05-03-2015, 12:58
Same Old Story
It seems that every match report starts with saying that we started sluggishly. Even our two recent victories were won in the second half after poor first halves. More of this later.
Wednesday played their usual 442 but although Blackburn also played 442, Spurr & Henley effectively played as wing backs which meant they outnumbered us in midfield and picked up most of the second balls.
Keane had an early half chance but hit it straight at the keeper.
We seemed unprepared for the fact that Spurr hurls in a decent long throw so effectively every throw in within 30 yards of our goal was as good as a corner. In fact it was better than a corner because of the angle of trajectory. Inevitably they scored from a long throw. Brown flicked it on and Rhodes timed his run perfectly to bundle the ball past Westwood.
This was sloppy in the extreme. After this, Nuhui came back for throw ins to prevent this happening but why did we not do this from the start? It was as though we didn't know that Spurr did long throws. By the time we reacted, we were already chasing the game. Even in the second half, Dielna bust a gut to prevent a corner to give them a throw in.
We were soon 2-0 down with a well worked move down their right with Henley getting in a shot which Westwood probably should have saved.
Blackburn had a number of efforts blocked & Marshall hit the bar as we floundered in midfield & defence.
Semedo went off with a foot injury & was replaced by Maguire. Helan replaced Zayatte at half time.
None of our midfield four had any influence in the first half but in the second half we started to pick up with Hutchinson taking up intelligent positions, McGugan probing & Maghoma making runs at their defence. A goal began to look likely and the pressure was cranked up with three shots on target in 30 seconds, the third of which was forced home by Maguire.
It looked like we could get something out of the game. Then Maghoma was replaced by May. A strange substitution because Maghoma had just started looking dangerous and with both full backs on yellow cards, his trickery could have been useful.
After that the game faded away from us.
Some may use the officials as an excuse. There were some strange decisions but in truth the key decisions didn't hurt us. May appeared to have been pushed late on but Blackburn had a clear penalty turned down early in the second half. I also think that Maguire's blatant dives count against us in other decisions.
We lost because we were ill prepared, disorganised, unprofessional & sloppy.
Again, an opposition manager out thought us by taking advantage of our rigid 442. A team that hadn't won in ten away matches and had only scored once in their last four pinched two easy goals & three easy points.
Westwood - 5 - stopped two one on ones but sloppy for both goals
Palmer - 6 - best of poor back four
Lees - 5 - good on the ball but couldn't handle Brown
Zayatte - 5 - stopped for opening goal
Dielna - 4 - the new Llera? terrible distribution
Hutchinson - 6 - anonymous first half but intelligent second half
Semedo - 5 - chasing shadows
McGugan - 6 - good second half, brilliant skill to set up goal
Maghoma - 5 - poor first half, grew into game but substituted just as he was getting going
Keane - 5 - hardly in game
Nuhui - 5 - poor touches
...................................................
Maguire - 5 - worked hard, scored but seemed to play for himself rather than team
Helan - 5 - defensively poor, little spark going forward
May - 5 - spell on bench seems to have knocked his confidence
I remember reading in Alex Ferguson's autobiography that he said, they most important hour of the week for him was the hour before kick off. He had 30 minutes to prepared his final message before the teams went out and had to deliver it in a way that sent out his players firing from minute one.
Throughout the entire season, we haven't fired from minute one. We have regularly sleepwalked through the first half so I wonder if SG is struggling to fire up his troops with his pre match battle cry. Maybe the fact that he runs the pre match warm up means that he doesn't have that thinking time to prepare properly for his battle cry. Maybe he is just not motivational enough?
Regularly, we play better second half after an insipid first half so clearly he can motivate. I suspect that he is more comfortable coaching (that is why he does the pre match warm up himself) than managing. I can only recall once in the last couple of seasons seeing an opposition manager being involved in the warm up.
We have nothing to play for now this season. Pride, maybe but I would rather use the remaining games to test our ability in different formations.
DC made all the supportive noises in his press conference but he will have seen that we are struggling against mediocre sides & if we are to achieve his ambition of PL football by 2017 then we have to make changes to our management structure & employ a better coaching team.
