The Voice - Match preview (a) v Crawley Town - Sat 5 August 2023 3pm

Based on one game, do get a grip of yourself.

 

If you think that is 50 yards id get your eyes tested ? Just all round sloppy.

 

Weird day.

2 Favoured clubs got a tanking by conceding 5 . Wrexham and Notts County. Stockport lost at home, we lost, Mansfield drew away. Funny old game!

 

Agree but did you see what Taylor did with the pass? Christ that's basic skills mate.

 

Paradoxically, we've now got most of a decent side playing the 4-2-3-1 that Hughes wanted to play last season. Lewis, Halliday or Okedoke, Stubbs, Platt, Ridehalgh or someone better, one of Smallwood, McDonald or Gilliead, Pattison, Walker, Oduor or Chapman, Cook and a right winger. Last season we signed lots of players who didn't fit the system. This summer we've signed players who could make it work and then he changes the system so they now don't fit. There's just no sense to what we're doing at all. Or, alternatively, Hughes and Gent haven't got a clue what they're doing. And we could have played that today, with Platt in for Taylor, and Osedebe on the right wing where he might have a chance of being effective. Halliday or Okedoke at right back. Could that have been any worse than the dog's dinner we got?

 

and friendlies*

 

It's going to have to be a flat back 4 or 2 new wing backs.

 

Don’t care what anyone other team does .

Concentrate on us!

 

I think the worrying aspect of today was not the result as such, football does have a habit of throwing logic out of the window when crazy teams like Crawley are the opponents. It was the lack of cohesiveness of the new squad of players to a point where no one has a clue what the starting eleven should be. Lacking starters like Chapman, MacDonald and specifically Stubbs didn't help. But as it stands we look a fair way off a team that has a settled eleven and Hughes is gonna have to work out what he wants from individuals within this squad.

 

He shouldn't have started if I was fit never mind Stubbs

I never understand many teams approach to the kick off especially ours, at what point any game would you have possession in the centre of the pitch and just lump it out for a throw in 2 thirds of the way down the pitch?? Or go all the way back to the keeper??

 

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.

 

Eh?

The centre circle to the edge of the box is approximately 50 yards depending on the pitch isn't it?

 

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

 

About 25 yards from the edge of the centre circle to the edge of the box

 

Yeah, 40 yards would probably be more accurate but that wasn't really the point of the post anyway. Unless someone wants to go measure crawleys pitch from the centre circle to wherever Lewis was stood when he received the ball.

 

I actually thought platt did ok when he came on. The rest of them shite

 

I think the 2 man central midfield was an error today. When we had Smith fit I assumed it would be a 352 as opposed to the 343 we saw today. Adding an extra body in CM (East, MacDonald, etc) would help solidify us as they seemed to slice through our midfield at ease today. If Smith isn’t fit you could even play Walker as a 2nd striker for the time being.

I don’t want to ditch the 3 at the back just yet, but I think some tweaks are needed. Add the extra CM, play a striker alongside Cook and rethink our defensive players (Odour at LWB, Platt at CB, maybe Odusina at CB).

 

Welcome to League 2 Oyegoke, where having a cap for England U20 doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference. I’m hoping he’ll now realise that the refs are hot and cold, the challenges are hard, your teammates need covering, your manager plays you out of position, and he comes back stronger and a bit more down to earth.

 

Perhaps that's hyperbolic after one game. But he won't get better and he won't fit what we need any better going forward.

He's slow, cumbersome and everything both Northampton and Walsall fans told us about him. The writing is on the wall with Taylor.