Match Thread: Peterborough United v Port Vale

[MBE]

7 minutes ago, The man in the pub said:

Just watched the highlights. Easy to see their quality and our failings. Not so easy to sort and resolve, much harder now we are playing with the big boys.

The challenge is finding the right combinations and formation in our team when we play the better teams in the league. Clearly DC and his team got it wrong.

I’m just disappointed we are the end of September and I still don’t think he knows his best personnel accompanying the formation based on the game.

Playing the same formation and personnel against Peterborough away as Shrewsbury at home? Really

Back to the tactics board.

 

 

[PortVale89]

Smith is a good ‘stopper’ but I’m not sure that’s what we need in this division. If we are planning to play a passing game then can we afford to have a centre back who looks uncomfortable with the ball at his feet? 

I'd focus on getting the midfield to learn to pass before digging out our best and most reliable defender who has done well for us consistently over several years.

[Vale till I die]

10 minutes ago, The man in the pub said:

Just watched the highlights. Easy to see their quality and our failings. Not so easy to sort and resolve, much harder now we are playing with the big boys.

I agree , with all that you say  I have also have just watch. The highlights . It’s a shame that only 8-10 players did not play well . 

[Guppys left peg]

3 minutes ago, MBE said:

The challenge is finding the right combinations and formation in our team when we play the better teams in the league. Clearly DC and his team got it wrong.

I’m just disappointed we are the end of September and I still don’t think he knows his best personnel accompanying the formation based on the game.

Playing the same formation and personnel against Peterborough away as Shrewsbury at home? Really

Back to the tactics board.

 

 

To be fair on this the same personnel was working fine until Funso went off. I will definitely agree that the sub was wrong but I think it’s all a little bit of 20-20 hindsight. Long story short we just got taught a bit of a lesson by what is a quality team, we contributed to our own downfall but overall am pretty relaxed about where we are at this season.

[Santa]

Last Saturday we picked the right team to play Shrewsbury but it felt like it very much a case of horses for courses

I enjoyed Butterworth last week but I couldn’t see us playing a luxury player at number 10 as well as a front two away at Posh.  So anyway we did.

The sitting midfield two need to be very good at their jobs to make that system work. I watched us at Barnsley from behind the goal and you could have driven a bus between each side of the Pett / Ojo / Garrity triangle.

A few away games have followed a pattern where we look OK as long as the opposition stay in second gear but we have no answer when they step it up. This was the bloody nose we could have been handed at Barnsley if they’d capitalised on their dominance.

[Dr Delgado]

15 hours ago, Boslem's Brazil said:

I think Forrester is getting very close to a start in the middle instead of Smith. His mistake today changed the game.    

I think this is a very sensible suggestion, very few players are un droppable. I am of the opinion that Forrester is far from the finished article, I think if we put him in that central role he will probably make the odd mistake however the chances are, at the age he is, he will learn from those mistakes. Nathan Smith, on the other hand, has a tendency to make the odd mistake that he doesn’t seem to learn from, I think Smith at 26/27 is the finished article. Smith’s commitment is unquestioned, he always gives 100% and he is quite rightly lauded as one of our own but I don’t think he has the footballing qualities to move us up the table. Furthermore I believe Cass needs to improve on what he has been producing to become a regular starter.

 

[Fosse69]

11 hours ago, TJHValiant said:

No idea, didn’t see that match. I would say we took over 600 and it felt cramped. 

Well, capacity 15,314, Vale Att 7,235, Wed Att 11,169. away capacity quoted as 1,800 in the main stand. Where did the other 4,000 go?

[Smallthorne clampet]

6 minutes ago, Santa said:

Last Saturday we picked the right team to play Shrewsbury but it felt like it very much a case of horses for courses

I enjoyed Butterworth last week but I couldn’t see us playing a luxury player at number 10 as well as a front two away at Posh.  So anyway we did.

The sitting midfield two need to be very good at their jobs to make that system work. I watched us at Barnsley from behind the goal and you could have driven a bus between each side of the Pett / Ojo / Garrity triangle.

A few away games have followed a pattern where we look OK as long as the opposition stay in second gear but we have no answer when they step it up. This was the bloody nose we could have been handed at Barnsley if they’d capitalised on their dominance.

Agree with your comments , we need to toughen up away from home , a midfield ball winner and a strong centre half is what we lack , and a forward who can hold the ball up. 3-5-2 seems to be our only system , perhaps needs to be looked at on a match to match basis . Not a bad start though .

[GEOFF B]

To be fair on this the same personnel was working fine until Funso went off. I will definitely agree that the sub was wrong but I think it’s all a little bit of 20-20 hindsight. Long story short we just got taught a bit of a lesson by what is a quality team, we contributed to our own downfall but overall am pretty relaxed about where we are at this season.

