Gaps in the team

[tobert1985]

thought the team looked ok yesterday, still think dodds should start but i feel we lack a decent winger any thoughts??

[clayton vale]

We looked much better when Haldane,Rob Taylor and Dodds came on. Overwhelmed a stubborn Crawley.

[king of the stone age]

We were better when Roberts went off and Loft moved more into the middle.

[SuperValeAway]

I thought Haldane played really well when he came on, I agree with the point Loft plays better when in the middle, its where he belongs, not as a wide player!

[Jacko51]

thought the team looked ok yesterday, still think dodds should start but i feel we lack a decent winger any thoughts??

 

I thought we looked pretty woeful in the first half. That goal from Richards was our only effort on target and we went through the whole game without getting a single corner!

 

We looked better after the subs when we had a bit of width. Dodds took his goal really well. Can't comment on Roberts because it was a while before I realised he was on the pitch! Very much below the level of which he is capable.

[Birches Head Fred]

The entire right side of the pitch was a total waste for the first half. Their left full-back had the freedom of the park.

 

Our crossing is totally abysmal, no improvement whatsoever at all on that.

 

Plan 'A' : Lump everyball towards Pope and hope something comes off a knock-down......useless.

 

We only really looked a threat when necessity forced the substitutions, if Pope and Richards had stayed on we would have lost.

 

Lot's of work to do I'm afraid and we really do require a right winger.......someone prepared to hug the touchline, beat a man and put meaningful, accurate crosses in.........

[kingvaliant]

roberts had a stinker , not as good as everyone makes him out be

[clayton vale]

Until they scored the game was shocking.We just lumped the ball forward. Played well after that, and were by far the better team. Some players had an off day, it happens.

[clayton vale]

By the way, anyone notice Justin Richards score 2 for Burton yesterday?

[Yukon]

We looked much better when Haldane,Rob Taylor and Dodds came on. Overwhelmed a stubborn Crawley.

 

I think it was just we had a plan b. Having that much pace on the bench was and is always going to cause problems.

 

Personally, I reckon Dodds should start too, for me with his mentality he is far more important to the side at the moment than Roberts (who was not at the races at all yesterday, no pun intended)

[clayton vale]

Its nice to have options.

[Boslem Boy]

By the way, anyone notice Justin Richards score 2 for Burton yesterday?

 

He also missed "a hatfull" in the 1st half so no change there.

[Richard...]

Gary Roberts was appaling and I question whether we should have kept him. He's far too inconsistent and we'll never make the play-offs with such inconsistency.

[Utch]

The team didn't have the balance in the first half. Rigg didn't seem to know if he was up front or on the right side of midfield. Loft kept drifting in to the middle leaving Green exposed.

 

Taylor and Haldane then came on and they went to a natural 4-4-2. It totally changed the game. Taylor in particular was very good.

[Santa]

Pope was still on a different wavelength. He could win the ball and hold it up in the centre circle which give us an outlet when we were under pressure, but when he tried to lay it off or spin his man and play an early ball over the top, nobody could read him. He isn't quite fitting into the pattern yet, which is normal considering he's been here less than a week and hardly trained all summer. I hope his urgency rubs off onto the other players.

 

Pope needs to work on drifing out wide at the far post with the likes of Rigg filling in the gap in the middle - he will be dangerous when he can isolate the full backs and win headers at the back stick.

 

Our pattern unfortunately is still slow and predicatable. With the exception of Loft, we take two or three touches to do things where good teams only need one; we stop, check, go backwards, take a touch, play a square ball, take two touches, stop, let the opposition get in position, and then a move peters out. We need to start doing the same things a bit more quickly. Defensively we looked susceptible to too many crosses. We carried on from the end of last season in too many respects for my liking.