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Match Thread: Morecambe v Port Vale


Fosse69

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The debate regarding Pope.

I think I'm down on here as saying he's possibly 4th choice with a big part to play often as a sub when we need either an equaliser or to ruffle the opposition at 0-0 .

Today was exactly that day, 65th minute period. Bring him on, set pieces, knock ons etc. 

There's a real problem in that when Cullen plays well at home and notches he literally can't be dropped.

For example had JA dropped him at Exeter we'd of all gone mad. I really felt for him today. Meagre scraps and outnumbered by the Morecambe defence .

Quite clearly at times we have to go 4-4-2 .

Let's write today off but a worrying trend yet again against so called relegation fodder 

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Clueless performance today, sign of madness when you take one striker off for another and play exactly the same way!

Askey must ask himself for that performance, why did I not even try to change the formation?

We won’t be pulling up any trees this season based on the last 2 games

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It's taken me a couple of hours to come round after that dismal performance today. More than two thirds of the possession, more in the first half, and we manage two shots on goal. It must have been one of the worst performances I've seen since Askey arrived, not because we weren't organised, defensively poor or didn't play tidy football but because we offered no attacking threat whatsoever to a second-rate side who, in the first half at least, played like the away team with ten men behind the ball. 

Morecambe had clearly done their homework, emulating Harrogate from last week and we had no answer. I know there's nothing more accurate than hindsight but, against such a poor side, playing two attacking fullbacks, two wide players and two forwards would really have put the cat amongst the pigeons. That's exactly how Cambridge played. They put five past them and shot on sight. Morecambe couldn't cope and I guess if we'd played the same (and we have the players), they wouldn't have coped with us either.

Instead, we set up exactly as we did last week and I bet their manager couldn't believe his luck. Askey is wedded to 433 and I wouldn't argue with its merits but he seems unable to change the system, rotate the players and come up with a different game plan, depending on the opposition. As a result, they had us sussed from the moment the useless ref blew his whistle.

The player I felt most sorry for was Cullen, isolated in a system that doesn't suit his game, with poor service and little or no support. No wonder you could see him shaking his head throughout the game. Tonight, he must be the most frustrated striker in L2. 

JA has a lot of thinking to do. The signs are other teams know how to close us down and we don't seem to have an answer. So we can expect this a lot in games to come. It's early days but Askey just has to find an answer or we are going to end up like last season with loads of draws, low goal tally and fewer points than we need for even the play-offs.

Next week at home to Carlisle will show just how much we've learned.

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I genuinely believe there was little to blame Cullen for, as he was barely allowed in the game or given chances. It was basically a tedious midfield battle which given our possession should have yielded enough opportunities to win. 
 

It was simply a case of keeping the ball and doing nothing with it. We bitterly missed Manny, as he seems the only midfielder who can create anything. 
 

Worrall does not surprise me as he has never been effective against slow, physical sides and Morecambe and Harrogate have both been good at keeping the tempo slow. 
 

What we need to be doing is keeping our tempo up. We seem to get dragged down to the pace of our last two opponents who love playing nice, slow hoof ball with big physical players.

We need to show more urgency, faster passing,  quicker build up play. We certainly have the players to do it and god knows how Askey can not see that as a solution to opening up these one dimensional teams. 

 

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I don’t think we should scrap the 433, because it’s worked well for us for a year now and it’s how we primarily play.

However, you need a Plan B, which the last two games Askey hasn’t had. Harrogate and Morecambe were both scrappy, gritty games in tough conditions, where it was clear our usual way of playing wasn’t working. 

Pope for me is 4th choice striker and I wouldn’t start him, but games like today are tailor made for him. Someone to battle with their centre halves. And we kept lumping balls into the box which suits neither Cullen nor Robinson. Why he didn’t come on I don’t know.

It’s harsh to blame Cullen or Robinson when they’re getting no service whatsoever, and I’d still keep our way of playing, would be a huge overreaction changing it after a small blip. But we need to adapt in games like this if we want to take anything from them and have a good season.

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Yep, it’s hard to disagree with what he says. Far too predictable. Even the subs are predictable for God’s sake! 

It goes to show Askey just hasn’t learned anything this last few months. As last year, we can go away to go teams like Exeter and  come away with points. Yet put us up against scrappers of the likes of Morecombe or Macclesfield and we’re found wanting.

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4 hours ago, Houston Valiant said:

Well said. The hardest part is waiting a week for the next league match. Feels like an eternity these days. What an awful match today. One of the worst I’ve ever seen. Depressed. 

I'm still raging and I thought by now I'd be much less so. The most frustrating thing is that we just never went for it at any point to really get back in it. In League Two you don't even need quality from the bench at times when you're chasing a game, just as many bodies forward as possible, and Askey replaces a forward with a forward. The players also have to have a look at themselves this evening as the starting 11 should still be good enough to put in a performance. Outside of the defence I wouldn't rate anyone above 6 out of 10, and there were plenty of 5's too. Just not good enough and 4 or 5 of them couldn't complain if they wind up on the bench against Carlisle next Saturday. 3 points and a good performance with a few shots on target at least is what we should expect, and if that doesn't happen they we have to start asking a few serious questions because today was just abject and hopeless from an attacking sense.

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Clueless performance today, sign of madness when you take one striker off for another and play exactly the same way!

