Just Back

I agreed with Hurst on the whole, we created plenty of chances, had Podge not blazed over, or Bogle not fallen over, we'd all be saying that Hurst was a tactical genius for freshening it up.

If you are going to win the league you need better than Makreth. That said..fair few others not performing. Already been said re McKeown, Robertson etc. But the midfield central still remains the problem, has been all along the Hurst reign. Today there was nothing..physically weak, lack of energy, lack of thought, desire in the middle. Clay was dropped after starting season well but today he didnt produce anything. Robinson has been thrown in, not match fit when brought in - not his fault, Hurst says only bring players in if feel can improve the side - but he surely has got that signing wrong. Furthermore unnecessarily taken any confidence Clay had away. The message sent re dropping players, ie Pearson , has backfired imho.

This week they need to get together collectively, manager included, thrash out any issues/clashes/blame and hold hands up, leave it there and start again. Players can be good enough pending right selection, need a couple of bodies in to improve but the squad should have the quality in to compete. Unfortunately they have now put themselves in a position in which they cant afford another bad month. More to the point - the club cant afford it. All the positivity has gone, already 800 off home gate, and supporters dissilusioned.  

Quoted from whitevanman

Mackreth shouldn't be here in my opinion. He arrived last season with such a fanfare but hasn't really delivered. Had no end product last season and none this, plays the ball back too many times for my liking. As for Marshall, I didn't shed a tear when he left the first time, but I shed a tear when he came back this season. Loses the ball too many times and too chicken sh*t to get stuck in

Negative first post. This simply won't do.  

Welcome.

Afraid it's an old cliche - good sides know how to win and make it happen even when things not going your way and don't want to say it but Town can't do that under Hurst

Quoted from Maringer

Yep, completely in agreement with this.

The fact that Hurst (and Scott) have never gone for a big, strong athletic midfielder has always baffled me. Niven was probably the most athletic one we've had but he wasn't much of a ball player and I think the fact that Disley is our quickest and most mobile midfielder (even at his age!) is very telling. Today, Macclesfield had the experience of Whitaker with a couple of younger runners alongside him doing the legwork and they put our two to shame in the second half.

Stick somebody a bit like Pond alongside Disley and we'd be in a much stronger position.

We seemed to miss Niven when he wasn't in the side if I remember correctly. Not a good player but seemed to make a difference by breaking up opposition play. Or was that someone else around that time?

Quoted from KingstonMariner

We seemed to miss Niven when he wasn't in the side if I remember correctly. Not a good player but seemed to make a difference by breaking up opposition play. Or was that someone else around that time?

It was Niven. If we could merge Niven with Clay and give that player some legs then we'd have what we need.

Not saying Niven was underrated because he was a bit excrement but we did miss him when he didn't play.

Stacy Coldicott used to get slated but we missed him when he didn't play.

Other notable midfielders considered poor yet were missed include James Hunt and Manny Panther.

Mackreth was fine today. Did better going forward in the first half than the second but then that was true for everyone. Hardly a Man of the Match performance but then I struggle to think who could have been awarded it, such was the performance as a whole.

Anyway, on reflection, I think one of the most important things we are missing is a bit of footballing intelligence throughout the team. We've got lots of honest, hard-working players but you wouldn't really say that any of them are 'clever' with the ball at feet and the quality of our passing tends to be pretty average at best.

At the back, neither Pearson or Toto (or Gowling, for that matter) have the best distribution in the world, Robertson looks out of sorts at the moment and East struggled a little on the left when he played there. Behind them, we've got McKeown who is suffering a bit of a crisis in confidence and his kicking has never been the best in any case. Despite this, we persist in attempting to play the ball across the back and, as Macclesfield showed today, if you are willing to chase us down, we'll invariably end up moving the ball backwards, ultimately leaving the keeper to clear it upfield (though 30 yards further back than necessary). Way, way too often today, the ball was unnecessarily played laterally across the back to teammates who were under more pressure. Passes for the sake of passing to prove they can 'play football'.

I think some of the reason for this was that (in the second half especially), the midfielders weren't showing for the ball nearly enough. Our best spell of play in the first half saw good interchange between the defence, midfield and forwards but this was in fits and starts as we rarely seem to be capable of keeping up a decent performance for a whole game. Even the two 4-1 victories we've seen this season saw us having good spells followed up by indifference.

I think we could get away with these weaknesses last season in part because we always had LJL running around like a lunatic and, in our best spell, Palmer was also providing a strong, physical presence up front to challenge for and often win the punts from our pressurised defenders. This season, in comparison, neither Bogle or Amond is any good in the air so we're getting very little joy from the long balls we end up playing much of the time. When Monkhouse plays, he adds a couple of things to the team with his aerial ability and quick and simple passing (which Hurst has alluded to) which helps out the forwards and midfielders to some degree, but it's not ideal as he's obviously lacking pace.

Ultimately, I think that we can tighten up the defensive side of the game simply by cutting out most of the errors we are making and worrying less about passing the ball across the back and instead getting it to the midfield more quickly or even putting it up the line into areas for our wingers to attack. Unfortunately, I'm far from convinced that our midfield is going to be good enough to play the link role well enough to get the ball to the feet of our strikers effectively. There is little doubt that Bogle and Amond have a lot of ability between them but we've got to get the ball to them in the right position for them to show it.

I think we still need a striker with a physical presence to give us another option up front and, personally, I'd be happy to see Robinson depart (he offers little different to Clay) and see us sign a more athletic and energetic midfielder to play alongside Disley. I realise it goes against what many have said so far this season, but I've come to the conclusion that Clay (and Brown) aren't likely to be good enough for what we need to mount a promotion challenge.

One thing is for certain, we've just got to get the defence sorted out. Turn defeats into draws and draws into wins and we'll soon be heading up the table but we're just too error-prone at the moment.

Some further thoughts:
The team that finished yesterday were not playing as well as the team that finished at Lincoln.

Changing the whole midfield was a big risk too far.  

We have no cover/fit cover for the keeper and the 2 miss-firing strikers. These 3 players were the main reason that we lost.  Hurst has tried to get new strikers in but they have gone elsewhere (the Rovers striker) or Hurst said that he won't settle on second-best.

Why not start yesterday with the 10 that finished Lincoln (plus 1) and see you they do? We have 3 subs to use.   We might be defending a lead at HT instead of being behind.

Too many changes between games has left the players unsettled. The changed are not producing wins.