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Could there be a case of players being loaned out to a lower division are never going to be able to attain the standards required by the team in the higher division because they are playing amongst players of a lesser standard? I am belittling the standard of teams in division below us or is it a common mistake made similar to ours against Wycombe in the cup last season? What about players who are late developers because they thought they were good enough already and didn't work hard enough to carry on progressing further?
Trying to get them all in the same starting eleven seem to be a problen and then the expectation of Obefemi to be in the team Martin just couldn't see or stick with the team that had the best results and adjust it accordingly even when injures to player force him to pick it He revert to methods that may of got us goals because of the quality up top but the defensive set up was woefully, Williams went from being defensive solid but unable to score to the opposite, Sheehan managed it better but again this season couldn't get his choices right not helped in the end because of missing pivotal players to find a settled or winning formations. Have we got lucky the last couple of games or have we made our own luck.
When Cooper was breaking through we had Piroe, Paterson and Ntcham, all about getting the right players on the pitch to make the most of their skills, wasn't it the end of last season Cooper was brought on late to see games out and didn't he have a small stint in the Wales team? He had gained a certain amount of championship experience so reached a level could he step up to a higher I think most of us would think not. I posted the Jason Scotland goal commenting on the players assisting it but not mentioning them by name they included Tate who took the ball down nicely on his chest sending the approaching player the wrong way while playing left back, he then passed it to Gower who did well to picked out Scotland's feet. Both Tate and Gower had parts to play at times in the team, has Ollie Cooper had his or had he found his level much like Tate and Gower had to make way for others?
But he didn't let wingers run at him, he got a challenge in first and even as the winger tried to go past him got his body in-between the winger and the ball and the winger couldn't push him off the ball, Parker was able to do the same, Ronald left himself or us exposedby chasing the ball down which if we marked as a team wouldn't be a problem as runners off the wingers should be picked up quickly, hard to do as against WBA as they picked the pace up but eventually with tighter marking the player on the ball runs out of options, takes too long on the ball and gets caught in possession, which resulted in our goal how many times have we had players on the ball run out of options and either took the wrong option or got caught on the ball in the middle of the park leaving us vulnerable to stupid throw away goals. Not saying Ronald or Parker are the answer to the fullback problem and against good wingers fullbacks need help, it was noticeable that Inoussa didn't track back quick enough, against Stoke I think, to help close their winger who cut back and whipped a cross in which Burgess deflected in. For me Key doesn't get the ball forward enough to Ronald be it to feet, down the channels or over the top in behind the opposition resulting in Ronald now being pretty inert when Key is playing the understand between them is poor and has often lead to the ball being given away cheaply due to misunderstanding. Key in attempt to keep the ball in play gets caught in possession in the wrong areas of the pitch while being put under pressure, we saw Darling similarly get caught but after learning to take the easy option was dropped by Martin for giving throw ins away, throw ins I may add, that let us regroup in our defensive positions. Key saved a goal against WBA tracking back well to intercept the crossfield ball deep in our penalty box wasn't the best clearance but under pressure got the ball out of a dangerous situation. Key, and Ronald are good players and from what little we have seen of Parker so is he. Confidence and the right team support and set up needed to get them playing to the best of their abilities. Sometimes players need to learn with the help of good coaching.
Some have been suggesting dropping Franco, don't think it is a case of dropping players more about picking the right team for the team we are playing against, where we are playing home or away and how teams are going to play against us to contain and eventually try and out do us. The substitutions have become a bigger part of the game given the numbers involved, they have always been one of the pivotal moments in games as managers try to exploit weaknesses. Against WBA it was very nip and tuck between the two teams not a lot of chances initially but WBA started to get on top as the changes made by them took effect, Matos made his changes which initially didn't seem to stem the tide of pressure and Fulton seemed to drop into a deeper position, old habit? Then again Ronald got the challenge in, high up the pitch and Fulton was in position to take advantage of their mistake and our hard work. We then regrouped to make ourselves solid in defence maintained outlets up top, job done, which some managers have been unable to achieve.
Will opposition managers be able to work Matos's team selection and style of play out I'm sure they will get the upperhand but hopefully not too often. The injury problems may cause us problems but maybe the percieved strength in depth we thought we had at the start of the season may just give us the edge but having experienced players like Fulton helps to bring young players on and has helped after the loss of other experienced players.
A word of praise for the like of Vipotnik, and Tymon elements of their games have improved under Matos and to be fair they did under Sheehan(and not only Sheehan other mangers before him)but the way they were being asked to play didn't, the same could be said of Fulton, Key and Ronald any confidence that they had seemed to have evaporated but they are showing small signs of recovery and hopefully our own youngersters can step up to take their chances when those chances are given.
