Absolute bloody garbage. Its beginning to really grate that we were once again
by miles the best team with the ball and yet lose the chuffing game - why
have quick punchy attacks when you can spend an extra 20 passes going back and
forth and up and down the down the pitch? And if you are not going to bury
opponents as poor as Udds when you do have all the possession then you had
better have your defence sorted out - at the moment our defending is amateurish
- schoolboy - fuckin embarrassing...its mid-November and no matter which
players actually make up the back four the result is nearly always the same. So
you have to ask; is it the system? is it Staunton's fault?
The only player in the their XI that would make our first XI was their number
11 - who was everywhere in midfield.
The starting XI was: Angkergren, Richardson, Parker, Telfer, Michalik, Douglas,
Delph, Kilkenny, Robinson, Snodgrass, Becchio... This worried me for starters
because if Beckford is fit, and I don't believe in putting players on the bench
if they aren't fit, then there is no way that either Becchio or Snodgrass
should start ahead of him. Secondly, Robinson - more of which later - but
basically it was the same as when he started against Northampton - got 90
minutes - but he's a passenger for half of that. His flamboyant cameos are
great but his influence is not sustained over 90 minutes. There are times when
his presence makes extra work for his team mates.
We started well - Udds couldn't get a sniff of the ball - this lasted more or
less all the first half. A neat move down the left involving Parker and Becchio
resulted in a deep cross which Snodgrass bundled in at the far post - doing
well despite the attentions of two defenders. 3 minutes in looking good.
During the first half Michalik was commanding at the back; both full backs were
making good raids forward; Telfer looked a bit sleepy a couple of times and
nearly got caught. Caspar had almost nothing to do. Douglas was breaking
everything up and the creative midfield 3 were pinging the ball around. Becchio
was on his own up front again - Snodgrass was out wide on the right - so
whenever Becchio won the ball there was no-one within 20 yards of him. It was
annoying but in truth it didn't look like it would matter. The only thing Udds
brough to the game was persistance in closing down, marking tight and a lot of
"letting them know you're there" type of
challenging - Delph and Kilkenny were on the receiving end of a lot of this.
Their forwards did a lot of good off the ball running but their team mates
were never up to the job of finding them with their passes.
Without Beckford we have a problem. There is no speed in the team. Our midfield
looks up and expects to be able to play balls in behind the defence, and often
still play them even if no-one is there, but when they see that the ball isn't
on, then they stop, turn back and lay the ball off backwards or square and the
forward momentum is lost. This lack of movement ahead of them is blunting the
abilities of our midfield playmakers because they have no-one to go to and no
spaces ahead of them, created by the runs of the forwards. Snodgrass stands too
far wide to be influential - added to which his one and only trick is to check
back onto his left foot to cross or shoot, not that he had a bad game today, in
fact I would say he was one of our more effective players - he wasn't in the
game for long spells but when he was, stuff nearly happened for us.
The crowd settled into the same old "this lot are useless, we'll bury them"
kind of feeling, which seemed to transmit to the players. There is always the
good old "the way we're playing at the minute we'll give somebody a right
spanking any day now." Neither of these is true in this league unless you are
willing and able to work and make it happen. And we just don't seem to have
that ethic at the moment. I am as a big a fan of keeping the ball, not hoofing
it wildly, as anyone but there does come a point when possession for
possession's sake is fruitless - the aim of the game is to score more goals
than the opposition. In lots of ways, how you get there is irrelevant.
The second half began with us coming the tunnel from under the North Stand to
hear the away end cheering madly and to see their players charging down
that end. Obviously one all. This is when the competition changed and all our
pretty patterns counted for nothing. Huddersfield believed that with enough
endeavour they could get something out of the game. We spent mostly of the half
thinking that one all would be a bad result (which would have been correct). We
had a good few opportunities - Beckford (on as a sub with about 20 to go) had a
shot from the edge of the box tipped around the post; Becchio hit the bar with
a header from a Richardson cross; Snodgrass went close...all to nothing. Into
injury time and Telfer gives the ball to Cadamateri on the half way line -
trying to play a cute ball rather than a long one. Cadamateri does him for
pace down to the box, knocks a cross in and one of theirs finishes it with
seconds left on the clock -
their boys go ape...why not?
Who made Snodgrass our dead ball "expert" - he took nearly all the corners,
which either flew too long, or more often did not get past the front man - to
be fair one or two of these were down to Robinson - and most of the free kicks
around the box.
With 15 minutes to go Macca took off Delph and Douglas (to go alongside the
earlier replacement of Kilkenny) and suddenly of our starting midfield only the
fitfully involved Robinson remained. This could well be where we lost that last
goal - both Douglas and Delph are mobile enough to track back and
challenge...this was also the point when we started thumping long balls.
We're getting a few hard lessons at the moment. But such is the quality of this
league that we are by no means out of it - and anyone who starts bleating
"that's it, we've blown it" simply can't do Maths. Right now I'll take a defeat
in the cup replay if it means that we concentrate on, and get out of, this
league. That has to be the priority nothing else comes close.
(as a caveat I should point out that I wasn't back from the bar when they
scored their goal straight after half time, so I've no idea what happened,
except the blokes around me said it was the same old story of piss poor
defending.)
ANKERGREN - at least two saves that stopped certain goals - some flapping at
crosses
RICHARDSON - one of his better games - a lot of talking; a lot of driving
people forward - I worry though that our main route to goal is his cross for
Becchio's head...
PARKER - a composed game, good forward play, couple of runs into the box that
nearly brought goals - probably our MOTM
TELFER - seemed really off the pace or complacent or has someone sussed that if
they harry him he's not half the player we thought he was - a definite
liability at times - composed at others
MICHALIK - a battling, involved performance - good tackling and interceptions -
getting better
(the whole back four thing needs addressing and sharpish, because they are
costing us points - as the hero worship of Gregan at Oldham shows, doing well
in defence in this league isn't that hard - do the simple things; do them
properly and concentrate for the full 90 minutes - at the moment we have a big
problem here and I think it starts on the training ground)
DOUGLAS - again an important contribution doing the things he does - could not
see the point in taking him off
DELPH - more subdued - muscled out at times
KILKENNY - was our main playmaker in the first half - lots of the simple stuff
went through him - he linked play - seemed surprised to be taken off so early
(again!)
ROBINSON - for me, he doesn't do it for 90 minutes - he's flash, he's got a
great shot and cross on him and good awareness in and around the box - but he
is hopelessly one paced, apparently not fit to track back all game, and this
leaves huge demands on the left back and/or co-midfielders - I think Macca had
it right a few weeks ago - put him on the bench and bring him on with 25-30
minutes left becauase he doesn't have the heart or the legs for the whole game
BECCHIO - battling, OK...what else? Control, ability on the ground, shooting,
potential to go by people...not really. Looked desperate when crashing to the
deck for the second or third time in the second half...
SNODGRASS - decent goal - decent game - but nowhere near Becchio for most of
the game and certainly nowhere near as good as Beckford
subs
Beckford - given 20 minutes and not many touches - almost scored
Prutton - put some fight in there - but no class
Howson - couple of decent touches but these were mainly defensive
----------------
crowd - 32, 000 and quiet
-----------------
ref - pretty poor
------------
Macca - needs to start making tough decisions - the team that was winning had
Beckford on from the start (and Hughes...?) not Robinson and Snodgrass...
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is Michel Kitabdjian dead yet?
