Substitutions

I would have accepted a point before the game.......

Quoted from moosey_club

Substitutions were always going to cost us, that is always going to be the case with us this season, whether Holloway or Hurst, ...largely due to the fact our squad is massive yet absolutely devoid of quality in depth in just about every position.

I posted at half time last night the subs would be crucial, sounds an obvious enough statement to make but the crux of it is we are 30 odd games in and the starting 11 last night had probably 5 players who are only at pre season levels of fitness, Coke,LJL, Lamy, Meneyase, Habergham........Hanson doesnt look up to full tilt either and Morais puts alot in but also cant last 90.

So even on general fitness levels we maybe would need 7 subs  before we start thinking about injuries, players just having a bad game, tactical swaps etc.

Then look at who is on the bench to try and replace those that put so much in effort in during the first half.  Not too many that would really make a starting 11.

Hurst may go for what looks like a defensive option too often on the subs but with the overall squad we have there just isnt enough there either.

I was going to make this point as well.

Some of the substitutions will be forced due to a general lack of match fitness among a good proportion of the squad. Lamy had a tight hamstring according to Hurst and we had no natural replacement, so that meant a reshuffle. Bunney could have gone left side but he had already been used to replace Habergham. El Miz has played there but it looks like he's out for the season. Scannell and Wright are injured again, along with Bennett, whose been out for a while. Down to the bare bones for players able to play out wide.

On another thread, someone mentioned Pollock now being 4th choice in reference to Waterfall coming on at the end, but Pollock is also injured. We seem to be having another spate of injuries, when we looked to have a full squad to pick from just days ago.

We don't have the knowledge of where players are at like PH does. We have to trust that he makes the right calls, but when it goes wrong like it did last night, the focus goes onto that part of the game, and not the previous 90 mins, which were generally positive. Not getting the rub of the green at the moment.

Quoted from ginnywings

I was going to make this point as well.

Some of the substitutions will be forced due to a general lack of match fitness among a good proportion of the squad. Lamy had a tight hamstring according to Hurst and we had no natural replacement, so that meant a reshuffle. Bunney could have gone left side but he had already been used to replace Habergham. El Miz has played there but it looks like he's out for the season. Scannell and Wright are injured again, along with Bennett, whose been out for a while. Down to the bare bones for players able to play out wide.

On another thread, someone mentioned Pollock now being 4th choice in reference to Waterfall coming on at the end, but Pollock is also injured. We seem to be having another spate of injuries, when we looked to have a full squad to pick from just days ago.

We don't have the knowledge of where players are at like PH does. We have to trust that he makes the right calls, but when it goes wrong like it did last night, the focus goes onto that part of the game, and not the previous 90 mins, which were generally positive. Not getting the rub of the green at the moment.

The longer the game went on the more obvious we needed an outlet, LJL and Hanson cant turn a defence and once the midfield was fcked they just became isolated.
A quicker more mobile striker last 20 mins could have given us counter options and occupied there back line a little more.....but again we dont have one of those, I suppose out of the existing squad Jackson Jr might be the only one now.

Quoted from Epworth Mariner

I would have accepted a point before the game.......

I went with 1-1 on the POM

Just so gutting to have those three points in our grasp and then to just let them slip at the death

Quoted from Epworth Mariner

I would have accepted a point before the game.......

Why ?

A point is about as much good as an ashtray on a motorbike in our position !

Would help if we had 11 players that are fit enough to play 90 minutes.

Quoted from bawarmy

Most teams and better teams than us make subs in the last few minutes to waste time when winning. Would a positive substitution have been sticking a forward on? We need to move on now.

Moving on is not a regular characteristic of this forum.

Hindsight or not, this is what Hurst does to secure the win - and then he doesn’t.  

It isn’t just the substitutions, it is the negative mindset. This was evident time and again under PH1 and exactly the same was complained about when he was at Shrewsbury. The old saying that they can’t score if we keep the ball in their half is not part of the Hurst mantra.

Whoever he brings on may have limited ability in a more advanced position but they need to be marked as opposed to doing marking. We failed to get a second goal and surely he knows this side cannot defend a 1-0 lead?