The buck stops with the boss

Beachcomber

Beachcomber

Well-known member
Forum members have rightly been saying for weeks how we need to bolster our centre of defence. It's obviously the primary weakness in the team and the problem should have been redressed weeks ago. We simply cannot defend a corner or the odd decent cross. Ekpiteta is still learning though he'll come good. However we need TWO CBs before the window closes! (Nottingham and Thorniley should be moved on as quickly as possible incoming replacements.) Another striker is also required!

As for today's substitutions, Critchley could have brought on Madine instead of another midfielder and swapped Kemp for a tiring Ward (as others too have observed) - but he didn't. While there is definitely quality in the squad, all the good football will consistently come to nothing unless we can (a) stop gifting the opposition goals, & (b) pose a genuine threat in the final third.
 
Beachcomber said:
Forum members have rightly been saying for weeks how we need to bolster our centre of defence. It's obviously the primary weakness in the team and the problem should have been redressed weeks ago. We simply cannot defend a corner or the odd decent cross. Ekpiteta is still learning though he'll come good. However we need TWO CBs before the window closes! (Nottingham and Thorniley should be moved on as quickly as possible incoming replacements.) Another striker is also required!

As for today's substitutions, Critchley could have brought on Madine instead of another midfielder and swapped Kemp for a tiring Ward (as others too have observed) - but he didn't. While there is definitely quality in the squad, all the good football will consistently come to nothing unless we can (a) stop gifting the opposition goals, & (b) pose a genuine threat in the final third.
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I agree with your bit on substitutions to the word , and I believe that because Critchley is one of the best qualified coaches in Europe, he will learn from his mistakes, and so will his team !
 
It does stop with the boss - but you can’t legislate for a catastrophic error from one of your ‘older heads’ in the last 10 minutes of the game like that.
 
Beachcomber said:
While there is definitely quality in the squad, all the good football will consistently come to nothing unless we can (a) stop gifting the opposition goals, & (b) pose a genuine threat in the final third.
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I think the attack looks ok. Lubala is the weak link but Yates could have had a couple today and Hamilton was always a danger.
We've chopped and changed the defence and attack but the midfield is unchanged in all four games and, in three of them, has run out of steam after about 70 minutes. Then the passes start going amiss, Robson starts fouling and Williams eventually comes on to do nothing in particular.

In a couple of weeks I imagine the defence will look very different to that which started against Plymouth.
Gabriel, Ekpiteta, Heneghan or similar, Garbutt
That leaves Turton, Husband, Mitchell and one from Thorniley or Nottingham (I can't believe both will stay) as backup. After today I suspect Mitchell may play further forward anyway.

We have decent options over the pitch but Critchley seems not to want to change the midfield at the moment and once we start to lose that battle the games seem to slip away.
 
The defence is so far a mystery as to why no remedy has been sought for?

I think the general doctrine for this season was one of we’ll just score one more than you, which in League One isn’t the worst idea as the quality of defender you’re going to attract isn’t going to keep many clean sheets.

With that in mind the biggest thing that boggles me is what’s going on with the mid and front three at the minute.

Again a flat line middle three offers us nothing, today was even a slight improvement on the last few games, with Ward Anderson and Robson together for periods of the first half. However no one seems to know their jobs in the middle. Keshi and Ward seemingly have free roles and just wander around the pitch.

The front three again played in different post codes from one another for most of the game. No link up play meant we were nullified again going forward. Both goals were gifted to us again by league one defending.

Yates can’t operate in this system, throwing Sarkic up front on his god seems nonsensical and how Lubala continues to get a start is beyond me.
 
The recruitment team are...
Neil Critchley
and you could well be correct....
That could be the problem.....
 
seasidepaddle said:
It does stop with the boss - but you can’t legislate for a catastrophic error from one of your ‘older heads’ in the last 10 minutes of the game like that.
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Agreed. All of our conceded goals have been from stupid errors. Not sure how much of those can be placed on NC.
 
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