Burton Away 26th Jan

That’s why we’re 2nd bottom with this squad????

 

Nope, not unless 2-3 players arrive next week that will start and not just warm the bench

 

ALL Clubs need to Win, Fordy. Performances generally reflect getting what you deserve.

 

Not true at this stage of the season.

Going by what you're saying then our performances must be bad because we can't buy a win AGAIN!

 

But he isn't and we're going backwards.

Our squad isn't good enough and our manager isn't.

 

Southend last week showed the only types of long ball you should play. Either into the body (not head height) of the striker, where the defender can't win the ball without giving away a foul or a long ball in behind the defence and in the channels for a pacey lad to chase. Neither of those types of long ball require the target man which we don't have so why do we never play these balls? It's poor instructions from Hopkin I'm afraid.

 

EXACTLY what I'm saying, mate.
Poor performances generally deliver poor results.

Good performances from hard graft, skill and determination have a better chance of a positive result, than being 'belly tickled'.

And that is ANY time of the season, not just NOW .................. OK ?

 

Enjoyed that yesterday. End to end and really could have gone either way. Stand outs for me were KNP who as someone else pointed out has to be one of our CD pairing. New lad did well considering his lack of game time. Ball was excellent as was Caddis and Akpan showed glimpses on what he can do, however he appears to play within himself which is frustrating.

Of course we need wins but I’m more confident we can survive than I was before the game

Absolute world class save to deny Akpan at the end

Hope we get a good turnout Tuesday , it’s a huge huge game

 

Mid table? We'd be top 6 if we didn't have that 20 point penalty!

 

I'm hoping we do but the way things are going I can see us being relegated.

 

Southend was the perfect example they made it impossible to play through midfield and we played long with no one capable of holding it up or heading it on. We have needed that type of forward all season someone from whom our other strikers would benefit from

 

See I disagree about yesterday's game.

How can you say you're more confident we we stay up?

You do understand that draws at this stage just puts more pressure on the next game.

Draws are pointless at this stage. We need wins!

 

No we don't, that's my point. We play the wrong type of long ball, the outdated and dead tactic of launching at head height to a big lad. Doyle, Ball and Miller are capable of being the striker if we were to play how southend did last week, long balls into feet and chest and into space behind the back line.

 

Nothing wrong with disagreeing, I thought we looked down after Southend, absolutely shot to bits, now I have a little more hope.

 

How do you know the manager isn’t good enough if his squad (the one he inherited by the way), isn’t good enough?

Let’s face it, the squad is poor, but he still managed to get a little more out of them of late, albeit a poor show against Southend apart

 

If that tactic doesn’t rely on a target man, how come their new centre forward was unplayable? They did play the quick direct ball up to him and because he IS a targetman, he dominated our centre backs . Let’s face it, had we used the same tactic with say, Miller or Jones, they would have just sucked it up.

 

Oh behave Fordy, you’re getting boring. A football match is played by 2 teams, both trying to win the game. Just because we are more desperate for points, doesn’t make us favourites. What is Burton’s home record like? What is our away form like? If we do get relegated at the end of the season, it won’t be because we only picked up 1pt at The Pirelli stadium....!

If we win our home games, especially against teams near the foot of the table, and pick up a few points away, we’ll survive.

Getting a point at Burton is a good point, even if we did need all 3....!

 

The vast majority of their long balls were not what I would consider a "hoof" (the McArdle to Hanson route), they were into space or into the body of their big lad. My point is there isn't a big problem with going long sometimes, but we are employing a dead tactic of launching it at head height to players wholly unsuitable, rather than trying to utilise Miller's pace for example and playing long balls in behind defences.

 

My point is that you are seeing what you want to see. Most of our long balls were also into channels but the likes of Ball and O’Brien were nowhere near to getting on the end of them. And when we do go long down the middle, Doyle isn’t good enough to be able to bring the ball down on his chest and bring others into play (that’s not and never has been his game). We’ve tried it and he just coughs up possession.

If you ask Southend fans, that’s what they’ve been doing too, until they signed the lad last week. We do need a centre forward who has good strength and can hold the ball up. None of our players can fulfill that role.