of injuries. I wouldn't even be able to pick out Stewart and Fiorini if I bumped into them it's so long since I've seen them play. I feared the worst when I saw the line up last night.
 
The one thing I did like was Appleton's willingness to change shape to accommodate more combative players at the start of the second half, even though it didn't work. I would have hooked Carey too, he has a long way to go to be a regular. As soon as Gaz was withdrawn we were done defensively. They were too strong for us at setpieces and so it played out.
 
Sooty59 said:
Hindsight is a great thing. I appreciate him sticking as close as possible to the winning side from Saturday, but he could have said I’ll play that side again on Saturday & gone for as many changes as he had player’s available to add some intensity. Who knows, but I felt they were there for the taking & had we gone 1 up their fans would have been on their backs. What I don’t understand is, when we were similarly flat against Hull we only had a couple of days rest before the Knobbers game & came out on top. Motivational issues perhaps 🤔
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I think motivation is a big issue. We’re performing against supposedly better opposition but go missing against the teams that are, as the league suggests, beatable. It’s been an issue all season. We’ve seen plenty of games where the players simply haven’t shown up for a half of football and a few games (like last night) where they haven’t shown up at all. The fans seemed to carry the team against PNE and also away at Burnley.
I’m not so sure Appleton has the full support or confidence from the dressing room. He’s the one fully responsible for ensuring they walk on to the pitch chomping at the bit and he’s the one responsible for them leaving 100% on the field.
I personally don’t think we’re seeing much of that. Even in some of the games we’ve won but certainly not in a lot of the games we’ve lost - and I find it inexcusable.
 
I have posted this before; we cannot play Carey and Wright together. They are lightweight, and each needs two stronger midfielders to carry them. Any casual visitor to last night’s game would have left wondering who the third team will be to make up the triumvirate to be relegated. Pool did not put in one shot on target all night. Albion weren’t much better, but they were at least trying to score. A thoroughly miserable evening, made worse by the late concession.
 
Wright, Carey and CJ total lightweights with occasional flashes of brilliance. Not good enough - neither is Kenny really.
Hopefully Patinio, Bridcutt and Fiorini will feature soon.
Prefer 442 - with a wide based midfielder who gets back - not CJ. Maybe Theo or Poveda with Jerry & Gaz up front.
 
Carey is a young player with little experience of the championship. He has real quality but like lots of young players he will have good games and bad games. He will learn from both. The problem we had is that we had two players of similar build and experience both having bad games. Hence they just steamed through our midfield. I'm amazed we are in this position re midfield. We desperately need another midfielder of experience and quality in January, who is not a crock like Bridcutt and Stewart. If it involves breaking the budget limits then so be it. Rather that than be relegated, as relegation would be far more harmful financially.
 
I think that Kenny is much underrated. He was all we had last night in front of the back line. We were overun. Agree about CJ who had one of his Nights-Off.
 
Seasider3610 said:
The backpassing from their half (possession in midfield) all the way to Maxwell was ridiculous.

Plus all the hoof balls to nowhere giving possession back to them 😳🙄

Critchley style.
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I was more annoyed about the midfielders constantly having the ball then not making a quick pass but hanging on and on before being dispossessed. Happened time and time again.

To be fair, when the ball was played it was invariably lost anyway ...
 
Carey and Wright had a horrible night. Totally bullied. Passes to them from the CBs they were hounded and lost it or had to shield the ball with their back invariably being forced back to Maxwell in a panic.

Missed Patino there who has the ability to turn a man with his back to them turning defence into attack.

On the flip side WBA's midfield was excellent.
 
When everyone's fit we actually have a decent midfield. I think we have really missed Keshi this season.
If we play a three a midfield of Patino, Keshi and Fiorini would be good.
 
Wizaard said:
I was more annoyed about the midfielders constantly having the ball then not making a quick pass but hanging on and on before being dispossessed. Happened time and time again.

To be fair, when the ball was played it was invariably lost anyway ...
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Yes and the 2 meter throwins to lose the ball every time as there is no way to control the ball other than booting it back to Connally who then loses possession 🙄
 
Seasider3610 said:
Yes and the 2 meter throwins to lose the ball every time as there is no way to control the ball other than booting it back to Connally who then loses possession 🙄
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Yes. Do we have a plan for throw ins? It would be quicker just to throw the ball straight to the opposition, as we don't seem to have any idea what we're going to do.
 
Wizaard said:
The whole team looked tired from the off. Midfield were passed through constantly.
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I did notice your 2nd half tantrum to be fair, I thought I was watching myself on this forum. I think you said "Pass to someone wearing ** Tangerine" but I wouldn't like to quote you..... 🤣
 
Wizaard said:
Yes. Do we have a plan for throw ins? It would be quicker just to throw the ball straight to the opposition, as we don't seem to have any idea what we're going to do.
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Yes it’s so predictable. Just have someone moving forward 10 to 15 meters and throw the ball to them and let them take their chances even at 50/50 anything is better than giving the ball away 😳
 
no-one was really moaning about the midfield these last three games where we'd look very good in midfield. Of course Patino makes a difference because he's very good technically and has good movement but you can say that to a certain extent about Carey and Wright and so before hand it looked the correct decision to bring the latter in. But we have to accept that sometimes some formations don't work and last night it was clear that we got overrun in midfield. But even so, right from the off we didn't seem up for it. And that wasn't just in midfield either.
 
Because we've no Right Backs arguably our best DM is having to play there so when we are over run in midfield where we could make a change and stick Connolly in the centre we can't.
 
Macseasider said:
Carey and Wright had a horrible night. Totally bullied. Passes to them from the CBs they were hounded and lost it or had to shield the ball with their back invariably being forced back to Maxwell in a panic.

Missed Patino there who has the ability to turn a man with his back to them turning defence into attack.

On the flip side WBA's midfield was excellent.
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We just made their midfield look good.
 
Well I went last night and it was a huge disappointment AN D without making any excuses these things struck me -

1. We have far too many players injured and it’s putting a huge strain on the few not

2. WBA we’re miles better than us and will be no where near the bottom - this we’re like the Forest away match last year

3. We appeared to be interested in nothing but a 0-0 point and if you had asked anyone at Ht or FT who was bottom of the league the answer was obvious

4. The winner was enevitable. And finally

5. The traffic gridlock 2 hours before kick off was a joke - I wouldn’t do a 320 mile trip in chilly conditions forthat ‘entertainment’

6. We’ll done to those that turned up but that will be ours and theirs lowest turn out this season !
 
Tangerine Trev said:
2. Our midfield was virtually non-existent. Kenny Dougall was there, but virtually alone . Wright and Carey seemed unable to tackle but also were poor at tracking back / getting back behind the ball. Come back soon Charlie Patino and Bridcutt please. No midfield = constant defending.
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Weirdly our midfield is both our strength and weakness in equal measure and I can only put that down to the way teams set up against us?
 
SeasideKurt said:
I actually thought Kenny was ** everywhere covering the lack of two other players playing. Carey looked done after 20 minutes. Poor night. Shit journey home. Evening to forget.

Ref your point one. I said the same thing before they scored. Madine must have cleared about 5 corners and even more free kicks.
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I wish he could win as many headers when attacking as he does when defending. 😁
 
I think Wright has quality, but I wonder if his attributes make him more suited to a role out wide. He looked quick and tricky at times against Hull, but he's too lightweight to play in the centre I think.

I think Bridcutt, Patino and Carey has the potential to be a really good midfield if all were fit.
 
If Luton are short at the back then we have to go on the attack tomorrow - that was Appleton's mistake against Hull and came with a heavy price.
 
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