Costero Poderoso
Well-known member
Having slept on last night’s performance and MM’s interview, thought I’d stick my penneth’s worth in.
First off we were awful, in most cases you could head down to common edge road on any random sunday and see better played football than what was on offer in the first half, from both teams. Second half was better only in so much as it was a game of attrition. However I’ll give Maccarthy some credit for keeping three up front after Madine was sent off.
No way was it a red card. There had been a fair amount of niggle between the two players all through the game, and was probably worth a booking, there was seemingly very little contact. But the ref and the liners were making bizarre decisions again all night. As much as I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist there does seem to be a one rule for the opposition and one rule for us. We’ve had players kicked all over the pitch some games and had no protection from the officials yet pool players are constantly picked, careys violent conduct sending off is one that springs to mind.
Anyway MM’s statement that he put his 4 most experienced defenders in championship football rather than play Lyons tells me something about MM that isn’t very comforting. Granted its early days but he seems to have no clue about the players he is picking and what he wants them to do.
I’m not convinced by Nelson, he doesn’t seem to attack high balls in the way that lets say Jordan Thorniley does, and the number of miskicks when he’s clearing is catastrophic he has nearly put the ball into his own goal at least 5 times mostly when not even under pressure. Second half he was better but still don’t know why he was picked over Thorniley other than he is taller.
Wasn’t sure about ze german either but second half last night he did some decent work when outgunned.
I can think of just three times last night when we even tried to play out from the back. Once to Connolly and twice to Lyons, one of which was nearly intercepted because Lyons wasn’t paying attention, or simply is expecting the ball to high and long. That fact alone tells me we are playing hoofball under instruction from MM.
Every single time we got the ball down on the ground we looked like we could take Huddersfield. Leaving out Poveda was criminal, the Huddersfield defence and keeper were not capable of dealing with anything played on the ground, and couldn’t deal with anyone running at them. The nascent connectivity that was building between Jerry and Poveda in other games would I think have been perfect against a defence and keeper that was suspect defensively and very suspect in possession.
Having Dougal back in the midfield was a bonus, CJ did what CJ does which is get crosses in and we should have made more of a couple of them. Maxi kept us in the game a couple of times, really don’t get the criticism. Like almost every player he has gone backwards under Appleton in that his starting position isn’t quite as good as good as it used to be, but hes a decent keeper. And there is very little between him and Grimshaw.
Hubby and Connolly just got on with what they do. Jerry, its all been said. If he gets chances he will score. Carey was outmuscled where he was playing but he was getting into some decent positions. Rogers came on had a couple of dribbles and a few interceptions but did very little until his contribution for the goal. Hes another player who often cant do the simple thing, but sublime skill for the bowler goal.
Here’s where I’ll put my tin hat on; leaving Bowler out was the right decision. I think bowler is a player you bring on for the last 20-25 minutes when the game is being stretched out and he gets a bit of space to do his thing. Truly, he had a couple of runs which ended in a couple of bad passes to nowhere, one run that culminated in a shot and another which culminated in the goal by Lyons, which was very well taken but fortuitous, the original cross by bowler didn’t pass the first defender, and there were options.
Glad he got the goal though because it will do his confidence a world of good.
Conclusion: MM has some very good players at his disposable who can actually play football, we don’t need to be hoofing it from one end of the pitch to the other trying to knock seagulls out of the sky. Please mick, watch some videos of our performances this year and maybe even last year, understand what the players CAN do, and please stop with the hoofball, if we keep playing that we are going to go down.
First off we were awful, in most cases you could head down to common edge road on any random sunday and see better played football than what was on offer in the first half, from both teams. Second half was better only in so much as it was a game of attrition. However I’ll give Maccarthy some credit for keeping three up front after Madine was sent off.
No way was it a red card. There had been a fair amount of niggle between the two players all through the game, and was probably worth a booking, there was seemingly very little contact. But the ref and the liners were making bizarre decisions again all night. As much as I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist there does seem to be a one rule for the opposition and one rule for us. We’ve had players kicked all over the pitch some games and had no protection from the officials yet pool players are constantly picked, careys violent conduct sending off is one that springs to mind.
Anyway MM’s statement that he put his 4 most experienced defenders in championship football rather than play Lyons tells me something about MM that isn’t very comforting. Granted its early days but he seems to have no clue about the players he is picking and what he wants them to do.
I’m not convinced by Nelson, he doesn’t seem to attack high balls in the way that lets say Jordan Thorniley does, and the number of miskicks when he’s clearing is catastrophic he has nearly put the ball into his own goal at least 5 times mostly when not even under pressure. Second half he was better but still don’t know why he was picked over Thorniley other than he is taller.
Wasn’t sure about ze german either but second half last night he did some decent work when outgunned.
I can think of just three times last night when we even tried to play out from the back. Once to Connolly and twice to Lyons, one of which was nearly intercepted because Lyons wasn’t paying attention, or simply is expecting the ball to high and long. That fact alone tells me we are playing hoofball under instruction from MM.
Every single time we got the ball down on the ground we looked like we could take Huddersfield. Leaving out Poveda was criminal, the Huddersfield defence and keeper were not capable of dealing with anything played on the ground, and couldn’t deal with anyone running at them. The nascent connectivity that was building between Jerry and Poveda in other games would I think have been perfect against a defence and keeper that was suspect defensively and very suspect in possession.
Having Dougal back in the midfield was a bonus, CJ did what CJ does which is get crosses in and we should have made more of a couple of them. Maxi kept us in the game a couple of times, really don’t get the criticism. Like almost every player he has gone backwards under Appleton in that his starting position isn’t quite as good as good as it used to be, but hes a decent keeper. And there is very little between him and Grimshaw.
Hubby and Connolly just got on with what they do. Jerry, its all been said. If he gets chances he will score. Carey was outmuscled where he was playing but he was getting into some decent positions. Rogers came on had a couple of dribbles and a few interceptions but did very little until his contribution for the goal. Hes another player who often cant do the simple thing, but sublime skill for the bowler goal.
Here’s where I’ll put my tin hat on; leaving Bowler out was the right decision. I think bowler is a player you bring on for the last 20-25 minutes when the game is being stretched out and he gets a bit of space to do his thing. Truly, he had a couple of runs which ended in a couple of bad passes to nowhere, one run that culminated in a shot and another which culminated in the goal by Lyons, which was very well taken but fortuitous, the original cross by bowler didn’t pass the first defender, and there were options.
Glad he got the goal though because it will do his confidence a world of good.
Conclusion: MM has some very good players at his disposable who can actually play football, we don’t need to be hoofing it from one end of the pitch to the other trying to knock seagulls out of the sky. Please mick, watch some videos of our performances this year and maybe even last year, understand what the players CAN do, and please stop with the hoofball, if we keep playing that we are going to go down.
good grief