The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: (a) v Crawley Town - Sat 5 August 2023 3pm

I don't think Oyegoke needs to come back down to earth, I've seen nothing from him to suggest that kind of attitude.

What he does need is to not be played out of position.

 

Our back line is abysmal.

Kelly who couldn’t get a look in last season suddenly finds himself in the starting 11, Taylor is beyond dreadful and then we’ve got 2 fullbacks playing wingback and a wingback playing CB.

Awful planning and recruitment.

 

We absolutely did not play well before the red. Is he directly responsible for players making mistakes? No. Is he responsible for taking a player on loan who had a reputation for being erratic, rash and error prone, then playing him in a position he’s not used to? Of course he is. Is he responsible for the car crash of Ash Taylor? Of course he is. Is he responsible for the consequences of the side he picks? Of course he is. As soon as I saw that team sheet I knew what to expect. Be honest, most of us did, and we’re posted to that effect before the game.

It’s not the end of the world to have a bad first game of the season and that game alone, doesn’t predict anything. But it does start to reaffirm in my mind the concerns over recruitment this summer, and the doubts I have about Hughes whole approach. It’s far too contrived and over engineered, and he doesn’t strike me as humble enough to accept he was wrong. I have no doubt it’ll be the refs fault.

That line up made no sense, and the whole performance smacked of 11 blokes who had no idea what their roles or the system was.

 

Dreadful manager, dreadful tactics with a negative attitude, negative formation. Midfield players with a first instinct to return the ball back to where it's just come from instead of turning and going forward. One up front, dreadful and soul destroying.

 

Sat last night thinking about our club and what we've been through in the last 8 years or so, the old grey matter isn't as good as it used to be, I can't see us under this regime giving any opposition a good hiding we don't look capable of dominating the opposition.
I don't want Hughes out but once again yesterday's performance was hardly a game that had us sat on the edge of our seats.
I've said it before it was a chore at times to attend games at Valley Parade I hope that is not the same this season, we've seen some crap over the years when we've had no brass for the manager to bring a bit of quality in but this is a different situation Hughes has been backed.
At one time a midweek game at Accrington would have been a no brainer but I have no appetite at the moment, early days I know I had so much faith in Hughes doing a good job but seeing us last season being ultra cautious and not allowing players off the leash we need to be more positive this season.
Yesterday couldn't be used as a guide I did think even though we were a goal down we were very much in the game until the sending off I can't envisage this squad tonking any opposition in the near future.

 

The back four and Lewis worked last season. Our problems were elsewhere but Hughes has tried to remedy the problems by changing what actually worked. I'm not going crazy yet but it felt very much like the players didn't feel comfortable playing this formation. Walker and Pattison both look like they want the same space.

 

Just got checked into our hotel in London

To put it mildly, I am absolutely fecking seething with today’s performance. Looked unfit, disjointed and generally clueless all over the pitch. No desire whatsoever

Anybody blaming the officials, give your heads a wobble. We are in for a very long season, and on that showing it’s not gonna be a happy ending. We have regressed as a team in terms of quality, having lost the likes of Crichlow and replaced him with Ash fecking Taylor. And by the way @Sergio Pinto III I WAS right about Taylor wasn’t I, it was obvious how bad he is by watching him play 1 half against Rochdale. Still think my judgement was “daft”???

And if Sparks doesn’t think THAT was mediocre, he can feck off back to rugby league too

Anyway, food in a bit and have a pint or 10, and try and put this god awful feeling to bed for the day

 

Tickets bought. Hotel booked

Bring it on

 

Platt looks so much better than Taylor.

 

Hopefully that's exactly what he says to the players in the dressing room but in public? No chance, you should never disrespect your opposition like that, whoever they are.

 

I would personally look closer at hughes selection and tactics than the ref.

But that's only me.

 

You’re spot on. It really wasn’t rocket science in the summer, it didn’t need transforming.

