17-10-2021, 10:19
(This post was last modified: 17-10-2021, 10:53 by HerefordBull.)
Following the last 2 points:
In general, I don't buy into the theory that because a couple of players are missing from a side then then its game over. All teams have to endure this but more importantly what it highlights is a lack of depth in our squad. For instance we have many, many ( too many perhaps) midfielders but only a couple ( well one at least) that can do that "John McGinn" role and unfortunately Kyle was missing yesterday. In my opinion, Gogic should have played as he is the next best thing. All the other midfielders are very samey and cannot do the role required. Many of these through the season play out of position and we don't see the best of them.
I disagree re Martin Boyle. Yesterday he was the only player who injected some pace into the attack (couple of great runs through the middle but inevitably was chopped down) and got people slightly excited although Murphy does well at ghosting past players. The problem is that teams know to double or even triple up on Boyle which is expected but what it should mean is, it creates space for others to use. He also has become a better defender and tracking back to help out the right back. Allans only plus is that occasionally he can pick a worldy pass but yesterday United did well at shutting the channels down so none of his vision came to anything. He cannot tackle well or hold the ball up and certainly doesn't track back a lot of the time.
The other big miss yesterday was McGinn. This again highlights our poor squad as Cadden had to play right back.....certainly not his preferred position now although did play there for Oxford United. Columbus preferred him playing further forward. This is again part of our problem in that we have players who "can do a job" in certain positions which may not be their best ones and areas they are not particularly specialist in. Watching Doig at times I wonder if he will ever become a "specialist" left back or would again be happier playing slightly more forward???
It became obvious yesterday that United were happy to let us have the ball in our own half ( possession stats bear this out) let us play our square passes for a while and then when we came forward to push the play to the flanks. very little came through the mid channels. Then all they did was to stop any crosses and when we did create some room the final ball was woeful or the crosses were easily dealt with by their central defenders.
As Jim said.......a bad day at the office.
GGTTH
In general, I don't buy into the theory that because a couple of players are missing from a side then then its game over. All teams have to endure this but more importantly what it highlights is a lack of depth in our squad. For instance we have many, many ( too many perhaps) midfielders but only a couple ( well one at least) that can do that "John McGinn" role and unfortunately Kyle was missing yesterday. In my opinion, Gogic should have played as he is the next best thing. All the other midfielders are very samey and cannot do the role required. Many of these through the season play out of position and we don't see the best of them.
I disagree re Martin Boyle. Yesterday he was the only player who injected some pace into the attack (couple of great runs through the middle but inevitably was chopped down) and got people slightly excited although Murphy does well at ghosting past players. The problem is that teams know to double or even triple up on Boyle which is expected but what it should mean is, it creates space for others to use. He also has become a better defender and tracking back to help out the right back. Allans only plus is that occasionally he can pick a worldy pass but yesterday United did well at shutting the channels down so none of his vision came to anything. He cannot tackle well or hold the ball up and certainly doesn't track back a lot of the time.
The other big miss yesterday was McGinn. This again highlights our poor squad as Cadden had to play right back.....certainly not his preferred position now although did play there for Oxford United. Columbus preferred him playing further forward. This is again part of our problem in that we have players who "can do a job" in certain positions which may not be their best ones and areas they are not particularly specialist in. Watching Doig at times I wonder if he will ever become a "specialist" left back or would again be happier playing slightly more forward???
It became obvious yesterday that United were happy to let us have the ball in our own half ( possession stats bear this out) let us play our square passes for a while and then when we came forward to push the play to the flanks. very little came through the mid channels. Then all they did was to stop any crosses and when we did create some room the final ball was woeful or the crosses were easily dealt with by their central defenders.
As Jim said.......a bad day at the office.
GGTTH
"FOREVER UNITED"