Barnsley Away 12th Jan

no chance of getting 3 points today. Move on and target 3 points on Saturday.

 

We looked lost. We looked lethargic compared to Barnsley. Which team had 10 days off?
Our recent form had been built on high energy pressing and winning the ball back quickly. We continued this in the first 15 minutes but after that their midfield picked up virtually all of the loose balls in midfield. OB Caddis and Payne were very quiet and never seemed to have the bell under control. We ended up pumping it to Doyle which didn’t work earlier in the season and nothing’s changed. poor day the office. O’Donnell was good thankfully. Ball put in a shift. The others were meh. And chicksen. Jesus. How do you get the wrong side of the goal for a straight ball played through the middle? He was awful and the red card put the cap on another abysmal performance from him.
We need better.

 

Yeah, but playing Caddis at right back doesn't close the gulf in class. I doubt it would have made too much difference, the focus needs to be on what we need in order to compete next season.

The answer is: a lot more quality throughout the team.

Tinkering and making strange choices isn't a big enough deal to dominate discussions. We're second best to Barnsley by some way.

 

Thought the new lad at the back was dragged out of position regularly and looked quite leggy but seems good in the air.

 

Poor game Imo. McGowan kept coming inside to cover, as out of position numerous times.

Left so much space out right on the outside

 

David Hopkin:

Paudie O’Connor made his debut in a back three but was subbed at half-time to bring on striker George Miller.

Hopkin played Ryan McGowan on the right and Paul Caddis in central midfield in a bid to keep things tight against a side who have only failed to score once at home this season.

He added: “The shape didn’t do any of this, changing the team didn’t do any of this – it’s basic errors.

“If you can’t defend your back post from a dinked cross or keep out a weak shot, that’s nothing to do with formations or how you’re going to play.”

In the words of Jarvis Cocker.... Are you sure?

 

His criticism was quite specific - for example Payne not tracking back and someone not closing their body shape to prevent a cross!!

 

True.... So in fairness to David's full statement ......

He said: “The defending left a lot to be desired. It was down to basic errors.

“We started the game well for the first 20-25 minutes but then conceded a poor goal.

“Jack (Payne) didn’t go with the runner to stop the cross to get the ball to the back post. Then Adam Chicksen’s standing square on instead of opening his body and the boy’s got above him with the header.

“The second goal looks good play but it’s not, it’s a weak shot. Richard (O’Donnell) has got a hand to it but he’s got to do better.

“The game just petered out between that and the end when Adam got sent off and they scored a third goal. But every chance they had came through our mistakes.”

 

He's right in that those things were not a result of farting around with formations.

 

We’ll have a complete rebuild in the summer, whichever division we’re in.

 

Outclassed in every department, shouldn't have played Caddis in midfield but never the less every player was second to every ball from the 25th minute on and Hopkin can't be blamed for that. We've had some very good results recently but Barnsley are a class above all them and it showed, it's not the Barnsleys we need to beat to survive however thankfully.

Need to bounce back next week.

 

A few points.

Losing at Barnsley wont be what gets us relegated, therefore not too despondant at getting beat there.

However, I don't like been beat, i cannot grasp a full understanding of why DH changed the defence.
A defence that had grown in confidence and was picking up regular clean sheets.
It's a fine balance at the back and shouldn't be meddled with unless really neccessary.

A few particular poor performanes, our two backs in Chickson and McGowan struggled.
Miller was very poor when he came on and lost even the basics of controlling a ball.

Playing a good balanced side in Barnsley did highlight our lack of squad, we were crying out for natural width, we needed a ball-winner in the middle ( Caddid didn't work). Finally we need a good front man because Miller isnt the answer.
Hopefully addressed this week.

A reality check in many ways, we've sides around us picking points up regularly, this isn't going to be easy. However Barnsley aside we've shown we've enough in the locker to beat those around us.

Oh, and maybe Millwall will change their minda about JP

 

I am surprised that the away following was only 3,500 as it looked a lot more to me.

 

Barnsley demonstrated today, as I've often pointed out, that you have to have physical presence to get out of this league. Our midfield of Caddis, Ball, Payne and O'Brien must be the smallest we' ve ever fielded. All decent players but collectively outmuscled all game. Make no mistake about it, we could easily have lost by a cricket score today. Right back to the horror shows of earlier in the season. Never remotely looked like scoring. Extremely disappointing given the magnificent following. New centre back looked very lightweight. Not what we need there.

 

Guessing they just added a few onto actual ticket sales to pocket the rest claiming there were few pay on the gate.

 

There were quite a few POTD around where I was sat upper left area as you look at the pitch.

 

Negative. Dinosaur tactics, playing people out of position to try and stop a good team doesn’t fecking work. Attacking good teams does though.

 

We didn't beat Sunderland, Portsmouth, or Luton, though we did draw consistently with Peterborough.

Saying 'attacking good teams works' isn't valid, as not every team is the same. I'm not sure I've seen any evidence that OUR team works while attacking good teams?

 

We beat Chelsea, Aston Villa and Arsenal attacking though.

 

We haven't attacked the good teams at all Jon, we've sat back and been negative against them all and lost every single one. I was hoping today we may have gone for it given our recent form but unfortunately it was the same as every other big team we've played.