Lewis is sound
Ridehalgh and Halliday are sound, but a more attacking left back was a reasonable target.
Platt and Stubbs at CB - solid. Kelly as a young backup, question marks over Odusina, but sign another capable L2 centre back. Ash Taylor? Deary me.
Get a quality playmaker and some energy next to Smallwood. Maybe McDonald and Pattison can do that.

But the rest of our focus should have been on bringing in 2 or 3 quality wide forwards to supply Cook.

Hughes is overbaking the whole thing and with every passing window, is making more of a hash of things.

 

Just bring in some quality wingers and play four four fecking two ffs!
Stop all these bullshit formations

 

I don't think anything we saw was a surprise and that's the worrying thing.

Neither wing back is good enough in that role, its evident we need at least a LWB. Oyegoke is not a CB in a million years so why was he playing there?

Taylor is appalling and Hughes should be embarrassed that a man of his stature in the game genuinely thought it best to start him over Platt.

And if Cook is injured then we're in deep trouble. Derbyshire is nowhere near it and who knows if/when Oliver will be back. Smith looks handy but needs to play in a two.

Oduor looked alright though. First time I've seen him in an attacking role and I thought he was promising in patches.

All in all a thoroughly miserable afternoon. I've had zero enthusiasm this season and on todays showing it looks to be justified.

 

Back not long since. Thoughts on the game.

3 at the back concerns me due our lack of technical ability in our choice of centre halves, and serious lack of pace. Hughes clearly recognises that, given he has five available centre halves yet plays an u-21 international wing back out of position in one of the three positions.
Two out and out full backs at wing back.
The ‘front’ five kind of picked itself.

First half, we actually played some ok stuff at times but looked wobbly on the back foot every single time.
At the heart of that was our left side getting troubled by balls into the channel, with Ridehalgh committed forward and our back three being done for pace.

Taylor is one of the slowest footballers I’ve ever seen, and has talent on a par with my good self.

Going through the game, a card happy ref booked Kelly for a perfectly good challenge, but that isn’t to detract from a poorly defended free kick.

Oyegokes red - first one for me never a booking but the second was, however he copped for it after one of several shocking pieces of defending from Taylor (not my scapegoat, he was just shocking).

After that we huffed and puffed but a second for Crawley was just as likely as an equaliser for us.

In summary - last season was frustrating but not a million miles from being a successful one.
A season that needed just a few tweaks and better quality and maybe more depth in certain places.

For some reason Hughes seems to have tried reinventing the wheel and it’s badly failed (I’m making that call early). We don’t have the athletes nor footballing intelligence to over complicate the game like he is trying to do.

Credit today to Pattison, Oduor, Smallwood and Osadebe and Platt who settled the defence when he came on,

The rest were just not good enough on the day. Or just not good enough full stop

 

The ref was as usual diabolical and city played like it was their first ever game of football. No street sense if you will.

Taylor was so bad it reminded me of the first game of 2018-19 that ominous wtf moment. We went from that to that? In the space of a few months

Smallwood is a big child who simply needs bringing down a peg or two. You can't lead a team when petulance is your middle name. And bang average are your skills.

Think Kelly is going under the radar a bit. Looks average.

Oyegoke was hard done by. Took a dose of shit reffing with a dose of incompetence from two senior players who clearly are the chinks in our armour.

Once those two clowns were off the pitch it looked like we had a team who could actually threaten and looked exciting.

I want to see Smallwood on the bench next match. Get him off.

 

I actually think Kelly is going to surprise a few this season. Im glad he has been given a go because he came with a bit of fanfare (appreciate its the Irish league).

Decent size, left footed and he doesn't look like a slouch.

 

Well I’m glad we’re finally getting the attacking and front foot playing style we were promised. And last season’s issues of impotent attacking play and Cook being isolated have been sorted.

This is garbage. A completely disjointed performance, and I still can’t fathom where about 5 players are playing. No shape with or without the ball and all of last season’s shortcomings on display, with defensive holes thrown in for good measure.

@XCIV_Bantam - BTW, everything about this game is why I say there are question marks over Hughes. As soon as the lineup was announced, there was a ‘WTF is that?’ reaction from most fans, and a ‘WTF is that’ performance is exactly what we’re getting.