I think they all watched the England match on Friday night.

[Bald Eagle]

So for clarity, Darrell should know/play his best 11, but should also go horses for courses??!!
 

Are they the same thing? If he had a fully fit squad how many of the Wembley team that were so dominant would have started if he could have fielded his ideal first eleven? Harratt, Taylor and possibly Benning and Stone (if Lucas wasn’t such a muppet)would have missed out.  Most teams have a core 6 or 7 and others who rotate in which is where we are at.  

Very little in the game yesterday until a) Funso went off (and he put Conlon on who is in most peoples first 11, but not mine) and b) Smithy looked to play out as he is being encouraged to do to develop rather than clearing his lines. 
After this their quality showed as confidence returned, game lost mainly in midfield as we had no ball winner (Funso/Walker/Pett have to be 1 of the 3).  Massey gives Cass far less protection that Wozza, but is perhaps a better option when we are on the front foot/chasing a game.  Both starting wing backs were poor yesterday.

Keeper did well, Jones and Smith stuck at it (aside from his rare error for the opener) and Harrison continues to work incredibly hard for the team.

Frustrated and disappointed- yes as we played a big part in our own downfall.

Despondant - no still created half chances and on another day against lesser opposition we will continue to pick up points.

[Santa]

20 minutes ago, Bald Eagle said:

So for clarity, Darrell should know/play his best 11, but should also go horses for courses??!!

Generally speaking I'd like to see the number of changes week on week come down.

However, coming away from the Shrews game last week I feared for us if we played the same team against Posh. 

[Bald Eagle]

9 minutes ago, Santa said:

Generally speaking I'd like to see the number of changes week on week come down.

However, coming away from the Shrews game last week I feared for us if we played the same team against Posh. 

And yet I am sure if he had made changes, lost 3-0 there would have been an outcry as to why a winning 11 had been changed.  Damned if he does damned if he doesn’t, because it’s always easy with hindsight. 

Per my earlier post nothing in it till we lost Funso and Smithy howler.  On another day 0-0 after an hour and crowd on their backs, unleash Politic and you never know - that’s football!  In addition if we had VAR their No9 walks for raising hands to Smudgers face it could have been a whole new ball game.

[smithie]

36 minutes ago, Bald Eagle said:

So for clarity, Darrell should know/play his best 11, but should also go horses for courses??!!
 

Are they the same thing? If he had a fully fit squad how many of the Wembley team that were so dominant would have started if he could have fielded his ideal first eleven? Harratt, Taylor and possibly Benning and Stone (if Lucas wasn’t such a muppet)would have missed out.  Most teams have a core 6 or 7 and others who rotate in which is where we are at.  

Very little in the game yesterday until a) Funso went off (and he put Conlon on who is in most peoples first 11, but not mine) and b) Smithy looked to play out as he is being encouraged to do to develop rather than clearing his lines. 
After this their quality showed as confidence returned, game lost mainly in midfield as we had no ball winner (Funso/Walker/Pett have to be 1 of the 3).  Massey gives Cass far less protection that Wozza, but is perhaps a better option when we are on the front foot/chasing a game.  Both starting wing backs were poor yesterday.

Keeper did well, Jones and Smith stuck at it (aside from his rare error for the opener) and Harrison continues to work incredibly hard for the team.

Frustrated and disappointed- yes as we played a big part in our own downfall.

Despondant - no still created half chances and on another day against lesser opposition we will continue to pick up points.

Cass and Jones were getting torn apart from the start, and it was only a matter of time before they scored....but l didn't lose any sleep over being beaten by a clearly-decent team who have just come down. 

[Brian Johnson]

24 minutes ago, Bald Eagle said:

 

Per my earlier post nothing in it till we lost Funso and Smithy howler.  On another day 0-0 after an hour and crowd on their backs, unleash Politic and you never know - that’s football!  In addition if we had VAR their No9 walks for raising hands to Smudgers face it could have been a whole new ball game.

I disagree. They started turning the screw in a big way even before Funso went off & Smithy howler. We had Stevens to thank for keeping us in the game before they actually scored

[Wrex]

25 minutes ago, Bald Eagle said:

And yet I am sure if he had made changes, lost 3-0 there would have been an outcry as to why a winning 11 had been changed.  Damned if he does damned if he doesn’t, because it’s always easy with hindsight. 

Correct. This is why managers are judged on results.

The objective this season is to avoid relegation, and ideally to improve the squad along the way. The odd hammering is acceptable. We have to accept that both the players and the management will make mistakes here and there.