Match Thread Stockport County vs Bradford City Tues 24 January @ 7.45pm

That "shit" Stockport just beat Northampton, who most on here (not me) had labelled as some kind of Man City type team when they beat us.

What made Stockport "shit" in the space of a week, do you think?

 

Not known as fact Tallinn, it was based around his first game where he’d only been at the club around 24 hours or so . I haven’t seen anything in him as yet?

 

Yes he had an assist for Oliver the other week.

 

Has Hughes had a "park the bus" mentality since he got here? Or are we now labelling him like this after, rightly, having a more pragmatic approach last night?

Strange, because two months ago he was accused of been far too naive as he insisted on a nice passing game.

Amazing how one performance can suddenly get a manager pigeon holded!!

I dunno, maybe I'm a bit thick - but it seems to me that Hughes thought we were far too nice in that losing streak and set us up to be a bit tougher and brought the players in that can do that.

1 defeat in 5 later, looks like good management to me.

It's be interesting to see him "park the bus" at home for the first time.

 

I think he played both Clayton and Smallwood in midfield to make us defensively stronger in what was always going to be a tough away game against the division's most in-form team. Not to mention that Walker, Chapman and Banks were all unavailable.

I'll be very surprised indeed if he starts the pair of them together in our home games. I certainly hope he doesn't because, if Clayton is now going to be the holding CM, then Smallwood is certainly not the answer to our creativity problem.

 

The creativity problem is resolved once Walker and perhaps Banks are back in the team.

I see no issue with those three in midfield as we are then likely to concede less. All three of them are capable of passing forward to the 'creative' ones. It's those upfront to make themselves available for the pass.

I also think at home he'll use more of a 4-3-3- system.

 

Yes they won at VP banbrotam, but I would say that we gave them that game on a plate, all started by Smallwood's nice pass to give them their first goal, then poor tracking back to give them their second!

 

It helps. It also says they weren't so much better than is being made out.

Win against Rochdale, as we should have done, and you are looking at 11 points from five, which is championship form. On balance, the only poor result in the last five games is that one.

We can build on this result. Whether we do is a completely different matter.

 

I kind of agree with part of it but you're then listing 7 of our team, 4 defenders and 3 midfielder's, (8 including Lewis) who aren't expected to play a part in creating goals. That imo leaves us far too easy to defend against and puts far too much expectation on the remaining 3.

For me we perhaps need one of the 3 missing out and finding a system to add another creative, forward thinking player to the starting 11. Or at least in home games where we should be looking to try and dominate.

 

Smallwood has been poor for us the season. I man with his qualities is more like Josh Wright.

 

And that one defeat was a "freak" one on a poor pitch in poor conditions. They happen in L2. Take that out and we have 8 points from 4 matches and have improved since the slump in December. Yes, the football is dull, but I have a feeling that with Orient & Stevenage taking so many points, the bottom two play off places could be a relative low requirement. Which at present we are occupying.

If we get to Wembley (big ask) I would back Hughes to have enough to get a win there.

 

Yes, I'm aghast at this explanation. It's utterly bizarre. The penalty awarded to Rochdale against Chapman was for exactly this scenario.
Players at every level of football, from International and PL, down to the Dog & Duck, do this all the time. Harry Kane has made an art form out of winning free kicks by slowing down in order to get pushed in the back.
There's nothing in the laws of football that says you have to continue forward at the same speed if you have the ball. If you decide to suddenly stop running then it's for the player behind you to either stop or step to the side to avoid running into the back of you.
I'm gobsmacked by this.

 

Great point well made. Kane is the master of it. Let’s be honest the ref bottled it. We don’t seem to get the rub of the green with pens this season whatsoever. It’s a long list!

 

I agree but Hughes won't use him as the reason why to the squad.

 

I can see Orient blowing up. Not spectacularly, but a 3 out of 10 matches with 4 draws type run - making it an interesting run in.

Their fans are a bit pissed off, at lack of transfer window activity as they feel they need a striker.

 

Yet we know what Cook offers even during his lean spell he scored 1 goal in 3 games, forgetting the other 15 he'd scored previously of course, Costelloe has made 2 starts and shown little, do you continue to play him hoping he'll get a goal, it sounds like different rules for different players to me.

 

I think having those three as a midfield means that we get more of the ball and all three are capable of chipping in with say an average of 3 assists each. Smallwood, has already not done too bad in that regard - and that was part of an overrun two man want.

Pretty convinced that's how he'll play it and it's not a bad tactic in L2 provided the 'front three' are actively creative. I just think it's too risky to have anything else in such a system.

In addition, I'd expect both fullbacks to join in with assists. Halliday has had four already. And Foulds, during his good spell behind Wright, got two.

 

So they're "shit" as well?.

In fairness, I can't disagree. D4 has always been like that

 

I just don't see how you expect the front 3 to be actively creative when the only service they get are desperate hoofed balls out of defence instead of us playing through the midfield or down the wings.

 

We know exactly what Cook can and can’t do we have only seen Costello twice in two back to the wall encounters with new team mates. Some players hit the ground running others take time