Away vs Macclesfield, Sat 30 Nov 2019

I thought Taylor did well actually, midfield wasn’t bad. Just our crossing and hoofing it to much, and terrible defending to give the penalty away.

 

Agree. I thought Reeves and Taylor both did well.

 

Taylor was OK, as was Reeves. Woody's crossing was unusually poor. Connolly's typically poor. Ismail rarely involved. Pritchard put a great ball in for the goal but was otherwise quiet. AOC ok, BRE a moron for the pen. Henley had a good game. Vaughan missed a sitter, scored a goal and spent 90 mins trying to out jump a couple of 6'5 centre halves with everything lumped up to him

 

Agree with all of that. Things improved immediately Oteh came on for Ismail and we went 442.

 

I'd add a fifth:
All three of our creative midfielders, Cooke, Devitt and McCartan are injured (allegedly).

 

You doubt all 3 are actually injured? That's some conspiracy theory.
Let's hear your reasons.

 

You'd think the CBs or Bowyer would have realised the long ball wasn't working.

Braindead.

 

Not doubting at all. Just reflecting that others are doubtful.

 

I thought Taylor played alright, tried to use the ball at times on a difficult pitch. Tough when your first game is coming into a struggling side but he applied himself well enough.

 

He wasn't stand out given what a poor game it was, busy lets say,
Whats annoying is I watched the first 20 or so minutes of the Eastleigh/Crewe game and Crewe made football look so easy supporting the man with the ball by making space for him to play a pass, and going forward in numbers, when was the last time we had 4/5 men in and around the box.
As a team we seem to be frightened of committing men forward and if we hope to be serious promotion hopefuls we need to posses that in the team.
I haven't heard Bowyers post match interview but if he can say that was anywhere near the level required for a serious promotion push I'll start wondering about him management skills.

 

Our wide players are beginning to look distinctly average. Connolly has no end product and Ismail looks increasingly like a 1 in 4 or 5 performer.

 

Cant find today's post match interview but came across this, gives us a little insight to how our injuries are progressing :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07wc4bb


And for those who didnt see the needless challenge by Everton watch this :

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/league-two/11874641/macclesfield-1-1-bradford

 

It made me laugh when people were saying after Exeter when the going was good that Vaughan should be scoring loads with the likes of the and Pritchard supplying him, although it was a bad kiss today he rarely gets a sniff from them.

 

I doubted his managerial skills back in February or whenever he took over from Hopkin.

 

It was a poor appointment.

Still waiting for @wetherbywhaler thoughts. It's not good enough from Bowyer!

 

Bodies in the box is something I’ve really started to notice. Watching goal highlights on Sky Sports, the better teams seem to regularly get 4 and 5 bodies in the box on the end of crosses from open play. We have 1 or 2.

 

The warning signs have been there for the past few weeks and we look to be regressing as a team when really we should be getting better. Our widemen are supposed to be outlets yet offer little, the whole link up between Vaughan, Connolly, Pritchard and Ismail shows little sign of improving.

 

It's because Bowyer is far too negative mate.

 

Bollox

 

Everything was coming through Connolly and Ismail when they first came into the side but in the last two games especially, they've been marked out of the game. It seems as if the only time they receive the ball is when they're hogging the touchline and faced by two opponents. The movement from the wide players has to be better to create space for themselves but the midfield has to be braver in passing to them, not 5 yard square safety balls. Reeves did it once or twice to Connolly today in terms of a slide ball in behind and it worked but it just doesn't happen enough.