Barnsley Away 12th Jan

Time for Mr Rupp to put his hand in his pocket.

 

I’d be surprised if Barnsley were in for Miller, there’s worse but a slight breeze knocks the lad over and his decision making if very inconsistent. All their forwards I’ve seen are better than him.

 

They are a good side, we were in their faces from the off and they found it difficult to get their passing game going, from their first meaningful attack they scored and they were never in trouble once they went in front.
Hopkin's formation was strange but Im sure he did it for the right reason, as many have pointed out we were playing so well with our attacking formation and I'm not a believer in changing your style/formation to counter the opposition.

 

Blame bloody Shrewsbury for making the 3rd round of the FA Cup .

 

Our best players are all loanees, but loanees teams in our division can apparently afford.

Says it all about Rahic's strategy of actually investing in and making money on players.

Meanwhile we have a 225k player out on loan in L2.

Come on Rupp, that 225k may be gone, but Payne would be a far better investment. Let's do it?

 

I'd rather keep Miller. Yes a little light as you say but here is a lad whom has scored 18 goals and assisted 8, in 72 games ( how many as a substitute, I ain't a clue) at league 1 level for two struggling teams in Bury and Bradford At 20 years of age, I'd say there is potential their.

 

Did you go today. Didn't show any potential at all.

 

I'll be honest, I didn't expect us to win today but did expect us to play better than we did. I'm sure playing a different formation and players out of position will have impacted on that but I also wonder what affect the uncertainty around certain players and whether they will still be here next week or not is having on the whole team.

 

I get what you’re saying and if he was our player not a loanee I’d say persist as he could develop he’s certainly got more potential than any of ours. However if he leaves I’m not bothered as we need players in their prime atm tbh, if he came here permanently I’d support him. As a loanee though I wouldn’t miss him if he left, the other 3 however is a different story we need them this season or there could be trouble.

 

Yes I did. Little to get excited about in his half of play. Indecisive twice ( as I remember) when at byline but no support when he got his feet in a tangle but that was a damn good Barnsley defence. He faired no worse than any other player.

 

He has a year experience at league one level including Bury. I'd keep him if possible for the rest of the season if possible. Maybe Surridge is the replacement, 16 in 66 at league 2 level.

I know nothing of Surridge so can't call him.

 

More loans - we need a morale-boosting signing, in my view, either David Ball on a permanent or someone else in it for the long haul.

We are, quite rightly, focused 100 % on the relegation battle, but with key players like Caddis on short term deals and virtually all of our best players on loans we have no control over, it does seem very precarious.

The fantastic results in December will be very hard to replicate if key figures like Payne and Miller walk away.

Thankfully it feels like Ball and O'Brien will stay where they are, but that could change very quickly.

Hopkin can say what he likes, but he'll struggle to replace all of our quality.

Despite some delusional viewing, the lad Doyle works nothing like as hard as those guys, and the reason we've had so many resounding wins is based on their tireless hard work.

 

Barnsley are an excellent team, strong and skillfull and no surprise we lost to them. Like everyone else I was really surprised at the changes that were made and the tactics. We didn’t even try playing with the ball on the ground, it was pumped up every time, and their defence just sorted it. It was like we conceded defeat before kick off, not that the lads were slacking, but you didn’t get any sense that we thought we could get a result. Setting up a team to nullify an attack, has only one outcome
. Having said that I thought for 20 mins we looked like we wanted to have a go, but as soon as they scored their first goal, that was it. Plus it could have least have been 7-0.

As ppl have said, this result will not dictate where we end up. I did wonder whether the team were distracted about players leaving.

This is a real problem when you have good loan players., you are always worried that they will leave, and the. We have to try and replace them.

 

His first involvement he had 3 seconds to square it for Doyle then ran it out of play. Doyle blasted him, he shyed away rest of game

 

Moving caddis was a mistake today whether he will admit it or not.

Caddis for me has been motm about 3 or 4 times since he signed in his favoured position. To move him you lose our best right back and then put him in an unfamiliar midfield position. 2 positions weakened

We made mistakes but just didn’t help ourself with the set up.

Scannell to come back, Mellor but who else will push for a place? We need 3 or 4 more in and they have to be ours and not loans unless we make headway in that area

 

We were second best to Barnsley by some way I agree.
But IMHO and as that of a coach (albeit nowhere Hopkin level) I thought the set up was very strange. Personally I thought we invited the pressure on ourselves as a result of the set up! On the right side you have McGowan and P O'Connor playing his first game, so no understanding between them and not an experienced full back against one of their best guys in Thiam. Let Caddis use his experience as a full back!! Chicksen was exposed down the left as well. Plus playing narrow in midfield just allowed them down the channels with one or two on ones to get crosses in which we didn't cope with.

I think they have everything, Barnsley, pace and skill in abundance, strength power, height, physicality....but I don't think we helped ourselves in the way we set up....my opinion....

 

Lately we've been playing very well despite playing with 10 men every game. But this game and Sunderland Hopkin has changed the way we play to try and contain them. It doesn't work, our defence isn't good enough our midfield isn't good enough to do that.

Hopkin needs to play to our strengths not to try and stop the opposition because this lot can't do it. Barnsley could have had 7/8 yesterday with better finishing

 

Playing Doyle upfront on his own has never worked so cannot understand why Hopkin would go with that. As limited as Miller is technically he at least stretches defenders and allows the team to get upfield.
Not sure why he didn't just play A.O'Connor in midfield with Caddis at right back.

 

If you go with 3/5 at the back then the full/wing backs have to be solid, Playing one that is very weak on the left and one out of position on the right is suicidal, The defence had been the rock we had got 4 decent results from and to change it around and bringing a new player in to disrupt it contributed to the loss, Far from blaming individual players for mistakes made he should look at himself first because the major mistakes made yesterday were his

 

Apart from at Rochdale