Vale 2 Scunthorpe 2 Post Match Comments

[Caselord]

I personally think we have a better squad than the squad that finished 9th last year. The performances against Barnsley & Yeovil suggest we are capable of putting a run together. 2 big games coming up will see what we are made of

[JYVALE]

Chris Neale....quality goalkeeper.....what a star.

 

Miles ahead of Johnson. Johnson is ****.

[Worcs White]

Dodds is lucky to be at the club still. He's nowhere near League One level, and neither are any of our defenders who started tonight. The thing is, Dodds will probably have a decent game soon as he usually does every 5 or 6 games, and there'll be a few on here raving about him and insisting that he should be in the starting 11 every week. Crazy. He's a player that doesn't really have any attributes other than a decent finish, but as he's not a forward the amount of chances he has is very limited. He was quite young when he joined the club and has been at Vale for a number of years now, yet nobody can realistically make a case and say that he has improved at all.

 

You could say that about most of this squad.

[Warren]

Here's the "highlights" :(

 

 

Shocking defending for both goals.

 

The first. What was Dickinson doing there? Nowhere near his man from the throw-in, then charges towards him like a madman. The "tackle", for want of a better word, was easily side stepped. A good cross and a simple finish. Central defenders AWOL.

 

The second. There are six defenders plus the goalkeeper against four attackers when the cross comes in. The guy has both time and space to put in a very decent cross. But there were three Vale players around the attacker and still he was allowed a free header. This is bad enough when it is 11v11, but how on earth did their man get that much space for the cross when we had a man advantage (and at home against the bottom team)?

 

In both cases, the opposition player had all day to cross the ball and our defending was non-existent. That kind of defending will only end in relegation.

 

Something has to change. If it is not the team then surely it must be the manager.

 

I think this is all an accurate assessment. I factor in that Vale Park is a big pitch and it is harder than say at Tranmere to close wide players down. In fact that is a factor we try to use going forward.

 

So a few weeks ago I thought we couldn't attack and couldn't defend. We couldn't attack because we didn't get the midfield advanced enough, didn't get enough players in the box and therefore wasted crosses. We also didn't cause defending teams to lose shape and they defended easily against us with two banks of 4 or 4/5. Now I think we look threatening going forward most of the time.

 

Defending wasn't good even when the midfield wasn't getting forward. We don't have the players to shield the defence it seems. Nor do we have an aerially dominant centre half pairing, nor do the full backs and wide players stop enough crosses, and we give away too many free kicks. That all said I don't feel our defenders are bad players it is the combination of them that isn't working. Another factor is that going forward I feel teams have worked out to let Yates have the ball wide right because all he does is cross from poor positions and let Duffy have it in the centre because he goes backwards or doesn't engage midfield to create space. This slows up our play and can make us look ponderous or just launch it to Pope.

 

The issue is can these problems be solved by bringing in new players. I would be tempted to change the back four and if we can't stop crosses and can't stop giving away free kicks we need a monster centre half - but not one that has the alternative weakness of being rubbish on the deck.

[Stuart Salt]

I think the highights are pretty much a perfect example of our season so far and our bad defending (which starts from the front).

Midfielders and strikers losing posession too much, opposiiton players being allowed to cross, and our defence not atatcking crosses.

 

It's simple to see the issues, clearly difficult to sort. I'd love to know what the players think when they analsyse post match the video's?

 

Big changes needed in defence for saturday with Brown in front of the back four...

 

Page - its time to make a ballsy decision and drop some underperforming senior players..