Downes had to do a lot of covering for Grimes by the end of his time here, he would win the ball after backtracking because we know Grimes wasn't fast enough to do the covering work against quick players but then Grimes would come alongside him and take the ball off him a yard away, he did the same to Cabango coming all the way back only to pass it two yards back to Cabango while we were in need of forward play in dying seconds of games we were losing. We know Grimes is a good player but he has his weaknesses the problem was always about finding the right midfield players around him. Didn't someone mention in previous threads that Fulton was a more forward thinking midfielder at the start of his career, maybe not a out and out ball player but has an instinctive eye for a goal, providing he doesn't have to do more than react to the situation, we haven't seen him in further forward positions for quite some time.
Ronald did a good job at fullback when Key wasn't available cannot remember against who but he stopped the winger from getting time on the ball, getting a foot in and attacked the ball in the air, he did chase the ball on one occasion closing the ball down but Cabango was slow to react to close the man recieving the ball fouling him on the edge of the box near the dead ball line and they scored from the free kick I tjink for the winning goal, but the type of pressing Ronald did as a fullback seems to be what Matos is looking for and he would expect everyone to close down any player around them, we gained a goal against WBA from Ronald challenge.
I like him obviously young so pressure can get to him but I'm sure given game time he would gain more confidence and experience. Then again I liked Peart-Harris and what he eventually gave us before his injury.
No mention of Kalan Casey in report? If both Ronald and Key unavailable then I would go for 5 at the back Tymon, Burgess, Cabango Casey and Parker, given Parker has featured previously at fullback and as a winger playing wingback especially if Galbraith is struggling. Think you can rotate any number else where in the midfield. If Benson is ready to contribute then we shall see how formations personnel may be changed to suit.
A ploy used by so many managers in the past of changing wingers on the 60-70 min mark because wing play can be very demanding because of the number of sprints needed to beat defenders which takes more toll especially from a standing start, we have seen Parker cause fullbacks problems and we know he is capable as a defender so could cover Galbraith runs. We bought on Eom but didn't get the ball to him, did think a number of our clearances from defence became rush and panicked just handed possession back to WBA.
Wasn't bringing Fulton on late in the game a tactic used by Sheehan often in a defensive role to see out games, it does appear that Matos knows that we have to keep an attacking threat while we are defending as teams press forward spaces appear in behind and we have to commit a good number of players forward BUT ensure the defence still remains strong.
A lot of people complained about Dyers crossing abilities, we have to remember a full backs job is to stop wingers from having the ball and be able to stop wingers crossing the ball into dangerous areas of the pitch. That is harder to do on a booking, don't think we exploit that fact and revert back to getting balls down to our wingers feet enough.
What I don't really get is the fact that Ronald is causing defenders problems when we get the ball quickly to his feet and then support him, he was causing Bidwell problems and today similarly the fullback got a booking but then we stopped getting balls to feet, we played a number over the top but it seems as if we couldn't mix it up. Galbraith came on and gets the ball moving nicely bit it seemed as if in that second half we didn't want to play to the wingers feet, Eom didn't see a lot of the ball when he came on, yes WBA changed tactics but I didn't see the point of veering away from using ball to feet especially when fullbacks with booking as still on the pitch. A win is a win but we do seem to making it harder for ourselves.
How many times did the ref let WBA gain ground from throw in even after the ref telling them to go back and they still didn't take the throw in from the right place instead of using the point of exit of the ball on the touch line as where to release their throw they used it as the starting point for their run up to the throw in yet was so quick to penalise Vigouroux time wasting.
Nice to see we responded well after WBA upped the tempo we started getting our foot in the tight areas of the pitch and we made our own luck. Vigouroux MOM for me.
There were some really well executed goals for us last season, see attached if we can recreate these and cut out the silly goals we have gifted teams since Coopers tenure then I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. Surprising how many of the goals from last season were finished or create by players who are considered below par. The obvious exception would be Vipotnik. All about getting back some of the confidence that has been knocked out of us.
Not too sure of Yalcouyé bit of a loose cannon, and runs out of steam and think we have our own players in his position so why persist with him rather than our own. Fulton does a job always has, the team looked strong against Oxford may not have the best players on the pitch initially but we made chances and limited Oxford to only a handful. Wouldn't want to see team selection become too predictable and think Widell will start although after seeing him bust a gut at speed relatively late in the game,to get back to cover from the edge of their box to the edge of ours to help the defences out is hard work and recovery time is needed, so would happy to start with him but see Yalcouyé come on early in the second half.
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