Askey must ask himself for that performance, why did I not even try to change the formation?

We won’t be pulling up any trees this season based on the last 2 games
Totally agree. We do not have enough "steel" or imagination in our squad No so called plan B from management so opponents know exactly how to play against us. So infuriating. So boring. So predictable. Flatter to deceive. Frankly we are seriously not good enough to challenge for the top 3 positions. Yes we are useful and on our day can beat anyone but no way are we to be considered too good for the likes of Morecambe or Harrogate. Get real and realise we need a different attitude and plan in games. I love the Vale but our dreams are just that, dreams. We possibly have 4 or 5 top players for this Division but without a revised strategy and different way of playing other than a see through predictability then we will stay in this horrid Division.
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For some reason today we tried to be a League Two Brighton & Hove Albion. Lots of tidy little passes and lots of possession but ultimately we got nowhere and ended up getting beat by a team that, on paper at least, is nowhere near as good as ours. 

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A second consecutive poor showing from the Vale is quite concerning, and our lack of Plan B is even more concerning. 

Askey has to find an alternative to his 4-3-3 when we are struggling against compact and resolute sides. This was our major downfall last season and I'd hoped John would have addressed this problem. Unfortunately, two poor showings in succession suggests not much has changed. 

The game itself was poor, they happily sat back and didn't allow any space for us to play football. Their midfield did a good job of not letting Joyce have a minutes peace on the ball, which resulted us playing a long diagonal ball at every opportunity, which they dealt with well.

Cullen was once again isolated up front. I do genuinely feel sorry for him, you can see in his body language how frustrated he is and I honestly don't blame him. 

I said it last week, the amount of criticism Worrall is getting is pathetic. I think everyone should just remember what an important player he really is for us. Admittedly, he's looked off the pace over the past few weeks but I wouldn't think twice about dropping him. I've even seen one post today which suggested he has no end product. Just take a look at his stats from last season and I'm sure that opinion would soon go. 

We desperately missed Manny today and hopefully his injury is only minor. You don't realise how important he is until he isn't actually there.  

Bobby Madeley is a disgrace! Never a penalty. Their player was looking for that and fell to the floor with the slightest touch. Very, very soft. 

Positives from today:

  • Gibbo is back and had a good game.
  • We didn't concede from open play for the 4th league game in a row.
  • Amoo got some minutes in.
  • Conlon looked back to his usual self after a disappointing game last week.
  • Whitehead looked good when he came on and I'd consider him starting next week if there is no Manny.

Everyone please remember that was our first defeat in 12 games. Not everything will go right every week, but that was certainly a wake up call for the boys.

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6 minutes ago, Portvale4 said:

A second consecutive poor showing from the Vale is quite concerning, and our lack of Plan B is even more concerning. 

Askey has to find an alternative to his 4-3-3 when we are struggling against compact and resolute sides. This was our major downfall last season and I'd hoped John would have addressed this problem. Unfortunately, two poor showings in succession suggests not much has changed. 

The game itself was poor, they happily sat back and didn't allow any space for us to play football. Their midfield did a good job of not letting Joyce have a minutes peace on the ball, which resulted us playing a long diagonal ball at every opportunity, which they dealt with well.

Cullen was once again isolated up front. I do genuinely feel sorry for him, you can see in his body language how frustrated he is and I honestly don't blame him. 

I said it last week, the amount of criticism Worrall is getting is pathetic. I think everyone should just remember what an important player he really is for us. Admittedly, he's looked off the pace over the past few weeks but I wouldn't think twice about dropping him. I've even seen one post today which suggested he has no end product. Just take a look at his stats from last season and I'm sure that opinion would soon go. 

We desperately missed Manny today and hopefully his injury is only minor. You don't realise how important he is until he isn't actually there.  

Bobby Madeley is a disgrace! Never a penalty. Their player was looking for that and fell to the floor with the slightest touch. Very, very soft. 

Positives from today:

  • Gibbo is back and had a good game.
  • We didn't concede from open play for the 4th league game in a row.
  • Amoo got some minutes in.
  • Conlon looked back to his usual self after a disappointing game last week.
  • Whitehead looked good when he came on and I'd consider him starting next week if there is no Manny.

Everyone please remember that was our first defeat in 12 games. Not everything will go right every week, but that was certainly a wake up call for the boys.

 

So Worrall has decent stats last season. So what? He's done next to nothing in four games now. The whole point of having a strong squad is supposed to be that it keeps everyone on there toes and if you don't perform, you get dropped and replaced. While Worrall's work-rate is always there, creativity wise he's offering zero currently. Now Amoo is back he should be benched. Nobody in the side should be made to feel un-droppable regardless of what they might have done months ago for crying out loud.

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It was a very similar setup at their place last season. They nicked two early goals and we spent the rest of the match playing sideways in  front of their two banks of four. Everyone was giving Amoo stick but ultimately we couldn't get him in the game. 

It's not exactly a secret that teams are looking to shut down Joyce and hope the distribution of our central defenders lets us down. However today we still managed to bring the ball out and we had plenty of the ball up until the edge of their are. What we missed was somebody pulling their defence out of shape either on or off the ball. The big diagonals were telegraphed and stayed in the air for an eternity. I'm tempted to say we either needed one of the midfielders such as Conlon to start push more into the number 10 position, or we needed to go two up top and get the forwards working the channels.

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