(01-10-2021, 23:25)Slick_Footwork Wrote: Absolute shambles of a performance...
Front 3 couldn't trap a bag of cement.
Overran in midfield.
Defence an absolute joke. Any hoof over the top and Stoke were clean through.
Goalkeeper constantly in no man's land. No man's land for the disallowed goal. No man's land for the goal.
It's hard to criticise the manager because he's doing a good job with what he's got at his disposal. But I would've liked to have seen him act tonight as we were riding our luck from about 20 minutes in. It felt inevitable that Stoke were going to score. But rather than us change to plan B, it seemed we just wanted to plod along and hope that Stoke would keep missing chances.
Stoke had 4 midfielders operating centrally vs our 2, so why not add another body in the middle? Sacrifice one of the front 3 or one of the back 3.
No idea why Townsend is still playing at centre half when Bryan and Clarke are now fit. Guy ducks out of headers. You also lose a threat at the other end from set plays. Such a basic cock up from him for the goal, but he was only ever any good going forward so it's beggars belief he's been playing centre half.
The only positive is that we can't possibly play that bad again... I hope.
Couldn't pick out a single player who played well. Johnstone made a couple decent saves, but even he made 2 or 3 errors. The rest didn't do anything good. Were either appalling (i.e. Robinson) or none existing (i.e. Grant)...
I just hope that doesn't become the norm now. Any teams watching that will release any hoof ball over the top worries us. Johnstone being asked to play sweeper keeper has cost us 2 goals now (QPR and tonight) as it's much easier to score from 20 yards when a keeper is stranded vs having to beat him with a long range shot if he's on his line. Maybe we need to add a plan B into the mix for these games.
It was bad, but you’re criticising a goalkeeper who saved a penalty, saved the free kick, saved two more point blank. We play the high line so he comes out of goal - at least he doesn’t panic and grab the ball like the Stoke keeper.
One loss in 11 isn’t bad. But we do need to find more control in games