It seems that every match report starts with saying that we started sluggishly. Even our two recent victories were won in the second half after poor first halves. More of this later.
Wednesday played their usual 442 but although Blackburn also played 442, Spurr & Henley effectively played as wing backs which meant they outnumbered us in midfield and picked up most of the second balls.
Keane had an early half chance but hit it straight at the keeper.
We seemed unprepared for the fact that Spurr hurls in a decent long throw so effectively every throw in within 30 yards of our goal was as good as a corner. In fact it was better than a corner because of the angle of trajectory. Inevitably they scored from a long throw. Brown flicked it on and Rhodes timed his run perfectly to bundle the ball past Westwood.
This was sloppy in the extreme. After this, Nuhui came back for throw ins to prevent this happening but why did we not do this from the start? It was as though we didn't know that Spurr did long throws. By the time we reacted, we were already chasing the game. Even in the second half, Dielna bust a gut to prevent a corner to give them a throw in.
We were soon 2-0 down with a well worked move down their right with Henley getting in a shot which Westwood probably should have saved.
Blackburn had a number of efforts blocked & Marshall hit the bar as we floundered in midfield & defence.
Semedo went off with a foot injury & was replaced by Maguire. Helan replaced Zayatte at half time.
None of our midfield four had any influence in the first half but in the second half we started to pick up with Hutchinson taking up intelligent positions, McGugan probing & Maghoma making runs at their defence. A goal began to look likely and the pressure was cranked up with three shots on target in 30 seconds, the third of which was forced home by Maguire.
It looked like we could get something out of the game. Then Maghoma was replaced by May. A strange substitution because Maghoma had just started looking dangerous and with both full backs on yellow cards, his trickery could have been useful.
After that the game faded away from us.
Some may use the officials as an excuse. There were some strange decisions but in truth the key decisions didn't hurt us. May appeared to have been pushed late on but Blackburn had a clear penalty turned down early in the second half. I also think that Maguire's blatant dives count against us in other decisions.
We lost because we were ill prepared, disorganised, unprofessional & sloppy.
Again, an opposition manager out thought us by taking advantage of our rigid 442. A team that hadn't won in ten away matches and had only scored once in their last four pinched two easy goals & three easy points.
Westwood - 5 - stopped two one on ones but sloppy for both goals
Palmer - 6 - best of poor back four
Lees - 5 - good on the ball but couldn't handle Brown
Zayatte - 5 - stopped for opening goal
Dielna - 4 - the new Llera? terrible distribution
Hutchinson - 6 - anonymous first half but intelligent second half
Semedo - 5 - chasing shadows
McGugan - 6 - good second half, brilliant skill to set up goal
Maghoma - 5 - poor first half, grew into game but substituted just as he was getting going
Keane - 5 - hardly in game
Nuhui - 5 - poor touches
...................................................
Maguire - 5 - worked hard, scored but seemed to play for himself rather than team
Helan - 5 - defensively poor, little spark going forward
May - 5 - spell on bench seems to have knocked his confidence
I remember reading in Alex Ferguson's autobiography that he said, they most important hour of the week for him was the hour before kick off. He had 30 minutes to prepared his final message before the teams went out and had to deliver it in a way that sent out his players firing from minute one.
Throughout the entire season, we haven't fired from minute one. We have regularly sleepwalked through the first half so I wonder if SG is struggling to fire up his troops with his pre match battle cry. Maybe the fact that he runs the pre match warm up means that he doesn't have that thinking time to prepare properly for his battle cry. Maybe he is just not motivational enough?
Regularly, we play better second half after an insipid first half so clearly he can motivate. I suspect that he is more comfortable coaching (that is why he does the pre match warm up himself) than managing. I can only recall once in the last couple of seasons seeing an opposition manager being involved in the warm up.
We have nothing to play for now this season. Pride, maybe but I would rather use the remaining games to test our ability in different formations.
DC made all the supportive noises in his press conference but he will have seen that we are struggling against mediocre sides & if we are to achieve his ambition of PL football by 2017 then we have to make changes to our management structure & employ a better coaching team.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.