Most liked posts in thread: Burton (H) - August 21st

Yep.

It cannot be for footballing reasons that he can't get on the bench at least.

 

The pitch is faster than Akpan though.

 

Olly Mcburnie couple of goals against Leeds

 

The right hand side of our defence is a problem. It was he same at Southend as well.

Doesn’t matter if it’s Riley or Mellor at RB. McGowen has been poor again tonight after a poor performance at Southend. Despite all the clamour for him to replace NKP, I don’t think he’s been any better.

 

Much more desire to win the ball back but the time and space Burton found was very concering

 

Mate, Chickson was shi&e

 

Agreed mate. It wasn't comfortable but the players looked much happier in this formation

 

Chicksen looks like Paolo Maldini compared to Riley.

 

Agree. We are mid table at best.

Whats concerned me so far is the lack of opportunities that Doyle has had. I can't recall him being any sort of threat tonight. Miller was just chasing shadows all evening. Neither won any headers of note.

 

Good three points last night but we are going to struggle if we don’t sort our attack out.
The team need to work out how each other play quick.
Scannel (as well as he played) tries to run down the wing for a cross everytime. Burton put two on him and squashed it most times. He needs to learn how to play it into Payne earlier. And on the floor. I saw payne having a couple of words with him.
His tracking I think is excellent. In fact everything else was good but I don’t think crossing it into Doyle is going to work too good.
I think miller needs to play more too. That lad has a good engine. Didn’t stop until subbed and has a lot of ability. Looked more dangerous than Doyle.
Defo think wyke would of been better in this team.
Defensively we road our luck and gave away a lot of fouls. Some teams will punish us if we keep doing that.
Good three points as I think it’s important that we scrap some points in early doors while the team are felling. but when this team work each other out and learn to play with each other I think we will do well this season.

 

Interesting. I thought Akpan was the stand out in the middle and Wright was patchy! Akpan grew into it in the second half but Wright was often quiet but had some good moments. Need an improvement from both really.

Good to grind out a win like that even if we didn't play that well. We really needed it and it gives the players some confidence going into the Wycombe game.

O'Connor excellent again at the back and McGowan seems well suited to him as a centre back pairing - they should get better. Chicksen was better but still unsure on both Mellor & Riley. Scannell was excellent in both getting us up the field and tracking back, if he can find that end product then what a player he'll be. I enjoyed Payne coming in off the left. No idea how good Miller & Doyle actually are because all I've seen is them trying and usually failing to get on the end of long punts. Fair play to Collins for trusting in three young players to see the game out - Riley (21), Gibson (20) & Colville (19).

I think Gary Jones summed it up well on the radio. At home, 442 shows a statement of intent to try and win the game. We weren't perfect last night but it looks like 442 could work better. I would understand Collins using the one up front / 4231 away from home but 442 against Wycombe please!

 

I watched Doyle for 15 minutes last night when the match got a bit tedious. His positioning is absolutely superb, the issue is delivery to him and support. Once we get both right I'm sure he'll score bucket loads.

 

Good luck. Hope all goes well

 

Let’s wait until we lose the next two before we sharpen the knives

 

I want to see from the team more organisation, bite/determination and getting in the faces of the Burton players - even if we do not get three points it will show we have started to make some progress and give us some hope.

 

To be fair Petrov if we beat Burton 6 pts would probably have been a start we would accept, but beating them the way we are playing is a BIG if - and even if we do you would have to be totally blinkered not to see how many cracks at the club it is papering over

 

2 wins from 4 woundnt be the end of the world and a win at home.
Home form is key

 

I would go with a 442 put scannell on the right wing and play Payne in the Nicky law role as a free roaming left sided midfielder.

 

Yes; even with the number of draws, how good does that undefeated home season of a few seasons ago look now. It has to be a confidence-booster to know that you'll at least get a draw out of a match; similarly, the idea of a fortress VP should mess a little at least with the heads of our opponents.

But there's more to it --- we also were good then at gaining points from losing positions, and not losing too many points from winning positions. Last season, our records when trailing at the half, 1-2-10, or trailing at any point in a match, 1-4-19, seemed particularly poor. Granted, I don't suppose many sides would have great numbers from those positions, but still, gaining points after trailing would demonstrate the determination and steel promotion-winning sides need. (We were good though at holding a halftime lead, 12-2-1, and not too bad when leading at any point in a match, 18-5-3.)

RCB